From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, currently out of print.
About 1852 Samuel William Orem and his brother left Spencer, Indiana and headed West. They settled in St. Louis, Missouri for a time. In 1875, they migrated to Texas and settled in Dallas County east of the City of Dallas. The two brothers found farms on either side of a little country road. That road is now known as “Oram Street”. Mixups in their mail led to one brother changing the spelling of his name to “Oram”. Mary Leona Orem, in a sworn notarized statement made in 1925, stated that her father had always spelled his name “Orem,” though some of the children had spelled it “Oram.”
One member of the Oram clan, John Oram, had the first jewelry store in Dallas. He lived on Cottage Lane (now Federal Street), and kept the horses for the Dallas Fire Department. He also had one of the first phones in Dallas in his home. This enabled him to get the horses ready in case of a fire.
Samuel W. and Priscilla Orem had 11 children, two of whom died in infancy. Nine lived to maturity according to the sworn statement of Mary Leona Orem. She was the oldest and never married. She was a teacher, a music teacher, and a Sunday School teacher. In his later years, she cared for her father, Samuel. The other children included a son, John Orem, who lived in Hutchins, Texas. Another son, William Simpson Orem, moved his family to Dumas, Texas. (There was a William Orem in each generation.) Charles B. Orem operated a grocery store on Greenville Avenue near Lovers Lane, for many years. He died in 1920. James Allen Orem, always an adventurer, participated in a trial navigation of the Trinity River in 1891. He also sailed on the only boat to navigate from Waco to the Gulf of Mexico on the Brazos River. He lived in Waco most of his adult life. He was very active, in his later years, in making toys for the children in hospitals, planning programs for the Senior Citizens Center, and writing and hosting a radio program.
Samuel Spencer Orem lived in Dallas, and later, in Seagovlle. He died in a fire in 1941. One of the Orem daughters, Addie Orem, married W. W. Mealer. She died in 1919, leaving six children: Earl, Annie May, Hugh, Gladys and Glynn (twins), and Noel Mealer. Only Annie May (now Mrs. Bob Lynch of lrving) and Gladys survive in the mid 1980’s.
Evie Myrtle Orem married Harrison Gilbert Hughes, also a native of Dallas County. Both were born, lived their entire lives, and died in Dallas County. They had five children: William Harrison Hughes, Roy Charles Hughes, Nell Katherine Hughes Abbe, Edna Pearl Hughes Hawkins, and Herbert Gilbert Hughes. Surviving are Pearl Hawkins, a resident of Lytle, Texas, and Herbert Hughes, a resident of Dallas.
The youngest of the Orem children, Ina Orem, married J. C. Ivey, who owned and operated the Alamo Dairy on the east side of White Rock Lake. Of their four children: Katherine, Richard, Annie Lee, and Edna, only Richard Lee and Annie Lee survive. Richard “Dick” Ivey lives in his mother’s home and is the only grandchild still residing on a part of the original Orem farm. Several pieces of property are still owned by descendants of Samuel and Priscilla Orem.
By Vlattie Laura Hughes, Dallas
