Orange County is home to Montpelier, the 2,700 acre estate of James Madison, the 4th President of the United States and oft-hailed "Father of the Constitution." The county celebrated its 275th anniversary in 2009.
The area was inhabited for thousands of years by various cultures of indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter, the Ontponea, a sub-group of the Siouan-speaking Manahoac tribe, lived in this Piedmont area.
The first European settlement in what was to become Orange County was Germanna, formed when Governor Alexander Spotswood settled 12 immigrant families from Westphalia, Germany there in 1714; a total of 42 people. Orange County, as a legal entity, was created in August 1734 when the Virginia House of Burgesses adopted “An Act for Dividing Spotsylvania County.” Unlike other counties whose boundaries had ended at the Blue Ridge Mountains, Orange was bounded on the west “by the utmost limits of Virginia” which, at that time, stretched to the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. The colony of Virginia claimed the land, but very little of it had yet been occupied by any English. For this reason, some contend that Orange County was at one time the largest county that ever existed. This situation lasted only four years; in 1738 most of the western tract was split off into Augusta County. The expansiveness of the county boundaries was to encourage settlement further westward as well as to contend against the French claim to the Ohio Valley region.
While no battles of the American Revolution were fought in Orange County, 2 companies of 50 men each from the county were recruited to the Culpeper Minutemen, which fought in the Battle of Great Bridge, among other engagements.
The development of transportation infrastructure, including several railroad routes, up through the mid-nineteenth century helped foster a diversified agricultural economy in Orange County. The final adjustment of the county’s boundaries occurred in 1838, when Greene County was created from the western portion of Orange. The Town of Orange was legally established in 1834 (officially becoming a town in 1872) and had already served as the county seat for nearly a century; the Town of Gordonsville officially became a town in 1870.
The county saw limited conflict during the Civil War, with most activity being centered around the towns of Orange and Gordonsville. The exceptions were the Battle of Mine Run and the Battle of the Wilderness in the eastern portion of the county, the latter of which served as a significant turning point in the war. Following Virginia’s readmission to the Union in 1870, and with the loss of slave labor, the agricultural economy resumed with more emphasis on livestock and dairy farming due to these activities requiring less physical labor. The dominance of the railroad and the relative ease it offered in delivering goods to larger markets increased the relevance and value of livestock production in the county’s agricultural economy. Agriculture and manufacturing continued to expand into the twentieth century, with a peak of 1279 farms and 20 manufacturing companies located within the county as of 1929. A manufacturing survey produced during the Great Depression noted that Orange County’s economy remained relatively healthy due to its accessibility.
The significance of agriculture to Orange County’s history was great enough that the Commonwealth of Virginia, by way of the Virginia Landmarks Register, designated approximately 31,200 acres in the western portion of the county as the Madison-Barbour Rural Historic District. The District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and is the largest such district in Virginia. It includes James Madison’s Montpelier, James Barbour’s Thomas Jefferson-designed Barboursville mansion (now in ruins), several plantations, portions of the Monticello Viticultural Area, as well as numerous other sites listed on the National Register.
Orange County’s population fluctuated up and down following the Civil War up through the 1930s. From that point forward, the population continued to grow steadily, representing an almost 300% increase through the 2010 Census.