From its beginning Orange County was the home of farmers. It has been said that in 18th century Orange county more than 75% of the land owners owned between 100 and 500 acres. This was at a time that large land grants were common, but only 5% of the land owners had 1,000 acres or more. The three largest landowners in 1800 were William CAIN who had 4,417 acres, Richard BENNEHAN with 4,065 acres, and William STRUDWICK with 4,000. By 1860 77% of the land owners had 100 acres or less with only about 1% having 1,000 acres or more. ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange USGenWeb Orange Co, NC Archives site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nc/orangnc.htm