Storyline
The rains and floods of the summer of 1924 around Chapel Hill: the wet weeks that ruined crops, the June downpours that took the Morgan Creek bridges, the August 3 cloudburst that carried off Purefoy’s and King’s mills, and the bridges the county rebuilt.
In briefWeeks of rain in late June and July 1924 ruined crops across Orange County, and downpours on June 29 and 30 washed out bridges on Morgan Creek, which the county commissioners decided to rebuild higher. On August 3 a cloudburst, the heaviest rain recorded there in 24 hours, sent Morgan and New Hope creeks out of their banks, carried off Purefoy's and King's mills and more county bridges, and left Chapel Hill and the campus without water for several hours. By mid-August the commissioners had let contracts to rebuild the lost bridges.
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Rains in late June and early July 1924 kept Orange County farmers out of their corn and cotton for weeks and left cut wheat spoiling on the ground, and Jesse King of the Antioch section expected the county's cotton growers to make about half a crop. On the nights of June 29 and 30 downpours dropped six or seven inches of rain around Chapel Hill. Creeks overran their banks, two or three wooden bridges on Morgan Creek washed away, sidewalks were cut into gullies, and crops on low ground were drowned or washed out. In July county commissioners Ralph Ward, J. D. Webb and Arthur Wilson went out to the sites and decided to rebuild the bridges on Morgan's and Phil's creeks somewhat higher. On Sunday morning, August 3, a cloudburst sent Morgan and New Hope creeks out of their banks. Thorndike Saville of the Geological Survey measured 5 1/4 inches of rain and called it the heaviest ever recorded there in 24 hours. The flood swept away Purefoy's mill and the iron bridge below it, King's Mill, the Flat bridge on the old Pittsboro road and other county bridges, and it drowned the pumps of the University water works, so that town and campus were without water for several hours on August 5. By August 14 the commissioners had given Horner of Burlington a $3,500 contract for a steel bridge on the Orange Church road and engaged Seton Smith and Lucian Canaday to rebuild the Flat bridge and Ed Hobby's bridge on the Jones Ferry road by day labor, reusing iron from the wrecked spans.
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
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.
An email is the only item in an undated Historic Houses folder on the Junius Webb House in Chapel Hill, part of the Chapel Hill History series in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection.
Elisha Mitchell, the University of North Carolina professor for whom Mount Mitchell is named, as botanist and as observer of early Chapel Hill, in a study by Rogers McVaugh, Michael R. McVaugh and Mary Ayers. It covers Mitchell's botanical knowledge, the plants of Chapel Hill and the town's historical geography. Published by the Botanical Garden Foundation in Chapel Hill in 1996, 122 pages with illustrations and maps.
Architectural and historical inventory of Carrboro by Claudia Roberts Brown, published in 1983 by the Carrboro Appearance Commission and the town. The 48-page survey, with illustrations and maps, documents the town's historic buildings and their conservation.
Collected first-hand and second-hand stories from the Eno River valley as told from the standpoint of African Americans and Native people who have lived along the river in Orange and Durham counties, from prehistory to the present day. Issued by the Eno River Association in Durham as volume 10, number 2 of the Eno Journal, 2021, 106 pages with illustrations.
Emily Eidenier Pearce's history of Rogers Road, the historically African American neighborhood on the edge of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and of what happened to it after Orange County opened its landfill next door in 1972. Drawing on interviews with residents, the book records the neighborhood's origins, family life, churches and customs, and then the environmental and social burdens of decades beside the landfill. Privately issued in 2009, 298 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.
David Cook collects the grim side of the Eno River's past in Orange and Durham counties: ghost stories, crimes, train wrecks and accidents, including the hanging of rebels near the river in 1771, a sawmill accident said to have started a run of hauntings, and a dance one Valentine's Day that ended badly. Published by The History Press in 2025, 141 pages with illustrations.
Stewart E. Dunaway's history of the two mills George Johnston built on New Hope Creek in Orange County, the first in 1793 and the second in 1820, the earlier of which he sold to the Englishman William Robson. Self-published in 2010, 256 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles. Topics include gristmills in Orange County and the Blackwood, Johnston, Robinson and Robson families, so the volume serves both mill history and genealogy.
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.
Stewart E. Dunaway's 2010 study of Patterson Mill, a gristmill site on New Hope Creek where Orange County meets Chatham County. The book pairs a short genealogy of the Patterson family with a close survey of what remains of the mill on land now inside Duke Forest, supported by maps, facsimile documents and illustrations across 176 pages. Self-published in a second issue dated October 10, 2010.
Departmental history of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill covering its first fifty years, published by the department in 2000. The history covers medical schools, medical education and the teaching of obstetrics in North Carolina. First edition, xvii and 366 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Albert N. Link's early history of Research Triangle Park, published in 1995 by the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina. Topics include research parks, research institutes and industrial research in the state, with the park's own history at the center. 149 pages with illustrations and maps.
Michael McIntyre's 23-minute documentary video on the Eno River and Eno River State Park, produced in Durham in 1993 with support from the Duke University Institute of the Arts. It covers the river's past, its geology and the effort to preserve it, including the Indigenous peoples of the Eno River region. The container credits it with the 1993 Hal Kammerer Film and Video Award at Duke. VHS videocassette, color with sound.
Mary Claire Engstrom's history of the Quaker settlers of the Eno River valley from about 1750 to 1847, in the country that is now Orange and Durham counties. Published by the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley in Durham in 1989, 73 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.
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