ORANGE TOWNSHIP

Extract from the 1870 Atlas Map of Knox County, Illinois

(Extracted from the History of Knox County, Illinois by Albert Perry, Vol. I, pgs 449-450,
submitted by Janine Crandell)

The early settlers of Orange township suffered somewhat from fear of Indian depredations, the same as in all other townships, not withstanding the fact that in 1830 when the first settlers arrived the Indians for already moving to the West, and very few of them remained. Nevertheless, a blockhouse was erected in 1830 or 1831, and the murder of a white man, by a band of hostile savages, during the Black Hawk War, spread great consternation throughout the small community.

The township is crossed by several well-defined trails. The Peoria and Galena trails run diagonally from northwest to southeast passing through Knox and a northeastern corner of the present city of Knoxville. A little to the west of this, there is another which crosses Brush Creek in Section 30, and forms a pathway from Brush Creek to the headwaters of Haw Creek.

Several Indian Graves have been found and their traces are plainly discernible just across the Knox township boundary line on Section 32. The last appearance of the aborigines was in 1843, when several hundred of the Sacs and Foxes camped on section 5 while moving from the north to their reservation in Indian territory.

Orange township also has a good supply of good timber. This timber land originally covered about one-fourth of the township, and lay along Brush and Haw creeks and their branches, on the west and east sides respectively, where the surface is much broken.

The township is underlaid by three veins of bituminous coal.

Joseph Walsh with his family were the first white people to settle within the limits of Orange township. Asa Haynes came in 1836. Having purchased 300 acres of land on Section 30, he erected a one-room log cabin in which he and his wife resided for some time. He was a hearty, daring and venturesome man, without any education other than such as he acquired in an Ohio district school, two months each winter during six or seven years. He brought his two children, a half-brother, Hiram, and a neighbor, Isaac Hill. Their journey occupied nineteen days. Most of the time it was rainy and the rivers were swollen and their horses' harness never dried. Mr. Haynes proved a valuable factor in the development of the new country. He started the first brickyard in 1840; built the first sawmill, operated by water power from Brush creek. In 1841, he built a large barn, and in 1842, a brick house which in those days was regarded as commodious. Ultimately, Mr. Haynes owned nearly 1,000 acres of land in Orange township. In 1849, he became captain of the "Jayhawkers" and led his band of sixty across the continent in search of gold in California. Many of his company dropped out on the way, but Mr. Haynes reached California in safety.

Mr. Peter Godfrey is among the best known settlers of 1832, and he and his wife were among the oldest and most honored couples belonging to the "Old Settlers' Association" of Knox County. Among the other early settlers were Thomas and J. Sumner. Anderson Barnett also came in 1837, settling on Section 10. He had the largest family of children ever raised in the township, eighteen in number, and nearly all of them reached the age of maturity.

The first school house stood on Section 14. It was known as the "Wallace School" and served the people well as a house for religious services held within its unplastered walls. The earliest religious services held in the township were conducted by Rev. Edward Gum, a Baptist minister, in the home of James Ferguson. The Methodist Episcopal people were the first denomination to organize, however, and they erected a house of worship, known as the Orange Chapel, in 1855. It was built of brick burned at the yard of Anderson Barnett, and they were laid by Thomas Ranbow. The building was dedicated in the spring of 1856 by Rev. Richard Haney. It was included within the limits of the Gilson circuit. In 1870 revival services were conducted at the school house in District No. 4. At that time there was no organized church other than Orange Chapel, although within the township there were Congregationalists and Methodists. The Congregationalists had no place of worship and soon ceased as a local organization. A general religious decline appeared to supervene about this time.

DeLong

DeLong is the only village in Orange township. It is a flourishing little station on what was formerly known as the Narrow Gauge road, but now a branch of the Burlington system. It owes its existence there to H. S. Mallory who at that time was building the Narrow Gauge road and who bought the site, laid it out and called it DeLong. It is now a flourishing little village and has its quota of Modern Woodsmen, Good Templars, etc.