(Source: Nason, Elias, 1811-1887. A gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts : with numerous illustrations on wood and steel / by Elias Nason. -- Boston : B.B. Russell, 1874. -- p. 394-395)occupies the north-easterly extremity of Franklin County, and is quite irregular in its configuration. Warwick lies on the north-west, Royalston on the north-east, Athol on the east, New Salem on the south, and Wendell and Erving on the west. It is 81 miles distant from Boston.
Orange
It is intersected by the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, which follows the course of Miller's River, here a swift and valuable stream. The other streams are Tully River and Cheney Brook, draining the easterly parts, and Orcutt Brook and Moss Brook the westerly parts of the town.
The rock is calcareous gneiss and granite, which often rises into bold and picturesque elevations, covered with soil well adapted to the growth of timber and to pasturage.
Tully Mountain, 412 feet high, at North Orange, is a very picturesque object in the landscape. Between it and Little Tully Mountain are two beautiful ponds, having an outlet flowing into Tully River. North Pond, of about 78 acres, in the southern part, is the head-spring of the middle branch of Swift River.
Orange is a sprightly manufacturing and farming town, having two postal centres (Orange and North Orange), 178 farms, 442 dwelling-houses, and a population of 2,091.
The woodland, of which there are 2,393 acres, is of great value, furnishing large quantities of firewood and lumber, which now command a ready sale.
The principal manufactures are chairs and other furniture, water-wheels and sewing-machines.
The town has a good hotel (the Franklin House), a town-hall and a public library, a post of the G. A. R., a Masonic Lodge, and a good newspaper called "The Journal of Industry."
There are 15 schools, including a high school; for the support of which the town appropriated, in 1871, $4,000.
There are five churches,--two Universalist, the Revs. J. H. Willis and E. C. Coffin, pastors; two Congregationalist, the Revs. J. H. Garman and Robert C. Bell, pastors; and one Baptist, of which the Rev. Theodore B. Holland is the minister.
During the late war this town furnished its full quota of men for the field, and has since raised a soldiers' monument to the memory of those who fell.
The valuation is $1,233,240; and the rate of taxation, $1.75 per $100.
This place was incorporated as a district of Warwick Oct. 15, 1783; and as a town Feb. 24, 1810. The first minister was the Rev. Emerson Foster, settled Dec. 12, 1782. He was followed by the Rev. Joshua Chandler, settled Nov. 27, 1822.
The first dam across Miller's River was built by James Holmes in 1790, where he established a saw and a grist mill.
Orange Centre, with its white clustering cottages, with their pleasant gardens, rising from the banks of Miller's River, having the wooded and picturesque hills for the background, appears to great advantage from the railroad, and, with its fine water-privileges, will doubtless have a still more rapid growth.
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Holdings: LDS Family History Library (LDS FHL microfilm number 0185430 item 58) |
Holdings: LDS Family History Library (LDS FHL microfilm number 0886754) |
Holdings: LDS Family History Library (LDS FHL microfilm number 1205777 item 3) |
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Part titles, etc. | Dates | LDS FHL microfilm numbers |
---|---|---|
Births and deaths | ca. 1770-ca. 1850 | 0770464 |
Marriages | 1844-1853 | 1887891 |
Births, marriages, and deaths | 1851-1891 | |
Births | 1891-1900 | |
Marriages | 1891-1900 | |
Deaths | 1891-1900 | |
Index to births | 1891- | |
Index to marriages | 1891- | |
Index to deaths | 1891- |
Holdings: LDS Family History Library (for LDS FHL microfilm numbers, see the table above) |