Storyline · 1915–1927
From 1915 to 1925 Chapel Hill's town elections returned W. S. Roberson as mayor, usually with a citizens' ticket. He defeated W. H. Boger in 1915 and was elected again in 1917 and 1919. In 1923 he beat Carl Wiegand, a young lawyer, 314 to 76, in what the Weekly called the heaviest vote ever cast in the town. Under a 1925 charter amendment the town elected six aldermen instead of five, and only 76 voters came to re-elect Roberson. He refused to run again in 1927, and in a light vote Zeb P. Council of the University printery was elected mayor. The Weekly said none of the men elected had sought the office.
On May 4, 1915 Mayor Roberson, nominee of a citizens' convention, defeated W. H. Boger, and a new board of aldermen was chosen that included R. A. Eubanks and George C. Pickard. In 1917 the citizens' ticket was elected with the exception of one man, making W. S. Roberson mayor. On May 6, 1919 voters re-elected him with the ticket named at a mass meeting in the school house. On May 8, 1923 Roberson beat Carl Wiegand, a young lawyer, 314 to 76, in what the Weekly called the heaviest vote ever cast in the town, and D. D. Carroll was among the aldermen elected. Under a 1925 charter amendment the town elected six aldermen instead of five on May 5, 1925, three for four years and three for two. Only 76 voters came to the polls; they re-elected Roberson and chose R. D. W. Connor among the aldermen. The same day Carrboro elected T. N. Mann mayor and Hillsboro re-elected Mayor T. M. Arrasmith. Roberson refused to run again in 1927, and on May 3, in a light vote, Zeb P. Council of the University printery was elected mayor over J. T. Harris, 155 to 21. Connor, P. L. Burch and contractor Brodie Thompson were chosen councilmen, and the Weekly said none of the men elected had sought the office.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
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.
People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
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.
Ten and a half linear feet of papers kept by Cecil Johnson, 1900 to 1976, spanning 1923 to 1970, about 7,000 items, collection 3806 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Johnson taught at the University of North Carolina, and the papers concern higher education and college teachers in the South, naming Charles McLean Andrews, R. D. W. Connor and William Whatley Pierson.
History department records from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1921 to 2014, about 20,600 items in 23.5 linear feet, University Archives at UNC, collection 40082. Faculty represented include R. D. W. Connor, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Albert Ray Newsome, Fletcher Melvin Green, Gillian Cell and Don Higginbotham. The records cover the teaching of history and political science in the state.
R. B. House (1892-1987) was chancellor at Chapel Hill, and his papers, 1916 to 1973, come to 7,500 items in six linear feet in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3581. University administration is the main subject, with material on Frank Porter Graham, Harry Woodburn Chase, Josephus and Jonathan Daniels, Gordon Gray, Terry Sanford, O. Max Gardner, the Watauga Club and communism in North Carolina.
Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton (1878-1961) taught history at Chapel Hill, and his papers, 1895 to 1961, amount to roughly 9,500 items in 25.5 linear feet in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 1743. Diaries sit among the material. Topics include the collecting of archival materials and the Southern Historical Collection itself, Reconstruction, the nineteenth century Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina, the state Democratic Party, and figures such as R. D. W. Connor and Albert Ray Newsome.
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.
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.
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).
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).
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.
Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.
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.
Warren Ashby's biography of Frank Porter Graham (1886-1972), president of the University of North Carolina from 1930 to 1949 and later a United States senator. Published by Blair in 1981, x and 386 pages with sixteen leaves of plates and a bibliography.
Reviewed in The American Historical Review (1981), Journal of American History (1981).
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).
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).
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).
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.
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.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Chapel Hill's town elections under Mayor Roberson, 1915–1927.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/roberson-elections-storyline-1915/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
