This marker is located just south of downtown Hillsborough and points out some of the earliest…read moresettlement of the area. The road doesn't widen and there really isn't room to pull over here. The marker reads, "William Churton. Cartographer. Surveyed Granville District. In 1749 extended N.C.-Va. boundary line 90 miles west. Lived nearby." There is more information online. "William Churton was a colonial cartographer and surveyor employed by the offices of the Granville District. Arriving in North Carolina about 1748, he initially was assigned to the Granville Land Office in Edenton. Churton and lawyer Daniel Weldon were appointed commissioners to extend the colonial Virginia-North Carolina boundary line in 1749 in cooperation with Virginia commissioners Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson (father of Thomas). Together these men established an extension of the colonial boundary ninety miles to the west. The resulting map, created by Fry and Jefferson, was presented to the British government by North Carolina governor Gabriel Johnston. "In 1753 Churton and another Granville agent were appointed trustees for 635 acres of land for the establishment of the town of Salisbury. The following year, Churton was appointed trustee for 663 acres for the establishment of the community that today is known as Hillsborough. Planned under the name of Orange and first established as Corbin Town, the community soon was renamed Childsburgh. By that time, Churton had become public register for Orange County and a town commissioner for Childsburgh. He also represented Orange County in the colonial General Assembly 1755 to 1760 and 1761 to 1762. He was appointed as both a county surveyor and justice of the peace in 1757." [Review 76 of 2025 - 4051 in North Carolina - 23644 overall]

This marker is located along a busy street near the center of Durham. It points out the history of…read morea local citizen who did great things and should be remembered. The marker reads, "First African American female Episcopal priest; lawyer, activist, poet, & human rights champion. Wrote Proud Shoes, 1956. Childhood home 1/4 mile south." Online, there is more information. "Anna Pauline (Pauli) Murray, lawyer, professor, writer, outspoken civil and gender rights activist, and Episcopal priest, was born in Baltimore. When she was three years old, her mother died and, as her father was confined to a state hospital, she went to live with her aunt, and namesake, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame of Durham. She graduated at sixteen from segregated Hillside High School as valedictorian. "Murray enrolled at Richmond Hill High School in New York, the only black student, to complete high school. Determined to attend an integrated college, but unable to meet stringent requirements, academic and financial, at Barnard, she matriculated at Hunter College. She worked briefly at Camp Tera, a New Deal work project, there meeting Eleanor Roosevelt, who would be a guiding force in her life. "In 1938 she applied to the University of North Carolina to study sociology. Her application, against state law which required "separate but equal" institutions, garnered national attention. Her unsuccessful campaign for admission was the first time that she experienced what she would later summarize in saying that one woman with a typewriter constitutes a movement. "Despite having served jail time for refusing to sit at the back of a bus in Virginia, Murray was admitted to Howard Law School in 1941 where she experienced discrimination due to her gender rather than her race. When awarded a fellowship to pursue advanced legal education, she was rejected by Harvard, again, because of her gender. She went to California to study for a master's in law. Later she would wonder which was the bigger obstacle to her legal career, race or gender. "Murray published State's Laws on Race and Color in 1951. Thurgood Marshall called the work "the Bible for civil rights lawyers." Her second book, a biographical account, was Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family (1956). In 1960 she travelled to Ghana to teach law at the University of Ghana and later authored the first English-language textbook on law in Africa. "Murray worked for civil rights and women's organizations, helped found the National Organization of Women (NOW), and was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the Committee on Civil and Political Rights within his Commission on the Status of Women. She remained critical of the lack of leadership roles for women in many of the organizations. She published a volume of poetry, Dark Testament, in 1970. "In 1977 Murray became the first African American female Episcopal priest in the United States, and held her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, where her grandmother had been baptized as a slave. About the special day she wrote, "All the strands of my life had come together." Pauli Murray died on July 1, 1985, in Pittsburgh. She is buried in Cypress Hill Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. Her autobiography, Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage, was published in 1987." [Review 63 of 2025 - 4038 in North Carolina - 23631 overall]

Hillsborough is quite the historic city with a number of pre-colonial events and Civil War…read moreencounters. This marker commemorates one of the heroes of the former. It reads, "Patriot general in American Revolution, was mortally wounded at Germantown, 1777. His home is 150 yds. W." Francis Nash, born in Virginia in 1742, became a prominent figure in colonial North Carolina after settling in Hillsborough around 1763. He worked as a lawyer and merchant, served as clerk of court, and was elected to the colonial assembly. During the War of the Regulation in 1771, Nash was falsely accused of accepting illegal fees, which led him to support Royal Governor William Tryon and fight against the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance. That experience gave him valuable military training that would serve him well in later conflicts. Nash's home, built in 1772, still stands in Hillsborough and later became the residence of William Hooper, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Governor William A. Graham in the mid-nineteenth century. Nash's family remained in Hillsborough after his death, with his wife Sarah and their two children living in the Nash house until 1782. That same year, William Hooper purchased the property and lived there until his death in 1790. The Nash-Hooper House remains a historic landmark, reflecting the legacy of its early residents. Francis Nash is honored through the naming of Nash County, North Carolina, as well as the towns of Nashville in both North Carolina and Tennessee. It is marker number G-10 and it was erected in 1951 by the Archives, Conservation and Highway Departments. [Review 1416 of 2025 - 4489 in North Carolina - 24967 overall]

Interesting spot to walk around and learn about some Civil War history. You can walk inside some of…read morethe structures and the house on the property. The staff were all very friendly - they were setting up for a field trip the morning we visited. Next time, I'd like to go on a guided tour to learn more about the site. We also took a walk through the trails in the woods, that only took us about 15 minutes. The trails were easy but they do have a lot of roots, so you need to be careful not to trip! Some parts of the trail were a little overgrown, but still passable.

Really interesting historical site, kind and knowledgeable staff. The trails are also lovely for…read moresome added walking opportunities.

This marker is located on US-70 (Business) which is known as Churton Street here. It is south of…read morethe center of Hillsborough towards I-85 and there is a bit of room to pull over to read the marker. Like more North Carolina historical markers, there is little text here but it is the same on both sides. It reads, "Thomas Ruffin, 1787-1870. Jurist and agriculturist. Chief Justice of North Carolina Supreme Court, 1833-1852 and 1858-1859. Grave 3/10 mile east." There is more information online. Ruffin was born in Virginia in 1787, studied at Princeton, and began his legal career in Hillsborough, where he also served in the state legislature and as a Superior Court judge. Ruffin played a key role in stabilizing the State Bank of North Carolina and authored over 1,400 judicial opinions, including landmark cases like Hoke v. Henderson and State v. Mann. Though he supported secession, he viewed it as a revolutionary act rather than a constitutional right, and he opposed the Ku Klux Klan for its violations of constitutional law. Beyond his judicial legacy, Ruffin was a leader in agricultural reform and a devoted Episcopalian, donating land for St. Matthew's Church, where he was buried in 1870. This is marker number G-11 and it was erected in 2011 by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. [Review 1378 of 2025 - 4487 in North Carolina - 24930 overall]

This marker is along the main street. It is in front of the Orange County Historical Museum and…read moreHillsborough Presbyterian Church with the Olde Town Cemetery. The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "William A. Graham. Governor, 1845-1849; Secretary of the Navy; United States Senator; Whig nominee for Vice-President in 1852. His home stands 150 yards west." It is marker number G-40 and it was erected by the North Carolina Division of Archives and History. Graham was born in Lincoln County in 1804 to Revolutionary War veteran Gen. Joseph Graham, pursued a distinguished career in law and public service. Educated at Hillsborough Academy and the University of North Carolina, he studied law under Thomas Ruffin and established a practice in Hillsborough. A supporter of Henry Clay's "American System," Graham served in the North Carolina State House, where he championed public education and internal improvements, including railroad expansion and a school for the deaf and mute. He opposed secession, advocating compromise during the turbulent pre-Civil War years, and later served in the Confederate Congress. Though elected to the US Senate in 1865, he was denied his seat during Reconstruction. In retirement, he worked to challenge Republican dominance in North Carolina and served as an arbitrator on the Virginia-Maryland Boundary Commission. He died in 1875 while attending a meeting in Saratoga Springs, New York, and was buried in Hillsborough. [Review 1417 of 2025 - 4490 in North Carolina - 24968 overall]

This marker is along US501 and denotes a local politician who went on to serve in Washington during…read morethe years before the Civil War. It reads, "Willie P. Mangum. Member of United States Senate for 18 years and president pro tempore, 1842-45. Congressman, Whig party leader. Home site, grave, 10 miles northeast." Online, there is more information. "Willie (pronounced "Wylie") Person Mangum, long a powerful United States Senator, was born at Red Mountain in Orange (now Durham) County in 1792. In 1823, Mangum was elected as a member of the Whig Party to the first of two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives." "In 1831 Mangum was elected to the United States Senate, where he strongly contested the protective tariff and was a supporter of states rights. In 1833 he voted against the Force Bill which established his complete break with President Andrew Jackson. In 1836 Mangum resigned from the Senate, in part over the issue of whether state legislatures could instruct Senators on how to vote. In 1837 Mangum received the eleven electoral votes of South Carolina for President, likely as a reward for his perceived stance on nullification. That same year, he again elected as a Whig to the United States Senate." "With the death of President William Henry Harrison and the rise of Vice-President John Tyler to the Presidency in 1842, Mangum, as President pro tempore of the Senate, for several months was second in line to the White House." [Review 14020 overall, 1342 of 2020, number 2660 in North Carolina.]

This marker is located on a busy street near downtown Hillsborough and points to some…read morepre-Revolutionary War history. There is some parking nearby. The marker reads, "Merchant. Left native Scotland, 1774. Partner in Transylvania Company; UNC trustee. Home 1/2 mile east.; grave 2 blocks north." Online, there is more information. "Bernard Bailyn's 1986 book on emigration to America on the eve of the Revolution, Voyagers to the West, has an especially interesting story to tell about a Scotsman, later a North Carolinian. His subject is James Hogg (1729-November 9, 1804), a man he credits with "energy, enterprise, and boundless ambition." In 1765, at age thirty-six, Hogg moved his family from East Lothian to the Scottish Highlands. In 1771 a cargo ship wrecked near his home and ruffians looting the ship burned Hogg's house. This, plus worsening economic conditions led Hogg in 1773 to mount an expedition of 280 Highlanders setting out aboard his ship, the Bachelor, for America." "Hogg and family finally made it in 1774 to Wilmington, North Carolina, where his brother Robert had for several years managed a mercantile business with Samuel Campbell. That fall James Hogg moved up the Cape Fear River to Cross Creek to operate a satellite outlet of the firm. Hogg maintained real estate and business interests there for the rest of his life. He donated land for the town cemetery, jail, courthouse, and Masonic lodge hall. However, his residence at Cross Creek was brief, for after a few months Hogg moved to Hillsborough. There he met Richard Henderson, chief organizer of the western land speculation scheme known as the Transylvania Company. In November 1775, Hogg journeyed to Philadelphia to negotiate with members of the Continental Congress, among them Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, over admission of Transylvania as a fourteenth colony." [Review 18072 overall - 3320 in North Carolina - 1594 of 2022.]