Orange was born into slavery about 1837 on the John Allen Hancock plantation in Jackson County, Alabama, near Bellefonte. He was mulatto, and, according to DNA and family stories, his father was the plantation owner’s 13-year-old son, John, later known as Judge John Hancock of Texas. An enslaved black female giving birth to a child fathered by a male in the master’s family was not uncommon in the South. Orange’s mother is unknown but there is a possibility she was Daphney or Susan, also enslaved by John Allen.
Orange was one of four mulatto boys born on the plantation 1830-1841 and raised as “brothers.” Salem, Rubin, Orange, and Payton thought of themselves as brothers throughout their lives. Likewise raised with Orange were “sisters”, Dorcas and Jemima, and elder kin, Daphney and Susan. DNA showed that Orange was actually the nephew of Rubin and Payton but they were of the right age to be brothers.
The promise of free land by the Mexican Government and later the Republic of Texas lured six of John Allen’s ten white children to Texas in the 1830s, and they probably brought one or more slaves from the plantation with them. Most of them settled near Onion Creek south of Austin. That area was in Bastrop County until Travis County was formed in 1839. Youngster Salem, the oldest “brother,” may have left with Lewis in the mid 1830s, maybe accompanying his mother. Back in Alabama, when Orange was 10 years old, his white mistress, Sarah “Sallie” Ryan Hancock, died and at that time John Allen’s last son, Tennessee-trained lawyer John, left for Texas, too.
When Orange was about 18, his white master died without a will so all his possessions, including twenty slaves, were inventoried and sold. White son John, by then a Judge in Texas, came back to the Alabama plantation to purchase nine slaves, all of whom appeared to be related to Salem who was then Judge John’s only slave and personal servant. Among the nine was Judge John’s biracial son, Orange, and Orange’s “brothers”, “sisters”, and two older women.
After a 900-mile journey, Orange and the other slaves were taken to the Judge’s land on Burnet Road and North Loop. There were five log cabins which housed the slaves located behind a bigger log house possibly the quarters of the overseer, James Doughtry, from Alabama, and occasionally used by the Judge and his two nephews, William and James, whom the Judge was rearing.
At the Judge’s farm, called The Oaks, Orange would have worked with his “brothers” clearing land, planting and harvesting crops (including wheat, rye, oats, barley, and cotton), tending livestock (including horses, mules, oxen, cattle, 18 milk cows producing 2200 pounds of butter, and 100 sheep) and helping maintain the Upper Georgetown Road (Burnet Road) which ran nearby. The Judge had about 300 acres in cultivation and 20,000 acres unimproved. The big log house and slave houses were in a beautiful grove of oak trees not far from Shoal Creek. There were at least two other small log buildings, one on the creek (called a mill) and one slightly northeast of the five little slave houses, possibly for the overseer. Judge John and his white wife, Susan Richardson, and newborn son, Edwin, lived in town so the farm slaves would have been supervised by James Doughtry. It is likely that Judge John hired additional workers to manage all the tasks his large farm entailed.
At age 31, the Judge had another biracial son, Hugh, born about the time Orange arrived in Texas and a second son soon after. All the slaves would have known when, in 1860, the Judge sent his two Texas-born biracial sons and their mother, Eliza, to Ohio thus freeing them. Twenty-three-year-old Orange was also the Judge’s son, but he remained enslaved. All the slaves would also have been aware of the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 when Unionist Judge John encouraged his two nephews, William and James, to join a Union cavalry to fight against their Confederate neighbors. Slave-owning Judge John was a Unionist who favored keeping the country together even if it meant ending slavery, the “peculiar institution” of the South.
In 1858, 21-year-old Orange and Rhody Holman, a slave cook on a nearby farm, had a child, Emma. In 1860, Orange had a son, John, and later a son, William, with another woman named Mary Randall. But Orange and Rhody considered themselves married though slave unions were not recorded. Orange was allowed by the overseer to visit the nearby Holman plantation on Wednesday and Saturday nights to be with Rhody. Rhody was born in Tennessee about 1838 but both her parents, Jesse and Millie, were born in Kentucky. Orange and Rhody had a second child, Jemima, about 1861, and third, Louisa, about 1864. All these children were born into slavery. Rhoda’s parents also lived on the Holman place which was northwest of the Hancock slave quarters. Both Jesse and Orange did blacksmithing. Daughter Emma said Orange took good care of Rhody and children even when they had to live apart.
In 1864, Judge John defended two Unionist men. When threatened by Confederate officials, he fled to New Orleans, then in Union hands, and stayed until the war ended. He came back to find his 26 former slaves suddenly facing a new life of freedom with no means to direct it.
When freedom was announced June 19, 1865, Orange was about 28 years old. As soon as he could, Orange went to the Holman Plantation and got his wife and three daughters and took them back to his cabin on the Judge Hancock place. Orange arranged with his former master and father, Judge John, to live in an empty log house recently purchased by the Judge from neighbor Elizabeth Moore and to work for the Judge “by the month,” probably doing the same things he had done as an enslaved man but getting paid for it. In such an unsettled time, perhaps it was safer to remain on land they called home for the short term. By 1870, Orange and at least two of his “brothers” had left the Judge’s place and moved two miles north to the George W. Davis farm. There they lived in small houses and worked for Davis for cash. Davis grew corn and cotton in fields full of rattlesnakes, according to daughter Emma who was required to pick cotton with her parents and sisters. Davis also had a large limestone quarry.
Orange’s oldest “brother”, Salem, was the first to buy his own land in 1871 just north of the Davis farm. This was six years after slavery when only 2% of freed slaves owned land. His five acres with a house fronted on Burnet Road. Over the years, Orange and brother Salem were in demand for roundup time when they often were paid in cattle.
In 1874, Orange bought his own land, nine years after freedom. Only about 4-5% of freed slaves owned their own land by this time. He bought 100 acres for $700 from John and Bettie Johnson in the James Rogers League in the Duval area just north of brother Salem’s land. Orange paid $350 in cash with a promise to pay the other $350 in twelve months at 10% interest. Family stories say that Judge John, by then a Congressman in Washington D.C., helped the four “brothers” get farms after freedom. Although no records have been found to support that, there are unrecorded ways he could have done that, including paid wages during slavery (which the brothers could have saved), or a cash gift or advice for their legal affairs after freedom. (Salem, too, paid $500 in cash in 1871 for his land.) Orange’s land was not cleared, not fenced, and had no house. Orange himself, probably helped by his “brothers”, built a two-room log house and the whole family worked at “grubbing” the trees out so fields could be planted. The land was on Little Walnut Creek so it had water. By that time, Orange and Rhoda had nine children: six daughters including twins, and three sons under 5 years old.
In the five years between purchasing land and the 1880 agricultural census, Orange cleared and planted 33 acres. In addition to trees he cleared for fields, in 1879 he cut 20 cords of firewood from trees in the wooded area. He had two milk cows (Emma milked the cows) which in 1879 produced 150 pounds of butter. Many weeks Rhoda carried 10 pounds of butter to certain customers who paid 25 cents a pound for her butter. He also had 37 chickens which produced 150 dozen eggs in 1879. Orange owned 5 hogs and two horses and a wagon. He raised cattle to sell and in 1879 he sold 5 head. In his fields he planted 16 acres in Indian corn which yielded 120 bushels, 2 acres in wheat for 22 bushels, 1 acre in sweet potatoes for 10 bushels, and 6 acres in cotton for 1 bale. His farm was valued at $1200 plus $26 in implements and $225 in livestock. The value of all his farm production was $500. His expenses included $25 for fencing ($600 today).
Separate from the census was the valuation of his farm for tax purposes. In the 1880 tax roll, Orange’s land, implements, and livestock were appraised at $600.
He and Rhody had three more children, all boys, by 1880. Living next door to Orange, Rhody, and their 12 children were Rhody’s parents, 101-year-old Jesse and 90-year-old Millie with a 15-year-old servant girl. Rhody and her parents were listed as black on the census while Orange and all the children were listed as mulatto.
In 1881, Orange purchased another 40 acres on the northeast corner of the Secrest Survey for $60 from Thomas and Arbanna Burns. This land was just west of the railroad track a short distance north of the platted but never-built town of Duval. Orange apparently maintained his home on the original 100 acres. That same year “brother” Salem, who may have been especially close with Orange, traded his 25 acres on Burnet Road for 107 acres between Orange’s 100-acre tract and the 99 acres “brother” Rubin purchased to the east from Anderson Peoples in the Fowler Survey. Orange would have been 44 years old by this time with one hired hand and sons and daughters old enough to successfully farm 140 acres.
Many years earlier, maybe as early as 1874 when he first purchased his own land, Orange hired a “coal black” man “from Africa” that the family nicknamed “Joe Slick” who was “low and chunky” and played the banjo at dances, according to daughter Emma. “Joe” lived and ate with the family for many years. He was completely trusted and a hard worker. Emma said he was good natured, all the kinfolks liked him, and she did not know what happened to “Joe Slick” later in life. She said she never knew what his real name was. After slavery, former slaves were free to choose a name. Some, like Orange, took their master’s last name. As a freed slave, “Joe Slick” would have been free to choose any name that was meaningful to him. He never showed up on a census as a boarder in Orange’s house.
Orange and Rhody had one more son in 1882. According to the census, Rhody had a total of 17 children. Their 13 living children and likely birth year were Emma (1858), Jemima “Mamie” (1861), Louisa “Lou” (1864), Rhoda (1866), twins Parilee and Redosha (1867), William (1868), Washington (1870), Mitchel (1874), Thomas (1876), James (1878), Reuben (1879), and Lewis (1882). All 15 of Orange’s children, 13 with Rhody and 2 with Mary, were grandsons of Judge John.
Emma said her family attended the Baptist church, though not every week. This would have been the earliest version of St. Stephens Missionary Baptist Church which met in a one-room frame building in the area of the planned town of Duval in the mid 1870s. In 1878 the church was formally organized by Jacob Fontaine and began meeting at 3106 Adelphi Lane. This one acre tract, donated by Anderson and Martha Patton Peoples, kinfolks of Rubin’s wife, had an existing house used for church meetings and a school. Orange served as deacon and also contributed to the church’s future. Later, grandchildren of Orange, Salem, and Rubin attended school here. Orange’s brother Rubin and family attended St. Paul’s church near 8400 Woodstone which also had a school and, in addition, a cemetery. Members of all three brothers’ families were buried at St. Paul’s cemetery. Younger “brother” Payton and his family bought land in the Applegate Survey and built their home on the Lower Georgetown Road (now Lamar Blvd) a mile north of Fiskville and about five miles south from Rubin. By this time, Payton seems to have been more closely associated with Rubin and other family, like Jemima and George W. Corzine, who owned a gin in Fiskville, than with Salem and Orange who lived about four miles west.
By 1900 only sons Jim, Reuben, and Lewis lived with Orange and Rhody but daughter Emma and her 5 children lived near them. In November 1901, Orange (about 64 years old) and son Mitchell Hancock purchased 50 acres from Leroy B. Henry in the James Rogers Survey for $500 in promissory notes at 8% with the proviso that the Hancocks immediately fence the tract. Two years later they deeded it back to Henry in return for canceling the promissory notes. Mitchell later moved to Oklahoma and then settled in Denison, Texas.
Emma’s grandson, Frank Wicks remembered Orange having a second wife. Rhody was alive when the census was taken in the summer of 1900, but she died shortly thereafter. Orange, age 64, married Sarah Hall in August, 1901. Sarah may have died because in March 1907, Orange married Caroline Williams. He died 16 months later.
Orange died at age 71 on July 20, 1908, of “Bights [sic] Disease and Old Age.” He was attended by a Dr. B. D. Alexander in Manchaca for nearly 3 weeks. No burial place is noted on the death certificate. Neither informant nor parents are listed. Orange had over 60 grandchildren.
Orange’s oldest child, Emma was interviewed when she was about 80 years old when she had “blind swimmin’ spells in my head.” Her sense of time was loose, and she remembered one verifiable thing incorrectly (Judge John died in 1893 in Austin of Alzheimer’s and old age instead of in New Orleans of Yellow Fever in 1860s). But her memories of her early life were cogent. As an adult, Emma had children with three different men beginning when she was 21: (Morris 1879 with Mr. Smith, John 1883 with Mr. Dorsey, and Arch 1887 with George Wormley) before marrying Elijah Wicks in 1891 at about 33 years old. She and Lige had Frank 1892 and Rhody 1894. Elijah worked at the Hancock Dairy in the 1890s and they lived on the east side of Burnet Road about 49th Street where Rubin’s granddaughter Alma and husband Levi Jones later lived. Elijah left the family and didn’t return until he was old and disabled, according to Frank Wicks, Jr. He was not in the 1900 census when Emma was head of household with five children renting near Orange and Rhody. But in 1920 he is listed as head of household with Morris and Rhodie living with him. In 1930, Emma, Emma’s then single son John Dorsey and Elijah Wicks were lodging with Charles Petet on 11th Street in Austin according to one sheet. On another sheet Elijah was listed as living with son Frank on Rosewood Ave. When Emma was interviewed in October 1937, she and son, John, lived in two one-room houses at 2203 Washington Ave. owned by son Frank Sr. who lived close by with his family. She died two years later of pneumonia.
Orange’s second oldest child, John, born two years after Emma, but with a different mother, Mary Randall, married Oma “Omie” Roy in Colorado, Texas, on Feb. 14, 1889. Omie’s father was Sam Roy. John and Omie had two children, Harriet “Hattie” and Sophie born in Eagle Lake. Orange died in 1908 with no will so his wife Caroline and his and Rhody’s children inherited his land. John and brother William were declared legally illegitimate by the court and thus had no legal claim as heirs. About 1923, John began buying Orange’s legitimate heirs’ interest (including Emma’s) in the 100 acre and 40 acre tracts purchased by Orange in 1874 and 1881. But a white realtor named Robert Hammond also purchased rights from heirs. In 1923 a court case noted that Hammond had 4/13 undivided interest and John had 8/13 undivided interest (including Emma’s). In 1924, Hammond sold his interest to John for $600 cash thus giving John ownership of both tracts of land.
When John died Christmas Day, 1945, at age 85, Omie and her two daughters, Hattie, a widow with no children, and Sophie and husband Simon Daniels, sold most of the 140 acres, retaining 29 acres from the 100 acre tract and 12 acres from the 40 acre tract. Omie died in 1963 leaving five daughters, one son, and 25 grandchildren.
Karen Sikes Collins, revised April, 2025
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