Alexander Dalrymple Orr

Alexander Dalrymple Orr (November 6, 1761 – June 21, 1835) was an American farmer and politician from Maysville, Kentucky, who served in both the Virginia state legislature and the United States House of Representatives in the early national period. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 6, 1761, into a family connected to prominent figures in the emerging republic. His uncle was William Grayson, a distinguished Virginian who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and later as one of the first U.S. senators from Virginia, a relationship that placed Orr in close proximity to the political debates of the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary eras.

In 1782, as the frontier regions of the new nation were opening to settlement, Orr moved west from Virginia to Bourbon County, in what was then still part of Virginia and would later become Kentucky. There he engaged in agriculture, establishing himself as a farmer and landholder in a region that was rapidly growing in population and political significance. His move coincided with a period of intense development in Kentucky, as settlers pressed for better representation and eventual separation from Virginia, and Orr became part of the local leadership that would help shape the territory’s political future.

Orr’s public career began in the legislature of Virginia, which at that time exercised authority over Kentucky. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1790, representing the interests of his Kentucky constituency in the state’s lower chamber. In 1792 he advanced to the Virginia Senate, where he continued to serve as a voice for the trans-Appalachian counties. His legislative service occurred during the critical years when Kentucky’s separation from Virginia was being finalized and its transition to statehood was underway.

After Kentucky achieved statehood on June 1, 1792, Orr entered national politics as a representative of the new state. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served from November 8, 1792, to March 3, 1797. During this period he sat in the Second, Third, and part of the Fourth Congresses, representing Kentucky at a time when the young federal government was defining its powers, organizing its finances, and addressing frontier security and relations with Native American nations. As a congressman, Orr’s background as a farmer and his experience in the Virginia legislature informed his advocacy for the interests of Kentucky’s agrarian and frontier communities.

Following his service in Congress, Orr returned to Kentucky and resumed his agricultural pursuits, remaining a figure of local prominence. He was associated with Maysville, Kentucky, an important Ohio River town that developed into a regional commercial center, reflecting the broader growth and integration of Kentucky into the national economy. In his later years he lived in the Bluegrass region, where many early political leaders of the state maintained their homes and farms.

Alexander Dalrymple Orr died in Paris, Kentucky, on June 21, 1835. His life spanned the transition from colonial Virginia to the early United States and from frontier settlement to established statehood in Kentucky. Through his service in the Virginia House of Delegates, the Virginia Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives, he contributed to the political development of Kentucky and to the representation of western interests in the formative decades of the American republic.