BIO: Walter Coffin ODIORNE, Huntingdon County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley: 
Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata and Perry, 
Pennsylvania, Containing Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens and Many of the Early Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. 
Runk & Co., 1897, pages 56-58.
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  WALTER COFFIN ODIORNE, chief clerk and secretary, Pennsylvania Industrial 
Reformatory, Huntingdon, Pa., was born in Boston, Mass., December 30, 1842.  
He is a son of George and Clementina F. (Coffin) Odiorne.  George Odiorne 
was born at Nantucket, Mass., July 31, 1814.  He was well-known in public 
life, having been for many years a councilman of the city of Boston, and 
having also sat in the State Senate.  He was extensively engaged in 
contracting and in land operations; he held the contract for the filling in 
of Back Bay, and was thus entitled to the gratitude of Bostonians for his 
efficient assistance in rendering that locality one of the most attractive 
places of residence in their city.  Mrs. George. Odiorne was born at Cape 
Ann, Mass., December 23, 1816; like her husband, she spent her entire life 
in the vicinity of her birthplace.  They had ten children, of whom two died 
in infancy, and the remaining eight attained mature age, and married, as 
follows: Mary Louisa, born January 23, 1841, is the widow of Horace 
Stebbins, and resides in South Orange, N.J.; Walter Coffin, John Fisher, 
born December 6, 1845, resides in Elizabeth, N.J., and is a partner with 
Worman, Simons & Co., umbrella manufacturers; Annie C., born September 30, 
1848, is the widow of Horace Homer, resides in Boston; George F., born April 
6, 1851, manager Plainfield Courier, residence Plainfield, N.J.; Howard 
Langdon, born August 18, 1853, resides at Florence, S.C., is president of a 
cotton-seed oil establishment; Frank H., born August 11, 1855, died February 
15, 1895, his widow resides at Elizabeth, N.J.; Mabel, horn September 1, 
1857, is the wife of Franklin Rolfe, and resides at Winchester, Mass., Mr. 
Rolfe being engaged in the wholesale fruit business in Boston.  Mrs. George 
Odiorne died in Boston, December 12, 1890, and her husband in the same city, 
November 38, 1892.
  The life of Walter Coffin Odiorne has been largely one of travel and 
vicissitude, involving many and varied experiences.  After the completion of 
his education in the excellent public schools of his native city, Boston, he 
was for a short time a salesman with Edward Nichols & Richards, wholesale 
dry goods and notions; but in his seventeenth year, on March 17, 1850, he 
sailed from the old historic city on the ship Mameluke, for the then still 
new land of California; the vessel was bound "around the Horn."  Arriving at 
San Francisco, he first went with a messmate to the southern gold mines to 
visit some relatives of the latter.  After a stay of about three months in 
California, the young traveler went to Washington Territory, and on his 
return to San Francisco, took passage for Liverpool, England.  Two months 
were passed in England, and then, on a sailing vessel, he returned to his 
native land, reaching New York just after Fort Sumter had been fired upon.  
Two years of travel had not lessened his predilection for the sea, and he 
promptly decided to volunteer in the U. S. Naval Service.  An application to 
the Secretary of the Navy brought him the appointment of master's mate, with 
orders to join the U. S. steamship Cambridge at Charlestown Navy Yard, bound 
for service in the North Atlantic squadron.  With this squadron he was 
connected until April 21, 1863.  In November, 1862, Mr. Odiorne was captured 
and confined in Libby Prison for four weeks; he was then exchanged.  His 
promotion to acting ensign followed, and his transfer to the United States 
steamship Wissahickon, of the South Atlantic squadron; this vessel lay off 
the harbor of Charleston, S.C., during most of the time, until that city was 
captured.  Before that time, on May 24, 1864, Mr. Odiorne was appointed to 
the mortar schooner T. A. Ward, of which vessel he had command for the 
greater part of the time that he was aboard of her.  After peace was 
declared, he brought this schooner to the Navy Yard at Kittery, Me., and was 
granted leave of absence.  He was afterwards ordered to Norfolk, Va.; and 
there Mr. Odiorne resigned his commission, after a service of four years, 
seven months and eight days.
  From that time until 1869, Mr. Odiorne was in Cincinnati, O., in charge of 
an extensive wholesale notion house.  At that date he engaged in the same 
business in Baltimore, Md., but continued there only until 1870, when he 
sold out and went to Philadelphia.  One year he spent in that city, in the 
manufacture of brush blocks and brushes; in 1871, he went to Boston, and 
became a partner in a mercantile enterprise with his brother George.  In the 
following year, without giving up his interest in this business, he went 
[to] Muirkirk, Md., and engaged in a branch of the iron business; during his 
absence from Boston, his stock and business there were swept away by the 
disastrous fire of 1873.  He continued in the iron business for thirteen 
years, and was secretary and treasurer of the company.  In 1885, Mr. Odiorne 
sold out his interest in that concern, and in the following year, in 
connection with others, took a contract for brushes to be made in the New 
Jersey State Prison; this business he conducted with success for three 
years.  In 1889, however, he was unsuccessful in renewing the contract, and 
came to the Huntingdon Reformatory.  There being at that place no buildings 
of the capacity requisite for carrying on the brush manufacture, Mr. Odiorne 
was obliged to store his plant until such time as the necessary additions 
could be made.  He went to Philadelphia, and remained there until early in 
1890, when he was appointed by Major McClaughry to his present position.  
Mr. Odiore is a member of George Simpson Post, No. 44, G.A.R. of Huntingdon; 
of Washington Council, P.O.S. of A.; of the Loyal Legion of U.S.A.; 
Philadelphia Commandery, No. 3818, of Philadelphia; of this organization his 
son also is a member.
  Walter C. Odiorne was married in Cincinnati, January 23, 1867, to Hannah 
W., daughter of Joseph and Martha W. Jones, of Philadelphia, Pa.  They have 
had ten children, of whom two died in childhood.  They are as follows: 
Walter Jones; Marie Louise; Ethel Maude (Mrs. William H. Sears), of 
Huntingdon; Clement Coffin, died August 29, 1878; and Clementina Foster, 
twins; Langdon Coffin; Annette Rumford; Hannah Walker, died January 4, 1884; 
George Bigelow; and Alfred Joseph.  Mr. and Mrs. Odiorne and their family 
are connected with the First Baptist church, Huntingdon.