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Well - the only thing that I know is that at that time - it was much better to be referred to as an "orphan" than to say that your Mom and Dad divorced - or- somebody (either Mom or Dad) ran off with someone else - or - they abandoned you for some reason. You just automatically became an "orphan" just to save face in a society that frowned upon all 3 of the situations described above. It wasn't uncommon for women to become "widows" - after a divorce or after their husband ran off and left them.
I find Mary Alice living with "Grandmaw Smith" in Hancock Co. in 1860. She came to live with the Riley family in 1862 and was presented to them as an "orphan." Although, Riley does say in a source that "Whether an orphan child only, or with a father that could thus lightly send her adrift, I do not know." It looks like - the father sent her "adrift" for some reason.
I suspect that the "orphan" moniker was given to her to basically make her plight seem more "acceptable." She didn't stay long with the Riley's and from what I've been able to find out - she probably either worked for others or may have lived off and on with Aunt and Uncle Rittenhouse until her marriage to John Wesley Gray in 1868.
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