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Storyline · 1933–1936

The New Deal in Orange County, 1933–1936

Families asking relief in Orange County peaked at 900 in March 1933; from that summer federal programs reached the county, which had to share their cost. George H. Lawrence ran Civil Works projects that by December 1 employed more than 200 men, and 851 Orange farmers were under federal AAA contracts. Cuts in relief money halted work projects in 1934 and 1935, and Orange was merged into a five-county relief district run from Durham. The Works Progress Administration then gave jobs to all but 24 of the families on the old relief list. By December 1936 Lawrence said any able-bodied man who tried could get work, and the need that remained was among widows, orphans, the old and the sick.

1933–1936 Filed under Politics & Government 25 dated events

In the summer of 1933 the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, the federal agency that refinanced home mortgages, named Chapel Hill attorney Henry A. Whitfield its Orange County attorney, and the National Re-Employment Service opened offices in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill. In August the commissioners added 6 cents for relief to the county tax rate, because the federal government required local units to share relief costs, and federal relief purchases went only to merchants under the NRA, the National Recovery Administration's codes of business practice; by September every Chapel Hill merchant had signed on. In November George H. Lawrence, superintendent of public welfare and director of federal relief, became Civil Works administrator with a quota of 453 jobs, and by December 1 more than 200 men were at work on about $137,000 of University and county projects.

In May 1934 a cut in relief money halted every county work project except the Chapel Hill street surfacing, which added about three and a quarter miles of paved streets. In June farm agent Don Matheson reported 851 Orange farmers under AAA contracts, agreements with the Agricultural Adjustment Administration that paid farmers to limit their crops. When the Home Owners' Loan Corporation stopped taking applications on November 20, 1934, Whitfield had closed more than 40 loans. In December Matheson put the year's crop income at about $1,245,160, against $329,616 in 1932.

A federal order ended federal relief from January 1, 1935 for about 90 Orange families with no one able to work, and on February 13 an order from Raleigh stopped every relief work project in the county while Congress debated a new appropriation. By February 15 Orange had been merged into a five-county relief district run from Durham, with Lawrence kept on as county supervisor for case work and rural rehabilitation, which by March had approved about a hundred farm family budgets. In March 1935 the commissioners gave Lawrence charge of all relief for March and April.

As the Emergency Relief Administration closed in November 1935, the Works Progress Administration took over its new sewing rooms for women on relief in Chapel Hill and Hillsboro, and in December Lawrence reported that the families asking relief had fallen from a peak of 900 in March 1933 to 100, with 40 receiving it, and that the WPA had given jobs to all but 24 of the families on the old ERA list. In February 1936 he said so many Orange children lacked shoes that the school attendance law could not be enforced in winter.

That fall the Chapel Hill Movie Guild began giving $75 a month from Sunday movie receipts to the town for relief, a relief sewing room opened in the old town hall, and a new Community Health and Welfare Council, with Dr. J. P. Jones as chairman, named committees on clinics, the sewing room and Christmas giving, among others. In December 1936 Lawrence said that three years earlier Orange had received as much as $5,000 a month in federal direct relief, while the only relief money now was about $2,000 a year from the county and $700 to $800 a year that Chapel Hill passed on from the Movie Guild; any able-bodied man who tried could get work, and the need that remained was among widows, orphans, the old and the sick.

Towns
Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Carrboro
Sites
4
People with pages
10

The events, date by date

Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.

  1. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation names Orange County agents and takes local applications The federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation completed its North Carolina organization, placing Orange County in its Raleigh district with Chapel Hill attorney Henry A. Whitfield as county attorney and P. L. Burch as appraiser. By early August about 25 Chapel Hill householders facing foreclosure had applied, 15 of them through Whitfield. People: Henry A. Whitfield, Peter L. Burch Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 28, 1933, p. 5
  2. Orange County commissioners set the 1933 tax rate at 87 cents, with 6 cents for relief The commissioners fixed the 1933 county rate at 87 cents on $100, up from 80 cents, but because assessments had been cut 25 percent the Weekly figured tax bills would fall about 18 percent. The rate included 6 cents for public relief and welfare, which the board laid because the federal government required local units to share relief costs, and nothing for school operating expenses, which the state had taken over. Place: Court house, HillsboroughSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 11, 1933, p. 1
  3. Orange County's welfare board buys relief goods only from merchants under the NRA The Orange County Board of Charities and Public Welfare notified the county's merchants that from August 19 all purchases made with federal relief money, including orders given to relief cases, would go only to stores that had adopted their NRA code or the President's Re-employment Agreement, under a ruling of the federal relief administration. Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 18, 1933, p. 5
  4. The National Re-Employment Service opens Orange County offices in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill The Orange County branch of the National Re-Employment Service was organized, with U. M. Rackley in charge of the main office in Hillsborough and Evelyn Page keeping a Chapel Hill office at Strowd's garage. Jobless men and women were asked to register so that contractors on the coming federal public works, who had to hire local labor where they could, would have a full list to draw on. People: Gilbert W. Ray, Bonner D. Sawyer, Moody W. Durham Place: Hillsborough; Strowd's garage, Chapel Hill · Also named: U. M. Rackley, Evelyn PageSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 18, 1933, p. 1
  5. Every Chapel Hill merchant signs on under the NRA E. C. Smith, chairman of the citizens' committee, reported that every merchant in town had signed the President's blanket agreement or a trade code of the National Recovery Administration, and that the few citizens who at first declined the consumers' pledge had since signed. Postmaster R. A. Eubanks was the government's representative for the campaign. People: Robert A. Eubanks, E. Carrington Smith Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 15, 1933, p. 1
  6. The county relief office makes its headquarters in the old Methodist church George H. Lawrence, superintendent of public welfare and director of federal relief in Orange, wrote that the relief organization had obtained the use of the old Methodist church in Chapel Hill for its headquarters, with donated office equipment and free telephone, light and water, and appealed for two stoves since relief funds could not buy them. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Old Methodist church, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 13, 1933, p. 2
  7. Civil Works crews start $137,000 of projects in Orange County State headquarters approved George H. Lawrence's Civil Works projects for Orange on November 23, with a county quota of 453 workers and a payroll of about $7,000 a week for four months. By December 1 more than 200 men were at work on about $102,000 of University projects and about $35,000 of others in the county, directed by J. A. Page from the frame building east of the University library. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange County · Also named: J. A. Page · Also mentions: University librarySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 1, 1933, p. 1
  8. George H. Lawrence becomes Orange County's Civil Works administrator Already county welfare officer and relief director, Lawrence was put in charge of the new Civil Works Administration in Orange, with a quota of 453 jobs and a payroll he guessed at about $7,000 a week. He hired builder J. A. Page to run the construction work. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange County · Also named: J. A. PageSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 24, 1933, p. 1 (Lawrence Striving to Get Work Started Promptly)
  9. A cut in federal relief money halts Orange County's work projects With more than half of May's relief allotment spent by mid-month, county relief administrator George H. Lawrence suspended every county work project except the Chapel Hill street surfacing and cut direct relief to $7 a family a month. The county carried about 600 families in April and 480 in May, divided among direct relief, farm rehabilitation and work relief. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 18, 1934, p. 1
  10. Farm agent Don Matheson reports 851 Orange farmers under crop-control contracts Reporting to the county commissioners, Matheson said 851 Orange farmers had signed AAA contracts (511 tobacco, 259 cotton, 53 wheat, 28 corn-hog) and first payments of about $33,000 were mostly paid. To make a required tobacco cut fairly, the county posted growers' contracted acreage in country stores and let growers report doubtful contracts by secret ballot, which cut the reduction from 19 to 10 per cent. People: Don S. Matheson Place: County commissioners' meeting, Court house, HillsboroughSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 8, 1934, p. 3
  11. Federal relief labor hard-surfaces most of Chapel Hill's streets Begun as a Civil Works project in the winter and carried on with Emergency Relief labor, the tar-and-crushed-stone program added about three and a quarter miles of paved streets, bringing the town's total to seven and a half, and covered 68,796 square yards. The work would have cost $41,277 by contract; the government paid about three fourths and the town about $10,000. People: John L. Caldwell Place: Streets of Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 20, 1934, p. 1
  12. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation closes more than 40 Orange County loans as it stops taking applications When the Home Owners' Loan Corporation stopped accepting applications on November 20, 1934, its Orange County representative, H. A. Whitfield, had closed more than 40 loans worth roughly $100,000, most of them to homeowners in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The fifteen-year loans refinanced mortgages and sometimes back taxes, assessments and repairs, and Whitfield said many of the homes would otherwise have been sold under foreclosure. People: Henry A. Whitfield Place: Chapel Hill and CarrboroSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 30, 1934, p. 3
Show all 25 dated events
  1. A federal order ends relief for Orange County's 'unemployable' families Word came from Washington in December 1934 that after January 1 federal funds could not be used for the relief of 'unemployables', families with no one able to work, leaving about 90 such families in Orange County to local government or private help. Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 21, 1934, p. 1
  2. The farm agent reports Orange crop income nearly four times that of 1932 County farm agent Don Matheson told the commissioners in December 1934 that the gross income from Orange County crops would be about $1,245,160 for the year, against $329,616 in 1932, and gave much of the credit to the AAA crop programs. Rental and parity payments of $75,922 went to 525 tobacco, 259 cotton, 55 wheat and 28 corn-and-hog farmers, 283 emergency seed loans came to $25,060, and twenty local surveyors measured about 3,000 contracted fields. People: Don S. Matheson Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 21, 1934, p. 1
  3. The commissioners turn relief money over to welfare officer George Lawrence As Depression requests multiplied, the board stopped voting on each small grant and paid Lawrence $150 a month for January and February 1935 to put into the ERA fund for totally disabled people on the relief list. In March it gave him charge of all relief for March and April. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 211 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 18, 1935, p. 6
  4. Relief administration halts all its work projects in Orange County An order from Raleigh stopped every Emergency Relief Administration work project in Orange County because relief money had run out while Congress debated a new appropriation. Only three projects were then under way: the University's athletic field, the Chapel Hill streets and the Hillsboro streets. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange County · Also mentions: Chapel Hill streetsSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 15, 1935, p. 1
  5. Orange County's relief office is merged into a five-county district run from Durham The Emergency Relief Administration merged Orange with Durham, Person, Alamance and Caswell counties in a district headed by A. E. Langston in Durham, ending the post of county relief administrator. George H. Lawrence stayed on as county supervisor for case work and rural rehabilitation, while work-project records and payrolls moved to Durham. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Relief office, Chapel Hill · Also named: A. E. LangstonSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 15, 1935, p. 1
  6. Rural rehabilitation approves about a hundred Orange farm family budgets With most relief work projects stopped, rural rehabilitation, federal aid to farmers in equipment, seed, cows, pigs and mules, had become the main relief activity in Orange, and about a hundred farm family budgets drawn up by George H. Lawrence had been approved. On March 5 Lawrence and foreman Ed Walker bought a truckload of 23 pigs passing through Carrboro, with the state director's approval by telephone, and placed them on budgeted farms by noon the next day. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange County · Also named: Ed WalkerSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 8, 1935, p. 1
  7. Sewing rooms for women on relief open in Chapel Hill and Hillsboro As the Emergency Relief Administration closed, it launched sewing-room projects in Chapel Hill and Hillsboro that the Works Progress Administration took over the same week, with a third planned for Efland; the three were to employ 60 white and Black women at $19 a month. The towels, bedclothing and garments they made went to county welfare superintendent George H. Lawrence for needy families. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Chapel Hill and HillsboroughSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 15, 1935, p. 4
  8. Orange relief rolls fall from 900 families to 40 County welfare officer George H. Lawrence reported that the families asking relief had fallen from a peak of 900 in March 1933 to 100, with 40 receiving it, and that the WPA had given jobs to all but 24 of the families on the old ERA list. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 13, 1935, p. 1
  9. Welfare officer reports shoeless children and 300 families asking for aid in Orange County welfare officer George H. Lawrence said so many Orange children lacked shoes that the school attendance law could not be enforced in winter. At the school for Black children at Cheeks Crossing, with 77 enrolled, the teacher told him attendance was nearly perfect because the school was the only warm place the children had, though no more than half a dozen were properly clothed; his office had sent clothing to 150 families but had appeals from more than 300. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Cheeks Crossing school and Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 7, 1936, p. 1
  10. The Chapel Hill Movie Guild gives its Sunday-movie money to the town for relief The directors of the Chapel Hill Movie Guild voted to give $75 a month from Sunday movie receipts to the town government for relief, instead of paying it to the county welfare officer as before. In November they also paid for new trees to replace those that had died on the business block. Place: Carolina Theatre, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 2, 1936, p. 1
  11. A sewing room for women on relief opens in Chapel Hill's old town hall At the request of county welfare officer George H. Lawrence, the second floor of the former town hall at Columbia Street and Rosemary Lane was put at his disposal as a sewing room for women on relief. A month later the new Health and Welfare Council named a committee for the sewing room. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Former town hall, Columbia Street and Rosemary Lane, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Columbia Street and Rosemary LaneSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 23, 1936, p. 6
  12. Chapel Hill's new Health and Welfare Council elects officers and committees Formed about a month earlier to coordinate the community's health and charity work and keep groups from overlapping, the Community Health and Welfare Council held its second meeting in the Graham Memorial with about 35 present and elected Dr. J. P. Jones chairman, Mrs. D. D. Carroll vice-chairman and Mrs. H. D. Crockford secretary. It named committees on clinics, defect correction, tuberculosis, venereal disease, the loan closet, the relief sewing room and Christmas giving. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Graham Memorial, Chapel Hill · Also named: J. P. Jones, Mrs. D. D. Carroll, Mrs. H. D. CrockfordSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 20, 1936, p. 1
  13. Orange County relief shrinks to people who cannot work, the welfare officer reports County welfare officer George H. Lawrence said that three years earlier Orange County had received as much as $5,000 a month in federal direct relief, while now the only relief money was about $2,000 a year from the county and $700 to $800 a year that Chapel Hill passed on from the Movie Guild. Any able-bodied man who tried could get work, he said; the need that remained was among widows, orphans, the old and the sick. People: George H. Lawrence Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 24, 1936, p. 1

Places in this storyline

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 3 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

All places and the county map →

People in this storyline

People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.

Reading on the places and people in this storyline

No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

About Old Methodist Church (Rosemary Street) · named in one of this story’s entries

Old Methodist Church (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

The Old Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, in the congregation's own material, newspaper clippings and photocopied articles. Part of the Churches series in the Chapel Hill Historical Society Vertical File Collection (CHHS.001). Undated.

CH Historical Society

Old Methodist Church: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

Old Methodist Church in Chapel Hill in eleven undated photographs and a negative, including a front view and one where trees and shrubs screen the building. Part of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

CH Historical Society

About Varsity Theatre (the first Carolina Theatre) · named in one of this story’s entries

Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill

1957

Black-and-white exterior view of the Varsity Theatre on East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, dated between 1957 and 1983. Neighbors in the frame include Village Opticians, Jeff's Campus Confectionery and Schoolkids Records, which also traded as Record Bar.

DigitalNC DPLA

Carolina Theatre in Chapel Hill

1941

Views of the Carolina Theatre, a movie house on East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, from about 1941 to 1945 and from 1977. The earlier pictures are in black and white.

DigitalNC DPLA

Varisty Theatre: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1994

Front of the Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill during a parade in 1994, with cars in view. One photograph in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

CH Historical Society

Varsity Theatre, Record Bar, Sharyn Lynn Shoppe, Revco: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1983

Negatives from 1983 of several Chapel Hill storefronts, among them the Varsity Theatre, Record Bar, the Sharyn Lynn Shoppe and Revco. From the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

CH Historical Society

About Chapel Hill Town Hall (1938) · named in one of this story’s entries

Chapel Hill Municipal Building 1st Floor Plan H-1

1938 · Atwood and Weeks, Inc. (Durham, N.C.)

Blueprint by Atwood and Weeks, Inc. of Durham, August 1938, showing the basement and first floor plans of the Chapel Hill Municipal Building. The basement plan includes segregated restrooms. Drawing H-1.

DigitalNC DPLA

Chapel Hill Municipal Building 2nd Floor Plan H-2

1938 · Atwood and Weeks, Inc. (Durham, N.C.)

Plan of the second floor of Chapel Hill's Municipal Building, sheet H-2 in the August 1938 set from Atwood and Weeks, Inc. of Durham. The back bears the name of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, the New Deal public works agency. The building is remembered as the Old Town Hall.

DigitalNC DPLA

Chapel Hill Municipal Building Drawing 1

1938 · Atwood and Weeks, Inc. (Durham, N.C.)

First sheet of the August 1938 blueprints for the Chapel Hill Municipal Building, a set commissioned by the Durham firm Atwood and Weeks, Inc. It lays out the foundation plan, wall footings and columns, with the building's lot on Rosemary Street. The job also carried Public Works Administration project number N.C. 1123F.

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Chapel Hill Municipal Building Drawing 2

1938 · Atwood and Weeks, Inc. (Durham, N.C.)

Blueprint dated August 1938 from Atwood and Weeks, Inc., the Durham firm, numbered drawing 2 in its set for the Chapel Hill Municipal Building. The sheet carries plans of the basement and first floor, with framing plans for the first and second floors.

DigitalNC DPLA

About Don S. Matheson · named in 2 of this story’s entries

Annual Report of County Extension Agents, Orange County, NC

North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service · 1953

Annual report for 1953 by the Orange County extension agents of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. The agents named are Jessie Trowbridge, Katheryn Pritchett, Cyrus A. Greene, Ed. P. Barnes and Don S. Matheson. Topics include agricultural extension work and African American farm families. Microfilm, part of Better Living in North Carolina.

DPLA

North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service Annual Narrative Report, Orange County, NC

North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service · 1946

The Orange County extension staff's 1946 annual narrative report to the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service, naming Katheryn Pritchett, Jessie Trowbridge, Cyrus A. Greene, Ed. P. Barnes and Don S. Matheson. It covers farm extension work, including work with African American farmers. Microfilm, part of Better Living in North Carolina.

DPLA

Annual Report of County Extension Workers, Orange County, NC

North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service · 1938

Orange County's extension workers reported on their year in this December 1938 annual report, prepared by Don S. Matheson. It covers agricultural extension work in the county, including work with African American farmers. Microfilm, part of Better Living in North Carolina.

DPLA

Combined Annual Report of County Extension Workers, Orange County, NC

North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service · 1937

Combined 1937 annual report of Orange County's extension workers, naming Don S. Matheson, Ed P. Barnes, Katheryn H. Hamrick, Virginia Cathey and Dorothy S. Parrish. It covers agricultural extension work in the county, including work with African American farmers. Microfilm, part of Better Living in North Carolina.

DPLA
Wider background: Politics & Government · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it

William Friday

Link, William A. · 1995

Biography of William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina system, by historian William A. Link, published by UNC Press in 1995 with the subtitle power, purpose, and American higher education. It covers Friday's career and the history of the university at Chapel Hill and statewide. Part of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO FRIDAY LIN NC Cardinal UNC Duke Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Methodist Wingate UNCSA CH Historical Society

The Story of the Institute of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Coates, Albert McKinley · 1981

Albert Coates's own account of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina, which he founded, subtitled 'out of a classroom in Chapel Hill' and published in 1981. The 303 pages trace the institute's history and its role in educating North Carolina's public officials.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Library of Congress UNCSA CH Historical Society

Communists on Campus

Billingsley, William J. · 1999 · University of Georgia Press

William J. Billingsley's history of the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 North Carolina statute that barred known Communists from speaking on state campuses, and the fight over it at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The subtitle sets the scope: race, politics and the public university in sixties North Carolina. It treats academic freedom, anti-communist movements and free speech in the state. University of Georgia Press, 1999, 308 pages with eight pages of plates.

Reviewed in Academe (2000), The American Historical Review (2001), The Journal of Southern History (2001), Journal of American History (2001), The Journal of Politics (2001).

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU UNC Library of Congress

Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina

Pleasants, Julian M.; Burns, Augustus M., III · 1990 · UNC Press

Julian M. Pleasants and Augustus M. Burns III on the 1950 Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina, in which Frank Porter Graham, the former president of the University of North Carolina, lost to Willis Smith after a campaign marked by race-baiting. Primaries, elections and race relations in the state are its subjects. Published by UNC Press in 1990, 356 pages with illustrations.

Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (1991), The American Historical Review (1991), Journal of American History (1991), The Journal of Southern History (1992).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 324.975 PLE Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU CH Historical Society

The Age of Orange: Political and Intellectual Leadership in North Carolina, 1752-1861

Blackwelder, Ruth · 1961

Ruth Blackwelder's study of political and intellectual leadership in Orange County and North Carolina from 1752 to 1861, published in Charlotte by W. Loftin in 1961. Topics include state politics and government, intellectual life before the Civil War, and county genealogy. It runs 216 pages with illustrations and a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 BLACKWEL UNC Durham Library of Congress Davidson DPLA CH Historical Society NC Cardinal
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The Good Government Man

Covington, Jr., Howard E. · 2010

Howard E. Covington Jr.'s biography of Albert Coates (1896-1989), the law professor who founded the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina and led it through its early years. Topics include Coates as a law teacher and the institute's history as a center for the study of public administration in Chapel Hill. Published in 2010 by the University Library at Chapel Hill, 322 pages with 32 pages of plates.

Read free online · UNC Libraries NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Crossref Library of Congress

Orange County, 1752-1952

Lefler, Hugh Talmage; Wager, Paul W. · 1953

Hugh Talmage Lefler and Paul W. Wager's history of Orange County across its first two centuries, 1752 to 1952, prepared for the county's bicentennial. It covers government and politics, biography and the county's families, and doubles as a genealogical reference. Published in Chapel Hill by the Orange Printshop in 1953, 389 pages with illustrations and an index; this copy is a later reprint.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 ORA NC Cardinal UNC Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Davidson CH Historical Society

A Traitor and a Scoundrel: Benjamin Hedrick and the Cost of Dissent

Smith, Michael Thomas · 2003 · University of Delaware Press ; London : Associated University Presses

Michael Thomas Smith's biography of Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick, the University of North Carolina chemistry professor dismissed in 1856 after he declared support for the antislavery presidential candidate John C. Fremont. Published by University of Delaware Press in 2003, 216 pages with illustrations. Topics include abolitionists and dissenters in North Carolina, the antislavery movement in the state, and the university's biography before 1962.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2005).

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham UNC Library of Congress

The Papers Of Willie Person Mangum

Mangum, Willie Person · 1950 · State Dept. of Archives and History

The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1951), Journal of American History (1951), The Journal of Southern History (1953), Journal of American History (1953), The Journal of Southern History (1954), The Journal of Southern History (1955), The Journal of Southern History (1957), Journal of American History (1957), The American Historical Review (1957).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO MANGUM SHA NC Cardinal Durham Library of Congress

An Historical Address Delivered in Saint Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, N.C., on Sunday, August 24, 1924

Cheshire, Joseph Blount · 1925

Address by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough on 24 August 1924, marking the parish's hundredth anniversary. Printed in Durham in 1925 at the vestry's order, with a foreword by the rector. Cheshire discusses George Micklejohn, William Mercer Green and Moses Ashley Curtis.

UNC Duke Durham DPLA

Research this storyline

Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.

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Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “The New Deal in Orange County, 1933–1936.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/new-deal-orange-storyline-1933/. Accessed October 22, 2026.

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Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026