After its incorporation the village continued to prosper, the downtown district was mostly complete by the 1870s, with all commercial lots purchased and improved. Mel Trotter who established a chain of rescue missions during his lifetime, was born in the village on May 16, 1870 and lived there until he was five years old when his family moved to Polo, Illinois. By 1877, the village population was up to 300 and in 1883 the Orangeville Alert, the first village newspaper, was established. In 1887, the Illinois Central Railroad decided to link Freeport to Madison, Wisconsin. The only incorporated village along that line was Orangeville, the railroad came in 1888 and led to commercial building boom. This building boom directly resulted in 14 new buildings being erected downtown, all brick buildings downtown save the 1906 Wagner Building and the 1899 R.W. Moore Building were a result of the railroad. Between 1888 and 1914, numerous business developed along the corridor of Main and High Streets, those included: restaurants, drug stores, barber shops, banks, watch and clock repair shops, cigar factory, funeral parlor and casket factory, among several others. Great Depression In 1928, just before the onset of the Great Depression, Illinois State Highway 74 (later Illinois Route 26) was rerouted through the eastern part of Orangeville, bypassing the downtown business district. Though the downtown district no longer had a major thoroughfare passing through it, many of the business were able to survive, at least initially. By 1928, the decline in the business community of Orangeville was evident; the bypass, coupled with the depression continued to negatively affect the village. In 1932, the People's State Bank, the last open bank in Orangeville, closed its doors. Geography Orangeville is located at (42.466900, -89.646003). According to the 2010 census, Orangeville has a total area of , all land. The village of Orangeville is located in northern Stephenson County, about two miles (3 km) south of the Illinois-Wisconsin border directly off of Illinois Route 26. The village is south of Monroe, Wisconsin, north of Freeport, west of Rockford and east of Dubuque, Iowa. The village is located in a vale which is surrounded by farmland. At the western end, and lowest end, of town Richland Creek runs north–south and is paralleled by the old Illinois Central Railroad bed. The railroad bed is now part of the Jane Addams Trail. High Street, which runs through the historic