Orange County, Indiana

Orange County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

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Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for Orange County, North Carolina, where many of it's early settlers originated.

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History

Orange County was formed from parts of Knox, Gibson and Washington Counties formally organized effective February 1, 1816. The County Seat is at Paoli.

The early settlers were mostly Quakers fleeing the institution of slavery in Orange County, North Carolina. Jonathan Lindley brought his group of Quakers from North Carolina to the area in 1811. Under Lindley’s leadership, they were the first to build a religious structure, the Lick Creek Meeting House in 1813. It was from this group that Orange County got its name.

(See List of Indiana county name etymologies). The name Orange derives from the Dutch Protestant House of Orange, which acquired the English throne with the accession of King William III in 1689, following the Glorious Revolution.

In the early 1800s when the Quakers came from North Carolina to settle in Orange County, Indiana, they came to escape slavery. They brought with them a number of freed slaves. These free men were deeded 200 acres (0.81 km2) of land in the heart of a dense forest. Word of mouth soon spread the news, and this land became part of the "underground railroad" for runaway slaves.

For many years, the freed slaves in this area farmed, traded, and sold their labor to others while living in this settlement. A church was built and a cemetery was provided for their loved ones.

All that remains today is the cemetery. Some of the stones were broken or vandalized over the years. Several years ago, a troop of Boy Scouts came in and restored the cemetery, replacing the lost or broken stones with wooden crosses designating a grave. The name of "Little Africa" came about because of the black settlement, but "Paddy's Garden" was the name those early residents called it.

Orange County is divided into 10 Civil Townships as follows: French Lick, Greenfield, Jackson, Northeast, Northwest, Orangeville, Orleans, Paoli, Southeast and Stampers Creek

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 408 square miles (1,057 km²), of which 400 square miles (1,035 km²) is land and 9 square miles (22 km²) (2.13%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Lawrence County
East: Washington County
South: Crawford County
Southwest: Dubois County
Northwest: Martin County

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County Resource Guide

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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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