by Connie Pearson
Do you hear them? As you stroll the streets and wander the cemeteries of Hillsborough, North Carolina, do you hear the echoes of the past? The clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages. The restless whisperings turning to impassioned cries of revolutionaries wanting freedom from England’s tyranny. The speeches of the brave men willing to sign that defiant Declaration. The proud boots marching off to war. The mothers and sweethearts shouting for joy when their soldier comes home or sobbing over the news of a fallen rebel.
Hillsborough’s 250 years of history can be your primary reason for visiting, but you will extend your stay or return another day because of the delicious food you’ll eat, the delightful people you’ll meet, and the fresh knowledge you’ll acquire.
Driving into town, the first logical stop is the Dickson House at 150 E. King Street, which has Civil War significance and now serves as the Orange County Visitor Center. Park your car and see a 7-minute video giving an overview of Hillsborough’s history. Arrange for a guided tour, ask for information about restaurants, shopping, and town events, or purchase a walking tour booklet for $4.00. Make note of the public restrooms available on the grounds. The walking tour will take you past 46 well-documented structures, and 5 more are within a short drive. Most of the homes and offices are privately owned, but guided tours are available for Ayr Mount, Burwell School, and the gardens of Montrose.
During a tour of The Burwell School Historic Site, you will hear many stories about the Burwell family, particularly wife and mother Anna Burwell. She was the very accomplished and well-educated wife of Robert, minister of Hillsborough Presbyterian Church. She did such an impressive job of educating her own 12 children, she drew the attention of a local doctor who asked her to teach his daughter as well. Anna Burwell saw that as an opportunity to supplement her husband’s meager salary. From that small beginning, she went on to oversee the educations of more than 200 young women from 1837-1857.
The course of study designed by Mrs. Burwell included religion, philosophy, penmanship, grammar, geography, geometry, chemistry, and astronomy. According to the school’s history, “Students ate plain food, exercised twice daily, made their own beds and helped wash the dishes. Daily prayers, regular letter-writing to home, and occasional trips into the village filled spare moments.” Many success stories can be traced to this early female academy.
A fascinating side story from those school years has ultimately drawn greater attention. A household slave girl named Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly worked strenuously for Mrs. Burwell. Although “Lizzie” had a harsh life, she eventually bought her freedom and became an accomplished dressmaker with such famous clients as Mrs. Robert E. Lee and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln invited Lizzie to live in the White House and be her personal dresser. In that role she also became Mrs. Lincoln’s confidante, much of which is chronicled in Keckly’s book Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House
Continue the walking tour and you will be able to wander through several fascinating cemeteries. Old Town Cemetery is adjacent to Hillsborough Presbyterian Church on 102 West Tryon Street. John Knox Witherspoon was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery, but his grandson is buried in Hillsborough, as well as William Hooper, another signer and prominent North Carolinian. The cemetery itself dates back to 1757.
You will probably work up an appetite with all of that walking. If so, Saratoga Grill at 108 S. Churton Street, is a delicious choice. New England clam chowder, Honey Almond Salmon, and scones are specialties. Blackened scallops, salads with house-made dressings, peppered swordfish, or the broiled seafood platter are other savory options. Every dish bursts with flavor. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Arrive about that time. It will be completely full by 12:30.
Purple Crow Books at 108 West King Street is a favorite shop right around the corner from Saratoga Grill. Owner Sharon Wheeler was thrilled when 4 best-selling, prize-winning authors attended the Grand Opening of her store – Frances Mayes, Michael Malone, Lee Smith and Hal Crowther. All of them actually LIVE in Hillsborough!
Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, recently described Hillsborough this way: “After only two years, Hillsborough seems like the home I never left. When my family and I decided to move to North Carolina after decades in San Francisco, we kept hearing from friends in this area, ‘You must move to Hillsborough — that’s where all the writers and artists live.’ Being writers ourselves, we were magnetized by the idea of a town where creativity thrives, and, having grown up in a small town in Georgia, I wanted to return to a place with an intense sense of community. By great good luck, I found both, and more.”
Purple Crow Books is relatively small in size but specializes in two areas that lure customers. Sharon stocks two full bookcases with works of local authors and most of the copies have been autographed. And, because of her background as an elementary school guidance counselor, she has a delightful children’s section. It makes a wonderful stop during a day in Hillsborough, and you might even run into someone famous dropping by to bring Sharon a fresh copy of a new book.
There is so much more to learn, see and eat in Hillsborough. You’ll be welcomed warmly and leave genuinely impressed.
3-Hour Small Group Downtown Asheville Brewery Walking Tour
If You Go:
Hillsborough is located off of I40/85 between Durham and Greensboro.
For dining:
♦ Saratoga Grill
♦ LaPlace for Cajun food
For shopping:
♦ Purple Crow Books
For history:
♦ Burwell School
♦ Town Website
For lodging:
♦ Holiday Inn Express
♦ Microtel
♦ The Inn at Teardrops B&B
Connie Pearson is a native Alabamian, wife of 44 years, mother of 3, grandmother of 12. A retired elementary music teacher/former missionary/now budding weight-lifter, travel writer and blogger. www.theregoesconnie.com
All photos by Connie Pearson:
Old Town Cemetery
Dickson House
Burwell School with Mrs. Burwell’s portrait
Saratoga Grill salmon
Purple Crow Books storefront
Purple Crow Books, shelves of Hillsborough authors
![Rose Street [now Center Ave] circa 1881](https://travelthruhistory.com/pix/nebraska2.jpg)
To protect the Union Pacific Railroad and its workers from an increased frequency of Indian attacks, Fort Sidney (aka Sidney Barracks) was built in 1867 as a strategic place to safeguard interests of United States expansionism. (Fort Sidney was named after Sidney Dillon, a railroad attorney and president of the Union Pacific). By 1874, the Black Hills Gold Rush fever hit the Dakota territories, peaking in 1876-77. With gold as the lure, Sidney became the southern terminus for those traveling north to Deadwood in the late 1870s and 1880s, seeking their fortunes in the windswept Black Hills and sacred Native American territory.
Sidney grew from a place with endless and empty Great Prairie views to a boomtown sprouting saloons and bordellos as quickly as the timber could be had. Of course, with easy money and loose women came outlaws. Sidney was no exception. From 1876-1881, the town had the notoriety of accumulating over 1,000 criminal cases along with 56 reported murders. Crooked town leaders often looked the other way on many cases that reputedly did not happen.
Many a famous person made their way through Sidney in addition to gold miners, gunslingers, cattle rustlers, gamblers, prostitutes and God-fearing pioneers and homesteaders. The legendary likes of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Doc Middleton, Buffalo Bill Cody, Butch Cassidy, Jesse James, and Susan B. Anthony found their way through this frontier town.
The beginnings of what would be a ‘hanging-gone-all-wrong’ commenced with the largest gold robbery in the history of the United States. It was the year 1880 and as might be expected, it occurred in Sidney, involving the equivalent of a $5 million gold armed getaway. The repercussions of this unsolved heist (even today it remains a mystery) were so far reaching that the Union Pacific Railroad threatened to pull up stakes if the town didn’t clean up its tumultuous reputation.
Fearful of their livelihoods vanishing forever, a group of 64 businessmen and leading citizens were determined to change forever the future of their town. The vigilante group decided to roundup 16 of the most belligerent, badass crooks they could find within their city confines. The intention was that this unsavory group of thugs would be hung in town as an example to others of what happens when you go afoul of the law.
On April 5, 1881, the Cheyenne Daily Leader reported, “The mob led the way over to the Courthouse square, threw a rope over the branch of a tree, and then they proceeded to draw Red up. Red did beg for his life to no avail, but the mob did consent to place a handkerchief under the noose, so as not to hurt his neck. The mob had tied Red’s hands and feet, and simply lifted him from the ground, strangling him instead of breaking his neck. It was reported that the contortions of the body are described as horrible in the extreme. Red did not die for a full fifteen minutes.”
The story goes that after the lynching and subsequent herding up of prostitutes for shipping out on the next train, that 200 people left Sidney before the April 22, 1881 deadline as stipulated in the decree. As author Loren Avey wrote in, Lynchings, Legends, & Lawlessness – the Story of Historical Sidney, Nebraska, “The population of Sidney decreased dramatically in a very short period of time.”
The Sidney model quickly inspired Kansas to borrow and interpolate the warning to, “Get out of Dodge” with similar effectiveness. Avey wrote that the reason Sidney didn’t get the claim for the phrase was because, “Saying ‘Get Out of Sidney’ probably doesn’t carry quite the same romantic terminology of the Old West, but the facts point out this is where the idea was born, the blue print was authored and implemented by 64 very brave legitimate businessmen in Sidney.”
Cabela’s World Headquarters
The Sidney Pony Express Monument – The bronze statue of a pony express rider and his horse is a fitting tribute to one of the most dangerous occupations in the history of the West. Nebraska had more miles of trails than any of the other seven states where the pony express riders rode. This is the only national monument with a marker and flag for every state on the Pony Express route.
About the author:
Built in 1870 by John Morrissey, a famed boxer and member of the notorious Tammany Hall crew, the Casino was first known as the Saratoga Club House and there were three rules strictly adhered to while it was in business. No ladies, only cash transactions and no locals allowed.
John Morrissey passed away in 1878 and the Club House fell into a state of decline until 1893. when Mr. Richard Canfield purchased it. Although he’d decided to keep the name of the Club House intact, it was the public that dubbed it ‘Canfield Casino’ and it stuck. Nearly $1 million was devoted to renovations, with a stunning grand ballroom added. This room had vaulted ceilings, colorful Tiffany stained-glass windows and over-the-top chandeliers, which added to the air of splendor Canfield was aiming for.
Downstairs, gamblers could begin with $1 dollar bets. Upstairs, the stakes were much higher, oftentimes as high as $100,000. Only the most elite, arriving from all over the country, walked up the long staircase to play there.
Glass–encased items define the chronological order of the birth of Saratoga Springs, from the 1800s to present day. Mannequins are dressed impeccably in stylish clothes and coveted furs of days gone by.
High stakes gaming tables stand among heavy sculptures and dark wood fireplaces. Long, heavy brocade drapes hang from windows that let natural light seep in, lending an air of mystery to the parlor.
Even the well known SyFy channel had their ‘Ghost Hunter’ cast visit the museum. Ghostly voices and paranormal activities were made known during the time that the crew was there.
About the author:
In 1881, the Postal Service installed a Post Office in the front of the store and Dalglish became Postmaster.
About this time, a deep recession gripped the nation. It started with the economic panic of 1893 and persisted into 1896, a presidential election year. Free silver versus the gold standard was the central economic issue in that election. “Gold Standard” candidate, William McKinley defeated “Free Silver” candidate William Jennings Bryan for the presidency.
In 1923, they closed the store and sealed all the windows and doors with roofing tin and lumber with all furnishings, and merchandise still inside … and so it remained until 1988.
“All the furnishings and merchandise were just as they were when they closed the building in 1923, except that everything was covered with bat guano. It was about two inches deep on everything. There were thousands of bats in the building. Many were flying about as we had disturbed them, but many more still clung in clusters on every exposed ceiling joist.”
Don asked to buy the building to turn into a museum. He waited ten years for an answer. In summer of 1988, Edward James sold him the store building, all it’s contents, and the Monte Cristo Saloon building next door.
After three more years finishing up existing projects and wondering how to do it, the Edmunds began restoring the Pioneer Store.
Nearly all the glass in the large front windows had been broken, and the building had acquired a decided lean to the right. They pushed the logs back into shape, rebuilt the window frames, and installed new glass.
With the walls straightened up, cleaned, painted, windows replaced, and items of merchandise cleaned and refurbished, it was time to put everything back in place. As the pieces went back on the shelves, they recognized what a treasure this truly was, a real ‘old time Mercantile’ right there in Chloride.
The museum is an accurate recollection of the store as it was at the turn of the 20th century, except that the tools are on walls instead of shelves and a small section has been set aside as a memorial to Cassie Hobbs and Raymond Schmidt. Cassie and Raymond were citizens of Chloride who … well, that’s another story.
About the author:
When I arrived, I saw two large mud holes filled with children. And this was not some delicate, mash-the-mud-barefooted activity. This was full-contact mayhem, requiring everyone’s Outside Voice. Children were rolling in the red clay muck, happy as a butcher’s dog. Possibly, some of the more enthusiastic participants needed to be hosed off before their parents could even recognize them.
The July heat and humidity were brutal, but the fort’s blacksmith, Chilton, happily worked the furnace. Talking as he shaped glowing iron on his anvil, he was ready to answer an endless stream of questions, even giving visitors an up close look at his blazing forge.
This was not a place where a rope or a “stay back” sign separated you from the action. The Society volunteers let visitors pitch in as fully as safety allowed. A young girl shelled dry corn into a wooden bowl while another waited her turn to grind it with a large pestle. And three tomahawk targets, unmolested today, hinted at more fun that could be had some other time.
For example, we were discussing the small sheds near the fort. When I asked if you could take a regular shed and add fake woodwork to make it look authentic, Darrell, the volunteer Sergeant of Arms who diplomatically refrained from thumping me on the forehead, was very definite in his response.
The Society is not about making things LOOK authentic. They want things to BE authentic. From the trees felled with an ax to the logs shaped with traditional tools to the dovetails carefully chiseled to fit without nails, this group is united in their collective calling to present the truth of those distant times. As the sun set and the cook fire sizzled, Eddie said he was sure that the old fort was haunted. Wearing a tricorn hat and green breeches with horn buttons, he recounted several compelling stories of his experiences as he turned his steak on the heavy iron grill. Doll, another volunteer, agreed. One night, someone kept pulling her blanket over her feet as she slept inside the fort. The consensus is that this ghost might be a kindly woman who was concerned about Doll’s cold toes.
All photos are by Michael Kulp:
