Print
Permanent LinkRepresentative John Orr View All Years
HONORABLE JOHN ORR
MR. SPEAKER: Your committee appointed to prepare a resolution commemorating the life, character and public services of the late Honorable John Orr of Keokuk county, begs leave to submit the following:
John Orr was born February 18, 1850 in County Down, Ireland, and died at the home of Mrs. Jennie Garrett in Sigourney, Iowa, April 13, 1939, at the age of eighty-nine years, one month, and twenty-six days. He suffered a stroke of paralysis from which he never rallied.
In 1870 he came with his parents, brothers, and sisters to America. They settled in Rock Island county, Illinois. Six years later they moved to Iowa, and in 1879, came to Keokuk county, locating on a farm near Thornburg which was his home for fifty-nine years.
He was married January 12, 1898, to Anna L. Johnston who preceded him in death in 1922. A brother, Robert Orr, with whom he was closely associated in business, died last December. Surviving are three sisters, Mrs. Jane Harding of What Cheer, Mrs. Agnes Dunbar of Cedar Rapids, and Mrs. Belle Biglow of Edmonds, Washington.
Mr. Orr served as Keokuk county Republican Representative in the Iowa Legislature during the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first General Assemblies. He was prominent in Masonic circles and was made a mason in Ireland at the age of nineteen years, and has held a continuous membership in the Order more than seventy years. At the time of his death he was a member of the Masonic Lodge and O. E. S. at Thornburg, Iowa Consistory at Cedar Rapids and Shrine at Davenport.
Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Forty-eighth General Assembly, That the state has lost a valued and beloved citizen, and the House of Representatives would tender, by this resolution, its sincere and heartfelt sympathy to his beloved family in their sorrow.
Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.
W. C. AXMEAR,
F. E. HYETT,
MELVIN WILSON,
Committee.
Unanimously adopted, April 12, 1939.