Green and Orange Irish Coming Together

By Elaine L. Orr

My four siblings and I were very aware of being Irish (our Mom's maiden name had been Rooney and her mom's Teehan). As we got older, we  learned more about the Orr family also having been in Ireland a couple of hundred years before coming to America in the 1830s. They had initially been in Scotland, so were very clear about being Scots Irish. 

You guessed it, my father was Presbyterian and my mother Catholic. In mixed Protestant-Catholic families, the children are more likely to be raised Catholic, and we lived near our Catholic Parish and were very active in it. But having a Presbyterian dad and many cousins meant we knew Catholicism was not the "only way." In fact, we had 22 first cousins on our dad's side, and only seven on our mom's -- doesn't exactly fit the stereotype.

My parents had very irreverent humor. My dad once gave my mom a plaque that had a shamrock on it and said, "May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead." 

We also had an Orr family history that was written in 1954 and no in-depth history on the Rooney side until we were adults. That very interesting Orr history showed us how a group of brothers and sisters helped each other get to the U.S. between 1832 and  the 1890s. It also showed that the Orrs wanted to be sure everyone knew they were Scots Irish -- a.k.a. Protestant. And Presbyterian, not Church of Ireland. There was even an anecdote in the written history that one Orr descendant still in Ireland was unhappy her son married a Catholic -- but that turned out to be hearsay, not true. The line was crossed out.

A difference that would have mattered greatly had my parents lived in Ireland but was no big deal in the U.S. Of course, in the 1940s, our parents would probably not have met in Ireland. However, my dad would likely have known how to spell the name of his denomination. They married in the rectory of Mom's Catholic parish in Kansas. Mom looked at the paperwork when they were done and didn't understand why Dad had said he was Methodist rather than Presbyterian. He said he was the latter, but he couldn't spell it. The priest, of course, repeated the story.

Since moving to the Midwest in the mid-1990s, I've been to the small rural church where my dad was baptized probably 40 times; there's been an annual family reunion there until recently. The first reunion I attended in 1995 caught me up short when my cousin, reunion president, not only wore an orange tie but reminded the group that they were "orange Irish," not green.

Coming from a neighborhood outside of Washington, DC with every religion and many countries of origin, I wasn't sure how to take that. True, the Troubles in Northern Ireland (Ulster) didn't end until 1998, but why stress the differences? I quietly asked. His response was perfect -- essentially we didn't need to highlight the differences. He wore a green tie the next year.

We are equals in that ground.

Meantime, I learned a lot about my Rooney and Teehan Irish roots after coming to the Midwest and meeting the children of some of my mom's first cousins. Essentially, those families came for the same reasons as the Orr families -- there were few opportunities in Ireland, even with the pretty good education system. The Teehans came during the potato famine, so they were hungry.

And guess what? They all melded into their new country and many took great joy in owning land -- for farming, not just a home garden. Land is really scarce in Europe compared to the Americas. From what I could tell doing research, no one in any of the Irish families actually owned land.

It turns out that freedom and equal opportunities are great equalizers.

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Elaine wrote an extensive history of the Orr family and is about to start on "the other side." To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

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