Keeping Track of Family History

By Elaine L. Orr

Early in August, I attended the final reunion of the Orr family of Mount Vernon, Missouri. It began in 1937 (you read that correctly) to celebrate my third great-grandparents' arrival in Southwest Missouri. Ninety years of celebrations for Orrs, Campbells, Shirleys, and more. 

My branch came to the U.S. from Londonderry (Northern Ireland) in 1834, where they worshipped at Aghadowey Presbyterian Church. As the story goes, my GGG grandfather (William Orr) thought there would not be opportunities for their two young sons in Ireland and the boys should go to America. They were both under 3, so he was really looking ahead. My GGG grandmother (Jennie Adams) supposedly bemoaned the idea and then said they would all have to go. 

Aghadowey Presbyterian in 1932

Sadly, they arrived only with son Paul, my GG grandfather. Robert died at sea just before landing. Jennie refused to allow him to be buried at sea and carried him off the ship wrapped in a blanket. It's said the captain inquired as to Robert's health as they disembarked.

Immigrant families were welcomed then. They first went to Ohio, as did a brother (James Orr and wife Jane Reed) who arrived in 1832. Despite a trip to Tuscawares County in that state, I've never been able to figure out why they went there after landing in Canada at "the mouth of the St. Lawrence River." Likely someone from their home parish in Ireland had gone there. Eventually, one family went to Indiana and mine looked for land in Missouri.

That corner of Missouri became the draw for others, first another brother (George and wife Elizabeth Brown), who arrived at the beginning of the Civil War. 

A Late Arrival Permits Thriving in the U.S.

Two years later, a sister (Isabella Orr Campbell) arrived at Castle Gardens with six children. Sadly, her husband, Ephraim, had died during the crossing.

As odd as it may seem, the Campbell arrival is one of my favorite stories. That family tells that the ship their ancestors were supposed to be on (a steamer) left before they arrived at the port. They thus took a sailing vessel, which took six weeks instead of five days – possibly why Ephraim became ill and died. However, the steamer was lost at sea! So many achievements and joys in this family, and none of it would have happened if they had received word of the earlier departure.

Helping Families Over Time

One other family, descendants of sister Martha Orr who married John Mitchell, came to Missouri in the 1880s. Times in Ireland were so difficult that a grandson of Martha's (Sam Knox) wrote to Uncle George to ask for help in coming to America. They'd never met him -- he left before they were born. But they heard that Uncle George had gotten rich in America. 

He sent funds, and Sam and the sister he traveled with, Lizzie, made it to a port and  then traveled to Verona, MO by train. "Rich Uncle George" picked hem up in a rickety wagon. He was said to be parsimonious and stern, but the Knox and Campbell families would have had a terrible time during their early years in America without him. 

Ozark Prairie Cemetery dedicated to Sam Knox.

Sam and Lizzie worked hard, Sam some of the time in a mill that Campbell family members owned in Jasper County. They saved and brought three other siblings and their mother to America. They initially all found work with different Orr and Campbell family members and eventually prospered. 

When Sam died in August 1953, he left $500 to the White Oak Presbyterian Church where he'd worshipped and $500 each to three cemeteries that held extended family members. These were huge sums at that time, especially for the small, rural cemeteries. 

East Coast Arrivals

One more family came to America, that of Ann Orr and husband Valentine Shirley. They, however, went to the east coast, Pennsylvania, where Valentine had family. The impetus for their emigration from Ireland was also economic, but in a different way. The Shirley family was well know for fine linen work. Looms and the beginning of mechanized production ended a lot of their work. 

Unlike the midwestern families, the Shirley descendants began life in America as servants (the girls) and mine and factory workers. Like  the Knox family, they came over time. One brave sister arrived in 1857 and worked for a family in Philadelphia. She saved and brought another sister, but that woman didn't come until 13 years later! Then other brothers and sisters, and finally the parents.

Ann and Valentine were in their sixties when they got to America. William and James were in their twenties, and the parents in the George Orr family and Campbells families in their forties. All together, they arrived between the early 1830s and late 1880s -- a 50-year span.

Keeping Family Ties

As diverse and far-flung as this huge family was, they wanted to keep in contact. They'd done so via letters -- including sharing stories of trips back to Ireland. The Campbells had regular large picnics, which one of my ancestor, William's son, John Adams Orr, had gone to. I thought perhaps he attended their picnics because he (a college graduate) had more in common with some Campbells who'd also been able to attend college. Then I realized while John was one of ten children, he had been the only surviving one for 20 years! 

Before John Adams Orr died in 1936, he asked his sons to bring family members together. The next year, sons William Alfred and George Boyd Orr did just that, and reunions took place over 90 years. One-hundred-seven people from three of the Missouri families attended the first year; over time, families from Indiana and the East Coast joined them. Their get-togethers always took place at a small rural church in Lawrence County, MO -- Ozark Prairie Presbyterian Church, three miles from Mount Vernon.

I try to imagine a family reunion starting today and lasting 90 years, and I can't. Families are smaller and they don't live in close proximity. In fact, that's part of what eventually brought an end to the Orr Reunion. Once there isn't a nucleus in a common location, attendance falls off. Even so, once we announced the last one would be this year, 57 stalwarts got together.

I'll be writing next about the Presbyterian Heritage of this family and how it expanded after arrival in the U.S.

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When is an Ending a Beginning?

By Elaine L. Orr

I've written many times about attending the Orr Reunion of Mount Vernon the first Sunday in August each year, sometimes reflecting on history of the times, sometimes the camaraderie. This year, 2026, is the 90th and the last reunion.

As families dispersed, fewer have attended as children (or did so rarely) so they don't continue the tradition. You have to "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em."

Ironically, now that we've publicized the final event, we have people coming from a number of states -- it will be the biggest one in years. We'll drink the family-recipe lemonade, eat good food, and reminisce.

But we've also talked to the Missouri State Historical Society about accepting records and photos of the reunion itself and the histories of the families -- Orr, Campbell, Mitchell, Knox, Shirley and more. They have agreed, but it will be an immense amount of material to organize and decide how to present.

It's always about storytelling, isn't it? 

Stay tuned.

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Two Hundred Fifty Years of Education, Especially in Missouri

By Elaine L. Orr

When early white settlers came to what is now the United States, they generally lived in groups in what would become great cities. Coming from nations with established education systems, they knew the value of collective learning. 

Education in the First Colonies

New College (later Harvard University) was founded in 1636, The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1693. Both started as colleges and their university designations (which says they give degrees beyond what we call today a bachelor's degree) came later.

Free public education below that level was not available and did not emerge until well into the nineteenth century. There were initially some religious schools, mostly for (white) boys; if girls were educated it would have been at home, taught enough to run a household. Families were expected to pay a fee as there was no government role in schools.

Petty schools in Massachusetts reached more children and were open to those who could pay a fee. "Every Massachusetts town held meetings and voted on how many schools to build...how much public funds to use, and how much the students would pay to attend." Had there been no Harvard, these schools would not have been widespread. The Masachusetts Bay Colony required towns to fund schools so local boys could qualify for Harvard.

Slaveholders in the south did not permit Black children or adults to be schooled, fearing it would lead to rebellion. Even teaching them to read the Bible was almost always forbidden -- and punished. The Bray School in Williamsburg educated 400 free and enslaved Black children between 1760 and 1774.

Schools on the Prairie

My personal interest is more focused on the Midwest and the stories I heard were about schools in Southwest Missouri, which was fairly typical of how sparse country towns approached education. 

In a nutshell, Missouri's early public education started with small, fee-based town schools. In 1817, St. Louis opened the first public school west of the Mississippi River. The state legislature passed a law allowing public school districts in 1839. A strong statewide system was finally built under the new state constitution in 1865. (Thanks to  AI for this summary.)

My Orr family, led by William Orr and Jane Adams, went to what is now Lawrence County, Missouri in 1837. They came from Ireland, which had a strong primary education system. When brother George Orr and his wife Elizabeth Brown arrived in 1862, he had served as a teacher in Northern Ireland, some in Belfast. When the children of sister Isabella arrived in 1863 (Isabella and her husband Ephraim Campbell died en route or soon after) they became the branch of educators. (More later.)

Early public education in Lawrence County began in the 1850s when the state set up township school districts. The tiny one-room school houses were not limited to towns. The ones my ancestors attended were on the prairie and teachers would live with one of the families. 

School and Church Connection

First priority, though, was creating a church commnity. For the Orrs, it was Ozark Prairie Presbyterian Church, founded in late 1837. I don't know if any of my family was at the first service, held in a private home. They provided many elders, men and women, and helped construct what is now called "The Brick" in 1872, about three miles from the county seat of Mount Vernon. 

Churches brought Sunday Schools, which meant (for many) learning or expanding their ability to read. The year 1840 saw the first in Lawrence County (some say the first West of the Mississippi River). Its first location was at the "Head of the River Schoolhouse" south of Verona. The Shady Grove School was built on that site in 1861. Families rose  early and brought their Bibles, likely a dictionary, and dinner and stayed for much of the day. (See the reference for Down Turnback Trails.)

Women in the Early Schools

No women, no rural schools; it's that simple. The communities built their one-room schoolhouses, generally with donated wood and labor. Early ones had dirt floors, but most had wood. No electricity, of course, and an old wood stove for heat. Teachers sometime brought the wood each day.

By the  mid-to-late1800 through early 1900s (and sometimes later), children attended through roughly what we think of at eighth grade. All in one room, though teachers might divide the students into groups. The rural school year was shorter than today, often broken up by planting and harvest seasons.

The Mount Vernon High School was on the original town plat in 1845 and the "Old Main" part of the modernized school was built in 1900. My father and two brothers graduated in 1933. The youngest was with the two older because he was the only one in his grade in the earlier one-room school house, so the teacher bumped him up a year.

Girls (usually not boys) went to 'normal' school, which was for teacher training. My Aunts Mary Frances (Tancy) Orr Schnake and Elizabeth Orr Seneker attended, though Lib married a minister and didn't teach too long. 

Tancy taught for 30 years, including at the one-room Liberty School (shown with students 1948/1949) and later at the modern elementary in Mount Vernon. Later in life, she earned a Master's Degree in Education. Teachers usually had the same many family responsibilities as others. Tancy and her husband had a farm in Stotts City, MO and helping her feed the chickens was a big treat.

Education Varied by When You Arrived on the Prairie

The earliest Orr families in Lawrence County found no schools and children would initially learn from their parents, starting with reading the Bible. They were smart, inquisitive people, and I've read stories about my GG Grandfather, Paul Orr, becoming an expert, through reading, on many topics. He went through a time of opining on the importance of bees, which we've all come to appreciate even more as their numbers dwindle today.

Paul was born in Ireland in 1829 and the eighth child, John Adams Orr, was born in Missouri in 1846. There were thus local school to attend. One family history said it was a family tradition to educate (beyond perhaps eighth grade) one child. He was sent to St. Louis and returned to Lawrence County very interested in all aspects of agriculture, including creating hybrid plants. He ran his parents' farm for many years and moved into Mount Vernon later. While most of his siblings were in industries related to farming, one of John's sons son was a physician, another joined the Farm Services Administration, and a third ran the local hardware store and funeral home. 

As time went on, families moved to professions besides agriculture. One had many who attended Drury University in Springfield and my first cousin, Don Seneker, taught at Southwest Missouri State. 

The Orr siblings who stayed longer in Ireland (George and Isabella) brought childen to the US. who had gone to established schools there, and George was a teacher in Ireland. One son had a law degree, two moved to Colorado to homestead, and a daughter married a local merchant and had several daughters who taught in Missouri or Oklahoma.

Isabella's children settled mostly in nearby Jasper County and bloomed with educators and librarians, generally women. John Adams Orr was close to these families (who were also younger than his siblings, closer to his age) and had similar education levels to his. 

All work is good work, but it's interesting to see that education, to some extent, leads to work outside of agriculture. Of course, as the U.S. economy expanded, so did Orr descendants' professions. There probably would not have been an Orr Reunion Association wthout John Adams Orr. He encouraged his sons to find a way to keep bringing the broader family together and  they did (in 1937), almost immediately after his 1936  death. Orr descendants from across the USA attended for 90 years.

A Very Few Sources

Hamlets and Schools of Northern Lawrence County by Willie Washam. Independently Published, 2014. Among contributors was the Lawrence County Historical Society, in which several cousins have had leadership roles for many years. (amazon.com/dp/1500583804 )

Down Turnback Trails: A Sketch Book of Lawrence County, Missouri, edited by Kathy Seneker Fairchild and published by the Lawrence County Historical Society and the Lawrence County Record, 1992. The 2018 'revisited version', is available at amazon.com/dp/1974535169.

Ozark Prairie Presbyterian Church is still a site of worship though with dwindling membership -- as is the case for many rural churches. It is at 15032 Lawrence 2077, Mt Vernon, MO 65712, with Sunday service at 9 AM. My father was baptized there in 1915 and the Orr Reunion Association (founded by Alfred and George Orr, sons of John Adams Orr and Frannie Scroggs) met there for 90 years, ending in 2026. It still maintains a Facebook Group at: facebook.com/groups/278132529600112.

If you want an appreciation of strong women running one-room schools, read about Minnie Freeman, who saved her thirteen students from the "Childrens' Blizzard" of 1888. With no forecast of the storm and plunging temperatures, to stay in the unheated schools or to try to make it home could be deadly. She tied her Nebraska students together with twine and (carrying the youngest) managed to walk them to a farmhouse. 245 children died, hers lived.

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

The Chesapeake Bay is in My Blood

By Elaine L. Orr

As a child, we visited beaches along the Bay -- much closer to Washington, DC metro area than the ocean beaches. I remember the beaches had nets around them to prevent sea nettles (small jellyfish) from stinging us. 

In the 1970s, my friend Barbara and I bought a cottage on the Western Shore of the Bay in the town of Chesapeake Beach. At the time it was a sleepy place, though it's been built up since then. 

The photo here reflects questionable judgment on our parts. We bought this cottage on the Western Shore in the late 1970s. It had been built in the days before indoor plumbing (though someone had added a cinderblock supplement in the back) and desperately needed a new roof. 

Turns out it had seven (yes, seven) layers of roofing. A wonder the place hadn’t flattened under the weight. This is us hammering shingles. The picture was taken from the house behind us by a horrified neighbor.

I'm not sure my thinking has gotten a lot saner, but I no longer climb on roofs.

Now you know why I'm writing the Bay View Harbor Mystery Series!

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Writing Choices

 By Elaine L. Orr

This week's Cozy Crime Weeky newsletter (by Marian at CozyMystery.com) talked about authors moving from cozy mysteries to other genres, and said she would miss them but wished them well. Then she added: "Now, if you treat cozy mysteries like the minor leagues, just a place to hone your skills before you move onto bigger and better, we’re going to have a whole different conversation."

Several times through the years, someone has asked me when I planned to write tougher mysteries or more complex mysteries. I don't punch their lights out (not much violence in my books), but I do find it insulting. 

I  like amateur sleuths, though it can be hard to find a good reason for them to be involved in crime solving sometimes. Do they live in a crime capital? Are their lives so dull they look for trouble? Cozy mystery writers will sometimes joke about the Cabot Cove Effect, a reference to the long-running TV show with Angela Landsbury as Jessica Fletcher ("Murder She Wrote").

The show's writers would take her out of Cabot Cove sometimes. A segment took her to New York City where she taught a writing class for a season. Her immersion in other people's lives seemed almost seamless. And that is what it takes or watchers (and readers) would say she was a nosy biddy.

At some point, she became someone residents or the (bumbling) local sheriff turned to for help. That moved her closer to a professional investigator, but not quite.

I plan to stick with cozies and have been exploring different settings. I've learned it's hard to leave the characters I like, so I need to keep writing in the existing series. Plus, as an entrepreneur, it's important to give readers more of what they've liked.

As a reward as I wrote the second book in the Bay View Harbor Mystery Series, I've started the sixth in the Family History Mystery Series. Take a look, and feel free to send comments.

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Books as Barometers

By Elaine L. Orr

In 2007, I had a day job and continued to work on the first three books of the Jolie Gentil series. Like most readers, I liked to do anything with books and I had A TON OF BOOKS, so I started selling some online through Alibris. I kept a small stock of 200 books and they were mostly popular ones, so I made between one and two hundred per minth.

Then came the fall and orders fell off the proverbial cliff. One description of the situation was: Beginning in August 2007, pressures in the financial markets turned into a panic, freezing the global credit system when investors realized the extent of bad subprime mortgages. (AI generated) 

Everyday folks may not have been able to predict the decline that would become the 2008 recession (which officially started in December 2007), but they were pulling back spending bigtime. After a couple of months of almost no sales, I donated most of the books to the local library and Goodwill.

Here we are in 2026 and Barnes and Noble is opening new stores because reading is "in" again. Yay! 

But the economy has had some tremulous moments, housing prices are off the charts, and the U.S. is in another war we can't seem to get out of. Will that affect book sales?

I've now published nearly forty books, mostly genre fiction, and generally make enough each month to be happy. That meant a few hundred dollars and quite a bit more when I have a new book. This is June 9th. On Amazon, I have made $12.79 so far. 

Excuse me? I had a new book in May, so my expectation would be a steady stream of buyers for that book (and usually others) for a few months at least. I have not had a month this bad since early 2011 (when I had one book out).

I checked with a few friends I know well enough to ask if they are having similar experiences. Pretty much the same. I sell what the industry calls 'wide,' meaning at all online retailers. I also have my books with IngramSpark which gives bookstores and libraries a place to order. Those retailers seem to be about the same as Amazon.

Economic woes may not be the sole issue. Bowker (which issues ISBNs) reports an increase of 32.5% of books with ISBNs between 2024 and 2025. That's remarkable. Publisher's Weekly reports a rise in traditional and self-published books in the past three years.

So more books mean more competition -- even if some are AI-generated. But that would not lead to such a recent dramatic drop in sales for me. People say, "Amazon must have changed their algorithm." 

I looked it up. Google said: "The core of Amazon's search engine (often referred to as A10) has completely shifted. If you are a buyer, you are seeing search results curated by an AI that prioritizes profitability and off-platform engagement."

My reaction is not printable. I don't even know what off-platform engagement is. If it's book signings and such, mine are lower after two years with cancer (now seemingly cured) and several orthopedic surgeries. But still... It must mean that AI looks for authors who are visible in the news and on social media. Maybe?

It's ironic, because AI firms used published authors' work to teach themslves about books and writing. To see what it knew, I asked ChatGPT to write a short story similar to "Elaine L. Orr's Jolie Gentil cozy mysteries." In two seconds it described the series and its characters and in a few more seconds wrote a roughly 2,000 word story. It was not good, but still... Again, my reaction is not printable.

So, time to adjust. I have to figure out how, because the current situation is nuts. 

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Paperbacks at Barnes and Noble

By Elaine L. Orr

Beginning May 14^th, all paperback books published through Barnes and Noble Press were required to be priced at $14.99 or more. BN Press is the in-house publishing firm that self published authors use for ebooks and paperbacks at Barnes and Noble. I suppose some smaller publishing companies use it, too.

The rationale is that BN needs the higher price to run a quality business. (That is my shorthand.)

 I have taken down all of my standard-sized paperbacks, which I sold for $9 or $10.99 – less for shorter books or novellas. I love my books, but I don’t feel right about selling them for 9.99 on Amazon and then upping the price by $5 just to have them on Barnes and Noble. I will start putting my large print books on BN. They are longer books and I don’t mind selling them for that price. They will still be cheaper on Amazon.

I expect that Barnes and Noble will pick up my books via Ingram. At least I have not heard that they are trying to tell Ingram what to do! Ingram’s price point was a bit higher than my Barnes and Noble prices because that’s what they required. However I don’t think anything was as much as $14.99.

 So sad. I have listed books on BN since February 2012. My ebooks will always be on BN for Nook.

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.