Dear wazroth-ga;
Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. There
are nine different ?Orange Counties? in the United States. They are
located in the following states:
California
Florida
Indiana
New York
North Carolina
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
South Carolina (in this case the county is actually named ?Orangeburg?
County but there was formerly an ?Orange? County in South Carolina, an
issue which I will attempt to explain better in a moment.)
COUNTYHUNTER.COM
http://www.countyhunter.com/counties.htm
The reason for the name in the cases of California and Florida is
obvious; they boast a large agricultural industry that thrives in part
on orange crops. In the case of Florida however, the county was
originally named ?Mosquito County? from 1824 to 1845, after the
Spanish name ?Mosquito?, the name that was given to the entire Florida
coast. The name was officially changed in 1845 in recognition of the
fruit industry.
FACTS ABOUT ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA
http://www.usacitiesonline.com/caorangecounty.htm
FLORIDA FACTS
http://fcit.usf.edu/FLORIDA/maps/county/orange/orange.htm
In the case of North Carolina, the name ?Orange? was in honor of the
infant William V of Orange, whose mother Anne, daughter of King George
II of Great Britain, was then regent of the Dutch Republic.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRARY
http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/NC/CNTYOUT/CNTYMAPS/COUNT5.HTM
Indiana, on the other hand, simply borrowed the name from the county
in North Carolina. ?The name "Orange County" was borrowed from Orange
County, North Carolina, the home of many of the early settlers to this
county in southern Indiana.?
HISTORY ? ORANGE COUNTY INDIANA
http://www.orangecountyin.com/History.html
Likewise, in New York, the county was named after the Prince of
Orange, who married Mary, and came to the throne of England in 1689
under the title of King William.
HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/orange/hisgen/
The case of South Carolina is a bit more complicated. Orangeburg
District (named for William IV (1711-1751), Prince of Orange, the
son-in-law of King George II) was established in 1769, and from 1785
to 1791 it included four counties: Lexington, Orange, Winton, and
Lewisburg. The district was reduced in size when Barnwell (1800) and
Lexington (1804) districts were formed; parts of Orangeburg also went
to form Aiken (1871) and Calhoun (1908) counties. When this
reorganization took place, the area that was left retained the name
Orangeburg and the rest, as they say, is history.
MAPS TRACING THE FORMATION OF COUNTIES IN SOUTH CAROLINA
http://www.state.sc.us/scdah/guide/countymap2.htm
SOUTH CAROLINA ? FORMATION OF COUNTIES ? TIMELINE
http://www.sciway.net/cnty/history/timeline.html
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRARY
http://www.state.sc.us/scsl/oran.html
The name ?Orange County?, Texas has another somewhat complicated
history. The district was originally known as ?Green's Bluff? (after
an early Sabine River boatman) and it was renamed Madison in 1840.
There was so much confusion where the mail was concerned that the
letters were frequently misrouted to Madisonville. The first Post
Office in Madison District was built in 1850 and since, by this time,
there was already a Madison County, the County was organized under the
name ?Orange?, reportedly so named because of a local orange grove
owned by a man named George Patillo.
HISTORY OF ORANGE TEXAS
http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasGulfCoastTowns/OrangeTexas.htm
The reason for the naming of Orange County, Vermont is disputed. While
it is said that the county was named for William of Orange, later
William III of England, this would have been unlikely given the
temperament toward England at the time. According to Vermont
historians, a more likely scenario is that the county was named for
the town of Orange in either Connecticut or Massachusetts.
VIRTUAL VERMONT
http://www.virtualvermont.com/index.php?loc=http://www.virtualvermont.com/towns/orange.html
Source: ?Vermont Place-Names: Footprints of History?, by Esther Munroe Swift
Orange County, Virginia, on the other hand, was created in 1734 and
named in honor of William IV, Prince of Orange and husband of Anne,
Princess Royal of England.
ORANGE COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
A Brief History of Orange County Virginia
http://www.orangevachamber.com/history.html
So there you have it. Only rarely was the name ?Orange County? derived
from the fruit, but most commonly in honor of some PERSON or some
PLACE.
Whew! How?s that as an explanation of what gives?
In an effort to predict your next question I will take the liberty of
telling you that the most common US county name appears to be
?Washington County? - a name that graces the counties in 31 states.
Why are these so named? Well, we?ll discuss ?that? issue another time.
I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
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