Topics Related to Guilford County

On April 7, 1850, citizens in northwestern Guilford County met and appointed a board of trustees to erect a schoolhouse. The school would eventually become Oak Ridge Academy, the first coeducational military high school in the nation.

On March 15, 1781, American and British forces clashed near Guilford Courthouse. The battle was the culmination of several months of hard campaigning by the armies of Nathanael Greene and Lord Charles Cornwallis.Early in the day, Greene deployed his army in three lines. The first and second lines were North Carolina and Virginia militiamen, with Greene’s Continental soldiers composing the third. Veteran Virginia and North Carolina riflemen and Continentals were also posted on the flanks of the first line.

On January 11, 1887, education advocate Calvin Henderson Wiley died.  Born in Guilford County in 1818, Wiley practiced law, edited a newspaper, and wrote novels before entering the political realm. He was representing Guilford County in 1852 when he was instrumental in passing the legislation that created a state superintendent who oversaw all public schools in the state. Leaving the General Assembly later that year, Wiley was selected as North Carolina’s first superintendent, an office he held until April 1865.