ORLANDA SMITH STARR             GRAVESTONE PHOTO                      

The Peoples Herald, Thursday, Jan. 14, 1915, Pg. 1

Vol. 26, No. 33

Obituary

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  Orlanda Smith Starr passed from this life at his home in Melvern, Kansas on January 3, 1915.  He was born at Clark’s field, Ohio, August 10, 1841.  At the age of twenty, when his country called for soldiers to save the union from disruption he responded to her appeal and became a member of Company B, Third Ohio cavalry, Sept. 13, 1861.  He served as a soldier until the rebellion was crushed and every slave was free, being discharged, April 20, 1865.  After the war he was married to Mary Elizabeth Barker, who died April 1, 1883.  To this union four children were born, three of whom survive him, viz, Allen R., William H. and May, now Mrs. George Dillard.  In 1869, Mr. Starr came to Kansas and settled on a claim on the Sac and Fox Indian Reserve in Osage County, five miles south of Lyndon where he as a pioneer settler established a home and made a fine farm from the unbroken prairie sod, bearing as well his part of the upbuilding of the great state of Kansas.  Oct. 20, 1885 he married Jane Blackwell who has been a faithful wife and mother to his children.  Jan. 5, 1915 he was borne to his last bivouac by six of his former comrades in arms.  Here in his “little green tent” in Melvern cemetery he shall rest until the sounding of the Grand Reveille.