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On January 10, 1794 the trustees elected David Ker, who had come from Fayetteville, the University's first professor, with the title of presiding professor. He took charge at the opening in January 1795 and lived in the house meant for a future president. Kemp Battle's history records Joseph Green as the first student dismissed: in October 1795 he and Frank Burton went to a cotton-picking frolic after being forbidden, and when Burton accepted public admonition and Green refused, the faculty under Ker dismissed him. At the July 1796 examinations the trustees barred students from the village taverns without a professor's permission, gave the preparatory teachers authority over all students and let students attend dancing schools with faculty consent.
Ker resigned under pressure from the trustees that summer, and Charles Wilson Harris acted as presiding professor until his own resignation in December. Harris had persuaded Joseph Caldwell, a Princeton graduate and tutor, to join the faculty, and Caldwell arrived in October 1796 to teach mathematics and became presiding professor the next year. In late 1797, to keep Caldwell, who meant to leave rather than carry the executive duties, the trustees elected James Smiley Gillaspie professor of natural philosophy with the title of principal; Caldwell stayed as professor of mathematics and taught French in the preparatory school. In the term before the 1799 commencement students beat Gillaspie, waylaid and stoned tutor William E. Webb and threatened Caldwell and Archibald Murphey, and for a week exercises stopped. Three leaders were dismissed, the faculty offered to resign, and by that November Caldwell was chosen again to head the University.
Background on The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795
Background reading on The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
The Black family in slavery and freedom, 1750-1925
Gutman, Herbert G. (Herbert George), 1928-1985 · 1976 · Pantheon Books
Herbert G. Gutman's 1976 history of African American families from 1750 to 1925, published by Pantheon Books in New York, 664 pages with 38 leaves of plates. Its Orange County connection is the Bennehan and Cameron family plantations, Stagville and Fairntosh: the book discusses the people enslaved by Richard Bennehan (1743-1825) and the Camerons, and follows family ties among them under slavery and after emancipation. Subjects include African American families and enslaved persons in Orange County.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1977), The William and Mary Quarterly (1977), The American Historical Review (1977), Journal of American History (1977), The History Teacher (1977), Political Science Quarterly (1977), Journal of Black Psychology (1978), Journal of Social History (1978), Civil War history (1978), Signs (1978).
The Cameron Plantation in Central North Carolina (1776-1973) and Its Founder Richard Bennehan
Sanders, Charles Richard · 1974 · Sanders
Charles Richard Sanders's short history of the Cameron plantation in central North Carolina from 1776 to 1973 and of its founder Richard Bennehan, whose lands became Stagville and Fairntosh. It covers the Bennehan and Cameron families and their connection with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published by the author in Durham in 1974, 79 pages with a plate and illustrations.
A Documentary History of the University of North Carolina, 1776-1799
Connor, R. D. W. · 1953
Two-volume collection of documents on the founding and first years of the University of North Carolina, 1776 to 1799, compiled by R. D. W. Connor and published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953. Each volume carries its own bibliography.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).
Opening ceremonies of the bicentennial observance, October 11 and 12, 1993
1993 · The University
A portfolio of programs from the opening ceremonies of the University of North Carolina bicentennial, staged in Chapel Hill on October 11 and 12, 1993. It includes the program for the rededication of Old East, the university's first building, and the citations for the 1993 distinguished alumna and alumnus. Illustrated, and published by the university itself.
Program of the sixth annual convention of the Lloyd clan, unveiling a marker in memory of Thos. F. Lloyd, Carrboro, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1941.
1941
An eight page program printed for the sixth annual Lloyd clan convention at Carrboro on October 22, 1941, when the family unveiled a marker to Thomas F. Lloyd, who died in 1792. The program also concerns Adlai Osborne (1744-1815). Family gathering ephemera that also records the placing of a Lloyd memorial in Orange County.
General William R. Davie
Manning, John, 1830-1899 · 1893 · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies
A sketch of William Richardson Davie, the Revolutionary officer remembered as the founder of the University of North Carolina, written by John Manning and signed by him at the end. Detached from the January 1893 North Carolina University Magazine and printed at Chapel Hill by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, it concerns Revolutionary biography for the state.
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A meeting of the citizens of Hillsborough was held on Friday the 30th instant, to adopt resolutions expressive of their feelings on occasion of the death of the late Rev. Dr. Caldwell, president of the university.
1835
Resolutions adopted by a meeting of Hillsborough citizens on Friday 30 January 1835, on the death of Joseph Caldwell, president of the University of North Carolina, who died that year. Signed at the end by W. J. Bingham as secretary and dated 31 January 1835. Printed at Hillsborough, it is a single sheet of civic mourning from Orange County.
William Richardson Davie : soldier, statesman, and founder of the University of North Carolina : 1756-2006 semiquincentennial
Fulghum, Neil · 2006
A booklet accompanying the exhibition on William Richardson Davie, 1756 to 1820, the soldier and statesman remembered as founder of the University of North Carolina, shown in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library from February to June 2006, his semiquincentennial year. R. Neil Fulghum researched and wrote it. Thirty-seven pages of color illustrations, portraits by Charles Willson Peale and Gilles-Louis Chrétien among them.
Walter Alves papers, 1771-1858, Orange County, North Carolina : also Kentucky and Tennessee.
Alves, Walter, 1768-1819 · 1993 · University Publications of America
University Publications of America issued this two reel microfilm edition in 1993, reproducing the Walter Alves papers of 1771 to 1858 with a printed reel guide. Alves, 1768 to 1819, was an Orange County landowner, and the material runs to real estate investment in North Carolina and Tennessee, Scottish American families, and letters with Richard Bennehan, William Boylan and John Wickham.
The "other Jeffersons" and the state university idea
Johnson, Eldon L. · 1987 · Ohio State University Press
Eldon L. Johnson's article on the founders of the early state universities and the idea of a public university they worked from, issued as an offprint of the Journal of Higher Education, volume 58, number 2, for March and April 1987, with a bibliography. William Richardson Davie, who led the founding of the University of North Carolina, is the figure the article takes up here.
William R. Davie and Frank P. Graham : a remarkable founding father and a remarkable son : University Day address, Memorial Hall, October 12, 1986.
Aycock, William B. (William Brantley), 1915-2015 · 1986
Former chancellor William B. Aycock gave this University Day address in Memorial Hall on October 12, 1986, pairing William Richardson Davie, who founded the university, with Frank Porter Graham. The text was reprinted from the Chapel Hill Newspaper of October 13, 1986, and runs pages 519 to 523.
Hillsborough's James Hogg
Cheshire, Lucius McGehee · 1970
Lucius McGehee Cheshire's typescript on James Hogg of Hillsborough, 1729 to 1805, prepared for delivery to the Hillsborough Historical Society and dated 12 March 1970. It runs to 26 pages with ten further unnumbered leaves. The account connects Hogg's life in Hillsborough with the early University of North Carolina. Part of UNC's North Carolina Collection.
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