In 1771, Orange County was greatly reduced in area. The western part of it was combined with the eastern part ofRowan County to formGuilford County. Another part was combined with parts ofCumberland County and Johnston County to formWake County. The southern part of what remained becameChatham County.
In 1777, the northern half of what was left of Orange County becameCaswell County. In 1849, the western county becameAlamance County. Finally, in 1881, the eastern half of the county's remaining territory was combined with part of Wake County to formDurham County.
Some of the first settlers of the county wereEnglishQuakers, who settled along theHaw andEno rivers.[5] Arguably, the earliest settlers in the county were the Andrews family, which would later intermarry with theLloyd family.[6]
The Orange Countyseat of Hillsborough was founded in 1754 on land where theGreat Indian Trading Path crossed the Eno River. This area was first owned, surveyed, and mapped byWilliam Churton (asurveyor forEarl Granville). Originally to be named Orange, it was named Corbin Town (for Francis Corbin, a member of the governor's council and one of Granville's land agents), and renamed Childsburgh (in honor of Thomas Child, the attorney general for North Carolina from 1751 to 1760 and another one of Granville's land agents) in 1759. In 1766, it was named Hillsborough, afterWills Hill, then theEarl of Hillsborough, theBritish secretary of state for the colonies, and a relative of royal GovernorWilliam Tryon.
Located in thePiedmont region, Hillsborough was the site of a colonial court, and the scene of some pre-Revolutionary War tensions. In the late 1760s, conflicts between Piedmont farmers and county officers welled up in theRegulator movement, or as it was also known, theWar of the Regulation, which had its epicenter in Hillsborough.[7] Several thousand people from North Carolina, mainly from Orange,Anson, andGranville counties in the western region, were extremely dissatisfied with the wealthy colonial officials whom they considered cruel, arbitrary, tyrannical, and corrupt.
With specie scarce, many inland farmers were cash poor and unable to pay theirtaxes; they resented the consequent seizure of their property. In addition, local sheriffs sometimes kept taxes for their own gain and sometimes charged twice for the same tax. At times, sheriffs would intentionally remove records of their tax collection to further tax citizens.Rowan, Anson, Orange, Granville, andCumberland counties were said to be most affected by such corruption. It was a struggle of yeomen farmers and other mostly lower-class citizens, who made up the majority of the population of North Carolina, and the wealthy ruling class, who composed about 5% of the population, yet maintained almost total control of the government. Of the 8,000 people living in Orange County at the time, an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 of them supported the Regulators.
GovernorWilliam Tryon's conspicuous consumption in the construction ofa new governor's mansion atNew Bern fueled resentment of the movement's members. As the western districts were under-represented in the colonial legislature, the farmers could not obtain redress bylegislative means. Ultimately, the frustrated farmers took to arms and closed the court in Hillsborough, dragging those they saw as corrupt officials through the streets and cracking the church bell.[7] Tryon sent troops from hismilitia to the region, and defeated the Regulators at theBattle of Alamance in May 1771.[7] Several trials were held after the war, resulting in the hanging of six Regulators at Hillsborough on June 19, 1771.
Hillsborough was used as the home of the North Carolina state legislature during theAmerican Revolution.[8] Hillsborough served as a military base by BritishGeneral Charles Cornwallis in late February 1781. TheUnited States Constitution, drafted in 1787, was controversial in North Carolina. Delegate meetings at Hillsboro in July 1788 initially voted to reject it forAnti-Federalist reasons. They were persuaded to change their minds partly by the strenuous efforts ofJames Iredell andWilliam Davie and partly by the prospect of adding aBill of Rights. The Constitution was later ratified by North Carolina at a convention inFayetteville.
Chartered by theNorth Carolina General Assembly on December 11, 1789, the University of North Carolina's cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1793, near the ruins of a chapel, chosen for its central location within the state.[9] Beginning instruction of undergraduates in 1795, UNC is the oldest public university in the United States and the only one to award degrees in the 18th century.[10][11]
The Reverend Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell[12] founded and ran a school for girls called theBurwell School from 1837 to 1857 in their home on Churton Street in Hillsborough. Families of planters paid to have their daughters educated here.
When the Civil War began, Hillsborough was reluctant to support secession. However, many citizens went off to fight for theConfederacy. During the war,North Carolina GovernorDavid Lowry Swain persuadedConfederate PresidentJefferson Davis to exempt some UNC students from the draft, so the university was among the few in the Confederacy that managed to stay open.[13] But, Chapel Hill lost more population during the war than any other village in the South. When student numbers did not recover rapidly enough, the university closed for a period duringReconstruction, from December 1, 1870, to September 6, 1875.[14]
In March 1865,Confederate GeneralJoseph E. Johnston wintered just outside Hillsborough at the Dickson home. This house now serves as the Hillsborough Welcome Center in downtown (the house was moved from its original site in the early 1980s due to commercial development). The main portion of the Confederate Army of Tennessee was encamped between Hillsborough andGreensboro.
While camped inRaleigh after hisMarch to the Sea,Union GeneralWilliam T. Sherman offered an armistice to Johnston, who agreed to meet to discuss terms of surrender. Johnston, traveling east from Hillsborough, and Sherman, traveling west from Raleigh along the Hillsborough-Raleigh Road, met roughly half-way near present-day Durham (then Durham Station) at the home of James and Nancy Bennett. Their farmhouse is now known as theBennett Place. The two generals met on April 17, 18 and 26, 1865, negotiating terms of Johnston's surrender. Johnston surrendered 89,270 Southern troops who were active in North Carolina,South Carolina, Georgia, andFlorida. This was the largest surrender of troops during the war, and effectively ended the Civil War.[8]
Occoneechee Speedway, just outside Hillsborough, was one of the first twoNASCAR tracks to open, and is the only track remaining from that inaugural 1949 season.Bill France and the early founders of NASCAR bought land to build a one-mile oval track at Hillsborough, but opposition from localreligious leaders prevented the track from being built in the town and NASCAR officials built the large speedwayTalladega Superspeedway inTalladega, Alabama.[15]
TheMorehead Planetarium at UNC opened in 1949, when it was one of only a handful ofplanetariums in the nation. It continues as an important town landmark and destination for Chapel Hill. During the United States'Mercury,Gemini, andApollo programs, astronauts were trained there.
The intersection ofFranklin Street and Columbia Street in Chapel Hill
During the 1960s, the UNC campus was the location of significant political protest. Prior to passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1964, protests about localracial segregation began quietly inFranklin Street restaurants; activists increased in influence and led mass demonstrations and civil disturbance.[16]
Always suspicious of communist influence in the civil rights movement, the legislature passed the 1963Speaker Ban Law, prohibiting speeches bycommunists on state campuses in North Carolina.[17] University ChancellorWilliam Brantley Aycock and University PresidentWilliam Friday criticized the law, but it was not reviewed by the North Carolina General Assembly until 1965.[18] Small amendments to allow "infrequent" visits failed to placate the student body, especially when the university's board of trustees overruled new Chancellor Paul Frederick Sharp's decision to allow speaking invitations toMarxist speakerHerbert Aptheker and civil liberties activistFrank Wilkinson. The two speakers came to Chapel Hill anyway. Wilkinson spoke off campus, and more than 1,500 students watched Aptheker's speech across a low campus wall at the edge of campus, christened "Dan Moore's Wall" byThe Daily Tar Heel, referring to GovernorDan K. Moore.[19] A group of UNC students, along with Aptheker and Williamson, filed a lawsuit inU.S. federal court based on the right to free speech. On February 20, 1968, the Speaker Ban Law was ruled unconstitutional.[20]
In 1968, a year after its public schools became fully integrated, Chapel Hill electedHoward Lee as mayor. This was the first predominantly white municipality in the country to elect an African-American mayor. Lee served from 1969 until 1975. Among other achievements, he helped establishChapel Hill Transit, the town'sbus system.
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 400.96 square miles (1,038.5 km2), of which 397.56 square miles (1,029.7 km2) is land and 3.40 square miles (8.8 km2) (0.85%) is water.[21]
The city ofChapel Hill, is in the southeastern part of Orange County, as isCarrboro.Hillsborough is in the central part of the county and is the county seat.
Orange County, North Carolina – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of the2020 census, the county had a population of 148,696. The 2020 census also counted 32,657 families residing in the county.[2] The median age was 35.1 years; 19.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 14.9% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 90.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 88.0 males age 18 and over.[32]
71.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 29.0% lived in rural areas.[34]
There were 57,059 households in the county, of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 45.9% were married-couple households, 18.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 29.2% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.[32]
There were 61,211 housing units, of which 6.8% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 59.2% were owner-occupied and 40.8% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.1%.[32]
At the2000 census,[35] there were 118,227 people, 45,863 households, and 26,141 families living in the county. Thepopulation density was 296 people per square mile (114 people/km2). There were 49,289 housing units at an average density of 123 units per square mile (47 units/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 78.05%White, 13.79%Black orAfrican American, 0.39%Native American, 4.10%Asian, 0.02%Pacific Islander, 1.96% fromother races, and 1.71% from two or more races. 4.46% of the population wereHispanic orLatino of any race.
There were 45,863 households, out of which 28.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.60% weremarried couples living together, 9.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.00% were non-families. 28.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.95.
In the county, the age distribution was as follows: 20.30% under the age of 18, 21.00% from 18 to 24, 29.90% from 25 to 44, 20.40% from 45 to 64, and 8.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 90.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.70 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $42,372, and the median income for a family was $59,874. Males had a median income of $39,298 versus $31,328 for females. Theper capita income for the county was $24,873. About 6.20% of families and 14.10% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 9.00% of those under age 18 and 7.40% of those age 65 or over. FY 2008-09 Orange County had the second highest property tax rate in NC at 0.998 per $100 of valuation. For FY 2009-10 after the 2009 Orange County revaluation, the rate is now ninth highest in the state at 0.858 per $100 of valuation.
Orange County is governed by a seven-member board of commissioners. The commissioners are elected to four-year terms by district and at-large in partisan elections, which are held in November of even-numbered years. Orange County is a member of the regionalTriangle J Council of Governments.
Orange County has gained a reputation as one of the mostliberal counties in North Carolina. The county consistently delivers one of the largest Democratic majorities in the state in presidential, state, and local elections. This trend predates the recent swing toward the Democrats in counties dominated by college towns. The last Republican to win the county at a presidential level wasHerbert Hoover in 1928[36] – when opposition to the Catholicism of Democratic nomineeAl Smith was a powerful force among voters. It has only supported a Republican two other times since the Civil War–William Howard Taft in 1908 andWilliam McKinley in 1900.[37]
Democratic strength is concentrated in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill andCarrboro, while the rural areas of the county favor Republicans.[38]
United States presidential election results for Orange County, North Carolina[39][40]
Chapel Hill andCarrboro have a reputation for being two of the most liberal communities in theSouthern United States. Carrboro was the first municipality inNorth Carolina to elect an openly gaymayor,Mike Nelson (who also served as an Orange County commissioner from 2006 to 2010), and the first municipality in the state to grantdomestic-partner benefits to same-sex couples. In October 2002, Carrboro was among the first municipalities in the South to pass resolutions opposing theIraq War and theUSA PATRIOT Act. Orange County voted 78.98% againstAmendment 1. This was the highest vote against a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage of anycounty in the United States, even higher thanSan Francisco in 2008.[41]
Orange County is located in the Raleigh-Durham media market for both television and radio. The flagship station forPBS North Carolina, WUNC-TV, is licensed to Chapel Hill.
There are several radio stations located in the county. Stations licensed to Chapel HillWUNC,WXYC,WCHL, andWLLQ.WQOK andWCOM-LP are licensed to Carrboro.
UNC Chapel Hill's student-run newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, offers extensive coverage of news in Orange County.
^"Géographie électorale" [Electoral geography].geoelections.free.fr (in French). Archived fromthe original on November 18, 2005. RetrievedJanuary 13, 2021.
