The Orrill - Adams
Price Orrill was Edith's first visitor. Their parents lived one mile from one another as the crow flies, near Wilmot, Cowley Co. KS. Price's mother brought him when Edith was born for a visit. He was just a month old having been born August 2, 1898, and Edith September 19, 1898. Edith said Price never had a chance! There were nine children in Edith's family. Eula Adams (Robinson), John Thomas Adams, Eunice Adams (Deichman), Edith Blanche Adams (Orrill), Clyde Adams, Augusta Adams (Kennedy), Camille Adams (Kennedy), and Florence Adams (Carter), and Ralph Melvin Adams.
They lived on a farm near Wilmot, Kansas, in Cowley County. They first lived on an island, surrounded by Dutch Creek. The kids loved to play up and down Dutch Creek. They eventually built a large two-story house on the same property, but on higher ground, and not on the island. My mom said they never flooded on the island, but the water at times got close to the house. Edith's family was active in the Prairie View Methodist Church. I have a Hymnal from that church, and Edith's and Price's names are written in it with the names of their boy and girl friends, and other young people at the time.
The Adams kids played up and down Dutch Creek. One time the boys were swimming nude and the girls took a picnic lunch and sat on the bank most of the day forcing the boys to stay in the water!
One time when Ida and Henry were away at church, it turned chilly in the house, so Edith and Eunice decided to build a fire in the heating stove. They forgot to remove the flue cover in the living room. The room had just been wallpapered. They said the black smoke shot out of that flue cover and ruined the new paper job.
Edith and Eunice were very close. When they did the laundry, they liked to starch the other girl's stockings extremely stiff, and hang them out to dry! Especially one of their younger sisters, Gussie. because she was to ornery!
Edith said when ever they were fortunate enough to get a little bag of candy, that she would eat all of hers right away, and Eunice would keep hers. Edith would beg and Eunice would share hers with Edith.
The kids were never allowed to play cards, but they had a deck of cards they hid under the davenport, and they got them out when their parents went to bed and played card games. That generation of Adams always loved to play cards!
Another time their parents were gone and the kids were in bed asleep. A bad thunderstorm was coming up, and the girls were afraid. They woke their brother Tom and ask him if he thought it was going to storm? Tom was half asleep. He lit a match and leaned out the upstairs window and announced it was going to storm! The story in the first telling said he then fell out the window. (This may have been an exaggeration!)
There was a cave that ran between the schoolhouse and their property. Edith said the boys played in it, but the girls were afraid to go there much. The said the walls were blackened in places where fires had been. There were stories that the Indians had used it.
Edith said they always went to Atlanta, KS for the big Labor Day picnic and parade. The boys dressed up as Indians and rode their horses up and down the street. They took fried chicken and lots of food. They sat on the ground to eat lunch. They each had a quarter to spend for the day. Eunice always held Edith's hand and looked after her. (Eunice was two years older) Edith dropped her quarter in the big water tank that everyone drank out of. She couldn't reach her quarter, so Eunice rolled up her sleeves and leaned way in and reached her quarter, getting all wet doing it.
They rode the Merry-go-round for a nickel. Their cousin, Lucille, wore glasses, and when a neighbor boy climbed on the merry-go-round he accidentally kicked her in the face and broke her glasses. She couldn't see the rest of the day! At the end of the day there was a large balloon assention and it took so long to ready for the balloon launching that it got late. They pleaded with their dad not to go home until they saw the balloon launched. They had an hour's team and wagon ride home and their dad had to do his chores by lantern light, late after arriving home. They also paid a nickel to ride in a big three-seater car that one of the townspeople owned. They rode all around town. It was the first car Edith ever rode in.
Edith spent a lot of time taking care of her Grandmother Tice. She had Diabetes. She adored her grandparents, Thomas and Elena Augusta Tice. The Tices lived in a big two story house. Their first home was a sod hut that Thomas built when he homesteaded in Kansas after the Civil War. Edith also worked for another family and Price courted her in their grape arbor. Edith said she first became romantically interested in Price at a Hayride. Price had a beautiful horse, and he rode along side of the Hay wagon and flirted with Edith. She and Price went to the same church, but different one room schools. Price went to Prairie View school, and Edith went to Summit School.
After Price and Edith were married they tried farming in Cowley Co, but couldn't make a go of it, so moved to Kansas City, MO.
At that time in KS, they had an automobile that they had to crank to start. Edith would take the car and go to the fields with Price's lunch. One time she cranked the car to go back home and it started running back down the hill. She had to run like crazy to catch it. She said that ended her driving career. She never drove after they moved to Kansas City. Edith was always a homemaker, never worked outside the home after she and Price were married. She was a fantastic cook, and a wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother. Her home and family meant everything to her.
Edith and Price were married for seventy-two years. 1918 - 1990. Price died in 1990 at age 92 and Edith 1993 at age 94.
some photos are very large in order to show detail and will take awhile to load
 Back row standing left to right (adults) are; Augusta Margarite Adams (Gussie), John Thomas Adams (Tom), Clyde Adams, Ralph Melvin Adams (Mel), Edith Blanche Adams. Front row left to right: Eunice Gertrude Adams, Hazel Camille Adams (hairbow), Henry Green Adams, Florence Fay Adams (hairbow), Ida Tice Adams (mother) and Eula Adams. (abt 1914-1915) |
 Front row seated is Alice Orrill, Mary Alvira Woodward Orrill (Mollie, aka Doll) and Nina Leta Wells Orrill. ( Father Fredrick Thomas rarely had his picture taken) Abt 1917. |
 | Price Vinton Orrill & Edith Blanche Adams on their wedding day, December 15, 1918. They were married at Edith's home. (parents; Henry Green Adams and Ida Tice Adams). Price arrived late for their wedding. It was cold, wet and muddy, and their car (I believe a 1917 Chevrolet) got stuck in the mud. Price had the preacher with him. They arrived late and covered with mud!. |
| Old Wilmot hotel which my gr grandmother owned (Eliza Miller Orrill) I'm not absolutely positive it is the hotel. Five Wilmot girls in front of it. 1. Fern Lewis - a cousin of the Orrills 2. Alice Orrill - my dad's sister 3. Velva Orrill - my dad's sister 4. Nina Orrill - my dad's oldest and half sister 5. Beula Manker - A friend The picture was on a postcard (no stamp) from Miss Fern Lewis to Dollie (my grandmother, Mary Alvira Orrill, mother to Nina, Velva & Alice) & Emmett Lewis. (Don't know his relationship to Fern Lewis) | 
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Back row:
1. Ina Talley, 2. Vinnie Martin, 3. Grace Messenger, 4. Delpha Woltz, 5. Sybil Holt, 6. unidentified, 7. Nina Lanier, 8. Cecil ? Row 2 back: 1. Opel Jones, 2. Vernie Venable, 3. Susie Crawford, 4. Lydia Markley, 5 ? Simons, 6. Bernaice Lanier, 7. Cora Smith, 8. Clarence Woltz. Row 3 down from back: 1. ? Bunyan, 2. Anna Foot, 3. Alice Orrill, 4. Josie Markley, 5 Eunice Adams, 6. Unidentified. Front row: 1. Mita De Fose, 2. Berenice Campbell, 3. Vada Holt, 4. ? Simons |
| Orrill farm the day my dad Price V.Orrill left it, about 1918. (Windmill, barn, silo, and garage my grandfather Fredrick Thomas Orrill built to house his new Model T Ford. (The Virgil Spencers have lived there about the last 45 years and have recently sold the farm) |  |
 | Taken beside the house on the Orrill farm after a days hunting. (They are pretty dressed up for hunting aren't they?) left to right Alva Parsons (he married Alice Orrill), Jack Orrill (name was Clinton Orrill, a brother to Price Orrill), Jim Deichman (married Eunice Adams), Tom Adams (brother to Edith & Eunice Adams and he married Velva Orrill) and the last is Price Vinton Orrill. (1914-1917) |
| Price V. Orrill and Herman Cox eating watermelon on the running board of car at a picnic. My mother, Edith Adams (Orrill later) said she was so sick at that picnic she thought she would die!) |  |
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 Second row from left: Kennedy, Viola Venerable, Arletha Holt, Lydia Lineer, Leo Williams, Tillie Williams, May Carson, Curtis Holt, Morris Kennedy, Tommie Carson, Alta Wallace, Hattie Lineer, Shields, Sadie Ewalt, Teacher, Perry Hooker, & the three boys at far right are unidentified. Back row - from left: Velva Williams, Herb Hooker, Pearl Gupton, Jim Williams, Billeter, Shields, Shields, Kennedy & unidentified. |  |
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Submitted by Judy Orrill Bruder ......Thanks Judy
2912 NW 3rd Ter
Blue Springs, MO 64014
