August 13, 1863

ORR, MARGARET M. - Died - On the 24th day of July 1863, after a long and painful illness, at the residence of her mother in Staunton Township of this county, Margaret M. Orr, aged 28 yrs, 8 days, and 26 days.　 The deceased was born in this county, Oct. 21, 1834, and remained a resident of the vicinity of Troy to the time of her death.　 Among the efficient teachers of the county, she for many years occupied a prominent position.--Her occupation disagreed with her health to such an extent that for several of the last years of her life she was unable to pursue it　at long intervals.　 As she was warmly attached to her profession and almost an enthusiast　in the instruction of children, this was a bitter disappointment to her.　 Her health continued to decline for several years, and at length she was forced to relinquish a desirable location and abandon her business altogether.　 She received a pious education and embraced the Savior when about twenty years old.　 She united with the Christian Church at Rocky Springs, and there continued a member until the time of her death.　 During her last sickness, which was protracted for more than a year, she exhibited remarkable patience and resignation, still hoping to be restored to health and usefulness.　 She conversed freely with her friends on the subject of religion and death, giving ample assurance that all was well with her.　 She exhorted her friends who visited her, and through them those whom she could not see, to at once prepare for death and a happy meeting with her in a brighter--a better world.　 Although excluded from any active participation in the stirring political movements of the day, yet she was an ardent patriot, and the patriot soldiers' friend.　 She deprecated the unholy rebellion or sympathy with it, and in the hour of the nation's darkest gloom hoped for the final vindication of the cause of government.　 She lived long enough to see by the victories in the early part of July that the God of battles, is still the protector of the starry flag, and that the Union will through its benign institutions, bless the future as it has blessed the past.　 During the last few days of her life she talked much on different subjects, especially religious ones, evincing remarkable familiarity with thoughts of death.　 She said she was not unwilling to die, but was sorry to part with her friends especially her mother and sister who had so long cared for her but consoled all with the thought that the separation would be brief.　 She conversed to the very last breath.　 The last full sentence she uttered was, "I am almost to the city;" and, while proceeding to say something of the "City of the living God," her spirit burst from its prison and leaped into the bosom of her Savior.　 Her death was most triumphant.　 She came calmly down to the edge of the river, gazed a few moments on it cold, repulsive waters, then suddenly leaping forward she cleared　the stream at a single bound and rushed to the regions of the blessed.　 A gentleman of large religious experience who was with her much during her last hours declared that her dying testimony was worth more to him than an ordinary religious experience of more than twenty years, that her victory in the very hour of dissolution did more to rivet the conviction of the truthfulness of Christianity upon his mind than all the arguments of theologians, he had ever read, or all the exhortations and appeals he had ever heard.