Temperance and the liquor question in Orange County, 1825–1859

The events, date by date

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

1. May 26, 1825 Orange citizens resolve to stop candidates from treating voters with liquor A meeting of Orange County citizens at the court house, with Dr. James S. Smith in the chair, declared that candidates' custom of treating voters with liquor was injurious to morality. It asked each militia captain to call his company together to choose two delegates to a convention at Hillsborough during the next county court to devise a plan against the practice. A first meeting on May 24 under Gen. Jehu Byrd had called it. People: James Strudwick Smith, John Wall Norwood Place: Court house, Hillsborough · Also named: Jehu ByrdSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, May 25, 1825, p. 3 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, June 15, 1825, p. 3
2. About 1827 Trustees name Badger, Yancey and Moore to draft a law against liquor and student credit at Chapel Hill On President Caldwell's motion the trustees named Bartlett Yancey, George E. Badger and Alfred Moore to prepare a bill forbidding the distilling or selling of spirituous liquors at or near Chapel Hill and barring village merchants from trading with students. It became law; Battle says the liquor ban still stood in 1907 while the trading ban was ignored and later repealed. People: George E. Badger, Alfred Moore, Joseph Caldwell Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Bartlett YanceySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 304
3. March 28, 1828 The Orange Peace Society condemns party spirit and treating at elections Meeting on March 28, the Orange Peace Society resolved that any candidate who stirred sectional feeling or treated voters with liquor to win their votes was unfit for public trust, and that men who scoffed at neighbors who voted differently acted against the peace of the republic. It asked editors to print the resolutions over the name of its secretary, Joshua Lindley. Place: Orange County · Also named: Joshua LindleySearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, May 7, 1828, p. 3
4. summer 1829 Students organize a temperance society Some students formed a Temperance Society in the summer of 1829, and Battle credits it with reducing drinking of spirits at the college. At its request Elisha Mitchell gave an address on intemperance in 1831 that was printed. People: Elisha Mitchell Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 340
5. mid-September 1829 Citizens form the Orange County Temperance Society Citizens of Hillsborough and the county met at the court house and organized the Orange County Temperance Society, auxiliary to the American Temperance Society, whose members pledged to give up distilled spirits except as medicine and neither to make nor sell them. Place: Court house, HillsboroughSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, September 23, 1829, p. 3
6. December 25, 1829 The Hawfields and Cross Roads Temperance Society is organized After a first meeting on September 5, 1829 at which twenty-five people took the total-abstinence pledge, the Hawfields and Cross Roads Temperance Society organized on December 25, 1829. Its report of July 4, 1834 counted 437 members, at least nine or ten distilleries stopped since 1829 and two merchants who had quit selling spirits. Place: Hawfields and Cross Roads, Orange County (now Alamance County)Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 23, 1834, p. 3
7. June 12, 1841 A public debate at Mount Zion meeting house votes that temperance societies do good A meeting at Mount Zion meeting house, near several distilleries, debated whether temperance societies had benefited the community, with Frederick Stafford in the chair and Eli Eulis as secretary. After an afternoon of argument by ministers and others on both sides, the crowd, drawn from Orange, Randolph, Chatham and Guilford, voted for the societies by more than three to one. Place: Mount Zion meeting house, Orange County · Also named: Frederick Stafford, Eli EulisSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 22, 1841, p. 2
8. November 10-13, 1841 Hillsborough men form the Washington Temperance Society of Orange County Meeting at the court house, Hillsborough men organized a Washington Temperance Society on the total-abstinence pledge, adopted a constitution and elected Col. Henry Webb president. The drive followed talks in the village by John F. Carey of the Baltimore Washingtonians, and about half the adult men of Hillsborough signed the pledge. People: James C. Turrentine, William Bingham (1835-1873), George Laws, Lemuel Lynch, Walter A. Norwood, Stephen Moore Place: Court house, Hillsborough · Also named: Henry Webb, John F. CareySearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, November 18, 1841, p. 3
9. May 14, 1842 Delegates form the Orange County Temperance Society at Hillsborough A convention of delegates from the county's temperance societies met at the court house and organized the Orange County Temperance Society, auxiliary to the state society, with every member of a local society counted a member. It elected Thomas Clancy president, James C. Turrentine recording secretary and William J. Bingham corresponding secretary, and set an annual meeting in Hillsborough each August. People: James C. Turrentine, Walter A. Norwood Place: Court house, Hillsborough · Also named: Thomas Clancy, William J. BinghamSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, May 26, 1842, p. 3
10. May 27, 1845 An Orange County temperance convention asks the justices to shut down grog shops Delegates of the county's temperance societies met in convention at Hillsborough during May court and asked the justices to use their power against retail liquor shops, to follow the Supreme Court's decision on retail licenses, and to refuse licenses except for public convenience. The convention also condemned treating voters at elections and agreed to meet each year on the Tuesday of May court. People: John Hancock Place: Masonic Hall, HillsboroughSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 5, 1845, p. 3
11. May 23, 1854 Orange's Whig and Democratic conventions agree to put the liquor question to the voters A joint committee of the Whig and Democratic conventions agreed, and both conventions adopted, that their nominees would follow the majority of Orange voters on liquor legislation, that the question would be decided by ballots for and against at the August election with the sheriff opening polls for it, and that nominees would not treat voters. People: Edmund Strudwick, John Wesley Carr Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, May 31, 1854, p. 3
12. August 3, 1854 Orange elects William A. Graham to the state Senate and Phillips and Turner to the Commons Orange County voters elected the Whig ticket: William A. Graham to the state Senate over Cadwallader Jones Jr., and Samuel F. Phillips and Josiah Turner Jr. to the House of Commons over John F. Lyon and William Nelson. The county gave Alfred Dockery, the Whig candidate for governor, 1,080 votes to Thomas Bragg's 963, and voted against the liquor 'Reform' question. People: William A. Graham, Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips, Josiah Turner Jr., William Nelson, Thomas Bragg, Cadwallader Jones Place: Orange County · Also named: John F. Lyon, Alfred DockerySearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 9, 1854, p. 2