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The Hillsborough Recorder begins publication, 1820

Dennis Heartt’s weekly, the first newspaper west of Raleigh, and for the rest of the century the Piedmont’s printed record.

In briefDennis Heartt began the Hillsborough Recorder in February 1820 and published it for nearly fifty years, a Whig paper before the Civil War whose shop also printed books, among them George Moses Horton's poems in 1845; William W. Holden learned printing there. Heartt gave up the paper in January 1869, and John D. Cameron, its editor from 1872, moved it to Durham in 1879.

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19 works about The Hillsborough Recorder begins publication, 1820 are indexed here. 2 held at OCPL →

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The Hillsborough Recorder of 1 March 1820
The Hillsborough Recorder of 1 March 1820

In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 29 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The Hillsborough Recorder begins publication Dennis Heartt began publishing the weekly Hillsborough Recorder in February 1820, at three dollars a year. The paper ran until 1879, and its surviving issues are a main record of nineteenth-century Hillsborough and Orange County. People: Dennis HearttHillsborough Recorder, March 1, 1820 (Vol. 1, No. 4)
  2. The Hillsborough Recorder moves its office west of the market house The Hillsborough Recorder moved its printing office to the house opposite Dr. Smith's office, about 150 yards west of the market house. People: Dennis HearttHillsborough Recorder, November 22, 1820, p. 3
  3. The Hillsborough Recorder calls slavery a misfortune and urges colonization Editor Dennis Heartt wrote that slavery harmed the state but argued against freeing people to remain in North Carolina. He proposed sending free Black people to Africa at public expense and asked the legislature to act. People: Dennis HearttLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 103-104
  4. The Hillsborough Recorder shop prints The Discipline of Friends and A Solemn Address to Youth Besides the weekly paper, Dennis Heartt's Recorder office printed pamphlets. Two surviving titles from 1823 are The Discipline of Friends, for Quaker use, and A Solemn Address to Youth. People: Dennis HearttLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 127
  5. The court binds Ferdinand W. Burroughs to Dennis Heartt to learn printing The court bound Ferdinand W. Burroughs, 11, orphan of Smith Burroughs late of Martin County, as an apprentice to Dennis Heartt until of full age to learn the printer's trade. Heartt agreed to teach him reading, writing and the ground rules of arithmetic, to give him decent lodging and clothing, and to furnish an extra suit of clothes when his time ended. People: Dennis HearttMark Chilton, Freedom Bound: Apprenticeship, Racism & Liberation in Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
  6. William W. Holden serves as an apprentice printer at the Hillsborough Recorder At about age ten Holden was apprenticed as a printer's devil to Dennis Heartt, editor of the Hillsborough Recorder, who was responsible for his early education and political views. He struck out on his own at about sixteen, working first for the Milton Chronicle. People: Dennis HearttSearch the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Holden, William Woods
  7. The Recorder shop prints Letters on Popular Education The Hillsborough Recorder office printed Letters on Popular Education Addressed to the People of North Carolina in 1832. People: Dennis HearttLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 127
  8. The Hillsborough Recorder proposes a convention of North Carolina editors Dennis Heartt's Recorder proposed that the state's newspaper editors meet in convention at Raleigh on the first Monday in September to agree on rules for their trade; within two weeks the Raleigh editors took up the proposal and invited their brethren. People: Dennis HearttSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 9, 1837, p. 3
  9. The Hillsborough Recorder predicts North Carolina will become a rival of northern cotton mills Editor Dennis Heartt told Recorder readers that northern manufacturers would not much longer be able to count North Carolina as a market for cotton goods, and should instead expect the state to become a formidable competitor. People: Dennis HearttInternet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 34 (1957), p. 144
  10. The Recorder begins reprinting Herman Husband's account of the Regulation Dennis Heartt began reprinting in the Recorder, from the Greensborough Patriot, Herman Husband's rare account of the Regulation in Orange so that subscribers could read and keep it, praising the Regulators' spirit of liberty. The Patriot's copy had come through the Rev. Mr. Caruthers from a Regulator's granddaughter living in Indiana. People: Dennis Heartt, Herman HusbandSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, February 8, 1844, p. 3
  11. Dennis Heartt prints The Poetical Works of George M. Horton Dennis Heartt printed The Poetical Works of George M. Horton, the Colored Bard of North-Carolina at Hillsborough in 1845, with Horton's autobiography prefixed to the poems. It was the second book by Horton, who was still enslaved when it appeared. People: George Moses HortonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: The Poetical Works of George M. Horton (Hillsborough: D. Heartt, 1845)
  12. The 1850 census finds Dennis Heartt's printers and apprentices living at Heartsease The 1850 census listed editor Dennis Heartt's household at Heartsease with his two daughters, his son Edwin with his wife and small daughter, two young printers, and four boys aged eleven to eighteen entered as students who were probably apprentices at the Hillsborough Recorder. People: Dennis HearttNC State Historic Preservation Office: Heartsease, National Register nomination (OR0009), p. 5
Show all 29 dated events
  1. Dennis Heartt takes his son Edwin A. Heartt into the Recorder With the issue that closed the paper's thirty-first volume, Dennis Heartt took his son Edwin A. Heartt into the business, and the Hillsborough Recorder was thereafter published by Dennis Heartt & Son.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, February 5, 1851, p. 3
  2. The Hillsborough Recorder calls for a plank road from Hillsborough to Milton An editorial regretted that no one had asked the last legislature to charter a company to build a plank road from Hillsborough to Milton by way of Roxboro or Yanceyville. It hoped a stock company would form under the general act of 1850-51 while a charter was sought.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 184
  3. The Hillsborough Recorder enlarges and keeps its Whig flag Dennis Heartt's Recorder came out about five columns larger at no increase in price. Announcing the change, the paper welcomed the principles of the new American or Know-Nothing party but said it would not strike the Whig flag for any new party. People: Dennis HearttSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, May 30, 1855, p. 2
  4. Edwin A. Heartt, the Recorder's junior partner and secretary of the town and county boards, dies Edwin A. Heartt, son and partner of Recorder editor Dennis Heartt, died in late August. The Court of Wardens, whose secretary he was, the Hillsborough town commissioners, whom he also served as secretary, and Eagle Lodge No. 71, where he was an officer, passed resolutions of mourning. People: Dennis HearttSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, September 12, 1855, p. 3
  5. The Recorder cuts the size of its sheet for lack of paper With paper scarce and much dearer, the Hillsborough Recorder came out on December 25 on a smaller sheet of poorer paper, promising to cut advertising rather than reading matter, and announced it would skip the next week's issue for the printers' holiday. People: Dennis HearttSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, December 25, 1861, p. 3
  6. The Recorder endorses Vance but refuses to print soldiers' charges against Holden Dennis Heartt printed resolutions from the men of Dickson's Battery backing Governor Vance but left out two: one that denounced W. W. Holden and one he read as scorning every man not in the army as a coward. He wrote that Holden sought an honorable peace and that no evidence made him a traitor, and he kept that stand when Raleigh papers objected. People: Dennis Heartt, W. W. Holden, Zebulon B. VanceHillsborough Recorder, April 20, 1864, p. 2
  7. Dennis Heartt leases the Recorder to James M. Turrentine for 1865 Dennis Heartt, in failing health, leased the Hillsborough Recorder for the coming year to James M. Turrentine, who became its editor and publisher and promised a conservative family paper, while Heartt kept his interest and its profits and stayed on to supervise.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, December 21, 1864, p. 2
  8. Dennis Heartt gives up the Hillsborough Recorder after nearly fifty years In the Recorder of January 11, 1869, Dennis Heartt announced that his connection with the paper would end with that number, thirteen months short of fifty years after its first issue. An 1899 history of the paper says he sold it to Capt. C. N. B. Evans of the Milton Chronicle.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, January 11, 1869, p. 2
  9. C. N. B. Evans closes the Milton Chronicle and joins the Recorder C. N. B. Evans, who had closed his Milton Chronicle, became associate editor and publisher of the Hillsborough Recorder with his son, Capt. T. C. Evans.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, January 26, 1870, p. 2
  10. Dennis Heartt dies in Hillsborough Dennis Heartt died at his home in Hillsborough on the morning of May 13, 1870, in his eighty-seventh year, and his funeral was held at the Presbyterian church the next day while the town's stores closed. The Recorder noted that Governor W. W. Holden, once his apprentice in the Recorder office, had him appointed Hillsborough postmaster after the war. People: William W. HoldenSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, May 18, 1870, p. 2 (obituary)
  11. John D. Cameron becomes editor and publisher of the Recorder John Donald Cameron took over the Recorder from the Evans family, who kept only their Milton Chronicle. His masthead in January 1879 read 'J. D. Cameron, Editor and Proprietor', New Series Vol. 7, Old Series Vol. 58.DigitalNC: The Durham Recorder (Durham, N.C.) Historic Issues
  12. The Recorder moves its office to the southeast corner of the courthouse square The Hillsborough Recorder moved its office to the southeast corner of the courthouse square in Hillsborough, skipping its issue of October 20 during the move.Hillsborough Recorder, October 27, 1875, p. 3
  13. John D. Cameron moves the Recorder from Hillsborough to Durham, ending fifty-nine years of publication in the county seat Cameron carried the paper fifteen miles east to the tobacco town, where it continued as the Durham Recorder, published every Wednesday. The last issue under the Hillsborough title in the digitized run is March 5, 1879; the first Durham issue there is July 2, 1879.DigitalNC: The Durham Recorder (Durham, N.C.) Historic Issues
  14. Frederick Strudwick co-owns and edits the Hillsborough Recorder On 11 August 1887 Strudwick and C. E. Parish became co-owners and editors of the Hillsborough Recorder. Their first issue promised a firm and conservative stand on matters of public welfare and a thoroughly Democratic line in politics. Strudwick left the paper after the issue of 8 March 1888. People: Calvin E. ParishSearch the index · NCpedia: Strudwick, Frederick Nash · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), August 13, 1887, p. 2; Hillsboro Recorder, August 11, 1887, p. 2
  15. The revived Hillsboro Recorder moves Dennis Heartt's old press into its office The new Hillsboro Recorder reported that it had just moved the press and some wood type Dennis Heartt brought from Connecticut for the first Recorder of 1820 out of a Hillsborough cellar, where they had sat since 1867, and into its own office. People: Dennis Heartt, Frederick N. Strudwick, Calvin E. ParishDigitalNC: The Charlotte Democrat, October 14, 1887, p. 1 · Also: Hillsboro Recorder, October 13, 1887, p. 2; Hillsboro Recorder, October 6, 1887, p. 3
  16. F. N. Strudwick withdraws from the Hillsboro Recorder F. N. Strudwick, who had become co-owner and editor of the revived Hillsboro Recorder in 1887, withdrew from the paper.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), March 17, 1888, p. 3
  17. Fire destroys the Parish and Berry buildings and the Recorder printing office in Hillsborough A fire before dawn burned Postmaster Harry L. Parish's brick building, which held the post office, his store and the Hillsboro Recorder's printing office, then spread to the three-story Berry building next door. The Recorder lost its press, type and subscription books. People: Calvin E. ParishSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), December 1, 1888, p. 3

Places in this history

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 →

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Death and Marriage Notices From the Hillsborough Recorder, Published 1820-1879, Hillsborough, North Carolina, and the Hillsboro Recorder, Published 1887-1888

Mallard, Shirley Jones · 1997 · S.J. Mallard

Shirley Jones Mallard's abstracts of the death and marriage notices printed in the Hillsborough Recorder from 1820 to 1879 and in the Hillsboro Recorder of 1887 and 1888. Published by the compiler in Chapel Hill in 1997, 445 pages.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Hillsborough Recorder (N.C.) -- Abstracts.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 929.375 DEA NC Cardinal UNC Duke Durham

Marriage and death notices from the Hillsborough Recorder : Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina

Munson, E. B. · 2001 · B. Munson

E. B. Munson's five-volume abstract of the marriage and death notices printed in the Hillsborough Recorder between 1820 and 1865: volume 1 covers 1820 to 1836, volume 2 1837 to 1845, volume 3 1846 to 1853, volume 4 1854 to 1859 and volume 5 1860 to 1865. The paper reported on families well beyond Hillsborough. Self-published in Greenville, N.C., 2001, 28 cm.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

NC Cardinal UNC

Death and marriage notices from the Hillsborough Recorder ... 1820-1879 ... and the Hillsboro Recorder ... 1887-1888

Mallard, Shirley Jones · 1997 · S.J. Mallard

Shirley Jones Mallard gathered the death and marriage notices printed in the Hillsborough Recorder from 1820 to 1879 and in the Hillsboro Recorder for 1887 and 1888. Published by the compiler in 1997, 445 pages.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: American newspapers -- North Carolina -- Hillsborough -- Abstracts.

NC Cardinal

Death and marriage notices of The Hillsborough Recorder, 1820-1879, Hillsborough, North Carolina

Mallard, Shirley Jones · 1997 · Mallard

Shirley Jones Mallard's compilation of the death and marriage notices published in the Hillsborough Recorder between 1820 and 1879, issued by the compiler in 1997 at 29 centimeters. The notices name brides, grooms and the dead across six decades of the county seat's newspaper.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

NC Cardinal

References to Chapel Hill and to the University of North Carolina appearing in the available issues of the Hillsborough recorder, from 1820 through 1879, located in the North Carolina Room of Wilson Library, U.N.C.

Allen, Helen D. · 1970

An index on cards to mentions of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina in surviving issues of the Hillsborough Recorder between 1820 and 1879. Helen D. Allen compiled the entries by hand in 1970, and they fill one file box of four by six inch cards.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hillsborough recorder (Hillsborough, N.C. : 1820).

UNC

Marriage and death records from the Hillsborough recorder : dates, 1820-29, 1834-58, 1860-69, 1873, 1877 (though not entirely complete), also a few odd issues

Fuller, Marian Camper · 1946

Marian Camper Fuller's abstracts of marriage and death notices printed in the Hillsborough Recorder, covering 1820 to 1829, 1834 to 1858, 1860 to 1869, and the years 1873 and 1877, with gaps in coverage. Prepared in 1946 as a typescript, 130 pages and 81 leaves. A first stop for family historians working Orange County names in the nineteenth century.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

NC Cardinal UNC
Show 6 more

Prospectus of the Hillsboro' recorder

Cameron, J. D. (John Donald), 1820-1897 · 1872 · J.D. Cameron

J. D. Cameron issued this single sheet in 1872 to announce the terms and the plan of the Hillsborough Recorder, the town's newspaper, and signed it at the end. The prospectus measures 42 by 10 cm. Evidence of how a county paper solicited subscribers after the Civil War.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: American newspapers -- North Carolina -- Hillsborough.

UNC

The Hillsborough recorder.

1820 · Dennis Heartt

The weekly newspaper Dennis Heartt began at Hillsborough in 1820, printed in large format and carrying county and state news. Publishers varied across the run; the paper was Democratic in its politics. Later compilers abstracted its death and marriage notices, which is how much of Orange County genealogy reaches back into the period.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke Durham Library of Congress

The Hillsborough Recorder (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879

1820

Dennis Heartt's Hillsborough Recorder, a Democratic weekly for Orange County that ran from 1820 to 1879. Publication was suspended twice in the spring of 1865, from 19 April to 3 May and from 17 May to 26 June. Part of the Chronicling America newspaper collection.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

Library of Congress Digital Collections

Hillsborough Recorder

State Archives of North Carolina

The Hillsborough Recorder was the town's long running weekly newspaper, begun in 1820 by the printer Dennis Heartt, whose shop also produced many of the Hillsborough imprints of that period.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

✓ Held at OCPL OCPL microfilm

Letter: George A. Williams to his family, April 5, 1864

Williams, George A. · 1864

George A. Williams of the 7th North Carolina Infantry wrote his parents and children on 5 April 1864 that he was safely back in camp and the men were faring well. He reports days of cold, rain and snow and hopes for a move to Camp Holmes. Governor Vance, W. W. Holden, food, health and talk of peace also come up.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Civil War Collection

Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina · 1860

Statewide Civil War collection of the State Archives of North Carolina, dated 1860 to 1965. It gathers pardon petitions, bounty payrolls, quartermaster vouchers and supply papers, disabled veterans' claims and letters about artificial limbs, regimental and unit papers, muster rolls, diaries, reminiscences, clippings and sheet music. Orange County is one of the many North Carolina counties represented.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

State Archives of NC

Search all 19 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

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Picture: The Hillsborough Recorder of 1 March 1820. Public domain. via Wikimedia Commons

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