Historic Alamance County

An illustrated history of Alamance County, North Carolina pared with histories of the local companies

William Murray Vincent

William Murray Vincent, PhD

A native of Alamance County, Bill traces descent from several local pioneer families. He is a graduate of Duke University, holds the M.A. in social science from the University of Chicago, where he received a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1985. Vincent has conducted field work in West Africa and the Upper Amazon of Brazil.  Since 1988 he has served as Executive Director of the Alamance County Historical Museum, Inc.

Vincent has held positions as adjunct professor

of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Alamance Community College.  In 2004 he was named assistant professor in

the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Elon University.

For ten years Vincent was a member of the Alamance County Historic Properties Commission, and he has also served on the advisory board of Preservation North Carolina. A former state treasurer of the Sons of the American Revolution, Vincent was president of the Historic Stagville Foundation of Durham, North Carolina, from 1999-2001.

Together with Carole Troxler of Elon University, Vincent, in 1999, co-authored an academic history of the area, entitled, Shuttle and Plow: A History of Alamance County, North Carolina. He is a frequently requested speaker on topics ranging from Amazonian anthropology to the history of Piedmont North Carolina.