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Mission School Originator

On December 25, 1917, the people of Orange receieved the news of the death of Emily C. Prudden in Hickory, North Carolina. Miss Prudden was born in Orange on June 13, 1832. Upon the death of her sister, Miss Prudden took over the care of her children. After they were grown, she decided to leave Orange in order to work with the poor of North Carolina. She had now reached middle age and was slightly deaf; however, this did not deter her. Using her own funds she built and equipped a school to educate the children of poor families. When she saw that the school was operating well, she turned it over to a mission board and started another. All in all she founded 15 mission schools and colleges in the South before her death at 85. She is buried in the Orange Cemetery.

School System Grows

By 1925 Orange was growing larger and it became necessary to add four more classrooms to the Orange Center School.

Volunteer Fire Assn. Begins

The town had long been dependent upon a bucket brigade system to handle fires but after a number of disastrous fires during 1924 and 1925, a group of men decided to form the Volunteer Fire Association which was incorporated on January 9, 1926. There were fourteen charter

[picture caption] Emily C. Prudden, Orange's missionary in the 1800's, established schools and colleges for the poor in the South.