Flipside: Tombstone Tuesday--Matthew Thomas Orr

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday--Matthew Thomas Orr

MATTHEW THOMAS ORR
1836-1909
104 OVI
(Need to get back to photograph this without ice & snow)

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, I am featuring the tombstone of my maternal Great-granduncle, Matthew Thomas Orr, of Columbiana County, Ohio. Matthew was the son of William Morlan Orr and Nancy Cannon. He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio on September 8, 1836, probably on the family farm in Elkrun Township.

Matthew mustered in to the 104th Regiment, Company C, of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry at East Palestine, Unity Township, Columbiana County on August 2, 1862. He was appointed to the rank of sargeant on August 25, 1862, however, when he mustered out in Greensboro, North Carolina on June 17, 1865, he was listed as a private. Matthew suffered from a gunshot wound which he incurred during the war.

There is a listing in the Columbiana County Death Record which records all county deaths from the Civil War...

"Matthew Orr, 5th Sarg from Elkrun Twp. as having been killed in action in Atlanta, Georgia. 104th Reg OVI Co C." Obviously this account of death was incorrect.

Matthew is listed in the 1890 Special Census for Civil War Veterans and Widows--

Matthew T. Orr, private, Co C 104 Ohio Volunteer Infantry, August 7, 1862 to June 17, 1865. Served 2 years, 10months, 6 days. Gunshot wound.

Matthew died at age seventy-two on December 22, 1909 in Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio. He is buried beside his first wife, Mary Ellen Smith Orr in The Lisbon Cemetery, Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio.

Sources:

1890 Special Census for Civil War Vererans and Widows, New Lisbon, Columbiana, Ohio; Roll: 74; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 49.
Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio. 11 vols.Cincinnati: Wilstach, Baldwin, 1886.
Ohio Death Certificate, Matthew T. Orr, Columbiana County # 59950.

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