Robert Orrick (ca. 1827–1902)

Q-4-7

African American community leader Robert Orrick, born enslaved, began a freight-hauling business before he became free in 1863. After the Civil War, he became one of the first African Americans awarded a contract to carry the U.S. mail (1865), and he rented a building to the Freedmen’s Bureau to serve as a school. He prospered as the owner of a major livery stable and was a landowner, farmer, and minister. Orrick donated materials to rebuild a Methodist church in nearby Stephens City, later called Orrick Chapel. The African American cemetery in Winchester, which he expanded, was also named for him. Orrick purchased this stone house in 1891, and his livery stable stood on the adjoining lot.

Department of Historic Resources, 2022

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Will of Maj. Joseph Kean, 3 Oct. 1863. Market Street Church Membership List, 1859. Alexandria Gazette, 9 Sept. 1865. Cleveland Daily Leader, 9 Oct. 1865. Baltimore Sun, 9 July 1902. Winchester Evening Star, July 9, 1902. Shepherdstown Register, 10 July 1902. Winchester Deed Book 19:37-38, 21:259. BRFAL, Report of Persons and Articles Employed and Hired at Winchester, Sept., Oct., Nov. 1866. U.S. Census, 1900. Garland Quarles, The Story of One Hundred Old Homes in Winchester, Virginia (Winchester: Winchester-Frederick County Historical Association, 1967; reprint 1993), 73–76. History of Orrick Chapel Methodist Church in Stephens City, Virginia (Stephens City: The Stone House Foundation, 2006). G.F. Richings, Evidences of Progress Among Colored People (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Ferguson Co., 1905), 502. https://www.handleyregional.org/blog/robert-orrick-1841-1902