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History · Orange Township

Orange Township’s post office opened in 1871

Most of Orange Township was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Below: maps from 1956 on.

1871first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Orange Township began

When was Orange Township founded?

1871

The Orange Township post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Moonshine (1871), Orange (1871) and Neadmore (1887), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 283155 years
Founding year: the first Orange Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Orange Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Orange Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Orange Township, and 3 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Orange Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Orange Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Moonshine
1871–1907
Orange
1871–1903
Neadmore
1887–1903
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
MoonshineNeadmoreOrange
Gone or out of use
Orange SchoolschoolWashington Schoolschool
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Orange Township
BennettButternutOlive BranchWesley Chapel

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story so far

Orange Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Orange Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Orange Township is one of fifteen townships in Clark County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2020 census, its population was 283 and it contained 118 housing units.

Its first post office opened in 1871. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 230 to 283 (+23%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Orange Township, 1871 to 1956

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1871Post officeThe Moonshine post office opens
  3. 1871Post officeThe Orange post office opens
  4. 1887Post officeThe Neadmore post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1903Post officeThe Orange post office closes
  7. 1903Post officeThe Neadmore post office closes
  8. 1907Post officeThe Moonshine post office closes
  9. 1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Orange Township on the map, 1956 to 1998

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Orange Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Orange Township on the 1956 USGS mapOrange Township on the 1985 USGS mapOrange Township on the 1998 USGS map1956Annapolis sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Orange Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Martinsville TownshipIts storyA−Melrose TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townJohnson TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Orange Township’s history

What year was Orange Township founded?

The Orange Township post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.