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ORR Vol. 3, p. 1128 The ambition and determination that have self-reliance as their basis will hold as insuperable no obstacles that may obtrude in their course, and this was significantly proved in the case of the present popular and efficient assistant county attorney of Pontotoc County, for it was largely through his own efforts that he defrayed the expenses incidental to the obtaining of his higher academic and his professional education. Including the period of his work in the preparatory department of the institution Mr. Orr remained a student for a total of six years in the University of Oklahoma, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1912 and that of Bachelor of Laws in 1914. He has been a resident of Oklahoma since his early youth and is now numbered among the representative younger members of the bar of Pontotoc County, with residence and official headquarters in the finlile City of Ada, the county seat, his tenure of his present position of assistant county attorney having continued during virtually the entire period of time since he was admitted to the bar. During a portion of his university career he was employed in the office of the treasurer of the institution, at other times he clerked in mercantile establishments at Norman, and through still other worthy mediums of employment he further added to the financial resources that made possible the completion of his education and the attainment of his ambition to enter the legal profession. Oklahoma has many young men who have made their way through school by their own initiative and efforts, but it is probable that there are few of the number who have thus pressed forward to the goal of their desire and been mainly self-dependent during so long a period of student application as did Mr. Orr. Charles L. Orr was born at Waxahachie, Ellis County, Texas, on the 4th of July, 1889, and is a son of Dr. Charles L. and Edna (FORRESTER) Orr, who now maintain their home at Roff, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, where the father has been engaged in successful practice as a physician and surgeon for the past decade. Doctor Orr is a native of Texas and a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of the Lone Star State, where he initiated the practice of his profession after his graduation in the Louisville Medical College, in the metropolis of Louisville, Kentucky. In his early professional career as a physician and surgeon in a pioneer period of the history of Southern Texas he made a record not surpassed by many of his confreres in the administering of attention to the wounds of men who were wounded through being cut or shot in the fights and brawls that were of frequent occurrence in the locality and period. The Orr family was founded in America prior to the war of the Revolution and an ancestor of the subject of this review was one Captain Orr, who was a gallant captain of the patriot forces engaged in the great struggle for national independence. In the maternal line Mr. Orr is able to claim direct kinship with the family that produced Thomas CARLYLE, the distinguished Scotch historian and miscellaneous writer and also that produced Gen. Nathaniel GREENE, of American Revolutionary fame. The early educational discipline of Charles L. Orr was obtained in the public schools of his native city. Removing with his family to Oklahoma, he was reared to maturity in Pontotoc County and after his graduation in the high school in the Village of Roff, he spent a year in the preparatory department of the University of Oklahoma. He finally completed in this institution a full academic or literary course and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1912. He did not abate in the least his student zeal and ambition, but forthwith gave his undivided attention to the work of the law department of the university, from which he received in 1914 the degree of Bachelor of Laws, as previously noted in this context.. He was admitted to the bar in June of the last mentioned year and began practice at Roff. In January of the following year he was appointed assistant county attorney, and as such he has since given efficient service, with residence at Ada, the county seat. Mr. Orr is found aligned as a staunch advocate of the principles of the democratic party and is a member of the Young Men's Democratic League of Oklahoma. He is identified with the Pontotoc County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is affiliated with the Kappa Sigma, the Phi Delta Phi, and the Pe-et college fraternities, the last mentioned being an Indian society of honorary rank in the senior year of the course at the University of Oklahoma. Mr. Orr took an active and influential part in athletics while a student in the university and was captain and manager of the baseball team of the institution. He made a special study of economics and in his law practice has given much attention to public utilities and the legal features pertaining to the same, his professional work having had much to do with this special line of practice. He still permits his name to be enrolled on the list of eligible young bachelors in Pontotoc County. It may be noted that Mr. Orr has three brothers: Benjamin F., who holds a position in the offices of the Texas Light & Power Company, in the City of Dallas; J. Fred, who is engaged in business at Roff, Oklahoma; and Guy, who remains at the parental home, at Roff. The two brothers first mentioned have been students at the University of Oklahoma. Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, December 13, 1999.