Caldwell County MO Archives History .....THE JOHN ORR FAMILY IN MIRABILE TOWNSHIP. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com August 30, 2008, 4:17 pm THE JOHN ORR FAMILY IN MIRABILE TOWNSHIP. Narrator: Mrs. Sallie Morris, 70, of Hamilton, Missouri Prairie Fires Trading in Town Stock and Fences Banks and Money Pleasant Valley School Mrs. Morris was born in Millersburg Holmes County Ohio in 1864. Her father John Orr was born in Armstrong County Pennsylvania and John was twelve when his people moved to Ohio. He did not serve during the Civil War but bought horses for the Government. He was married to Sarah Haley first and Prudence Criswell the second time and had twelve children. This large family containing several sons probably led him to come west at the close of the war where he could get plenty of land cheap. First he came prospecting and then he went back after his family. He bought two hundred and twenty acres with a large house from John Dodge for twenty five dollars ($25) an acre. It lay half way between Mirabile and Kingston. This land before Dodge held it had belonged to one of the Penney family, a slave holder, but when slaves were freed he had to sell his incompleted house to come out even. Orr's father came out soon too but the grandmother Orr stayed in Ohio four years longer and came out with the Elliotts of Millersburg Ohio who located at Mirabile. The new Ohio settlers would stay at the Orr home till they got a home. The Orr home was big with many big rooms. It took thirty yards of rag carpet to cover a floor. When they first came out, prairie fires were common, set on fire often to burn the grass roots. In despair over homesickness for Ohio, one of the Orr boys said "he wished the prairie fires would burn up the whole State of Missouri." Wild turkeys were seen in the Orr district even as late as the eighties, but she recalled no other wild animals except the snakes. The Orr family traded at stores in Kingston and Mirabile. George Treat was their Mirabile merchant. The trip took a half day. Once or twice a year they took a whole days trading trip to Hamilton or Cameron in the lumber wagon; and took the family lunch and often the family dog too who guarded the wagon while they did their trading. There were laid out roads to Hamilton and Cameron running past the Orr house, but the people often made their own paths through the unfenced prairies, whether on foot, horse or wagon. There was much fording of streams, because there were few bridges. Mrs. Morris has seen most of the bridges that now stand in the Kingston, Mirabile and Hamilton region erected in her own life time. The stock, being branded had free range in the sixties and seventies and the stock law was passed requiring the owner to care for his own stock it required the farmer to build fences much to the farmers objection. Many of these fences were horse and rider (stake and rider) made of tree branches, with a big waste of land resulting from the shape. In the days of the seventies Mr. Orr was a man of unusual means in his neighborhood. His was a pioneer home without home made furniture and home privations. There was lots of land and considerable money. He did not use a Bank until 1879 when the Hamilton Savings Bank elected George Lamson as Cashier. People did not use checks then and needed money handy. When he got money he handed it to his wife to care for. She hid it wherever her fancy led. One day Sally (Mrs. Morris) was hunting in a scrap bag and found a roll of bills. Robbers would never look there. The Orrs lived in the Pleasant Valley School district near Mirabile. The district school was first held in a log building in the yard of Mrs. George Walters (great grandmother of Mrs. Louisa Kennedy). Then the present school building was built one half mile north of the Walters log cabin. This school was the first one attended by Mrs. Morris and Miss Rachel Houghton (sister-in- law of Mrs. Morris) was the first teacher in that school. Mrs. Morris' first teacher was Mrs. Clark Edgecomb and her second Mr. Clark Edgecomb. They had blackboards, chalk, Spencerian Copy books but no maps. They used slates with "spit" to erase them. The middle aisle had the stove. On each side was a row of single seats and a row of double seats built into the walls. At seventeen she put on long dresses and put up her hair. The roach comb was the fashion then with teeth at both ends to push back the hair from the forehead. She went to lots of play parties where guessing games were used. Boys went courting about once in two weeks. Dances might be held in the big kitchens. Interviewed March 1934. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/caldwell/history/other/johnorrf91gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb