In 1880 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built through what was to become the townsite of Orchard.
The community was promoted in 1890 by S. K. Cross, who sold tracts from his ranch to German, Bohemian, and Polish settlers.
By 1896 the one-teacher Orchard school had forty-three pupils, and the town’s estimated 250 residents were served by a Methodist
church and a general store.
During the 1920s the community had three general stores, a telegraph office, a drugstore, a community dance hall, a cotton gin, and a gas station.
The population was 352 at the 2010 census.