In the decades leading up to the Civil War, Orland was a stop on the Underground Railroad, sheltering and protecting runaway slaves until they could complete the journey to Windsor, Upper Canada. The home of Russell Brown was said to contain a secret apartment on the second floor, complete with a separate stairway, in which 15 to 20 slaves might hide. S. U. Clark's hotel also was said to have a secret hiding place behind a basement cupboard, while the Butler family south of Orland "fed and sheltered scores of them and then took them on to other stations."