Voyage to America
Young James Orr visits his sister in America. He is briefly interned at the outbreak of the War of 1812, then declares his allegiance to America and resolves never to return to Northern Ireland.
One of Father's mother's sisters (Mary) had married in Ireland, but had lost her husband, and married again. The second marriage was to Mr. Robert Ritchie, a very excellent young Scotchman. Very early in the eighteen hundreds, Father's Uncle and Aunt Mary Ritchie came to Virginia. They were delighted with the place, the people and the climate, and wanted relatives on both sides to come over. Mrs. Ritchie wrote especially wanting her mother (who was then about sixty) to come.
Alice Orr, Father's sister, was the first of Aunt Mary Ritchie's relatives to accept the invitation. She was about sixteen when she arrived in Petersburg, and had left school. But Aunt Richie said that she was too young for that, and promptly sent her off to Farmington to a noted boarding school in Connecticut (Miss Porter's). There a young Mr. Hill fell very much in love with her, followed her to Virginia when school was over, courted and married her. He died young, leaving her a widow with two sons and two daughters.
Then Aunt Ritchie wrote begging her mother to come and visit her. Our father was the special pet of his maternal grandmother (who had been a Miss Allen). When Father was about fourteen, his grandmother said that she would come, "if her little grandson could come with her." Boy-like (with his inherited love for the sea), he was very anxious to take the trip, and his mother consented. Aunt Ritchie wrote that they must come in the spring, that the spring voyages were pleasantest, and they must stay at least until the next spring.
The captain of the ship in which Father and his grandmother came to America was Captain Samuel Hunter. They had been in Virginia for about six months only when the grandmother was taken ill and died. Just about that time the trouble with England (which led to the War of 1812) began. Father was about 16. Aunt Ritchie, who had no children and who was devoted to her young nephew, could not bear the idea of his returning in such troublous times, especially as England had commenced to impress men and even boys on any ship which her naval men chose to search, and would then force them to serve on British Men of War. So Father's departure from Virginia was for a time delayed.
At this time the War of 1812 was in progress. The British landed at Norfolk on Chesapeake Bay and were reported as being on the march for Petersburg and Richmond. All British subjects in Petersburg were taken westward under guard and carried as far as Farmville. Father protested vehemently that his sympathies were not with the British, but entirely with America, that he did not consider himself a British subject, that his father before him would not join the Navy, because he felt more love for Ireland than for Great Britain, etc. They carried him to Farmville all the same, with other British subjects.
After reaching Farmville, he was given a calmer and less hurried interview, when the authorities decided that he was "all right" and let him return to Petersburg. Though not of military age, he at once joined a company for home defense. He was in camp on "The heights" (about where Shore Street now is). Then, as the enemy had been forced to retreat, his company was marched out of service.
The first news received from Father's mother, soon after that war ended, was that after waiting fifteen years, she and her friends all believed Captain Orr to have perished at sea, and that she had married again! Father was horrified and indignant. He had never given up the hope that his father might have been saved and might some day return. H seemed to have the idea that his father might have been captured by pirates (the "Algerians" were extremely troublesome at that time) or that he might have been cast on a desert island, and might possibly be rescued. Father then said that he never would go back to Ireland, a decision which greatly delighted Aunt Richie. Next
