Chapel Hill/Carrboro History

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Going to Greensboro or points west I pretty much took Old Greensboro Rd from CH/Carrboro or the Ferguson, etc to old gboro. if coning from Chatham. Eli Whitney, Kimesville. Haven't driven it in years but I am sure there's been developement along the way.
 
Going to Greensboro or points west I pretty much took Old Greensboro Rd from CH/Carrboro or the Ferguson, etc to old gboro. if coning from Chatham. Eli Whitney, Kimesville. Haven't driven it in years but I am sure there's been developement along the way.
 
Picture of chicken truck that fell through the bridge. My dad knew the driver.
This is the origin of the name.

As I understand it, while there is no dispute about how the name came about, there is some about the WHEN this happened? Do you think your dad knows?
 
Early 1950s
A wooden bridge crossing the Haw River in Pittsboro collapsed beneath Walter Hugh Campbell and his Studebaker truck full of chickens and is known today as Chicken Bridge
 
Unfortunately my dad has passed and I can’t find any info on the date.

I'm sorry for your Dad's passing.

I'd bet that the Chatham County Historical Preservation Society would love a copy of that photograph. I've never seen it before nor anything like it (I'm from Chatham).
 
Perhaps not exactly CH/Carrboro but it's interesting and they are putting up a commemorative plaque thus week. Wanted to beat out @donbosco 😛


The Gourd Patch Affair, or the Lewelling Conspiracy, was a failed uprising against North Carolina's Patriot government in the summer of 1777. A group of Martin, Tyrrell, Pitt, and Bertie County farmers met in a pumpkin patch and crafted a secret plot. Their aim? Assassinate North Carolina's governor, overthrow the state government, and protect the Protestant religion.

In the end their plot was discovered and the ring's leader, John Lewelling, was the first man ever granted clemency by the State of North Carolina.

The Gourd Patch Conspiracy began as a religious organization dedicated to the ideals of preserving Protestantism, something Albemarle farmers thought their new patriot leaders were trying to attack.

Engraving of colonial men harvesting wheat by hand



"Sign of a Secret:" Recruiting to the Plot

The Gourd Patch Conspiracy's leadership used a variety of secret codes and signs to identify one another and convince more men to join their movement.



A patroller holds a lantern and inspects enslaved people's passes

Gunpowder, Treason, & Plot: First Arrests

As membership grew, Lewelling and others formed a more radical plan. They planned to seize ammunition and assassinate the governor in Halifax, but it was not long before their secret got out.


Map of the Albemarle Sound, North Carolina

Fight or Flight

When the State Government discovered the conspiracy, the group's leadership was faced with the choice of continuing the fight, or trying to flee from authorities to avoid punishment.

Historic Chowan County Courthouse, located in Edenton, NC
After the conspiracy's leading members were arrested, they were tried in the Edenton District Court of Oyer and Terminer. State officials had to decide: what was the cost of treason?



Richard Caswell's family bible

Aftermaths & Legacies of the Gourd Patch Conspiracy

What happened to the former members of the Gourd Patch Conspiracy? And what lessons did the state learn from John Lewelling's attempt?

 
“Last spring, the 300-foot Coker Arbor walkway that stood alongside the garden was removed by UNC Facilities Planning and Design and the North Carolina Botanical Garden due to structural and safety issues.

The new arbor, now in its fifth rendition since 1911, will be slightly higher and will consist of several structures to allow more light in, Neal said. The stairs at the west end of the arbor will also be removed, and there will be a new elevated brick walkway to allow for increased safety and accessibility.

“It'll just be a more beautiful structure,” Neal said.

Work on the new arbor will start this spring and is set to be done by the end of the fall 2024 semester, but Neal said the timeline is tentative.”

 
"Have you heard the story that the Bell Tower was intentionally placed right behind Wilson Library so that, when viewed from South Building, the top of the tower looks like a dunce cap on the round dome of the library?

The dunce cap story has been one of the enduring campus legends for decades. The story originally told was that John Motley Morehead, angered that Louis Round Wilson wouldn’t let him put the tower on top of the new library building, put it right behind to make fun of Wilson. I’ve heard a slightly different version on campus recently, which attributes it to an ongoing battle between two of the university’s “founding families,” the Moreheads and the Wilsons, making them seem like UNC’s version of the Hatfields and McCoys....continued at the link."

 
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