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Below is a family biography included in The History of Bedford County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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W. C. ORR and family reside in the Eighth Civil District of Bedford County, Tenn., six miles north of Shelbyville, their home being located on the Middletown road. The family consists of the father, above named, born February 14, 1829, and four children: William M., born November 6, 1854; David F., born June 6, 1859; Mary A., born March 18, 1862, and Minnie J., born August 3, 1866. There are two vacancies in the family, caused by the death of the mother. Temperance Orr (nee Miller), born in August, 1830, and died May 14, 1876, and John Fain, the eldest child, who died in infancy. W. C. Orr is of Scotch-Irish descent, and is a son of John and Penelope (Morgan) Orr, who were early settlers of Bedford County, being emigrants from the Carolinas. Mr. Orr is a farmer, and served as magistrate of his district from 1870 to 1876. His wife was a daughter of Nathaniel Miller, of Rutherford County, and married our subject in 1854. She was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church. Mr. Orr obtained a fair education in the common branches, and became an adept in penmanship, which he taught a few years. In 1878 he began the study of medicine under Drs. Evans & Fite, of Shelbyville, and the same year attended lectures in the medical department of the Vanderbilt University, of Nashville, Tenn., and read and practiced at home until the fall of 1881, when he attended his second course in the same institution and took his degree at the close of the spring term of 1882. Returning home he located with his father, where he has since practiced his chosen profession. D. F. Orr, son of W. C. Orr, received a common school education, and attended the Shelbyville Normal and High School for three years, and graduated in 1879. He afterward taught in the various public schools of Bedford and Rutherford Counties, and in the fall of 1884 attended his first course of lectures in the Vanderbilt University. He returned home and taught school eight mouths, and then returned to college and graduated at the close of the session in 1886. Mary A. Orr also received a good education, having attended the Shelbyville Normal and High School, the Soule Female College at Murfreesboro and the Winchester Normal College. For several years she has been teaching in Bedford and Rutherford Counties. Minnie J. Orr attended school two years at the Winchester Normal, and is now teaching her first school.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in The History of Bedford County, Tennessee published in 1887 by Goodspeed.  The History of Bedford County was included within The History of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Beford and Marshall Counties of Tennessee

View additional Bedford County, Tennessee family biographies here

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