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History · Orient

Orient’s post office opened in 1913, and 39% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1909 on and the census since 1920.

1913first post office
0on the National Register
39%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Orient began

When was Orient founded?

1913

The Orient post office opened in 1913, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,388 in 19202020 census: 327113 years
Founding year: the first Orient post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Orient’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 Orient are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Orient’s homes were built before 1944.On the map since 19094 editions of the USGS map, 1909 to 1978. Watch Orient change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Orient’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Orient, in brief

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

Orient is a city in Franklin County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 327.

Its first post office opened in 1913. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 358 to 327 (-9%).

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

On the map

Orient on the map, 1909 to 1978

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

Orient on the 1909 USGS mapOrient on the 1941 USGS mapOrient on the 1963 USGS mapOrient on the 1978 USGS map1909West Frankfort 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 Orient.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Orient in 1920

Passages that mention Orient, cut from the printed page as they were published.

an opportunity to establish a store in the new mining field of Orient he left West Frankfort for that place. During the four years in Orient he was constantly enlarging his interest and while there established the Rex Shoe Store in West Frankfort, retaining a large interest in the Orient store. He …
Franklin County, Illinois, war history, 1832-19191920 · page 351Read the page →
Read the text

an opportunity to establish a store in the new mining field of Orient he left West Frankfort for that place. During the four years in Orient he was constantly enlarging his interest and while there established the Rex Shoe Store in West Frankfort, retaining a large interest in the Orient store. He moved back to West Frankfort and estab-

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Orient, 1909 to 1921

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1909On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  3. 1913Post officeThe Orient post office opens
  4. 1921Born hereEdward S. Fris is born here
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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People over time

Orient, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,400192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,388

Between 296 and 1,388 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Orient’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Orient’s history

What year was Orient founded?

The Orient post office opened in 1913, 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 →
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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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.