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Wednesday’s Child: Mary Catharine Murrell

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Death record of Mary Catharine Murrell, age 7, from Murrell Family Bible.

Roberts Family, Murrell Family (Click for Family Tree)

Mary Catharine Murrell was the third child of Wiley Anderson Murrell and his wife Mary Magdalene Honts.
Birth record of Mary Catharine Murrell, from the Murrell Family Bible.
Mary Catharine was born 18 September 1839. She was probably named “Mary” after her mother. Her middle name, “Catharine” would have been in honor of her maternal grandmother and great grandmother.
Little Mary Catharine had three younger siblings, but sadly died at age seven, the year after her youngest baby sister was born. Her death was on 6 November 1846, and likely in Botetourt Co., Virginia, since the family had not yet migrated to Illinois. We have been unable to find any mention of her birth or death other than in the Murrell Family Bible that belonged to Wiley and Mary.
.
The bible entry, we believe in little Mary Catharine’s mother’s hand, states:
Mary Catharine
Daughter of Wile
And Mary [Mg or H.?]
Murrell Departed
this Life in the
year of Lord and
Savior November
the 6  1846
Age 7 years 1
Month And 12
Days
One can only imagine how painful it was for a mother to write those words about her namesake.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Murrell Family Bible— copies of family pages in the possession of the author.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Tombstone Tuesday: John Henry Murrell

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Headstone for grave of John Henry Murrell in Rabourn Cemetery, La Monte,, Pettis County, Missouri. Posted with kind permission of the Find A Grave volunteer who took the image. (Click to enlarge.)

Roberts Family, Murrell Family (Click for Family Tree)

John Henry Murrell was the first son and second child born to Wiley Anderson Murrell (1806-1885) and Mary Magdalene (Honts) Murrell (1806-1887).  He arrived in this world on 2 July 1837, and, like all his siblings, was born in Botetourt Co., Virginia.
In 1853, the Murrell family migrated with their children to Warren County, Illinois. John was just 16, but would have been considered a man and been expected to do men’s work on the trip and in building their new home and farm.
John Henry Murrell was working as a farm hand in 1860 for his sister Elizabeth (Murrell) Roberts and her husband John Roberts in Point Pleasant Township, Warren County, Illinois. John Roberts was most likely renting the land, as there was no value of real estate listed on the census- only $650 in personal estate, so economics were most likely pretty tight for the couple. Two-year old William E. Roberts and 6-month old Jason L. Roberts, both John Henry’s nephews, were also enumerated in the household.
John Henry married Lydia Rayburn (1844-1920) on 21 December 1862 in Warren County. They moved to Pettis Co., Missouri sometime between 1862 and 1870, and were enumerated in the 1870 US Federal Census in Elk Fork.
John and Lydia had six children:
Elsina Murrell, 1863-1887

William H. Murrell 1866-1867, died as infant

Marker for grave of little William H. Murrell in Rabourn Cemetery, Pettis County, Missouri. The photographer said it appeared to be a little lamb on the headstone, as is often done for children. Posted with kind permission of the Find A Grave volunteer who took the image. (Click to enlarge.)
Solomon “Solie” Murrell 1867-1920, named after his maternal grandfather
Leni Leota Murrell 1870-1888, just 18 when she died
John Jacob Murrell 1877-1939, had a son named Johnny R. Murrell b. 1904
Allie Neora Murrell 1880-1947

John passed away on 23 March 1880, in Green Ridge, Pettis Co., Missouri. It was just two and a half months before the birth of his last child, and his oldest child, Elsina, was just 16.

Closeup of headstone for grave of John Henry Murrell in Rabourn Cemetery, La Monte, Pettis County, Missouri. Posted with kind permission of the Find A Grave volunteer who took the image. (Click to enlarge.)
It would have been very challenging for Lydia to support herself and her five children, and she married again on 21 December 1882, to Henry Mines. She had two children with Henry: Edward Henry Mines (1884-1937) and May E. Mine (1886-1915).
After May was born in 1886, the following year Lydia and John’s daughter Elsina passed away at age 23. The next year, 1888, Leni died— she was only 18 years old.
Marker for grave of Leni Leota Murrell and her half-sister May Mines in Rabourn Family Cemetery, La Monte, Pettis County, Missouri. Posted with kind permission of the Find A Grave volunteer who took the image. (Click to enlarge.)

It must have been heartbreaking to lose three children at young ages. Lydia’s husband Henry Mines then passed away in 1908, and child of theirs, May Mines, died in 1915— she was only 29.

Marker for grave of Solomon “Solie” Murrell in Rabourn Cemetery, La Monte, Pettis County, Missouri. Posted with kind permission of the Find A Grave volunteer who took the image. (Click to enlarge.)

Son Solomon died on 15 February 1920 at age 52, and Lydia followed him on 2 April 1920.

Marker for grave of Lydia (Rayburn) [Murrell] Mines in Rabourn Family Cemetery, Pettis County, Missouri. Posted with kind permission of the Find A Grave volunteer who took the image. (Click to enlarge.)
Lydia outlived five of her children and two husbands; only three of her children survived her.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. We appreciate the kind Find A Grave photographer who took these images, and has allowed us to use them on the blog.
  2. See also John Henry Murrell’s Find A Grave Memorial# 78820400 at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=78820400.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Mystery Monday: Wiley Anderson Murrell’s Parents and Early Life

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Wiley Anderson Murrell and Mary Magdalene (Hontz) Murrell. Posted with kind permission of the Harlan Family Blog. (Click to enlarge.)

Roberts Family, Murrell Family (Click for Family Tree)

Information on the early years of Wiley Anderson Murrell (1806-1885) has long been elusive. (Too scary to put the number of years the family has been searching, but it is more than 49 and less than 51…) Since it is the start of a new year, we thought we might try again to see if anyone with knowledge of the Murrell family or Virginia, especially Botetourt County, might have some suggestions of where to look next. We are trying to find the names of his parents and places they may have lived during his early life- both continue to be unsolved mysteries.

Wiley was born 2 Feb 1805 per the family bible (some say 1809) in Virginia but we do not know exactly where. The first official record we have for him is associated with his marriage to Mary Magdalene Hons/Honce/Honts/Honz/etc. on 9 April 1834 in Botetourt. Wiley would have been 28, Mary 27.
Wiley A. Murrell and Mary Honce Marriage Bond. (Click to enlarge.)

Mary’s mother Catharine (Kauffman) Hons gave surety, and we do have a fair amount of information on Catharine and her husband Henry Hons/etc./Johns, thanks to the fine work of the late George Honts. We have not found all the documentation he used, however, and would be very interested in seeing more to learn if there are some clues for the Murrell side.

Twenty-eight seems a bit old for a first marriage for Wiley, and for Mary at age 27 back in those days. Perhaps Wiley had been married to someone else earlier? Mary had her mother’s surname, and with her mother pledging surety for the marriage, it would seem that it was probably Mary’s first. After marrying in April of 1834, however, they got busy having children to make up for lost time. Mary had her first child in 1835, and then 5 more children in the next 10 years.

Wiley & family are listed in the 1840 US Federal Census in Botetourt, and in District 8, Botetourt, in 1850; he is also on the Ag Census for 1850. Obviously, then, he was a farmer, but there was no real estate value listed- maybe he was just renting, rather than owned the property? (We should check land records.)  Wiley had made his mark on the marriage bond, but still could neither read nor write per the census.

1850 Agriculture Schedule for Wiley A. Murrell, part 2. Ancestry.com. (Click to enlarge.)
The family migrated in 1853 to Roseville, Warren Co., Illinois, and Wiley had $718 in personal estate value per the 1860 census there. In 1868 the family migrated to Jasper Co., Iowa, but they have not been found on an 1870 census in Iowa, Illinois, or Virginia. They are found in the 1880 census in Jasper Co., Iowa, indexed as “Murren.”
The six children of Wiley and Mary are: Elizabeth Ann Murrell, John Henry Murrell, Mary Catharine Murrell, William Anderson Murrell, James Edward Murrell, and Ann Elisy Murrell. We will have more about each of these children in upcoming posts.
Wiley died on 27 March 1885 in Prairie City, Jasper County, Iowa. We have been unable to find an obituary for him. Mary died 2 years later.
W. A. Murrell and Mary M. Honts- Headstone in Mound Prairie Cemetery, Jasper Co., Iowa. Posted with kind permission of photographer.
Wiley and Mary had a son named “William Anderson Murrell” so that may have been the father’s full name as well.
It appears that the family was associated with the Daniel (may have been McDaniel) and Roberts families possibly in Virginia, most likely in Illinois, and definitely in Iowa.
DNA testing has given us some lines to explore but no real answers yet. We have 9 known descendants who have taken DNA tests, with 9 autosomal plus one Y-DNA. Many of the matches link to Thomas Murrell and Elizabeth Oliver, but there are other names that repeatedly show up, such as Gilliam. Our paper trail does not have good connections to these lines, unfortunately. So we just cannot connect the dots…
Any suggestions are much appreciated!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Image sources per captions.
  2. Thank you SO much to the Harlan Family who posted such great pictures on their website! We have searched unsuccessfully over the years for images of Wiley and Mary, and were thrilled last year to have a cousin send us their website that she had found. (Thanks, Patti!) It was great to contact these cousins, and they also have posted some wonderful pictures of the Murrell-Roberts family. You can find their website at https://harlanfamily.wordpress.com/
  3. It appears that the picture of Wiley and Mary is a composite picture- two different images laid side-by-side and printed. Note the different sizes of the two of them, as well as how Mary’s dress fades into Wiley’s suit. This seems to have been done with other pictures owned by the Harlan Family.
  4. Census data is from Ancestry.com, but FamilySearch has also been consulted for the 1870 census search. We have even gone page by page through Jasper County, Iowa, where we expect the Murrells to be, and even Warren County, Illinois, but cannot find the family.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Mystery Monday: Unknown (Roberts?) Baby

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icture of unknown baby. Picture found in with Roberts Family photos.
Picture of unknown baby. Picture in with Roberts Family photos. (Click to enlarge.)

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

This image was found in with other photos of the Roberts family of Jasper County, Iowa.

Picture of unknown baby, found in with Roberts Family photos, circa mid 1920s?

The photo is on thinner paper and in a cardboard folder, so definitely a 20th century photo. The clothing cannot tell us much- it could be either a boy or a girl. Thankfully the original owner kept the photo in the folder, so we do have information about the photography studio. This can help us narrow down when and where it might have been taken.

Photographer's Logo on outside of picture of unknown baby. Picture found in with Roberts Family photos.
Photographer’s Logo on outside of picture of unknown baby.

The photographer used the Spellman-Tyler name in Colfax, Iowa, sometime after 20 May 1922. On that date, Abel’s Photographic Weekly published the following:

Announcement concerning new studio owned by Lyle B. Tyler in Colfax, Iowa, to be called the Spellman-Tyler Studio. Abel’s Photographic Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 752, Page 555, 20 May 1922, via GoogleBooks.

So we know that the image was most likely taken after that date.

Please let us know if you have any clues about who this baby might be!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure chest of photos.
  2. Other citations- see captions.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Workday Wednesday: The Drugstore of Samuel J. Lee

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Lee Family (Click for Family Tree)

Trying to learn about the businesses where our ancestors worked can help us fill in some of the context of their lives.

Samuel J. Lee (1879-1964) was a druggist in St. Louis, Missouri. A Google search with his name took us to GoogleBooks, and a few directories of pharmacies throughout the nation.

Samuel J. Lee in His Drugstore in St. Louis, Missouri, possibly 1940s or 1950s?

GoogleBooks does not have the complete run of these directories- only 1905, 1906, 1910, 1911, 1916, 1921, and 1923 were available for today’s research. (Hopefully more on a tomorrow in the near future.)

There were only two mentions found:

1921- Samuel J. Lee in St. Louis, Missouri, The Era Druggists’ Directory, Vol. 19, Page 178, D. O. Haynes & Co., 1921, via GoogleBooks.

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1923- Samuel J. Lee as proprietor of Chenoweth Drugs in St. Louis, Missouri, The Era Druggists’ Directory, Vol. 19, Page 178, D. O. Haynes & Co., 1923, via GoogleBooks.

This suggests that Sam bought the Chenoweth Drugstore, and, as many do, Sam kept the old name since that is how customers knew the company. Generally, a buyer has to purchase the name and the “goodwill” it has built up over the years to continue to use it, or else rename the store at the risk of old customers not being able to find it.

Samuel J. Lee (left) in his Chouteau Ave store in St. Louis, Missouri, circa 1920?

Further research in other years did not bring up Sam’s name. It did, however, bring up the Chenoweth name.

1913- Chenoweth Drugs in St. Louis, Missouri, The Era Druggists’ Directory, Vol. 17, Page 113, D. O. Haynes & Co., 1913, via GoogleBooks.

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1916- Chenoweth Drugs in St. Louis, Missouri, The Era Druggists’ Directory, Vol. 18, Page 100, D. O. Haynes & Co., 1916, via GoogleBooks.

We know by the address that it was the same store. A quick trip to GoogleMaps shows the 4067 Chouteau Ave. address as very close to Sarah Ave- it is the closest cross-street. Sadly the building no longer appears to be in existence.

It is interesting that in 1921, the drugstore was listed under just Sam’s name, but in 1923, it was called “Chenoweth Drug Store” again. Reviewing city directories might give us more information, and it is more likely that a complete (or almost complete) run of those will be more available than the more specific druggist directories.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Images from directories as listed in captions.
  2. Google maps for 4067 Chouteau in St. Louis–https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6279979,-90.2492035,3a,90y,125.02h,79.72t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_ibdo7GZjK2nEFcAWsga0A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
  3. See also “Five Family Photos for Friday- Samuel J. Lee of St. Louis, Missouri”– http://heritageramblings.net/2013/12/13/five-family-photos-for-friday-samuel-j-lee-of-st-louis-missouri/

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.