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Last week we learned about Samuel Orvis being a witness to the probable murder of peddler Dan Batchelder. Now let’s delve a little more into his interesting history. He was born at Battleboro, Vermont on January 1, 1840, the 9th child of 15 born to Simeon V. and Direxy Campbell Orvis (who was 15 when they married). His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier and officer. The family moved to New York in 1841, then in 1854 to Illinois, and a few years later to Wilmot, Wisconsin.
At age 21, Sam enlisted in the Civil War in the First Wisconsin Cavalry, and re-enlisted in the same regiment in 1864. During his last year, he was commanding sergeant, and was detailed to capture Jefferson Davis, president of the confederate states. He was never wounded or captured and came home in July 1865. (A brother also enlisted but died in the notorious confederate military prison in Andersonville, Georgia.)
In 1866 Samuel married Levina Sanborn who grew up in Burton Township on Wilmot Road. They farmed on Winn Road (where the Pine Meadow and Oak Valley Hills subdivisions are) until 1888 when they moved to the old Sanborn homestead and spent most of their lives there. He had a cider mill with two horses who would go round and round connected to a rod that was connected to gears that turned a belt connected to the apple grinder. He could make 3,000 gallons of apple cider a day. People would come from miles around with their apples to have them pressed into cider and would pay Sam one to two cents a gallon.
His grandson, Tom Madden, lived close by and spent a lot of time there. Along with helping to milk cows starting at six years of age, Tom also helped with the horses keeping the cider mill going. He said the cider was very sweet to drink but he supposed people would let it sit and become vinegar, also. And maybe, “they drank a little when it was hard”. But Grandpa Orvis didn’t consume hard apple liquor, at least not in the presence of his grandson. But one time one of the cows got drunk from eating the residue from the milling and staggered around the barn yard. Sam was always real gentle and kind to kids and all the children in the neighborhood called the Orvis’ Uncle Sam and Aunt Vine.
In 1909 Samuel sought to collect a part of the reward money offered by the government for the capture of Jefferson Davis. There were 800 men of the First Wisconsin cavalry who aided in the capture. Most of them filed claims for their share at once, but Orvis failed to do so, and a statute of limitations was passed in 1869 outlawing the claims of Orvis and ten others. There was still about $4,000 in the treasury in unpaid claims of the original reward in 1909. Sam believed if his congressman would introduce a bill in the House providing that the claim be paid, congress would allow it. The newspaper reported, “Orvis is desirous of collecting it, not because of the sum involved ($400), but because of the historical event the check would commemorate in his family.” (No word on if he ever got paid.)
A family member said during the last six years of his life, Sam was paralyzed from head to foot (probably from a stroke), but there was never any moaning or cross words from him. Samuel died on February 21, 1921 and was buried in the Sanborn-Orvis Cemetery.
Story by Laura Frumet
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