Orange McClure was born February 25, 1836, in Schuyler County, New York, the son of Vermonter Orange (1789-1868) and New York native Anna Maria (b. 1806).
Orange (elder) was living in Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vermont in 1820 but by 1830 was living in Franklinville, Cattaraugus County, New York and in Hinsdale, Cattaraugus County in 1840 . Orange’s parents resided in New York between 1832 and 1843. The family moved to Michigan sometime after 1843, and by 1850 Orange (younger) was living his family and attending school in Paris, Kent County, where his father worked as a mason. By 1860 his parents were living with one their oldest son, Jay McClure, in Ada, Kent County.
Orange (younger) stood 5’9” with black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion and was a 25-year-old farmer, unable to read or write, and probably working in the vicinity of Hastings, Barry County when he enlisted in the Hastings Rifle Company in April of 1861. The company was disbanded shortly after it arrived in Grand Rapids and its members distributed to other companies of the 3rd Michigan Infantry then forming at Cantonment Anderson just south of the city, and Orange eventually enlisted in Company K on May 13, 1861.
He was working as a pioneer, probably for the Brigade, from July of 1862 through October, and reenlisted on December 24, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Alpine, Kent County. He was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough, probably at his home in Michigan, in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February.
Orange was reported a Brigade pioneer from April of 1864 until he was shot in the left thigh on May 5, 1864, at the Wilderness, and subsequently hospitalized. He was still absent in the hospital when he was transferred to Company F, 5th Michigan Infantry upon consolidation of the 3rd and 5th Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, but by August he was again a pioneer detached to Brigade headquarters where he remained through September. For reasons unknown he was in the Division hospital in October, and in November was back with the Brigade where he was employed as a pioneer through May of 1865. He was a provost guard in June and was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.
After the war Orange returned to Michigan.
He married Louisa A. Gray on June 10, 1867, in Kent County. (She may have been the same Louisa Gray, b. c. 1838, who had been married to James Gray, with one child and living in Grand Haven, Ottawa County in 1860.)
However, sometime before 1868 he married Vermont-born Delia Thomas (b. 1840) and they had at least one child: Lucy (b. 1868).
Orange lived for a time in Grand Rapids, although he eventually settled in the northeastern part of Kent County, where he worked as a farmer. By 1880 he and Delia and their daughter were living in Greenville, Montcalm County where Orange worked as a wagonmaker. He joined the William A. Kent GAR Post No. 83, Greenville, Montcalm County on September 29, 1882. He was living in Greenville, Montcalm County in 1883 when he was drawing $4.00 in 1883 for a wounded left thigh (pension no. 214,627, dated June of 1882) and had been increased to $40.00 by 1918.
He was residing in Spencer, Kent County in 1884 and in Greenville in 1890 (the same year he applied for a pension).
In 1891, one Louisa A. McClure was living in Missouri when she filed for a dependent widow’s pension (application no. 534,120) but the certificate was never granted.
Delia and Orange divorced sometime before 1893 when she remarried another old 3rd soldier, Cornelius Barkhuff in Hastings, Barry County. By 1900 Delia was listed as a widow and living with one Orrin McClure (b. c. 1845 in Vermont) and her granddaughter Flossier McClure (Lucy’s daughter) in Hastings, Barry County.
Orange was admitted as a widower to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 3489) on November 1, 1900, listing his nearest relative as one Flossie McClure (his granddaughter) of Hastings, Barry County. He was discharged at his own request on March 7, 1902, and readmitted on August 27, 1902. He was living in the Home in 1910.
He was a member of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry Association, and a Protestant.
Orange died of endocarditis at 7:40 p.m. on May 8, 1919, at the Home. His remains were sent to Ottawa County and buried next to his brother Jay in Spring Lake cemetery, East side: E 8 22.
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