Squatters in Orange County in the 17th and 18th Centuries In the 1740s there were two very hot properties in what would, in the 1750s, become Orange County, North Carolina. Those were the Haw Fields and the Forks of the Eno. They were attractive for different reasons; the Haw Fields for fecundity, and the Forks for transportation accessibility........probably. We'll deal with the Haw old fields another time. This note is about the forks of the Eno. We are only beginning to get a vague image of European settlement in what would become Orange County, NC. Until recently "settlement" was presumed to have begun with deed recording in Orange's parent counties; normally thought of as Johnston, Bladen, and Granville Counties. We know, though, that folks were making "tomahawk" claims on land in Carolina long before law came to town. We just don't know how many folks were in the area or where they were. They were, though, in the area, pr...
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