Spring 26 OP Newsletter

THE HISTORY OF BOLEY FARM

Each newsletter, we delve into a different piece of Orland’s past. This season’s feature focuses on Boley Farm. Boley Farm (pronounced “Bo-Lee”), is located on 151st Street just west of 80th Avenue, and is one of two historic farmsteads in Orland Park. The 5.8 acre property hosts a seasonal farm stand and offers a glimpse into early Orland agricultural life from the 1840s-1920s. The history of Boley Farm, once an 80-acre property comprising one-eighth of the northeast quarter of Section 14 in Orland Township, reflects the broader story of early immigration and agriculture in Orland Township and throughout the Midwest. How Did Early Settlers Arrive In This Area of Orland Park? The first settlers in this area of Orland were the Dayton family, who were of English descent. After immigrating from England to America, they first settled in Palermo, New York. During the nineteenth century, there were two clear paths of how European immigrants migrated to the Orland area: they either settled in New York or New England (like the Daytons) or came directly off the ship to the Midwest. Migration became significantly easier following the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. During the 1830s and 1840s, many settlers in Illinois traveled from New York and New England by way of the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. By 1850, Illinois claimed more English-born residents than any other state except New York and Pennsylvania, and, by 1890, English-born inhabitants constituted three percent of Chicago’s population. William Dayton, his wife Clarissa and their children, arrived in Orland between 1842 and 1844. They owned 80 acres in the northeast corner of Section 14 of Orland Township, bordered by 151st Street to the north and 80th Avenue to the east. By 1845, the family had built a farmhouse on the land from local timber harvested from the surrounding area. According to Glenn Boley, even more than 150 years later, “you [could] still see the bark on the floor joints from the basement.” Around the same time, a man named Richard Pangburn (1818-1890) traveled from German Flats, New York and settled in Bachelor’s Grove in Bremen Township. Two years later, he married Mary Dayton, William’s daughter, and the newlyweds lived on 40 acres of neighboring land. Richard and Mary had three children together: Esther (1845-unknown), Morris (1847 1853), and Marshall (1853). By 1855, the remainder of the Dayton family had moved to Palos Township, so it is likely that William sold his son-in-law, Richard, the remaining 40 acres.

At the time John Boley immigrated to the United States in 1857, the Pangburns owned the land that would eventually become known as “Boley Farm.” Born Johannes Bolei in Hessen, Germany in 1839, at age 18, traveled across the Atlantic and arrived in New York on April 21, 1857, likely anglicizing his name to John Boley upon arrival. John arrived in the Orland area sometime before 1860 and worked as a farm laborer. Around 1870, he purchased 80 acres of land to the west of the Pangburn family’s property and married Esther Pangburn, thus connecting the two families. How Did Early Settlers Make a Living? The Daytons, Pangburns and Boleys, like many Orland farmers in the nineteenth century, grew corn, wheat, oats and barley. They most likely raised livestock (hogs, chicken and dairy cows) to provide dairy and protein. At the turn of the century, horse-drawn thresher machines harvested

Boley Farm, 1910

| Spring 2026 | orlandpark.org

20