Orville Rice ("O. R.") Andruss

O. R. was born January 5, 1827, in Grainger Co. TN. He was named after a close family friend, Orville Rice, and grew up to be a farmer.

In 1847 his sweetheart, Welthy Jane Cox, and her family moved from Tennessee to Johnson Co. MO. Orville followed her in 1849, and they were married on October 20, 1851. They settled there in Johnson Co. where he bought and sold land (like others in that Andruss family) and became a wealthy landowner.

During the Civil War the family had to flee MO for Kansas from Quantrill's Raiders, and Orville joined the Missouri Militia for a while. They returned to Missouri after the War and lived there the rest of their lives. Orville died Sept. 28, 1897, in Centerview MO and is buried in Centerview Cemetery.

There is a story about William Harvey Andruss, O. R.'s son. "Harvey Andruss fell off a hay wagon--knocked off by an iron beam in the barn--to a concrete floor, landing on his head and knocked unconscious. In late years he began to lose his mind. He killed his last wife (Louise Bingham), much younger than he, in the summer house with a hedge knife. He went into the house looking for a gun. His daughter, Octa, asked what he was going to do. When he told her he had killed Louise and wanted to kill himself, she grabbed the gun and ran toward the field where her two brothers were working. But Harve caught up with her--she began throwing the shells over the field. He got the gun and enough shells to shoot himself. He knew that under Missouri law he would be hung for killing Louise. This made the family terribly shocked and ashamed. They burned the blood spattered summer house." 1905.

-Merriam Morrison Kokojan, 1985 Andruss Family History


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Copyright © 1999 by Matthew A. Andruss. No reproduction except for personal use.