| DavidW. Orr |
DAVID W. ORR was born inSumner county, Tennessee, March 17, 1826. His father was Greenberry Orr,widely known as “Berry Orr”, who came to Illinois
in the fall of 1828. Hestopped two years in Morgan county, and then moved to Mount Sterling township,near the village, which was then in Schuyler county. He made some improvementson 160 acres of Government land, which he sold, and one year later movedto what is now section 34, Pea Ridge township. They had twelve children,born in Tennessee, and left two behind and buried one on the way. Theirjourney was made in one of the old-style prairie schooners drawn by threehorses, and were six weeks on the way. They arrived in Morgan county, November1830, and at Pea Ridge the night of the great snow storm. Their new loghouse had not been well chinked, and he was obliged to take up the puncheonfloor to get dirt to make mud for the walls, in order to keep out the fearfulstorm. They reached here with very little means, but he was fortunate ingetting work in wood hauling, and when his farm came into the market hewas able to obtain his deed for 160 acres. It was part prairie and parttimber. He buildt a house here, where he died, February, 1850, aged sixty-five.He left his widow with eleven children. She had been Mary Brown of Tennessee.His children all had to work hard in life, and had but very little schooling.One of their employments was to beat the hominy mortar, which Mr. Orr obtainedby trading a shot gun. The nearest doctor was at Jacksonville, and theywere obliged to go over the paths that the Indians had trod. David remainedat home until after his father’s death, and August 1, 1850, he was marriedto his first wife, Mary Jane Pells, who died a year and a half later. April6, 1854, he was married to his present wife, Patience H. Osborn, daughterof Lewis and Amelia (Corwin) Osborn, of Ohio, where she was born, rearedand educated. She was a teacher there and in Illinois before her marriage.Her father was a Baptist minister, and he died in Hancock county, whileon a visit, in his eighty-fifth year. His wife died in 1875, aged seventy-one,leaving four children, Mrs. Orr being the only one now living. She is aniece of Tom Corwin, of Ohio, and is a relative of the family of GeneralHalleck. Mr. Osborn owned the farm on which his daughter,
Mrs. Orr, lives, for fiftyyears. He had no regular charge for some ten years prior to his death,but preached occasionally. Mr. Orr left the old homestead of his parentsin 1858, and moved to Hancock county. He has lived in Kansas and Missouri,and came back to Illinois and settled on his present farm of 112 acres,in 1874. This has forty acres of timber. He has been doing general farming.Mr. and Mrs. Orr have four children: John M., now a resident of Anthony,Kansas; Mary Halleck, at home; and Lewis H., residing in Mount Sterling.Mr. and Mrs. Orr had reared this son to farm life, and hoped to have himwith them on the farm during their declining years, but he preferred thelife of a mechanic; hence late years they rent out their land. He has mademuch money out of corn and hogs, and also breeds some horses. He has astallion of Leviathan stock, which is turning out well.He has served the town asRoad Commissioner, and both he and his wife are Missionary Baptists.
BiographicalReview of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois, BiographicalReview Publishing Co., Chicago, 1892, pages 588-589. Contributed by TammieOrr Brown [email protected]
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