He later moved to Kittanning, where he was elected to the post of Deputy Sheriff for Armstrong County in 1805.
Orr served in the War of 1812, where he rose to the rank of colonel in the US Army.
He served two terms (1817–1820), after which he successfully ran for a seat in the Pennsylvania Senate.
He served there from 1821 to 1825;[3] he resigned before completing his term[4] because he had been appointed as a Jacksonian member of the Nineteenth Congress U.S. House of Representatives to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Allison Jr.
[5] Orr resided for a short while in Orrsville in 1845,[6] and lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania from 1848 to 1852.