William James "Uncle Billie" Duke

An early trustee of Orange Grove Methodist Church, William Duke (1803-1883) was the eldest son of Taylor and Dicey Duke and older brother of Washington Duke.

William Duke became a highly successful farmer in what is now the Herndon Road area of Durham. He also became a Methodist lay evangelist, riding a circuit to preach in brush arbors and at country revivals.

Known for his singing voice, Duke organized a congregation that met near the intersection of the Roxboro-Fayetteville road and the "University Road," present Denfield Street, which ran from Snow Hill Plantation to Chapel Hill. He is the namesake of Duke's Chapel United Methodist Church, on the Old Oxford Highway, a Gothic-inspired structure built of the same stone as Duke University's West Campus. Stonemasons built the church as an experiment in building with the stone and in the Gothic style before undertaking work on the university.

Streets
Church Street