State of Nevada
Second Biennial Report
Nevada Historical Society
1909-1910
State Printing Office
Carson City, Nevada
In Memoriam
Orvis Ring
(written by Mr. Theodore Clark)
The late Orvis Ring was born in Starksborough, Addison
County, VT on July 21, 1833. His father, Greenlief Ring,
was a native of New Hampshire, and his mother, whose
family name was Bunker, was a native of Vermont. When
Mr. Ring was eight years of age the family moved to
Canto, St. Lawrence County, NY, and after three years
residence there the home was again moved to the State
of Wisconsin, thence to McHenry County, Illinois, and
again to DuPage County, Illinois. All of these years
the subject of this sketch attended school in the "Log
School House" for two or three months in the year, the
rest of the time, from early childhood, being devoted
to farm work.
When the Illinois Institute, later Wheaton College,
was established at Wheaton, DuPage County, IL, twenty-five miles west of
Chicago, Orvis Ring entered as a student.
By teaching district schools during the winter and
working the harvest fields in the summer, he paid his expenses at school,
and graduated on July, 4, 1860, one
of a class of seven, four of whom afterwards became
ministers. While a student he served as a teacher of
the various classes in the college, and afte graduation,
again taught the village school of Wheaton.
In the early Spring of 1861, he crossed the plains to
California, being nearly five months on the road.
Arriving with an empty pocket, he had to go to work at anything he could
find to do. His first work was cutting
cordwook in Vacca Valley, Solano County. Although he was
the possessor of a college diploma, which entitle him
to be recognized as a teacher, he voluntarily took the
teacher's examination, passed and received a certificate.
In SEptember of 1862 he began teaching at Woodbridge,
San Joaquin County, CA for a year, then crossed the
Sierras to Washoe, Virginia City, and as far as Austin,
Lander County, NV in July 1863, riding the entire distance
horseback and sleeping at night in the open, rolled in
his blanket. Returning from Austin to Virginia City,
he was employed in the Potosi mine for some months.
He then commenced teaching at Ophir in Washoe Valley,
having a school of between 40 and 50 pupils. The
Ophir School was at that time the most advanced in the
Territory.
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