Spring 26 OP Newsletter

HERITAGE SITES

grains, but farmers picked and husked corn by hand. Up until the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway laid tracks through Orland in 1879-1880, most farmers were subsistence farmers who grew crops on small plots of land to meet the needs of themselves and their families. To make a little money, farmers sold excess produce to the market towns of Lockport, Lemont (by the way of the Illinois-Michigan Canal) and Bremen (after the railroad came there in 1852). There is some evidence to suggest that farmers living in the northeast section of Orland Township (like the Daytons, Pangburns and Boleys) transported their farm produce to Blue Island. Keeping It In The Family Ten years after John Boley married Esther Pangburn, in 1880, Richard Pangburn’s wife, Mary Dayton Pangburn, passed away. In 1883, Richard Pangburn married a woman named Cora Dunster. The Dunster family was of English descent and settled in New York after immigration. Cora moved to Orland to marry Richard sometime between 1880-1883.

Pathways of the Illinois & Michigan Canal (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Richard and Cora had two children who survived into adulthood: Viola in 1886 and Vernon in 1888. Then, in 1890, Richard Pangburn died. That same year, Esther Pangburn Boley, Richard’s daughter and John Boley’s wife, died. One year later, on May 27, 1891, Richard Pangburn’s widow, Cora Dunster Pangburn, married John Boley, Esther’s widower. In summary, John Boley married his previous wife’s stepmother. Though an odd scenario today, in areas without a large continual flow of people (including rural areas like Orland), this was not uncommon. Since the two properties were right next door to each other, it may be possible that one of the reasons John and Cora married was to combine their land. John Boley and Cora Dunster Pangburn Boley had two children together: Charles, in 1892, who passed away in infancy, and Harvey in 1893. In 1916, Harvey married a woman named Ada Batterham and they had two sons: Lyle in 1917 and Glenn in 1926. The Decline of Orland’s Farm Community The post-World War II era marked the decline of Orland’s farming community. By 1946, Orland Park had approximately 15,629 acres of farmland, which increased in value as the Township made new improvements to sewer and water systems. This increase in value, combined with high land taxes in the area, led to many farmers to sell their land to secure their future finances. Yet, even as most farmers began selling their acreage to developers, the Boley family continued working on their land. During this period of his life, Glenn Boley remembered “working on the farm land, now the site of Orland Square mall, long before anyone dreamed of the developments in place today.” In an interview with the Southtown Star in 2001, he said: “I never expected it (Orland) to grow like it did. I never thought this was coming.” Glenn became the last family member to farm the land, ultimately giving the property the name we now know today: Boley Farm. In 1975, Glenn sold most of the land to developers. The Village of Orland Park’s Open Lands Commission bought the remaining 5.8 acres in 2001 with the intent to preserve it as farmland and as an educational resource for future generations. Today, the farm hosts a seasonal farmstand that sells fruit, vegetables and other produce.

This article was written by Heritage Sites Supervisor Libby Paulson. For more information on the Orland Park Heritage Sites, visit orlandpark.org/heritagesites or email heritagesites@orlandpark.org.

orlandpark.org | Spring 2026 |

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