Orville James McCants was born on 18 August 1888 in Pittsburg, Crawford Co. Kansas to James K. Polk McCants and his wife Katherine D. Cummings. [1]
On 6 May 1908 Orville married Scina Luella Cherry in Crawford County, Kansas, where they were both residents in the town of Cherokee. As Orville was only 19, and Scina 18, Orville's father, James McCants, had to provide an affidavit testifying that both had their parents' permission to wed. [2] They were married by Bert A. Silverthorne, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. [3]
Scina was born in Beulah, Crawford Co. Kansas on 3 December 1888, the daughter of James Edward Cherry and Laura Ann Redfern. [4]
The couple was still living in Cherokee in November, 1909 when their first child, Novella, was born. [5]The couple soon settled in Wichita, where they were living in 1910, and Orville was employed as a foreman on a locomotive. [6] He was presumably working for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, his employer when he finally retired. [7] The McCants family was still living in Emporia in 1930, and owned their own home, worth $5,500. They did not, however, own a radio. [8] The McCants family attended the First Methodist Church in Emporia. [x]
Orville is best described as a man's man. He enjoyed hunting; every year he went to the mountains of Colorado to hunt elk for two weeks. And when his son Bob married in 1947, Orville made them a wedding present of a hunting rifle. He also enjoyed fishing. Although he initially opposed the marriage of his son Bob to Louise Spears, after the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon he invited to Louise to accompany him on a fishing trip; they had a great time, and by the end were singing together: "What a friend we have in catfish." [9]
Scina was a quiet woman and agonizingly shy. When her children organized a dinner party to celebrate Orville and Scina's 50th birthday party, she refused to come to the table, protesting "It's too many people!" although the party consisted entirely of close family. Never the less, she managed to overcome her shyness sufficiently to become a regular participant in a group of ladies who gathered to play cards. Scina also found enjoyment in quilting, and made a number of quilts over the years. [10]
Orville died at the age of 70 on 5 January 1959 in Newman Memorial Hospital in Emporia of sclerosis of the heart and arteries. He is buried in the Memorial Lawn Cemetery in Emporia. [11]
Orville James McCants and Scina Luella Cherry had the following children:
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| i. | Novella Pearl McCants was born on 9 November 1909 in Cherokee, Crawford Co. KS. She died in Emporia on 31 January 1930, at the age of 20, and was buried in Memorial Lawn cemetery. [12] | ||
| + | ii. | Kenneth James McCants was born in Emporia on 30 July 1911 in Emporia, Lyon Co. KS. [13] In 1930, when he was 20, he was living at home and working as a truck driver. [15] He moved around a bit in his early years; he enrolled in Social Security while in Texas, was living in Chicago in 1934, and in Elkhart, Indiana in 1939. [16] Sometime between 1930 and 1934 he married Marjorie Lee Conrad, the daughter of Pierce Conrad and Kathryn Blatt, born on 29 November 1912 in Hamilton. [17] The couple had six children, four girls and two boys, including James, born in 1937, who died two years later on 24 August 1939 in Elkhart, Indiana after a fall from a fourth floor apartment window. [18] By 1943 the family was living in Newcomerstown, Tuscarawas Co. OH, where Marjorie had grown up. [19] In 1948 Kenneth was working as a driver for the Russell Dairy company when he was struck by another driver. [20] In 1952 he found employment as an insurance agent, a job at which he prospered and provided a living for him until his eventual retirement. [21] Both Kenneth and Marjorie were very involved in their community, and Kenneth was a member of Toastmasters, the Lions Club, the Elks Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and the local historical society. [22] Kenneth died on 22 June 1996 in a hospital in Cambridge, Guernsey Co. Ohio, although his residence was in Newcomerstown, Tuscarawas County at the age of 84. [23] Marjorie died 5 years later in Dover, Tuscarawas Co, OH on 25 April 2001, aged 88. [24] | |
| iii. | Harold Eugene McCants was born on 20 October 1910 in Emporia. [25] He went missing in action on 22 August 1933 during service in Worl War II, and was declared dead a year later. [26] | ||
| + | iv. | Robert Orville McCants (still living) | |
| + | v. | a daughter (still living) |