HISTORY OF
ORANGE COUNTY

CHAPTER 4

During the territorial period of Indiana the population was so sparse that the few counties which had been organized comprised large tracts of wild country. Then, as time passed and settlements became denser, new counties were striken off and organized. The present county of Orange originally comprised portions of Knox and Clarke - Knox west of the meridian line and Clarke east. March 9, 1813, all of Orange County west of the meridian line and south of the line dividing Sections 20 and 29, Township 1 north, became part of Gibson County. December 21, 1813, all of Orange County east of the meridian line except the southern half of Township 1 south, and the small tract north of Orleans and north of the junction of the Indian boundary lines of 1803 and 1805 became part of Washington County, and September 1, 1814, the last mentioned small tract was added to the last named county. The southern half of Township 1 south, east of the meridian, remained part of Harrison County. This was the situation of the tract of country now comprising Orange County at the time of its creation by the following enactment:

AN ACT FOR THE FORMATION OF A NEW COUNTY OUT OF THE COUNTIES OF WASHINGTON, GIBSON AND KNOX.

Be it enacted by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same. That from and after the first day of February next all that part of the counties of Washington, Gibson and Knox, which is included within the following boundaries, shall form and constitute a new county, which shall be known and designated by the name and style of the county of Orange: that is to say, beginning on the Indian boundary line where the range line dividing Range 2 and 3 west of the second principal meridian intersects said boundary line; thence south with said range line until it intersects the line dividing the counties of Perry and Gibson; thence west with said line until it intersects the western boundary line of Harrison County; thence north with said line to the southwest corner of Washington County and northwest corner of Harrison; thence east with the line dividing Harrison and Washington Counties until it intersects the line dividing Sections 16 and 17, in Range 2 east. Township 1 south; thence north with said line dividing Sections 16 and 17 to the Indian boundary line; thence westwardly with said Indian boundary line to the place of beginning.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the said county hereby formed and established shall enjoy and exercise all the rights, privileges and jurisdictions which to separate counties of this Territory do or may properly appertain or belong; Provided always, That all suits. pleas, plaints, actions and proceedings which may before the 1st day of February next have been commenced, instituted or depending within the present counties of Washington, Gibson and Knox, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution in the same manner as if this act had never been passed, and that the territorial and county taxes which are now due within the boundaries of the new county hereby established, shall be collected in the same manner and by the same officers as they would have been if this act had not passed.

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That until a court house shall be erected for the accommodation of the court, the courts for the said county of Orange shall be held at the house of William Lindley, Jr., in said Orange County.

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted. That Peter McIntosh, Ignatius Abel, Hiram Boon, Marston G. Clark and Samuel Jack, all of the counties of Washington and Harrison, be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to fix the seat of justice in said Orange County, who shall meet at the said William Lindley’s Jr., on the second Monday of February next, and proceed to fix the seat of justice for the said Orange County agreeably to the provisions of an act for the fixing the seats of justice in all new counties hereafter to be laid off.

SEC. 5, Be it further enacted, That the said courts authorized to transact county business in the aforesaid new county shall as soon as convenient after the seat of justice is fixed cause the public buildings of said new county to be erected thereon, and shall adjourn the court thereto so soon as the court house is in the estimation of the court sufficiently completed for the accommodation of the court.

SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That the said Orange County is hereby declared to be and remain a part of the district for the election of Counsellors composed of the counties of Washington and Knox, and in case of a vacancy for Counsellor, the Associate Judges of said county of Orange shall have power to carry into effect the law regulating elections.

Approved December 26, 1815.

ACTS OF THE COUNTY BOARD

Under the supervision of Zachariah Lindley, the Sheriff appointed by the Governor to organize the new county, an election of two Associate Judges, one Clerk, one Coroner and possibly other officers was held early in 1816, and immediately thereafter the Associate Judges, Thomas Fulton and Samuel Chambers, met at the house of William Lindley, Jr., to transact county business now done by the County Commissioners. This meeting was held in February, 1816. About the first act was to divide the county into townships - Orange Township about Paoli, Lost River Township about Orleans, Greenfield, Northwest, Southwest. and Southeast. W. G. Berry and John Elrod were appointed Clerks in Lost River Township; Roger McKnight, Inspector; Robert Elrod and Robert Field, Judges. Samuel Cobb and Thomas Lynch were appointed Clerks in Orange Township; Ebenezer Doan, Inspector; John Lynch and Abraham Elliott, Judges. The report of the Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to fix the county seat was received and county orders were ordered issued to them for an aggregate amount of $114. The seat of justice was named Paoli, after a town in North Carolina, whence the Lindleys, the owners of most of the land donated to the county, had come. If others than Thomas Lindley and Thomas Hopper donated land to the county in consideration of having the seat of justice located at Paoli, such fact could not be learned. Jonathan Lindley was appointed County Agent and directed to lay out the county seat into lots, which was done in April, 1816, and immediately thereafter a public sale of lots was held. Another sale occurred in the fall, the two sales aggregating cash and book, proceeds of $8,294.40. This large amount placed the county on a firm financial footing. William Lindley, Jr., furnished the house where the County Board and other courts sat, but later they met at James Sutton’s, and elsewhere.

Early in 1817, upon the petition of William Lindley, himself, John Sears and William Milliken were appointed Viewers to open the road between Paoli and Orleans. On motion it was ordered that Henry Massey, Henry Speed, Benjamin Blackwell and Ezekiel Blackwell be permitted to establish and keep a ferry on White River near the meridian line (now in Lawrence County). At this time Orange County comprised the present Lawrence County and nearly all of Monroe County. What is now Monroe County was ordered organized as Clear Creek Township, with Solomon Green as Inspector, elections to be held at his house. A township to be called Bono was ordered created with the following boundary: Beginning on White River at the northwest corner of Washington County, thence south to the Cincinnati road, thence west to Fishing Creek, thence north to White River, thence north with the section line which crosses at the mouth of said creek three miles, thence east to Jackson County, thence south to the beginning. Thomas Beasley was appointed Inspector of elections to be held at the town of Bono. Robert Fields, Ebenezer Doan and W. C. Green were appointed Viewers of a road from Paoli to Bono.

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