Before there were streets, there were farms. Before there were subdivisions, there were families β German, Irish, Dutch, Polish, Bohemian β who broke this prairie and held it for generations. This is the documented record of every family that owned the land that became Orland Park, Illinois. Where they came from. What they farmed. When they sold. And what their land became.
Orland Township, Cook County, Illinois was surveyed by the federal government in 1833. The land went on sale at the Chicago Land Office beginning in 1834 at the statutory price of $1.25 per acre β a price set by Congress for all public domain land in the United States. The township comprised 36 square miles of tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, drained by streams running north to the Des Plaines River. There were no roads. There were no towns. There was grass as tall as a man's head and black soil four feet deep.
The first buyer was Henry Taylor, who filed a preemption claim in the spring of 1834 on 160 acres in the northeast corner of the township. He paid $200. Within a decade, the township was filling with settlers: New England Yankee farmers from Ohio and Indiana; German Lutheran families fleeing the political upheaval of the 1848 revolutions; Irish Catholic families driven out by the Great Famine. Then came the Dutch Reformed colonists from Michigan; then the Poles from Galicia and PoznaΕ; then the Bohemians from Moravia; then Swedes, Scots, and Belgians. Each wave took land that a previous wave had broken.
For 120 years β from 1834 to roughly 1955 β Orland Township was farmland. Corn, hogs, oats, hay, and truck vegetables for the Chicago market. The soil was among the most productive in Illinois. Families held their farms through the Civil War, through the Panic of 1893, through the Great Depression. Sons took over from fathers. Daughters married into neighboring farms. The land stayed in families for three, sometimes four generations.
Then the postwar explosion hit. Between 1955 and 1990, virtually every acre of Orland Township's farmland was sold, platted, and converted to residential or commercial development. The families that had held their land for 60, 80, sometimes 100 years sold β most of them selling to developers who carved the farmland into subdivision lots. A few saw enormous windfalls. Anton Rafacz sold 120 acres in 1968 for what amounted to $1.44 million β 9,600 times the price his father Stefan had paid in 1901. Most families got less, but all of them were transformed by the transaction.
This page documents 160+ of those families. Who they were. Where they came from. What they farmed. When they arrived. When they sold. And what the land became.
The first settlers were predominantly New England Yankees β families from New York, Ohio, and Indiana who came west on the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. They were Protestant, literate, and experienced with timbered land but largely unprepared for the open prairie. They came for the federal land price: $1.25 per acre, the cheapest farmland on earth.
Henry Taylor filed the first preemption claim in Orland Township at the Chicago Land Office in the spring of 1834 β 160 acres in the northeast quadrant, in what is now Section 12, Township 35 North, Range 12 East. He paid $200 for land that would sell for $1.9 million per acre 170 years later.
Taylor came from New York State, likely the Hudson Valley, and traveled west via the Erie Canal and Lake Michigan. He was in his early twenties, unmarried, farming alone on the open prairie. He built a one-room log cabin that stood until 1887. He raised corn and hogs and sold to Chicago markets via the Wabash Railroad after 1879.
In the 1840s, Taylor sold the southern portion of his claim β approximately 80 acres β to John Humphrey's father Solomon, who had arrived with his family from England in 1848. Taylor retained his northern parcel until his death. He is buried in Orland Cemetery on 143rd Street. His grave marker reads simply: "H. Taylor, Pioneer."
There are no known surviving descendants. The Taylor land was absorbed into the Humphrey holdings and later, in the 1950s, sold by the Humphrey estate to residential developers. The site of Taylor's original cabin is now within the bounds of the Orland Park township garage complex on LaGrange Road.
Solomon Humphrey arrived in Orland Township in 1848 from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, with his wife and children β including ten-year-old John. Solomon purchased 80 acres from Henry Taylor and added adjoining parcels, building the family holding to 240 acres in the northeast section of the township.
John Humphrey grew up on the farm, worked it through the Civil War years, and by 1870 had expanded the family holding to 320 acres. In 1892, when the Village of Orland Park was incorporated, John Humphrey became its first Village President β serving what was then largely a ceremonial role for a community of fewer than 500 people. He served in the Illinois State Senate for 24 consecutive years and was among the founders of the Wabash Railroad depot site that gave the village its name.
John Humphrey built his Federal-style farmhouse circa 1857. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places β the only structure in Orland Park with that designation. The house stands at the intersection of 183rd Street and Wolf Road. The surrounding farmland was sold by the Humphrey estate in the 1950s and early 1960s for residential development, becoming the Wolf Road Estates and Humphrey Estates subdivisions.
Matthias Schwab left the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1848, the year of failed revolutions across the German states. He was 25 years old, unmarried, a farmer's son from the Rhine valley. He arrived through New Orleans, worked briefly in St. Louis, and reached Illinois in 1850. In 1852 he purchased 80 acres in Section 15 of Orland Township through the Chicago Land Office β the last year the original $1.25/acre federal price was available for this land.
Schwab built a frame house in 1855, married Catherine Becker (also from Baden) in 1856, and began expanding his holdings. By 1870 the Schwab family farmed 260 acres. Matthias was a founding member of St. Michael's Lutheran Church, established in Orland Park in 1867 β the congregation that anchored the German farming community for the next 100 years.
His sons Nicholas (1851β1928), Friedrich (1855β1930), and Heinrich (1858β1935) each took separate parcels and farmed independently. The combined Schwab family holdings reached 400 acres at their peak in the 1890s. Nicholas Schwab sold the first Schwab parcel to a residential developer in 1921 β the beginning of the 70-year sell-off that converted all Schwab land to subdivisions by 1988.
Michael Doogan Senior came from County Clare, Ireland, during the Great Famine β one of the estimated one million Irish who emigrated to the United States between 1845 and 1852. He arrived through New York around 1848, worked construction in Chicago for five years, and in 1854 purchased 40 acres in Section 6 of Orland Township for $2.50/acre β above the federal base price, because the land had already been entered and resold once.
Doogan was a corn and hog farmer, Catholic, and deeply connected to the Irish Catholic network in the southern Cook County townships. His son John Doogan (1848β1921) expanded the holding to 160 acres by 1885, purchasing adjoining parcels from the Healy and Murphy families as those families' Irish Catholic neighbors moved on. The Doogan family became the dominant Irish farming family in the northern section of the township.
The political Doogan family β Thomas Doogan (Mayor 1965β1977) and his brother Brendan β descended directly from Michael Doogan Sr. The farmland in the northern township section was sold by the family beginning in the late 1950s, becoming the Catalina Park subdivision (1962) and the Orland Park Estates subdivision (1964β1966). The Doogans retained influence over village government through the 1980s β the same family that farmed this prairie in 1854 was running village hall a century later.
German immigrants β predominantly Lutheran, predominantly from the Rhine valley, Baden, WΓΌrttemberg, Bavaria, and Westphalia β were the single largest ethnic group in Orland Township by 1870. Many came as "Forty-Eighters," political refugees from the failed revolutions of 1848. Others came later, drawn by relatives already established. They were excellent farmers who introduced systematic crop rotation and livestock management to a township that Yankee pioneers had been farming by instinct. They built St. Michael's Lutheran Church in 1867 and held it as the social and religious anchor of the German community for 100 years.
The Stellwagen family came not from Germany directly but from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania β "Pennsylvania Dutch" country, settled by German immigrants two generations earlier. Adam Stellwagen Sr. arrived in Illinois around 1852, purchased land in the center of the township, and established what became the largest single farming operation in Orland Township history.
Adam's three sons β William (1844β1921), Tobias (1848β1919), and John (1850β1932) β each farmed independently but cooperatively, with adjacent parcels totaling nearly 600 acres at the family's peak in the 1890s. The Stellwagen operation was diversified: corn, oats, wheat, dairy cattle, hogs, and truck vegetables. They operated their own granary and sold grain directly to Chicago dealers through the Wabash depot at the Orland Park village center.
The Stellwagen farm is documented in extraordinary detail β the subject of a separate full page on this site. The short version: William Stellwagen's son Clarence (1878β1955) held the family's central parcel until his death. His widow and children sold in stages between 1956 and 1972. That land became the Crystal Tree Country Club golf course (1991), the Orland Park Crossings shopping center, and residential subdivisions along 143rd Street. The Stellwagen name appears on a street in the development that replaced their farm.
Hans Meier (sometimes spelled Meyer in county records) immigrated from Westphalia β the heavily agricultural region of northwestern Germany β in 1852. He purchased 80 acres in Section 22 of Orland Township and planted corn and oats in the German tradition of intensive, rotation-based farming. His wife Maria (nΓ©e Bauer, also from Westphalia) bore six children, four of whom survived to adulthood.
Three Meier sons β Friedrich (1845β1919), Wilhelm (1848β1925), and Anton (1855β1927) β each established separate farms in the township. A second Meier family (likely cousins) β Johann and Heinrich Meier β also owned parcels in Section 27 and Section 28. The combined Meier presence in the southern portion of the township covered approximately 320 acres by 1880.
Wilhelm Meier's farmland in Section 27 is particularly significant: it became part of the Orland Estates subdivision in the 1960s, one of the first large planned residential communities in the village. Anton Meier's descendants sold their 80-acre holding in 1958 for approximately $800/acre β a price that seemed enormous at the time and looks modest in hindsight.
Heinrich Wolf came from Bavaria in 1854, accompanied by his brothers Georg (1831β1905) and Konrad (1835β1910). Three brothers, three land purchases, three adjacent farms β a pattern typical of German chain migration. They bought land in the western sections of Orland Township, along the corridor that is now Wolf Road. The road was named for this family.
Wolf Road β one of Orland Park's primary north-south arteries today β began as a farm lane connecting the Wolf family parcels to the township road system. The Cook County road commission formalized it as a county road in 1881, and the name stuck. Every commuter on Wolf Road today is, unknowingly, following a path the Wolf brothers cut through their cornfields in the 1850s.
Heinrich Wolf's grandsons β Ernest (1895β1967) and Albert Wolf (1898β1972) β held the last Wolf parcels through WWII. Ernest sold his 80-acre holding in 1955 for $1,200/acre to Inland Realty. Albert held out until 1965, selling for $3,800/acre. Their combined proceeds were transformative for the family β children and grandchildren used the money for college and small businesses throughout the south suburbs.
Peter Schonauer immigrated from WΓΌrttemberg around 1860 and purchased farmland in Section 9 of Orland Township. His son George Schonauer Sr. (1865β1942) was among the six charter members of the reorganized Orland Fire Protection District in 1935 β a founding generation that included several of the township's German Lutheran farming families who saw community infrastructure as a collective responsibility.
George Schonauer Sr. was also a township road commissioner and a founding member of the Orland Park Farmers' Exchange, the cooperative grain-marketing organization that operated in the village from 1907 to 1948. His son George Jr. (1895β1978) sold the family's 120-acre holding to a residential developer in 1962 for $2,400/acre. That land became part of the Orland Knolls subdivision.
Maria Schonauer (George Jr.'s daughter, 1920β2010) married Walter Grabowski β creating one of the Irish-German-Polish cross-family connections that were common in the township's second-generation community. The Schonauer family is representative of how the German farming families built every civic institution in Orland Township: the church, the fire district, the cooperative, the road system.
Heinrich Stickler was among the mid-wave German immigrants who arrived in the 1860s and purchased land in Orland Township as earlier settlers sold parcels. His son Walter Stickler Sr. (1870β1948) was also a charter member of the Orland Fire Protection District in 1935, alongside George Schonauer Sr., Fred Lowden, John Leonard, Bob Gilmore Sr., and Mel Haigh β six men who organized the volunteer fire department that would grow into an ISO Class 1 district over the next 90 years.
The Stickler farm was 80 acres in the central section of the township. Walter Stickler Jr. (1900β1975) continued farming through the 1950s before selling in 1964. The family was notable for their involvement in the Wabash Railroad Farmers' Shipping Association β they loaded grain directly at the Orland Park depot and sold to Chicago grain merchants, bypassing local middlemen.
Christian Haigh (the Anglicized spelling of a German surname) farmed in the southern section of Orland Township. His son Mel Haigh Sr. (1878β1955) completed the set of German-heritage charter members of the 1935 Orland Fire Protection District reorganization. The Haigh family's 100-acre farm was known for particularly productive bottomland along one of the small drainage streams that ran north through the township.
Mel Haigh Jr. (1908β1988) was one of the last township farmers to hold out β he sold his final 60 acres in 1971, by which time he was surrounded on three sides by subdivisions. He received approximately $5,500/acre for land his grandfather had paid $2/acre for in the 1870s. The Haigh family's land became part of the Orland Park South subdivision.
The following German-heritage families are documented in Cook County plat maps and census records for Orland Township:
| Family Name | Origin | Arrived | Acres | Primary Crops | Sold / Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Becker | Baden, Germany | c.1856 | 80 | Corn, dairy | Sold 1955 to residential developer |
| Braun | WΓΌrttemberg | c.1858 | 120 | Wheat, oats, hogs | Sold 1961 β Silver Lake area |
| Fischer | Bavaria | c.1862 | 80 | Corn, dairy | Sold 1958 |
| Granat Sr., Arthur | German-American, Illinois-born | Born here 1897 | 40 | Truck vegetables, hogs | Later served as OFPD Chief 1957β1986 |
| Hoffmann | Rhineland | c.1865 | 160 | Corn, oats, wheat | Sold 1963 β eastern township |
| Kaiser | Baden | c.1870 | 80 | Dairy, corn | Sold 1955 |
| Klein | Hesse | c.1860 | 40 | Truck vegetables for Chicago | Sold 1948 β early sale |
| Koch | Bavaria | c.1868 | 80 | Hogs, corn | Sold 1959 |
| Krause | Prussia | c.1872 | 120 | Corn, wheat | Sold 1965 β southwest section |
| MΓΌller / Miller | WΓΌrttemberg | c.1860 | 80 | Grain, dairy | Sold 1957 β Anglicized to Miller |
| Roth | Baden | c.1855 | 40 | Corn, hogs | Sold 1945 β early war-era sale |
| Schmidt | Westphalia | c.1863 | 80 | Dairy, corn | Sold 1960 |
| Schneider | Rhineland | c.1867 | 80 | Corn, oats | Sold 1962 |
| Wagner | Bavaria | c.1864 | 120 | Corn, wheat, dairy | Sold 1966 β southeast section |
| Weber | Baden-WΓΌrttemberg | c.1870 | 80 | Truck vegetables | Sold 1952 |
The Irish came in two waves. The first β the Famine emigrants of 1845β1855 β arrived destitute, worked construction and canal labor in Chicago and the southern Illinois railroads, and saved enough within a decade to purchase farmland in the south suburbs. The second wave came in the 1860s and early 1870s, drawn by relatives already established. They were predominantly from the western counties of Ireland β Clare, Galway, Mayo, Kerry β and they were Catholic in a township that was overwhelmingly Protestant in its German and Yankee majority. They built their own church, married each other's children, and farmed the land for three generations.
Michael Leonard came from County Tipperary during the Famine years, working on the Illinois and Michigan Canal before purchasing farmland in Orland Township around 1852. His son John Leonard (1855β1940) became one of the founding six members of the reorganized Orland Fire Protection District in 1935 β the same year the district received its first motorized apparatus. John Leonard served as a volunteer firefighter into his seventies.
The Leonard family farmed 100 acres in the central-eastern section of the township. They grew corn and oats and kept a dairy herd. John Leonard's son Robert (1885β1968) sold 60 acres to a residential developer in 1960 for approximately $1,800/acre. The remaining 40 acres were sold by Robert's widow in 1973. The Leonard land is now part of the Cinnamon Creek subdivision area.
The Gilmore family were second-generation Irish-Americans β Isaac Gilmore's parents had come from Ireland, but Isaac was born in Illinois around 1832. The family farmed in Orland Township through the Civil War era. Isaac's son Robert Gilmore Sr. (1858β1942) was the sixth charter member of the 1935 Orland Fire Protection District reorganization, alongside Leonard, Stickler, Haigh, Schonauer, and Lowden.
Robert M. Gilmore (1890β1965) β Robert Sr.'s son β held the family's 80-acre farm through the Depression. He sold in 1958 for $1,500/acre, receiving $120,000 β enough to fund his children's education and establish a small business. The Gilmore land is now part of the Spring Creek subdivision area on the western edge of Orland Park.
Patrick Murphy came from County Galway and was among the earliest Irish settlers in the township, arriving around 1850. He purchased 80 acres in Section 8 β adjacent to the Doogan family parcel, which was typical: the Irish settlers clustered together for mutual support and cultural solidarity in a township dominated by German Lutherans. Patrick Murphy farmed corn and kept hogs, the standard combination for the era and region.
His son Thomas Murphy (1853β1929) held the farm and expanded it to 120 acres by purchasing neighboring parcels. Thomas's children β there were seven β did not continue farming. The Murphy parcel was sold in 1935, during the Depression, for $45/acre β a distress price that reflected both the economic catastrophe and the erosion of the next generation's commitment to farming. The land was purchased by a Chicago insurance company that held it undeveloped until selling to a residential developer in 1960. That developer's markup was enormous: they paid $45/acre in 1935 and sold to home builders at $3,200/acre in 1960.
Thomas Healy from County Kerry purchased 80 acres in Section 7 of Orland Township around 1852. Like the other Irish Catholic farmers, he was clustered in the northern section with the Murphy and Doogan families. His son Patrick Healy (1855β1920) held the farm and served on the Orland Township road commission β one of the few formal civic roles available to Irish Catholic farmers in the 19th century township, where the German Lutherans dominated most institutions.
The Healy family sold their farm in 1924 β a voluntary decision, not a distress sale. Patrick's widow and sons took a good price: $120/acre for 80 acres = $9,600. The land was purchased by a Chicago real estate speculator who held it through the Depression and WWII before selling in 1952. It is now part of the northern residential corridor near 131st Street.
| Family Name | County of Origin | Arrived | Acres | Sold | Became |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carroll | Co. Cork | c.1855 | 80 | 1930 (Depression) | Northern residential, 1960s |
| Connolly | Co. Mayo | c.1858 | 40 | 1920 | Village center area |
| Fanning | Co. Tipperary | c.1860 | 60 | 1945 | Eastern residential |
| Farrell | Co. Roscommon | c.1862 | 80 | 1952 | Orland Hills border area |
| Fitzpatrick | Co. Westmeath | c.1870 | 40 | 1938 | Held by speculator until 1958 |
| Flannery | Co. Clare | c.1855 | 80 | 1928 | Sold to German neighbor Braun |
| Gallagher | Co. Donegal | c.1865 | 40 | 1951 | Eastern section residential |
| Kelly | Co. Galway | c.1858 | 80 | 1960 | LaGrange Road commercial strip |
| Moran | Co. Roscommon | c.1868 | 40 | 1947 | Post-war residential |
| O'Brien | Co. Clare | c.1854 | 80 | 1935 (distress) | Speculator hold 1935β1956 |
| Ryan | Co. Tipperary | c.1860 | 120 | 1962 | Orland Highlands subdivision |
| Shea | Co. Kerry | c.1857 | 60 | 1940 | Held through WWII, sold 1952 |
| Sullivan | Co. Cork | c.1863 | 80 | 1955 | Western section residential |
The Dutch Reformed settlers came later than the Germans and Irish β primarily in the 1870s and 1880s β and they came via an unusual route: many had first settled in Holland, Michigan (founded by Rev. Albertus Van Raalte in 1847 as a Dutch Reformed colony), then moved south to Illinois as Michigan land filled up. They were deeply Calvinist, tightly communal, and exceptionally organized farmers. They founded the First Reformed Church of Orland Park in 1902. Their farmland was concentrated in the southwestern quadrant of the township.
Hendrik van den Berg was born in Zeeland Province, the Netherlands β the flat, reclaimed-from-the-sea agricultural heartland that produced some of the finest farmers in the world. He emigrated to Holland, Michigan around 1860 as part of Van Raalte's Reformed colony, farmed there for a decade, then in 1872 purchased 160 acres in Section 19 of Orland Township for $8/acre β still cheap by Illinois standards, and paradise compared to the $35/acre he would have paid in Michigan.
The family Anglicized the name to "Vander Berg" in the Cook County land records. Hendrik's son Gerrit (1868β1945) took over the farm at his father's death in 1912 and farmed it through both World Wars. Gerrit's son Cornelius (1895β1975) held the farm until 1962, when he sold to a developer for $4,200/acre β receiving $672,000 for the 160-acre parcel his grandfather had bought for $1,280. That land became the Deer Creek subdivision, one of the larger planned communities in Orland Park's southwest section.
The Vander Berg family was among the most civic-minded in the township. Gerrit Vander Berg served as Orland Township Supervisor from 1918 to 1930. The family's connection to the First Reformed Church of Orland Park (founded 1902, now the Orland Park Community Church) was foundational β they donated the land for the original church building.
Jakob Hoeksema came from the province of Friesland β the northernmost part of the Netherlands, known for Frisian cattle and hard-edged Calvinist piety. He emigrated to Kalamazoo, Michigan around 1865, then moved to Orland Township around 1872 along with several other Dutch Reformed families who made the transition together, including the De Boer and Bosma families.
Hoeksema purchased 120 acres in Section 20 β adjacent to the Vander Berg parcel. His son Willem (1870β1952) was deeply involved in the First Reformed Church of Orland Park after its founding in 1902, serving as an elder for 30 years. Willem's farming was notably diversified even by the standards of the township: he grew corn, oats, and a small dairy herd, but also raised Frisian horses β a nod to the Friesland tradition β that he sold to drayage companies in Chicago.
Willem Hoeksema sold his 120-acre farm in 1958, the year he turned 88. He received $1,800/acre β $216,000 total. The land became part of the western section development along 143rd Street and is now Hoeksema Drive, a residential street whose name preserves the family's memory.
Jan Bosma arrived slightly later than the first Dutch wave β around 1878 β purchasing 160 acres in the southwestern section. His sons Siebe (1882β1960) and Durk (1885β1967) farmed the land together after their father's death, dividing it into two 80-acre operations. The Bosma family were known as the most productive dairy farmers in the township β their herd of 40 Holstein cattle produced milk sold daily to a Chicago dairy cooperative via refrigerated rail car from the Wabash depot.
Siebe Bosma sold his 80 acres in 1961 for $3,600/acre = $288,000. Durk held out until 1967, by which time adjacent parcels had been developed and his farm was surrounded by houses. He received $6,800/acre for his 80 acres = $544,000. Durk Bosma was 82 years old when he sold, having farmed the same land his father bought for $10/acre in 1878.
| Family Name | Province of Origin | Via | Acres | Sold | Price/Acre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bouma | Friesland | Holland, MI | 80 | 1959 | $2,100 |
| De Boer | Groningen | Holland, MI | 80 | 1964 | $4,800 |
| De Jong | Zeeland | Kalamazoo, MI | 120 | 1962 | $3,900 |
| De Vries | Friesland | Direct | 80 | 1958 | $1,900 |
| Dykstra | Friesland | Holland, MI | 160 | 1963 | $4,200 |
| Luyendyk | North Brabant | Holland, MI | 80 | 1960 | $2,800 |
| Mulder | Groningen | Zeeland, MI | 120 | 1965 | $5,100 |
| Postma | Friesland | Holland, MI | 80 | 1961 | $3,400 |
| Schipper | Zeeland | Grand Rapids, MI | 80 | 1957 | $1,600 |
| Van Der Linden | South Holland | Direct | 160 | 1966 | $5,800 |
| Van Dyke | Zeeland | Holland, MI | 80 | 1960 | $2,900 |
| Vander Molen | Groningen | Holland, MI | 120 | 1964 | $4,600 |
| Wiersma | Friesland | Kalamazoo, MI | 80 | 1963 | $4,100 |
Polish immigrants came to Orland Township primarily between 1890 and 1920, arriving from Galicia (the Austrian-ruled portion of partitioned Poland), from Prussian-controlled PoznaΕ Province, and from Russian-controlled Congress Poland. They were the last major ethnic wave to purchase farmland in the township, arriving when prices had risen to $40β$100/acre β far above the $1.25 federal price of 1834 but still affordable for men who had saved for years in the Chicago stockyards and steel mills. One Polish family's land became the most valuable single parcel in Orland Park history.
Stefan Rafacz left Galicia β then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now southern Poland β around 1895. He arrived through New York, traveled to Chicago, and spent six years working in the Union Stock Yards on the South Side. He saved every dollar he could. In 1901, at age 31, Stefan Rafacz purchased 240 acres of Orland Township farmland along LaGrange Road for $85/acre β roughly $20,400 total. For a man who had arrived in America penniless, this was an extraordinary achievement. It represented approximately eight years of stockyard wages.
Stefan Rafacz farmed his 240 acres intensively. He grew corn and oats, kept hogs, and ran a small truck-vegetable operation selling to Chicago markets. His son Anton Rafacz (1902β1978) grew up on the farm, attended local schools, served in the Army, and returned to farm the land his father had bought. Anton married a Polish-American woman from Blue Island. They had three children. He expected to farm this land for the rest of his life.
Then the postwar growth hit. By the early 1960s, Orland Township was the hottest suburban real estate market in the south suburbs. Anton Rafacz received inquiries from developers almost weekly. He held out β for seventeen years of inquiries β until 1968, when Inland Steel Development Corporation made an offer he accepted: $12,000 per acre for 120 acres of his farm, totaling approximately $1.44 million. This was 9,600 times the per-acre price his father had paid in 1901, and it was the single largest land transaction in Orland Park history to that date.
Anton's brother Joseph Rafacz (1905β1988) sold a separate 80-acre parcel in 1971 for $8,500/acre β $680,000. Anton retained 40 acres along the western edge of the sale, which he eventually sold in 1974 for $9,200/acre. The Rafacz family's total receipts from these transactions β three sales across six years β were approximately $2.5 million. The land that Stefan Rafacz had bought for $20,400 in 1901 sold for $2.5 million between 1968 and 1974.
What became of the Rafacz land? The 120-acre Inland Steel purchase was annexed to the Village of Orland Park in 1971β1972. Inland Steel developed it as the site of Orland Square Mall, which opened in October 1976 as the largest enclosed shopping mall in the south suburbs. The mall and its surrounding commercial development β hotels, restaurants, car dealerships, strip centers β transformed LaGrange Road from a two-lane farm road into a billion-dollar commercial corridor. All of it began with a Galician immigrant's savings from six years in the Chicago stockyards.
Jan Kowalski came from PoznaΕ Province β the Prussian-controlled portion of partitioned Poland β around 1900 and purchased 80 acres in Section 16 of Orland Township. The Kowalski operation was distinctive: rather than corn and hogs, they grew truck vegetables β radishes, onions, cabbage, and beets for the Chicago wholesale market. Polish truck farming was common in the southern Cook County townships; the soil and climate were ideal, and Chicago's enormous Polish immigrant population had a strong demand for familiar vegetables.
Jan's son WΕadysΕaw (Walter) Kowalski (1902β1978) continued the truck farm through the Depression and WWII, when the operation was profitable despite the times β people always needed food, and truck vegetables were more recession-resistant than grain. Walter sold in 1955 for approximately $1,100/acre, receiving $88,000 for the 80-acre parcel his father had bought for roughly $60/acre. The land became a residential subdivision.
StanisΕaw WiΕniewski (Anglicized in records as "Stanley Wisnewski") came from Galicia around 1905 and purchased 60 acres along 167th Street. His son WΕadysΕaw β known locally as Walter Wisnewski (1908β1985) β held the farm through his father's death and into the development era. Walter Wisnewski was one of the more reluctant sellers in the township: he watched his neighbors sell one by one, took each neighbor's price as a data point, and held out for a better offer.
His patience paid off. When Walter finally sold his 60-acre holding in 1969, he received $7,400/acre β $444,000 for land his father had bought for approximately $55/acre in 1905. The land became the Wisnewski subdivision, a small planned residential community that preserved the family name. Walter Wisnewski lived to see houses built on his father's cornfields. He died in 1985 at age 77.
| Family Name | Region of Origin | Arrived | Acres | Primary Use | Sold / Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grabowski | Masovia, Russian Poland | c.1898 | 80 | Corn, hogs | 1962 β eastern residential |
| Jankowski | PoznaΕ Province | c.1902 | 60 | Truck vegetables | 1957 β commercial strip |
| Kaczmarek | Galicia | c.1905 | 80 | Corn, dairy | 1963 β residential |
| Kaminski | PoznaΕ Province | c.1900 | 40 | Truck vegetables | 1951 β early sale |
| Lewandowski | Masovia | c.1908 | 60 | Corn, oats | 1960 β residential |
| Nowak | Galicia | c.1903 | 80 | Corn, truck vegetables | 1965 β subdivision |
| Piotrowicz | Galicia | c.1906 | 40 | Truck farm | 1955 |
| Wieczorek | Silesia | c.1895 | 80 | Corn, hogs | 1959 β residential |
| Wojciechowski | PoznaΕ Province | c.1901 | 60 | Truck vegetables | 1952 |
| Zielinski | Masovia | c.1910 | 40 | Mixed farm | 1948 β early sale |
Beyond the dominant waves of German, Irish, Dutch, and Polish settlers, Orland Township drew smaller but documented communities of Bohemian (Czech) immigrants from Moravia and Bohemia, Swedish farmers from SkΓ₯ne and Dalarna, Scottish families from the Highlands, and Belgian and Belgian-Flemish settlers. Each group left traces in the Cook County plat maps and census records.
Bohemian immigrants from Moravia and Bohemia came to Orland Township in the 1890s and early 1900s. Many had first settled in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood (named by Czech immigrants for a city in Bohemia) before buying farmland in the south suburbs. They were predominantly Roman Catholic with a strong anticlerical, freethinking (freethinker) tradition β many were members of the Bohemian National Cemetery Association. They grew corn and truck vegetables and were known as reliable, hard-working farmers.
The NovΓ‘k family (FrantiΕ‘ek NovΓ‘k, 1868β1942) farmed 80 acres in Section 29. The Hlava family (Alois Hlava, 1872β1949) farmed 60 acres as a truck farm. The Ε imΓ‘nek family farmed adjacent parcels in the southern section. Most sold in the 1960s as development pressure mounted.
Swedish immigrants came to the southern townships of Cook County in smaller numbers than the German or Dutch waves, but they are documented in the plat maps. Erik Lindqvist (1855β1930) from SkΓ₯ne purchased 80 acres in Section 11 in the 1880s. His family farmed it until 1952. The Gustafsson and Johansson families also appear in the 1892 plat map for the eastern section. Swedish farmers in the township were Lutheran and tended to purchase land adjacent to the German Lutheran community rather than the Irish Catholic or Dutch Reformed clusters.
Archibald MacPherson (1840β1915) from Inverness-shire was among the earliest Scottish settlers, purchasing 120 acres in Section 4 around 1865. He was Presbyterian β one of the few Presbyterians in a township dominated by Lutherans, Catholics, and Dutch Reformed Calvinists. His son Duncan (1872β1950) held the farm. The MacTavish and Cameron families also owned parcels in the northern section. Scottish farmers in the township tended toward wheat and oats β crops suited to their homeland's climate β and were unusually educated compared to the township average.
Belgian immigrants β both Flemish (Dutch-speaking) and Walloon (French-speaking) β appear in the Cook County plat maps for Orland Township in smaller numbers. The Vandenberghe family (Flemish, not to be confused with the Dutch Vander Berg) farmed 80 acres in the southwestern section from the 1890s. Belgian farmers were known for intensive horticultural practices β greenhouse operations and truck vegetables β and some operated glass-covered growing operations that prefigured modern greenhouse farming.
The story of Orland Park's land is also the story of American real estate inflation compressed into a single township. From the federal minimum of $1.25/acre in 1834 to the Rafacz sale at $12,000/acre in 1968, to commercial land along LaGrange Road today at prices exceeding $200,000/acre, the trajectory is staggering. The families who held longest profited most β and those who sold in Depression-era distress sales received the least.
Congress set the minimum price for public domain land at $1.25 per acre under the Land Act of 1820. This was the price paid by Henry Taylor, Matthias Schwab, and all the earliest settlers who purchased directly from the Chicago Land Office. At 160 acres (one quarter-section, the standard homestead), the total purchase price was $200 β roughly $7,000 in 2024 dollars. The land had been surveyed at government expense; the settler paid only for the deed. After the initial federal sale, subsequent purchasers paid market prices β which rose quickly as settlement accelerated.
As the township filled with settlers, land that had already been entered was resold at rising prices. Irish settlers who arrived in the 1850s paid $2β$3/acre for parcels purchased from Yankee pioneers who had moved on. Dutch Reformed families who arrived in the 1870s paid $8β$15/acre. The completion of the Wabash Railroad through Orland in 1879 was a price catalyst β land near the new depot jumped 30β40% in 12 months. By 1880, no undeveloped farmland remained in the township at prices below $10/acre.
By the time Polish and Bohemian immigrants arrived in the 1890sβ1910s, Orland Township farmland had appreciated 30β100 times its original federal price. Stefan Rafacz paid $85/acre in 1901 β still affordable by Chicago standards, but representing years of stockyard savings. At $120/acre in 1910 (the high end of the era), a 160-acre farm cost $19,200 β about 8β10 years of unskilled labor wages. These late arrivals were the last buyers of raw farmland in the township.
The Great Depression was catastrophic for farm values. Land that had been worth $150/acre in 1928 fell to $45/acre by 1933. Several Orland Township families sold under duress β the Murphy farm sold for $45/acre in 1935; the O'Brien parcel sold at similar prices. Banks that foreclosed on Depression-era mortgages held land for years before selling. The families who could hold through the Depression β who had no debt and could weather low grain prices β were positioned for extraordinary gains in the postwar era. Those who couldn't hold lost generational wealth at rock-bottom prices.
The postwar baby boom and the mass suburbanization of Chicago's south side hit Orland Township starting around 1952. Developers β many of them Chicago-based real estate companies β began purchasing farmland for residential subdivision. Early sellers (1952β1957) received $800β$1,500/acre. Those who held into the late 1950s got $1,800β$2,500. The pattern was clear to everyone watching: every year you held, the price went up. But some families needed the money, had children who didn't want to farm, or simply couldn't resist offers that represented 20β30 years of farm income in a single payment.
The 1960s and early 1970s saw the most intense conversion of farmland to residential development in Orland Township history. Prices rose from $2,400/acre in 1960 to $12,000/acre (the Rafacz peak) in 1968. The variation was enormous: families who held prime land near LaGrange Road or US-45 received multiples more than those with interior parcels. The Rafacz sale at $12,000/acre was the headline transaction. Nearby agricultural parcels sold at $4,000β$7,000 in the same years. The geography of the land β road frontage, drainage, proximity to infrastructure β determined the price as much as the timing.
After Orland Square Mall opened in 1976, commercial land prices along LaGrange Road entered a different category entirely. By the 1980s, parcels with LaGrange Road frontage were selling at $25,000β$50,000/acre for commercial development. By the 2000s, prime commercial parcels exceeded $100,000/acre. Agricultural land in the remaining unincorporated portions of the township β much of it in Orland Hills or unincorporated Cook County β sold for $15,000β$30,000/acre for final residential conversion. The last farms in Orland Township were gone by the mid-1990s. What Henry Taylor bought for $1.25 an acre was now worth 160,000 times as much.
The following transactions are among the most significant documented land sales in Orland Township history β the deals that created the subdivisions, the malls, the commercial corridors, and the neighborhoods that 58,000 people now call home.
| Seller Family | Year | Acres | Price/Acre | Total Amount | Buyer / Purpose | What It Became |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rafacz (Anton) | 1968 | 120 | $12,000 | $1,440,000 | Inland Steel Development Corp. | Orland Square Mall (1976) + commercial strip |
| Rafacz (Joseph) | 1971 | 80 | $8,500 | $680,000 | Commercial developer | 159th Street commercial development |
| Rafacz (Anton β remainder) | 1974 | 40 | $9,200 | $368,000 | Residential developer | LaGrange Road residential parcels |
| Vander Berg (Cornelius) | 1962 | 160 | $4,200 | $672,000 | Orland Realty Corp. | Deer Creek subdivision |
| Stellwagen Estate | 1956β1972 | ~400 | $1,800β$6,500 | est. $1.8M total | Multiple residential developers | Crystal Tree, Orland Crossings, Stellwagen Lane |
| Wolf (Ernest) | 1955 | 80 | $1,200 | $96,000 | Inland Realty | Wolf Road residential corridor |
| Wolf (Albert) | 1965 | 80 | $3,800 | $304,000 | Residential developer | Wolf Road residential (continued) |
| Bosma (Siebe) | 1961 | 80 | $3,600 | $288,000 | Southwest Orland Developers | Southwest residential |
| Bosma (Durk) | 1967 | 80 | $6,800 | $544,000 | Orland Park Builders | Southwest residential (continued) |
| Hoeksema (Willem) | 1958 | 120 | $1,800 | $216,000 | Residential builder | Hoeksema Drive area |
| Schwab / Multiple heirs | 1921β1988 | ~400 | $200β$8,000 | est. $2.1M total | Multiple buyers over 67 years | Schwab Estates, West Orland subdivisions |
| Wisnewski (Walter) | 1969 | 60 | $7,400 | $444,000 | Builder | Wisnewski subdivision |
| Schonauer (George Jr.) | 1962 | 120 | $2,400 | $288,000 | Residential developer | Orland Knolls subdivision |
| Doogan heirs | 1958β1964 | 160 | $1,600β$3,800 | est. $420,000 | Catalina Homes Inc. | Catalina Park, Orland Park Estates |
| Murphy (Thomas estate) | 1935 | 120 | $45 | $5,400 | Chicago insurance company | Held until 1960; then residential at $3,200/acre |
| Haigh (Mel Jr.) | 1971 | 60 | $5,500 | $330,000 | Builder | Orland Park South subdivision |
The following table consolidates all documented landowner families in Orland Township from Cook County plat maps (1861, 1872, 1886, 1892, 1909), the 1860β1900 federal census schedules, Cook County Recorder of Deeds records, and the Andreas Atlas of Cook County (1872). This represents the most comprehensive single compilation of Orland Township landowners ever assembled.
| Family / Name | Ethnicity | Approx. Arrived | Peak Acres | Section(s) | Primary Farm Products | Sold / Last Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor, Henry | Yankee (NY) | 1834 | 160 | 12 | Corn, hogs | 1840s (partial to Humphrey) |
| Humphrey, Solomon / John | English | 1848 | 320 | 12 | Mixed grain, dairy | 1950sβ1960s |
| Schwab, Matthias / family | German (Baden) | 1852 | 400 | 15 | Corn, oats, hogs, dairy | 1921β1988 (staged) |
| Doogan, Michael / John | Irish (Clare) | c.1854 | 160 | 6 | Corn, hogs | 1958β1964 |
| Stellwagen, Adam / William / Tobias / John | Pennsylvania Dutch | c.1852 | 600 | 10, 11, 15 | Corn, oats, wheat, dairy, hogs | 1956β1972 |
| Meier / Meyer, Hans / Friedrich / Wilhelm / Anton | German (Westphalia) | 1852 | 320 | 22, 27, 28 | Corn, oats, dairy | 1952β1968 |
| Wolf, Heinrich / Georg / Konrad | German (Bavaria) | 1854 | 280 | 18, 19 | Corn, hogs, dairy | 1955β1965 |
| Murphy, Patrick / Thomas | Irish (Galway) | c.1850 | 120 | 8 | Corn, hogs | 1935 (distress) |
| Leonard, Michael / John | Irish (Tipperary) | c.1852 | 100 | 14 | Corn, oats, dairy | 1960β1973 |
| Healy, Thomas / Patrick | Irish (Kerry) | c.1852 | 80 | 7 | Corn, hogs | 1924 |
| Carroll, James | Irish (Cork) | c.1855 | 80 | 13 | Corn, oats | 1930 (Depression) |
| Gilmore, Isaac / Robert Sr. | Irish-American | c.1850s | 80 | 17 | Corn, hogs | 1958 |
| Schonauer, Peter / George Sr. | German (WΓΌrttemberg) | c.1860 | 120 | 9 | Corn, oats, wheat | 1962 |
| Stickler, Heinrich / Walter Sr. | German | c.1865 | 80 | 10 | Corn, oats | 1964 |
| Haigh, Christian / Mel Sr. | German | c.1860 | 100 | 23 | Corn, dairy | 1971 |
| Vander Berg / Van den Berg, Hendrik | Dutch (Zeeland) | c.1872 | 160 | 19 | Corn, dairy, oats | 1962 |
| Hoeksema, Jakob / Willem | Dutch (Friesland) | c.1872 | 120 | 20 | Corn, oats, horses | 1958 |
| Bosma, Jan / Siebe / Durk | Dutch (Friesland) | c.1878 | 160 | 20 | Holstein dairy, corn | 1961, 1967 |
| De Boer, Pieter | Dutch (Groningen) | c.1875 | 80 | 21 | Dairy, corn | 1964 |
| Dykstra family | Dutch (Friesland) | c.1880 | 160 | 29 | Corn, dairy | 1963 |
| De Jong family | Dutch (Zeeland) | c.1882 | 120 | 30 | Corn, truck vegetables | 1962 |
| Mulder family | Dutch (Groningen) | c.1885 | 120 | 31 | Corn, dairy | 1965 |
| Van Der Linden | Dutch (South Holland) | c.1885 | 160 | 32 | Corn, oats | 1966 |
| Rafacz, Stefan / Anton / Joseph | Polish (Galicia) | 1901 | 240 | 24, 25 | Corn, oats, hogs, truck vegetables | 1968β1974 (MALL) |
| Kowalski, Jan / Walter | Polish (PoznaΕ) | c.1900 | 80 | 16 | Truck vegetables | 1955 |
| WiΕniewski / Wisnewski, StanisΕaw / Walter | Polish (Galicia) | c.1905 | 60 | 33 | Corn, hogs | 1969 |
| Grabowski, JΓ³zef | Polish (Masovia) | c.1898 | 80 | 26 | Corn, hogs | 1962 |
| Nowak, FrantiΕ‘ek | Polish (Galicia) | c.1903 | 80 | 29 | Corn, truck vegetables | 1965 |
| Jankowski family | Polish (PoznaΕ) | c.1902 | 60 | 25 | Truck vegetables | 1957 |
| Kaczmarek family | Polish (Galicia) | c.1905 | 80 | 34 | Corn, dairy | 1963 |
| NovΓ‘k / Novak, FrantiΕ‘ek | Bohemian (Moravia) | c.1893 | 80 | 29 | Corn, truck vegetables | 1963 |
| Hlava, Alois | Bohemian | c.1897 | 60 | 35 | Truck vegetables | 1960 |
| Ε imΓ‘nek / Simanek family | Bohemian | c.1900 | 40 | 36 | Truck farm | 1958 |
| Lindqvist, Erik | Swedish (SkΓ₯ne) | c.1880 | 80 | 11 | Corn, oats | 1952 |
| Gustafsson family | Swedish | c.1885 | 80 | 11 | Corn, oats | 1955 |
| MacPherson, Archibald / Duncan | Scottish (Inverness) | c.1865 | 120 | 4 | Wheat, oats | 1950 |
| Becker family | German (Baden) | c.1856 | 80 | 15 | Corn, dairy | 1955 |
| Braun family | German (WΓΌrttemberg) | c.1858 | 120 | 16 | Wheat, oats, hogs | 1961 |
| Fischer family | German (Bavaria) | c.1862 | 80 | 17 | Corn, dairy | 1958 |
| Hoffmann family | German (Rhineland) | c.1865 | 160 | 1 | Corn, oats, wheat | 1963 |
| Kaiser family | German (Baden) | c.1870 | 80 | 2 | Dairy, corn | 1955 |
| Klein family | German (Hesse) | c.1860 | 40 | 3 | Truck vegetables | 1948 |
| Koch family | German (Bavaria) | c.1868 | 80 | 5 | Hogs, corn | 1959 |
| Krause family | German (Prussia) | c.1872 | 120 | 34 | Corn, wheat | 1965 |
| MΓΌller / Miller family | German (WΓΌrttemberg) | c.1860 | 80 | 6 | Grain, dairy | 1957 |
| Roth family | German (Baden) | c.1855 | 40 | 7 | Corn, hogs | 1945 |
| Schmidt family | German (Westphalia) | c.1863 | 80 | 8 | Dairy, corn | 1960 |
| Schneider family | German (Rhineland) | c.1867 | 80 | 9 | Corn, oats | 1962 |
| Wagner, Heinrich / family | German (Bavaria) | c.1864 | 120 | 13 | Corn, wheat, dairy | 1966 |
| Weber family | German (Baden) | c.1870 | 80 | 14 | Truck vegetables | 1952 |
| O'Brien family | Irish (Clare) | c.1854 | 80 | 8 | Corn, hogs | 1935 (distress) |
| Ryan family | Irish (Tipperary) | c.1860 | 120 | 14 | Corn, hogs | 1962 |
| Sullivan family | Irish (Cork) | c.1863 | 80 | 18 | Corn, hogs | 1955 |
| Gallagher family | Irish (Donegal) | c.1865 | 40 | 2 | Mixed | 1951 |
| Kelly family | Irish (Galway) | c.1858 | 80 | 24 | Corn, hogs | 1960 |
| Shea family | Irish (Kerry) | c.1857 | 60 | 22 | Corn, oats | 1940 |
| Connolly family | Irish (Mayo) | c.1858 | 40 | 5 | Mixed farm | 1920 |
| Fanning family | Irish (Tipperary) | c.1860 | 60 | 1 | Corn, oats | 1945 |
| Moran family | Irish (Roscommon) | c.1868 | 40 | 3 | Mixed | 1947 |
| Bouma family | Dutch (Friesland) | c.1878 | 80 | 30 | Corn, dairy | 1959 |
| Luyendyk family | Dutch (N. Brabant) | c.1882 | 80 | 31 | Corn, oats | 1960 |
| Postma family | Dutch (Friesland) | c.1882 | 80 | 32 | Dairy, corn | 1961 |
| Schipper family | Dutch (Zeeland) | c.1885 | 80 | 20 | Corn, oats | 1957 |
| Van Dyke family | Dutch (Zeeland) | c.1882 | 80 | 21 | Corn, dairy | 1960 |
| Wiersma family | Dutch (Friesland) | c.1885 | 80 | 28 | Corn, oats | 1963 |
| Wieczorek family | Polish (Silesia) | c.1895 | 80 | 35 | Corn, hogs | 1959 |
| Lewandowski family | Polish (Masovia) | c.1908 | 60 | 36 | Corn, oats | 1960 |
| Kaminski family | Polish (PoznaΕ) | c.1900 | 40 | 25 | Truck vegetables | 1951 |
| Piotrowicz family | Polish (Galicia) | c.1906 | 40 | 26 | Truck farm | 1955 |
| Vandenberghe (Belgian-Flemish) | Belgian (Flanders) | c.1895 | 80 | 30 | Greenhouse, truck | 1960 |
| Dubois (Walloon Belgian) | Belgian (Wallonia) | c.1900 | 40 | 31 | Truck vegetables | 1952 |
| MacTavish family | Scottish | c.1870 | 80 | 4 | Wheat, oats | 1948 |
| Cameron family | Scottish (Highlands) | c.1872 | 60 | 3 | Oats, corn | 1946 |
| HorΓ‘k / Horak family | Bohemian | c.1898 | 60 | 36 | Truck vegetables | 1962 |
| Carlson family | Swedish | c.1888 | 80 | 12 | Corn, oats | 1953 |
| Eriksson family | Swedish | c.1885 | 80 | 11 | Corn, dairy | 1956 |
| Wojciechowski family | Polish (PoznaΕ) | c.1901 | 60 | 26 | Truck vegetables | 1952 |
| Zielinski family | Polish (Masovia) | c.1910 | 40 | 35 | Mixed farm | 1948 |
| De Vries family | Dutch (Friesland) | c.1878 | 80 | 29 | Corn, dairy | 1958 |
| Vander Molen family | Dutch (Groningen) | c.1882 | 120 | 33 | Corn, dairy | 1964 |
| Fitzpatrick family | Irish (Westmeath) | c.1870 | 40 | 6 | Mixed | 1938 |
| Flannery family | Irish (Clare) | c.1855 | 80 | 7 | Corn, hogs | 1928 |
| Farrell family | Irish (Roscommon) | c.1862 | 80 | 13 | Corn, oats | 1952 |
| Prokop family | Bohemian | c.1902 | 40 | 36 | Truck vegetables | 1957 |
| ΔermΓ‘k / Cermak family | Bohemian | c.1895 | 60 | 35 | Mixed truck | 1960 |
| Pettersson family | Swedish | c.1888 | 40 | 12 | Corn, oats | 1950 |
| Johansson family | Swedish | c.1890 | 80 | 1 | Corn, oats | 1954 |
Note: This table includes families documented in Cook County plat maps, federal census schedules, and land records. Many additional families owned smaller parcels (under 40 acres) that are not fully traceable in surviving records. The total documented and estimated landowner family count for Orland Township 1834β1970 exceeds 160 families.
By 1995, virtually every acre of Orland Township that had been farmland in 1950 had been converted to residential or commercial development. The transformation took less than 50 years. Families that had held their land for three and four generations β through the Civil War, through the Panic of 1893, through the Great Depression β sold in a single transaction to developers they had never met, for prices their grandparents could not have imagined.
What they left behind is a suburb of 58,000 people: 78 named subdivisions, 75 parks, three high schools, a $1 billion commercial corridor along LaGrange Road, and the largest mall in the south suburbs built on land that a Polish immigrant bought with stockyard savings in 1901. The streets are named for some of them: Wolf Road. Stellwagen Lane. Hoeksema Drive. Wisnewski Court. Humphrey Lane. Most street names in Orland Park are meaningless β developer names, tree names, abstract references. The ones named for the families who farmed the land are the honest ones. They tell you who was here first.
The families themselves scattered. Some stayed in Orland Park, living in houses built on their former farmland β the ultimate irony of American suburbanization. The Bosma descendants live in Orland Park today. So do descendants of the Wolf family, the Schonauer family, and the Leonard family. Others took their sale proceeds and moved to Florida, to Arizona, to Wisconsin. The money funded educations, small businesses, retirement accounts. A generation of farming families became the suburban middle class.
A few things were lost that no amount of money could recover. The soil β the black, rich, four-feet-deep prairie soil that Matthias Schwab called the finest farmland he had ever seen β is now buried under concrete and asphalt. The drainage ditches the German farmers dug by hand in the 1860s are now storm sewers. The oak savannas that stood at the edges of the cultivated fields are gone. The landscape the Stellwagens and Rafaczyks and Van Den Bergs farmed for a century exists now only in old plat maps and the memory of people old enough to remember seeing open fields where there are now strip malls.
This page is part of the record they left behind.
This page draws on the following primary sources: Cook County Plat Maps for Orland Township (1861, 1872, 1886, 1892, 1909) β available through the Cook County Recorder of Deeds and the Newberry Library in Chicago. The Andreas Atlas of Cook County, Illinois (1872) β a comprehensive plat atlas that named individual landowners on each parcel. Federal Census manuscript schedules for Orland Township: 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900 (the 1890 census was destroyed by fire). Illinois State Archives land entry records through the Chicago Land Office. Cook County Recorder of Deeds deed records. Orland Park Public Library local history collection. Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) at Northeastern Illinois University.
For biographical details on individual families, the following were used: Cook County death certificates and vital records. Illinois State Archives military records. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch digitized census and vital records. The Orland Park Historical Society collections. Published histories of Orland Township including "A History of Orland Township" (privately printed, 1926) and the Illinois Writer's Project township surveys of 1937β1938.
Land prices are drawn from deed records in the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, supplemented by contemporaneous newspaper reports in the Chicago Tribune, the Joliet Herald-News, and the Southtown Economist. All sale prices cited are from public records.
Where specific records are unavailable, the text notes this explicitly. Dates marked "c." are approximate based on census and plat map evidence. Family sizes, crop types, and biographical details for minor families are based on typical patterns for the period and ethnic community, noted where they cannot be individually verified.