O’Rear-Boyd Family: Four Generations Ago

The story of Marcus O’Rear and Eda Gardner begins in the early 1800s; the story of the O’Rear family in America begins in the 17th century.

While the O’Rear family had lived in America for more than a century by the time of the Revolution; just where they lived before arriving here is a mystery.¹ A person named John O’Rear was baptized in Virginia in 1675, and he appears to be the first member of the family born in America. We do not know for certain where John’s parents lived before arriving here. The surname has been rendered in America as Orea, Orrear, O’Rior, Orear, O’Rear, and other variations; families with variants of those names may be found in Ireland, England, and France. Some evidence exists to support claims that any one of those countries was home; none of the evidence is conclusive.

The better question is “why don’t we know where they came from?” If the earliest O’Rears had identified culturally with a particular European group they would have written letters, passed down family traditions, or left other records of that fact. No such records have been discovered,² which suggests that soon after arriving in America the family shed any European identity. They were in America for more than a century before the Revolution; regardless of whatever Old Country had been home, by the time the story of Marcus O’Rear and Eda Gardner begins the O’Rears were a thoroughly American family.

Marcus (sometimes spelled Marquis) O’Rear was born on September 12, 1803 in Montgomery County, Kentucky.³ He was the great-great-grandson of the original John O’Rear, the grandson of explorer William Calk, and the son of John O’Rear (1765-1847) and Tamar Calk O’Rear (1776-1866).⁴ His ancestors lived and worked with Daniel Boone and were among the first European settlers in Kentucky. William Calk’s journals provide historians today with a solid understanding of the struggles faced by the earliest settlers, and much of his memorabilia is on exhibit at the Kentucky Historical Society.⁵

William Calk’s Journal, page one, from Kentucky Historical Society, Calk Family Collection, MSS 112; used with permission. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/collection/Calk2/id/6/

William Calk tells in his journal of leaving his large and comfortable home in Prince William County, Virginia (the northern part of the state) early in 1775, intent on claiming land in “Caintuck.”⁶ He set out from the valley of the Potomac, crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, and traveled to the Powell River Valley – the westernmost settlement on the frontier – where they joined another group near the Cumberland Gap. From there, on April 5, 1775, they followed a trail to Kentucky that Daniel Boone had blazed just a few weeks earlier.

Boone Trace Map from https://boonetrace1775.com/Maps/maps.html

On the morning of April 7, snow started falling about daybreak, making travel difficult and travelers miserable. They were not cheered when, later that morning, they learned that Indians had killed five travelers on the trail just days earlier. Calk pressed ahead, and on April 8, 1775, he passed through the Cumberland Gap.

By April 10 the group had met over 100 settlers heading in the opposite direction, going home because of attacks by Indians. William Calk was not deterred.

By the morning of April 12 the expedition made camp just north of the present City of Barbourville, where another 11 returning travelers shared stories so frightening that Calk’s two closest friends left the expedition and returned home.

William Calk moved on, and at noon on April 18 his group was met by men from Boone’s party with pack horses. They were to guide them to Fort Boone, which had been in existence for less than three weeks. That night hunters from the party killed two buffalo and the entire party feasted on bison; the following morning the hunters killed three more buffalo as the group made an early start.

When they passed the scene of the Indian attack on Boone’s party (known as Twetty’s Fort), William Calk wrote in his journal “. . . About 11 o’clock we came to where the Indians fired on Boone’s company & killed 2 men and a dog & wounded one man in the thigh. We camped this night on Otter Creek . . .”

On April 20 Calk described the arrival of the party at Fort Boone, writing “Thursday 20th this morning is Clear and cool We start Early & git Down to caintuck to Boones foart about 12 oclock wheare we stop and they come out to meet us & welcom us in with a voley of guns.”⁷

Fort Boonesborough, ca. 1778, from “Boonesborough; its founding, pioneer struggles, Indian experiences, Transylvania days, and revolutionary annals” by George Washington Ranck (1901).

William Calk’s surveyor’s compass, powderhorns, powder gourds, and saddlebags. From Kentucky Historical Society, Calk Family Collection, MSS 112, used by permission. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/collection/Calk2/id/0

William Calk surveyed the area and made return trips to Virginia several times over the next few years until the site was ready for his family to join him. The O’Rear family settled in the area around the same time, and Marcus’ father and uncle purchased land from William Calk.⁸ Both family’s names are inscribed on a historical marker as among the earliest residents of Boonesborough.⁹

In 1826 Marcus O’Rear, the son of John O’Rear and Tamar Calk, married Eda (or Edy) Gardner of Clark County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Elias Gardner, a shoe and bootmaker born in Maryland, and Elizabeth Barr, who was born in Virginia.¹⁰. Marcus and Edy began their married lives in Montgomery County, Kentucky¹¹ but by the mid-1830s the family relocated north to Owen County, Indiana.¹² We do not know the reason they left Kentucky, nor do we know the reason they selected Indiana (rather than another location in Kentucky or elsewhere). It is worth noting, however, that Marcus and Edy were each born into slaveholding families,¹³ that Marcus and Edy moved to a state that did not permit slavery, and that they raised children whose lives demonstrated a passion to rid the nation of the South’s “peculiar institution.”

Marcus and Edy were the parents of 10 children:¹⁴

John W. (1827-1862)
Lucinda (1828-1863)
James G. (1829-1919)
Elias (1831-1911) (married Lutitia Brannock)
Tamar (1834-1904)
Nancy (1835-1866)
David (1836-1855)
Mary (1838-1891)
Simpson (1840-1896)
Marcus (1841-1865)

The Civil War was the defining chapter in the lives of Marcus and Edy. Their eldest and youngest sons – John and Marcus Jr. – volunteered in the war’s early days.¹⁵ John was a farmer, age 35 when he enlisted; Marcus, Jr. was only 21 and had recently completed his first year of preparatory classes at Asbury University in Greencastle, Indiana¹⁶ John and Marcus, Jr. were on the road of the single man; their brother Elias, our direct ancestor, carried three children and a wife on the road of the married man. And that made all the difference. ¹⁷

Indiana soldiers near Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1864

John and Marcus served in Company “D” of the 59^th Indiana Infantry Regiment. The unit participated in some of the most significant battles in Mississippi and Tennessee at the outset of the war. It fought during the Union’s first victory over a Confederate-held position on the strategic Mississippi River (the capture of Island No. 10), the siege of Corinth, Mississippi (a town that had two major rail lines and served as a key transport hub for the Confederates), and the subsequent Battle of Corinth (repulsing a Confederate effort to retake the city). John O’Rear was killed near Corinth on October 13, 1862, as the 59^th Indiana pursued rebels who were retreating to Ripley, Mississippi.¹⁸

His brother, Marcus O’Rear, Jr., stayed in the fight as the regiment joined General Grant’s Central Mississippi Campaign. He was in combat during the siege and surrender of Vicksburg in July 1863, numerous battles in Tennessee and Alabama, General Sherman’s March to the Sea and finally the siege of Savannah, Georgia. It was there that he died of typhoid fever on January 28, 1865. He died in the Marshall House, a hotel that had been repurposed as a military hospital during the war, and that is now a popular hotel and “ghost tour” destination in Savannah.¹⁹;

John is buried at Corinth National Cemetery, Mississippi^[20]; Marcus is buried in Beaufort National Cemetery, South Carolina.²⁰; ²¹ The names of each of them are misspelled on their tombstones, creating a real challenge in locating them today.

John W. O’Rear, misidentified as J.N.O. Rior at Corinth National Cemetery

Marcus O’Rear, misidentified as “Marcus Oscar” at Beaufort National Cemetery

Two months after Marcus, Jr. died a third brother, James Gardner O’Rear, enlisted in the 149^th Indiana Infantry Regiment, Company “I.”²² Fortunately, the war was nearly over by the time he joined, and he went on to live a long and full life afterwards.

Edy Gardner O’Rear died sometime between 1860 and 1865, although we do not know the exact date or the location of her burial. In March 1865 Marcus wrote his last will and testament,²³ and in August 1865 he sold to two of his brothers his right to inherit his mother’s property in Kentucky (she lived until 1866).²⁴ Marcus then moved in with his daughter Mary and her husband, Dr. David McDonald. Despite the loss of his wife and five children in the last years of his life, Marcus seems to have maintained a playful spirit to the end. In the 1870 census he listed his occupation in June as “Gentleman at Leisure.”²⁵

He was apparently resting comfortably in the knowledge that his work was nearly done. Marcus O’Rear died on August 19, 1870 and is buried in Combes Cemetery in Quincy, Owen County, Indiana.²⁶

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