JOHN ORR, Jr. b. 20 Jan 1849

ORR, COULTER, KIRBY, MCCROSSON

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 9/16/2004 at 17:32:10

John Orr, Jr. represents the industrial interests of Perry Township as a farmer and a carpenter. He is an active, industrious, wide-awake man, and is deservely prospering in his various undertakings. He owns a good farm of sixty-two and one-half acres on section 35, which he has placed under admirable cultivation, and besides manages his father's farm. He comes of the sturdy, capable Scotch-Irish race that has furnished the United States with some of its best citizens, and his ancestors lived for many years in Ireland. His great-grandfather was a native of the Emerald Isle, and coming to this country settled in Trumbull County, Ohio.

Thomas Orr, the grandfather of our subject, was born in that county, and was there bred to the life of a farmer. Later he moved to Mercer County, Pa., where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death. The father of our subject, William Orr, was born in the town of Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, in 1818, and afterward went with his parents to Mercer County, Pa., where he became a farmer, owning and managing a small farm of sixty acres. While living in Pennsylvania he had the good fortune to secure an able helpmate in the person of Miss Margaret Coulter, a native of Adams County, that State. She is also of Scotch-Irish descent, her paternal great-grandfather having been born in Ireland, and was of Scotch antecedents. Her grandfather, Archibald Coulter, was born in Pennsylvania, and her father, Josiah C. Coulter, was born in the same county as herself. Later in life he became a farmer in Mercer County. The mother of our subject is now sixty-seven years old, and with her husband is one of the active members of the United Presbyterian Church in Andrew. Seven children have been born of their union: Jane (deceased), Thomas, Anne (deceased), Louisa, John, Martha (deceased), and Josiah. In 1860 Mr. and Mrs. Orr disposed of their farm in Pennsylvania, gave up their comfortable home there, and with their family sought a new abode in the West. Mr. Orr invested his money in 160 acres of land of exceeding fertility, pleasantly situated in Maquoketa Township. In the years that followed he devoted his time to its cultivation, and brought it to a fine state of tillage, has made many valuable improvements, and with its neat buildings it is classed as one of the best farms in its neighborhood. He has been so successful since coming to this State that he has secured a good income, and has now retired from active labor, renting his land to his son, John, who keeps it up to the same high standard that it had attained under his own management. He and his wife are sincere Christians, as is shown by their conduct in the every day affairs of life, and they are held in the highest estimation by their friends and neighbors. He is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and takes much interest in political matters.

John Orr, Jr., subject of this biographical notice, was born in Sheakleyville, Mercer Co., Pa., Jan. 20, 1849. His early years were spent on his father's farm, and besides having good school advantages, he received a practical training in agriculture, both on the old homestead and on the Iowa farm, to which he came with his parents at the age of eleven years. He remained an inmate of the parental household until he was twenty-three years of age, giving his father valuable assistance in the management of his farm. He then began life for himself, and in that year, 1872, bought forty acres of his present farm. The land was heavily timbered, with no improvements whatever, and required severe and persistent labor with axe and grubbing hoe before the rich soil was fit for cultivation. By incessant and unremitting industry, he improved it, fenced it, erected a substantial and cozy house, 26x24 feet, and a good barn, 22x54 feet, a windmill, tank, and has made many other necessary and valuable improvements. And besides this he has bought twenty-two and one-half acres adjacent, and now has as good a farm for its size as any in the neighborhood. As before mentioned, he is also carrying on his father's farm. He engages in stock raising, having cattle of excellent grades, and horses of good breed, using two teams in his farm labors. He has fifty-three acres of his own land under the plow, and the remainder is in groves and a fine orchard of choice fruit trees. Mr. Orr has been very profitably engaged in the business of threshing, and in the past fifteen falls has worn out two machines. He also devotes some of his time to his trade of a carpenter, and his time is thus fully and profitably occupied.

Our subject has had valuable aid in building up his comfortable home in the active co-operation of his estimable wife, to whom he was united in marriage in August, 1872, in Greenville, Mercer Co., Pa. Mrs. Orr was a native of that county, and her maiden name was Elizabeth J. Kirby. She is a daughter of O.P. and Hannah (McCrosson) Kirby, and receiving a good education, became an intelligent and successful teacher. Of her pleasant marriage with our subject two children have been born, Luella S. and Sarah O.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Orr are valued members of the United Presbyterian Church, and they cheerfuly give practical and substantial aid to all sectarian and benevolent works, and Mr. Orr has been closely identified with the Sunday School work of the church as Superintendent. He is greatly intereted in educational matters, and has served acceptably as School Director two terms. He has been Supervisor of the Roads for several years, and has been very active in the improvement of the highways, and cordially lends his aid to advance all feasible schemes for the benfit of the township. Politically, he is a sound Republican.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)