Poor Orson Oakes II

Life supplied Orson with a wealth of woes.  The first being the lack of a known mother.

When she applied for a pension based on her son Oberion's CW service, John's wife Sarah (Sallie) Townsend said they were married in 1829.

Orson was born sometime between1822 and 1828.  In 1901 Orson wrote in his pension papers that he was 73 (1828) The 1850 census gives his age as 28 (1822). The 1840 census says shows one son15 and 20 (1820-1825) whether this is Orson or Emory is unknown, one or the other was most likely working on a farm elsewhere. In 1863 his enlistment papers in the 14th calvary give his age as 45 (1818).

Based on an 1828 birth, we might question a birth before marriage, however, his brother Emory was born abt 1824 and his sister Melvina about 1826 and Sallie is found in records unmarried in 1826.  It seems most likely that John had a first wife who died sometime between 1826 and 1829.

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Although Orson lived until 1904, there is no known picture of him.  We have to rely on the description from his military records for a picture .....6 feet tall with a dark complexion and hazel eyes. His brothers Emory and Ransom, according to their military records were fair.

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Orson was dissed by his brother in law!!! Orson married Mary Nichols Madkins on 12 Jan 1847.  He was somewhere between 19 and 25 years old.  Mary was the widow next door.  She was 36 and had seven children ranging in age from 2 to 13.  Well, Mary's brother John couldn't think of any good reason for Orson to marry Mary.  On the death of Washington Madkins, the land that Mary was living on was in the control of John.  It is unclear why, but the fact remains, that he deeded the land to her, with the caveat that Orson could have no interest in the land whether held or leased.

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After the war, Orson & Mary appear to have moved around within Missouri which makes them hard to track.  I can not find Orson, Mary or any of their children in 1860.  It would seem the census taker missed them.  In 1870 I find Orson living with Eliza 18 and Frank 12.  Did he and Mary have three children?  I find no other reference to either Eliza or Frank.  Perhaps they children of another relative, but I do not find them in other families in 1860 or 1880.
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In the 1870s Orson was appointed a Road Overseerer in Shelby county.  Adding to his woes, his petition for a road was denied.

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 It appears that Mary died in Shelby County in 1881 and Orson sold his last land in the county in 1883.  He married Hannah Inman in Knox County in 1882 and Anna Winget in Macon County in 1898. When he died in 1904 the newspaper reported.....

April 7, 1904
ORSON OAKES
Orson Oakes, a respected citizen of this place, died yesterday morning, aged eighty-three years. The funeral was preached today at 10 o'clock by Rev. L.W. Gumby and the remains were laid to rest in the La Plata cemetery.
A wife, one son, and many other relatives are left to mourn his death.

LA PLATA HOME PRESS, La Plata, Missouri

(Orson's daughter Sophia Ellen Oakes Naylor was definitely alive but it seems unknown to those in La Playa, and is that son Frank?  If so where is he!!!!!)

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However, even in death the woes continue.  The La Playa Press on 4 Aug 1904 reported that