Orange County Information Information from
Roots web but the link is no longer where I originally found the information
so removed the link to the site.
The area that was to become
Orange County did not appear to be densely populated. Although early on it was
occupied by small tribes of Siouan origin. They departed for eastern Carolina
in the early 1700's. By 1740 there were only a few white families scattered in
the area. By 1751 settlers were flocking in. (By 1767 Orange had the largest
population in the state). The great migration from Pennsylvania had begun.
Both Scotch-Irish and German immigrants came in droves along the "Great Wagon
Road". The Scotch-Irish settled largely in the eastern part of the county. The
Germans were mainly in the west. There were also English from Virginia along
with Welsh.
Orange county was originally
formed in 1752 from Johnston, Bladen and Granville. It covered a much larger
territory that the present day Orange County. Between1752 and 1881 (when
Orange county became its present size) other counties were formed taking some
or all of their territory from Orange. The counties which have area that was
in the original Orange are: Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Guilford,
Person, Randolph, Rockingham and Wake.
Orange county was largely a
farming community. These were mostly small farms. At no time did slaves
constitute more than 31% of the county's population.
