Orr family

John Orr was born in Montreal, Canada, on February 4, 1841 of Irish immigrant parents, John and Rachel Matthews Orr. As a youth he ran away from home to go to sea, spending some time in South America and visiting his relatives in Coleraine, Ireland. In 1860 he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, and worked with several newspapers until 1861 when he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private. When the 6th Louisiana Infantry was organized he was made Adjutant with rank of Captain. His regiment was in the first battle of Manassas, with Stonewall Jackson in the Valley campaign, in the Seven Days fights around Richmond, and involved in the capture of Harper's Ferry before the battle of Sharpsburg. In an engagement near the Culpepper courthouse in 1863, he was captured and spent seventeen months as a prisoner in the military prison at Johnson Island in Lake Erie.

He came to Texas in 1865, started a business at San Andres, and then later moved to Cameron. In 1867 he sold the Cameron business and formed a partnership with Major J. S. Hanna in Millican. In 1869 the firm of Hanna and Orr moved to Calvert. Major Hanna retired in 1872, and John Orr continued the business there until 1885. He sold this business, moved to Austin, and established a wholesale grocery business on Congress Avenue. He later started a branch office in Llano. He sold the Austin business in 1910, but continued to advise his sons on the Llano business.

He was involved in the civic concerns of Austin, serving on a citizen committee to nominate officers for the new commission form of city government. He was also one of the businessmen who accompanied Governor Hogg in 1894 on a tour of Northern and Eastern cities to explain his reform program.

In 1868 John Orr married Emma Hanna, the eldest daughter of Major Hanna. They had a daughter also named Emma. His wife died in January of 1870 and the daughter died in 1881.

Laura King Allen became his second wife in June of 1871. Their children were John, Jr., Lollie, William, May Bess, and Wilkin Roberts Orr.

He died in Austin on April 22, 1916, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

Laura King (Allen) Orr was born in Willow Springs (close to Calvert, Texas) on September 3, 1851, to Alsey Hudson Allen and Mary Cooper (Stedman) Allen (d. 1895). She had a sister, Mollie, and three brothers: Winship, Cooper "Coop," and Alsey H. Allen. Cooper spent his adult life in Calvert where he owned and operated the C.S. Allen Co. Hardware Store with his brother Winship who sold out his share of the business and retired in 1924. Cooper S. Allen died within a day of his ailing oldest brother, Alsey, when he was hit by a train on his way home for lunch.

Laura King Allen married John Orr in Calvert in June of 1871. They had seven children: John, Jr., Lollie, William, May Bess, Wilkin Roberts, and 2 daughters who died in infancy.

In 1885 the family moved to Austin and established a home on Pearl Street. They lived there the rest of their lives except for several years when they lived in Llano.

She died while visiting her youngest daughter, Bess Evans, in Montclair, New Jersey, on October 8, 1922. She is buried in the family plot in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin.

John Orr, Jr., was the firstborn son of John and Laura Orr. He studied at the Hood Seminary in Austin and at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. In 1898, when his father opened a branch of his wholesale business in Llano, he was made manager. By 1902 he was living and working in the West in hopes of improving his ill health. He died in the spring of 1909.

William Orr was born in Calvert, Texas, in 1881. He served as secretary of the family business, managed the Llano store after his brother left for the West, and served as President after his father's death. He died in 1959.

Lollie Orr was born in Calvert on November 25, 1878. She attended the Hood Seminary, Baylor College at Belton (1894-95) and graduated from the National Park Seminary in Forest Glen, Maryland (near Washington, D.C.) in 1898. Returning to Austin, she lived with her parents until she married Charles Henry Huberich, a law professor at the University of Texas, in June of 1902. They had a daughter, May Bessie, who was born in 1903 in Austin. They moved to Palo Alto, California, in 1905. In 1909 they spent some time in Berlin and in Madison, Wisconsin, where he taught at the University of Wisconsin. They lived in the East in 1911. In 1912 they traveled to Europe and lived in Berlin for about a year. Lollie and May Bessie returned to the United States in 1913 and lived with her sister for a while. She and her daughter returned to Texas in 1914. She and her husband divorced in 1915 or 1916.

To make a living she studied at the University of Texas and obtained a teaching certificate. She taught at the Whitis School in 1915 and later at the Highlands School. Then she opened Mrs. Huberich's School on the grounds of the family home on Pearl Street. She continued to run her school until 1945 when the house was sold, and she moved to Terrytown and reopened her school. When she was 78 years old she retired. She was living with her daughter in McIndoe Falls, Vermont, when she died in October of 1969. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

May Bessie Huberich was born September 26, 1903. She graduated from the University of Texas in 1924 with a teaching degree and first taught at her mother's school. Later she taught in Hillsboro and in Houston. While taking some classes at Columbia in 1928 in New York City she met Alexander Dunnett Gibson. They were married in Toulouse, France, in June of 1929.

After spending some time in France, they returned to New York City where Alexander accepted a teaching post as French instructor at Horace Mann School. In 1936 they moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he taught at the William Penn Charter School. He accepted a position at Mount Hermon School, in Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, in 1939, and at Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1944. He published several books on the French language and another on the history of McIndoes Academy.

They had two children: Barbara Jean born in 1934, and Alexander Dunnett, Jr. "Sandy" born in 1937.

Bess Orr was the youngest daughter of John and Laura Orr. She was born in Calvert in 1883. She attended school at the Hood Seminary in Austin and Monticello College in Godfrey, Illinois.

She married Francis Hurlbut "Babe" Evans, the youngest son of Ira and Francese Evans, in November of 1907. They lived in Denver, Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Cincinnati during his business career. When he retired in 1953, they returned to Austin to live.

Bess Evans died in November of 1962 and Francis Evans died in February of 1963.

Wilkin Orr was born in Austin in 1886 and attended the Hood Seminary in Austin and Austin High School. He worked for the family business for a short time in 1902. He attended Texas A&M College and graduated in 1906 with an engineering degree. Deciding against an engineering career, he worked for the Otis Elevator Company in Houston. He then took over the management of the Llano business in 1911. With his mother's death in 1922, he became vice-president of the family business. Before he retired he was the concessions auditor of the Texas State Parks Board.

He married Bess Moore, daughter of Franklin and Maud Moore, November 9, 1910, in Houston. Their daughter Hallie Elizabeth was born in 1911.

After he retired he and his wife returned to Austin to live close to their daughter. He died in November of 1965 and Bess died in 1968.

Hallie Orr graduated from Llano High School and attended the University of Texas graduating in 1934. She married Jim Tom Barton on March 6, 1937, in Austin.

Jim Tom Barton was a CPA with an undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University and a master's degree from the University of Texas. He worked for a time as the financial manager of the Texas Highway planning survey during World War Two. He enlisted in the Navy and was at the district headquarters in New Orleans. He then attended the Naval School of Military Government and Administration at Columbia University, New York. As a Lieutenant Commander he was attached to the military government in the Marianas Islands.

After the war they returned to Austin, and he worked with the firm Wade, Barton and Marsh. They had two children: Thomas Orr and Betty Drury.

Charles Huberich was born in 1877 in Ohio and grew up in San Antonio. He earned his law degree at the University of Texas in 1897 and also studied at Yale and Heidelberg. He taught law and political science at the University of Texas from 1900 to 1905. In 1907 he taught at Stanford then at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago. In 1912 he moved with his wife, child and mother to Berlin. There he started a private practice in international law, with offices also in London and The Hague.

He and Lollie divorced in 1915 or 1916. He remained in Europe throughout the war with an official residence in New York. His second wife was Georgian Princess Nina Mdivani.

He wrote several books on German law, among books on other topics, and was considered an authority on Liberian history with the publication of his 2 volume Political and Legislative History of Liberia.

He died in 1945. Stanford University has a collection of his papers.

Frank P. Moore (d.1919) wed Maud Drury on June 3, 1886. The couple spent most of their lives in Houston and had four children: Hallie Drury, Bess, Max (b. 1891) and Henry Marie (b.1893). Before their marriage, Frank P. Moore worked for the Howe Machine Company. Maud Drury attended Add-Ran College in Thorpe Spring, Texas. Later, Frank was Secretary and Manager of the Hollywood Cemetery Association in Houston, Texas where the couple lived at the Rice Hotel. Maud Drury Moore was affiliated with the Masonic Home and School for a long period of time.

As noted above, Bess Moore married Wilkin Orr and lived in Llano with their daughter Hallie Elizabeth Orr.

Hallie Drury Moore graduated from Houston High School in 1905 and spent several years living in Louisville, Kentucky before marrying Joseph Samuel Welboan. The couple had a son, Joseph Samuel "Junie" Welboan Jr. and lived in Alvin, Texas.

Max Moore served in the armed forces in World War I after which he returned to Houston.

Henry Marie "Hennie Wee" Moore married Franklin A. Dean and lived in Louisville, Kentucky. They later moved to Freeport, Texas.

From the guide to the Orr, Huberich and Barton Families Papers AR. Z. 002., 1864-1965., (Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, 810 Guadalupe Street, Austin, Texas, 78701.)