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Orion

This flourishing little town is the center of a prosperous farming community in Western Township which was organized in the early days of the Bishop Hill Colony. Erik Janson visited the locality in 1849 and finding the soil very fertile, determined to locate an auxiliary colony there. Another point in it’s favor was its location halfway between Bishop Hill and its fishery and nearest trading on Rock Island . He purchased a tract embracing 1,116 acres. When the colony built it steam power flouring mill, the authorities took a loan of $2,000 from Hall & McNeely of St. Louis , offering this property as collateral. The colony failing to meet payments, the mortgage was foreclosed and the land together with several primitive buildings was sold at auction in 1851 to satisfy the creditors

But before Erik Janson’s visit a Swedes named John Johnson is said to have lived there, removing to Iowa in the late seventies. When cholera broke out at Bishop Hill in 1849 many of the colonist sought refuge in this locality, but were pursued by the plague which raged here with such fury that as many as sixteen persons died in one day. Fifty cholera victims among the refugees lie buried in the south east corner of section 25, with nothing to mark the place where these pioneers sleep.

One of the earliest permanent settlers was William A. Anderson who came over in 1858. He is said to have been very helpful and accommodating toward Swedish newcomers. Other pioneers were Anders M. Petterson, from SödraVi, Småland, who arrived in 1852 and N.P. Petterson.

John Samuelsson was one of the prominent Swedish settlers here. From Vestra Eneby, Östergötland, he came as an immigrant to Andover in 1852. During the Civil War he served for three years in the 43 rd Illinois Infantry and was in several battles, including Shiloh and the siege of Vicksburg . With the small savings from his pay as a soldier he made the first payment on a small farm which he purchased and kept adding and improving until in 1880 it comprised 400 acres with splendid farm buildings

Peter Westlund is another prosperous pioneer settler in these parts. He was born at Hassela, Helsingland, Aug. 10,1839 , emigrated in 1850 and settled in Andover . There he lived for seven years where upon he made a trip to Pikes Peak , Colo with a party in search of gold. From there Westlund and eleven others started on an adventurous expedition to the southwest without a guide, through a territory with out trails or roads. Their vehicles were drawn by oxen. They eventually reached the Rio Grande and followed the river to Albuquerque . Here they sold their oxen built three boats and contrary to advice of the townsmen started to float down the explored waterway, ultimately arriving at El Passo. Up to that time the Rio Grande was supposed to be

Unpassable, one reason given being that it ran through a mountain at a certain point. The intrepid Swedes, however, explored that tradition.

According to the census of 1900 the town then had a population of 584. At the close of 1905 the number of Swedish Americans living in and around Orion was 800 of whom 298 were born in Sweden and 522 in this country.

From; History of Swedes in Illinois-1908

Illinois Ancestors