The WCB Orrock Story-- almost an Ogden

There are occasional introductions that need to be made if you are ever to understand the bigger picture of the William Ogden family.  One such person already mentioned is William Cummings Bryant Orrock.  He was most commonly referred to as WCB Orrock.  When he was about 6 years old his widowed mother brought WCB and his sister Mary Elizabeth to Bolton where they settled and found employment at the cotton mills.  It was there they began their association with the William Ogden family and soon joined the LDS Church.   

WCB was the same age as Thomas and they became fast friends.  At some point a romantic relationship developed between Mary Anne Ogden and WCB.  However William Ogden did not want his children to marry in England for fear they would be hesitant to leave when the time came. He wanted his family intact and therefore any possible marriage for the two young lovebirds had to wait.  So it was no surprise when William and his sister joined the Ogden's when they left the British Isles and were part of the family from then on.  Their mother followed and joined them the next year.  One year after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, WCB Orrock and Mary Anne Ogden were sealed together in the Endowment House. So Orrock grew up with the Ogden family and then eventually married one of the daughters; almost as if to cement the bond further.  


Here's a quick peek at the future: The couple had 8 children together and then Mary became ill, apparently with appendicitis, and died shortly after the dedication of the Manti temple in May 1888.  At that time their oldest child was 16 and the youngest was one year old.

Just nine months prior to this tragic event, John Ogden, the second to the youngest of the Ogden children, died suddenly in August of 1887, leaving his wife Marie Outzen a widow with two little children.  They had been married only five years at the time of this tragedy.  So with these two Ogden spouses widowed, and with young children to care for, it was only natural that they marry one another, which they did about a year later.  They subsequently had an additional four children between them. So the Orrocks’ became a very blended family where the earlier children, who had once been only cousins, now took on the additional relationship of step brothers and sisters.  It was a very early rendition of yours, mine, and ours.

W.C.B. had a feed store on Main street in Richfield and townsfolk good naturedly referred to him by what they claimed his initials stood for: Wheat, Corn, and Barley.   He preceded his close friend Thomas in death by only two years and their graves are within comfortable visiting distance of one another at the Richfield cemetery.

This little synopsis of the life of WCB Orrock is but a brief glimpse of the life of a fine gentleman.  His full biography will be posted later.