I finally solved the other day a minor Chariton Cemetery puzzle --- the identity of another known veteran of U.S. Indian Wars buried there: William Ornduff. So far, Mark J. Maby, previously identified on various lists as the other, has proved elusive.
U.S. Indian Wars is a huge category, encompassing scattered armed conflicts between Euro-American settlers and the indigenous population between Colonial 1609 and 1924. Mr. Ornduff served in the far West and Pacific Northwest, apparently on scattered occasions, between 1855 and the end of the Civil War, when he returned to his place of origin --- Iowa --- and settled down.
Commencing in December of 1902 while he was living in Chariton, William received a small federal pension based on 1855 service as a corporal in Capt. T.S. Harris's company of the 9th Regiment, Oregon Mounted Militia. More research might turn up more details of his service, most likely during Civil War years when West Coast militia volunteers provided security for settlers while federal troops were occupied elsewhere. But someone else is going to have to follow that thread.
That's William's tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery, above. Snow cover out there right know ranges from ankle- to knee-deep, so I'm grateful to Doris Christensen for this Find A Grave photograph.
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William, born April 15, 1830 (not 1829 as inscribed on his tombstone) in Virginia, was a son of John Ornduff (1802-1885) and his first wife, Malinda Davis, who died soon after the birth of William and his sister, Catharine, a year older. The family seems to have moved west to Illinois prior to Malinda's death and, during 1832, John married Mary Willoughby in Illinois and started a second family.
The family came west to Jefferson County, Iowa, ca. 1845, and William worked with his father until he turned 21, ca. 1851, and then headed west to California and other West Coast points in search of gold --- and adventure --- and remained there until after the Civil War ended.
In the meantime, his only full sister, Catharine, had married Richard K. Jones and during 1854, they moved to Sherman, Texas, where he died in 1859 leaving her a widow with five young children. Immediately after the Civil War, Catharine's half-brother, Samuel Ornduff, retrieved the family and brought all six back to Jefferson County. When William returned to Jefferson County from California, he packed Catharine and her family into a wagon and brought them west to Union Township, Lucas County, where they established a home north of what became Derby.
William, who never married, served as surrogate father to his nieces and nephews and prospered. By 1892 he owned a good 300-acre farm at the Intersection of what now is Highway 14 and the Mormon Trail road, surrounding Goshen Cemetery and the original location of Goshen Church. The family home was about a quarter mile west of the cemetery on the south side of the Mormon Trail road.
William and Catharine retired and moved into Chariton during 1892, leaving the farm in the hands of their nephew and son, Alexander Richard Jones. William continued to live in Chariton until his death on July 3, 1912, at the age of 82. His obituary, published in The Herald-Patriot of July 11, does a good job of providing more details of his life:
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Mr. Wm. Ornduff passed away at his home in southeast Chariton on Wednesday evening, July 3, 1912, at the age of 83 years, 2 months and 18 days, after an extended illness of over a year with gangrene of the foot and a complication of troubles. Funeral services, conducted by Rev. M.S. Clark, were held at the home on Friday morning at ten o'clock, after which the remains were laid to rest in the Chariton cemetery.
Wm. Ornduff was born near Rockford, Virginia, on April 15, 1829 (actually, 1830). He moved with his parents to Illinois in early life, and when but 15 years old he drove an ox team from the home in Illinois to Jefferson county, Iowa. Here he remained on the farm and worked with his father until he was over 21 years old, when he started out to do for himself.
In 1850, he crossed the plains and landed in California with 25 cents. This he spent for something to eat. He spent about sixteen years in California, and during this time he served as soldier for the government against the Indians for three years.
At the close of this war in 1866, he returned to the old home in Jefferson county, Iowa, and moved his widowed sister, Mrs. Jones, and her family to Lucas county, Iowa, and bought land near Derby, where he remained to improve the farm and assist her in the care of her children until they all were married.
In 1892, he moved with the sister of Chariton, leaving the farm in the care of his nephew, A. Jones. In 1900, Mrs. Jones died, and for three years afterward he was cared for by relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Perry Barger. At the end of that time, his widowed niece, Mrs. Arretta McManners, came to make her home with him and kept house for him until the Master called him home.
He was converted and united with the Goshen Baptist church, which was located on his farm, and remained a constant and faithful member of the same for 45 years. He possessed a quiet but genial disposition, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him.
The immediate relatives who are left to mourn their loss are his nephew, A. Jones, of near Derby, and his nieces, Mrs. Arretta McManners and Mrs. Eli Barger, of this city, whom he reared and cared for and who will have the sympathy of the community in their sorrow.
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