a reputation for giving back to society as well as doing the right thing. On August 1, 1828, a man by the name of Barney Griffin, who had travelled from Syracuse to the Village of Sackets Harbor several days earlier, ended up dying in the Jefferson County Poor House. Orville went over to investigate. Upon searching Griffin's clothes, he found the cash sum of two hundred and twenty-two dollars and fifteen cents – more than enough money for Griffin to pay for a hotel. Hungerford put an advertisement in a paper to see if a relative would claim the money. No one did. He then turned the money over to the County Treasurer for use of the Poor House, deducting a dollar for the advertisement money that came out of his own pocket. Understanding the nature of greed, he asked the County Board of Supervisors to indemnify him for his actions, which it agreed to do. Even though Orville only had a rudimentary education, he strongly believed that an industrializing society needed more advanced schooling for its youth. Orville contributed towards the education of the young women of the Jefferson County, New York area by working with Dr. John Safford to promote the Watertown Female Academy in 1823. Dr. Safford and Orville's own daughters were the beneficiaries of this effort as both Susan M. Safford and Martha P. Hungerford were early students of the school taught by Gen. "Fighting Joe" Hooker's sister Sarah R. Hooker. The Watertown Female Academy "had a high reputation, and did much toward encouraging similar enterprises throughout the country", but ended up closing in 1837. On March 28, 1828, Orville and his political mentor, Perley Keyes, as well as several others, successfully prompted the legislature to pass an act to incorporate the Jefferson County Agricultural Society, which was established at a meeting in Watertown, New York in 1817. Keyes was appointed a vice-president of the Society and Hungerford, due to his financial skills, became the treasurer. In 1841 Hungerford became president. His nephew and understudy, Solon Dexter Hungerford, also served as president of the Society in 1854 and 1877. As of 2020, the Jefferson County Agricultural Society, based in Watertown, N.Y., is still in existence and claims to be the "oldest continuous operating fair in America." Prior to 1832 the only school for boys in Watertown, New York stopped at the district level, i.e., middle school.