Happy 150th, Horace

Professor Horace Williams exercised in his union army suit in a town full of former confederates. At a celebration of the notorious gadfly's 150th birthday Friday, Chapel Hill residents, philosophy students and professors described Williams' fierce personality, witty mind and the long-lasting effect he had on the University.

"I want to share with you just how cool Horace Williams was," said Ernest Dollar, the executive director of the preservation society.

Horace Williams was born in 1858 in North Carolina, and grew up during the Civil War.

He left the divided south to attend Yale University after graduating from UNC and had no plans to return.

But when UNC President George Winston asked Williams to return to "enlighten the students" by teaching philosophy, Williams agreed.

"I have no higher ambition than to serve my university," Williams said, and returned to Chapel Hill in 1891.

At the time, Chapel Hill was known as the "rankest rebel town," Dollar said.

Although Williams was revered by his students, he was essentially hated by the town.

Williams was known as a gadfly - a person who upset the status quo - because he wore his union suit and let his grass grow tall to feed the various animals he kept around the house.

Dollar said one day the health department was called to Williams' house by his neighbors to inspect the farm animals he kept.

After they left, Williams put a sign outside his house that read, "Buy milk from the Horace Williams Dairy recently inspected by the health department."

Williams became the first chairman of the Department of Philosophy at the University, and taught many noteworthy individuals, including Thomas Wolfe, Paul Green and Frank Porter Graham.

"He had a lasting affect on the University and the nation," Dollar said. "He taught not what to think but how to think."

Upon his death in 1940, Williams donated his house and the property that today is the Horace Williams Airport to the UNC Department of Philosophy.

The celebration Friday was held by the preservation society at the Horace Williams House on East Rosemary Street, which now is a museum that includes a rotating exhibit of art.

Click here to visit the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill's History Web page.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.