Prairie City High School, circa 1914, in Jasper County, Iowa??

#42- Is this Prairie City High School in Prairie City, Jasper County, Iowa? This image may be from about 1914.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

More pictures without names to identify them! While frustrating, it is a sort of fun puzzle, trying to fit dates and places and people together. Thankfully many of the images were together in photos albums, so that helps us to at least group some of the images together, tentatively, of course. Whether we ever determine exactly who is who in the images, we still know they are related to our family, and they are a glimpse into the life of out family, whether at work on a fam, gathering with family, or studying at school. We do ask your help if you can ID any of these people or places, or know someone who can. Please let us know in the “Comments” or “Contact Us” section of the blog! Even an ‘educated guess’ can steer us toward more research and understanding.

Here is another view of this large building:

#43- Is this Prairie City High School, Prairie City, Iowa, about 1914?

We believe this may be PCHS because this photo was found with other Roberts family treasures:

#44a- “Prairie City High School, Nov. 1914” group picture; Edith ROBERTS (later McMURRY, then LUCK) is 2nd from the right, kneeling, in second row. [Click to enlarge.]
This image looks very similar to the doorway seen in picture #43 above, and the windows look similar although it is hard to tell if there is another window behind the tree in the building picture.

And then we turned over this picture…

#44b- Reverse of Prairie City High School group photo. Written in pencil in what appears to be the writing of Edith Roberts.

This was not written in recent years- note how the extender of the ‘g’ in “High” has cracked with the board. More recent IDs on the Roberts pictures are in pen. This also looks similar to other handwriting we believe to be Edith’s in her younger years- it got much more difficult to read as she aged!

#43- Edith ROBERTS on right with unknown friend in front of building that may be Prairie City High School, circa 1914.

The following was an image in the same photo album as the large building and high school pictures:

#44- PLAY BALL!! Unknown student likely from Prairie City High School (see shirt) baseball team, circa 1914.

Could this young man be a Prairie City High School (see shirt) baseball team member, circa 1914? People back then did not wear shirts with big logos generally, unless as part of a sports team.

#45- Three young women- or two young women with a teacher? that appear to be in front of Prairie City High School about 1914.

The above image seemed similar to the larger building front steps, but then we noticed the columns. Maybe we just can’t see them on the smaller picture of the large building? Or perhaps this is another part of the building- or even somewhere completely different. Edith did attend the State University of Iowa in Iowa City (now the University of Iowa), so perhaps this is later than high school.

To throw a wrench in all this surmising, here is a photo from the same album:

#46- Edith ROBERTS, far right, standing, with a school group. “1920 P C” is on the sign.

What? How is this group from 1920, and why does it say “P C”? We know Edith graduated from Prairie City High School in 1918, so is this a group at college of students from Prairie City? Or a group at college in a club, such as a debate team? Or is this a group that came back to PCHS for a reunion in 1920? This part of the building does not have a high foundation like the above large building pictures, but it could have been taken at a part of the building that was not raised as much.

This image was under the above on the album page:

#47- Edith ROBERTS, farthest left, with school group, probably her physical education class, possibly circa 1920.

Was this taken in Prairie City when Edith was in high school, or once she got to the State University of Iowa? We have no clues, other than it being under the image that states 1920 was the year, but there is that confounding “P C” on the above sign.

We would truly appreciate any information that could help us identify some of these images. Please add a “Comment” or use our “Contact Us” page if you know anything about these bygone days. Your message will wait for approval and your email address will never be visible to others visiting the blog, only the website administrator who vows to never use it other than to reply to you.

Thanks for looking and pondering with us!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. The numbers by the photos are for reference since we do not know many of the people in this album.
  2. “Roberts Family Photo Album” circa 1910-1925 or so. Images may have been taken in Jasper County, Iowa.
  3. “Mystery Monday: The Children of Mary Jane (Roberts) [French] Blount” https://heritageramblings.net/2016/05/16/mystery-monday-the-children-of-mary-jane-roberts-french-blount/
  4.  “Edith M. Roberts and the Prairie City High School Class of 1918” https://heritageramblings.net/2021/11/15/edith-m-roberts-and-the-prairie-city-high-school-class-of-1918/

 

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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 2013-2022 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, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about the copyright or use of “Heritage Ramblings” blog material.



Roberts Family Photo Album- Babies and Families

#19- A man, two boys (sons?), a dog, and some milk cans, circa 1920s.

Roberts Family, Daniel Family, Murrell Family (Click for Family Tree)

There is always a story behind a photo, and it would be so wonderful to know them all!

This snapshot of a time, a place, and three people is so intriguing. Is this a man and two sons, with one grown even taller than he was? Is this a man and his younger brother and a son of one of them? Or a three generation picture? All are in nice clothes, with the older two having ties, so were they dressed for a picture or some other occasion? And where were they, with milk cans on a grate alongside- a dairy perhaps? Did one of them work there? A closer look at the bricks suggests the right side of the building was added on… so many unanswered questions. We are hoping that some of our readers can help us to identify some of the people in this post, as well as some of the previous posts from unidentified photos that were found in the Roberts Family Photo Album.

The Roberts family was living in Indiana, then Illinois before their migration to Iowa around 1868 in a covered wagon. Edith ROBERTS (later McMURRAY, then LUCK) (1899-1982), told in a letter about how her father, George Anthony ROBERTS, Sr. (1861-1939), at age 5 ran behind the wagons on the long trek west. George’s parents, John ROBERTS (1832-1922) and Elizabeth Ann MURRELL family met the Robert Woodson DANIEL (1843-1922)-Margaret Ann HEMPHILL (1839-1915) family in Roseville, Warren County, Illinois, and their children married.

A letter to a Bedford County, Pennsylvania newspaper may have been picked up by other papers read by our ancestors in Illinois, or word of mouth stories of the richness of the prairies may have inspired our ancestors to make such a life-changing move.

“Here I am after a long, but rather pleasant ride. [The author had taken the train west to Iowa City and then a coach to Des Moines.] I had formed many big notions of Iowa: but, I tell you that every one of them came short of the reality… I presume that many of the emigrants whose wagons dot the road over the Prairies and whose family fires at night light up the woods along the roadside, don’t know that such a thing as a money crisis has come upon us… Capitalists in the East now have their eyes on the fertile, rolling, black lands of Iowa… In my travels so far, I have never been out of sight of timber and often passed large bodies of it. I have frequently crossed fresh running streams. Coal mines frequently occurred and game abounded… the prairie hens… fluttered up from about the coach wheels as they rolled along.”

While this was written about ten years before our families made the trek west, it could take a number of years to accumulate the money to buy and outfit a wagon, plus plan a trip of 200 miles after selling any farm, livestock, or other property owned and purchasing new at the destination. While today the trip would take 68 hours on foot per Google maps, it probably took 2-3 weeks by wagon with family, rivers to cross, broken wagon wheels, oxen to feed, poor weather, etc. Sometimes babies were born on the way too! So not a trip to undertake lightly.

It is no wonder people loved to show off their family and possessions in pictures and share with friends who were across the county or back home where they came from. The hand-held camera was such a wonderful invention!

#20- A mom and sweet baby girl. (Could this be Ethel G. ROBERTS ROBISON?)

And here is that sweet little one, about to take off walking into her future:

#21- What a great smile on this little girl!

Perhaps this is the same little girl in her rocking chair?

#22- A little girl in a rocker on a porch.

These children appear to be from a different family:

#23- Two children with a baby.

#24- Young boy in front of a porch.

Here is a gentleman who may have made that trek from Roseville. He probably never saw himself as a baby in a photo since photography was not really available until the 1840s, and then used mostly for portraits in a studio.

#25- An older man with a baby on his lap and a little girl with her dolly.

We have other pictures that include this man, so it would be great to learn who he is! (Please leave us a comment if you have a picture of him and/or know who he is.)

And here is one more cute baby in a little wicker chair with a bottle:

#26- Unidentified baby from Roberts Family Photo Album.

And of course, our contractually obligated picture of a little one with a dog:

#27- A toddler with an unhappy dog and big sis keeping them all together. Roberts Family Photo Album_c1910s-1920s. [Click to enlarge.]
This photo album is such a treasure trove… and there are still MORE pictures of our wonderful family. Stay tuned for pictures of the teens and adults.

And please let us know if you have seen these pictures or know any of the family in them. The “Leave a comment” link is at the very bottom, under the date in the grayed footer of the post. Thanks for reading, and maybe even commenting!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Roberts Family Photo Album put together in the 1910s-1920s era, probably Jasper County, Iowa.
  2. “Correspondence, Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 5, 1857.” Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, 10/23/1857, page 2.

 

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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 2013-2022 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, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about the copyright or use of “Heritage Ramblings” blog material.



“Happily Wed in Athens”- Edith Roberts and Edward A. McMurray, November 1921

Edith M. Roberts, circa 1920. Iowa City, Iowa. Perhaps taken around the time of this wedding? Or college graduation? [Click to enlarge.]
Roberts Family, McMurray Family (Click for Family Trees)

This headline is another prime example of not taking everything at face value in genealogy or historical research, and looking deeper. It is also a lesson to not stop after just the headline or first questionable piece of data- some sources may have multiple concerns, as does this article.

The November 29, 1921 Iowa City Press-Citizen, had the headline “Happily Wed in Athens” on a story on page 11 that day. When looking for the announcement of the Edith M. Roberts-Edward A. McMurray wedding, just scanning headlines might make one skip this article- “Athens”?? Is that Athens, Georgia? Athens, Ohio? Athens, Greece? It is unlikely that these two college students would have had a ‘destination wedding’ to a place 5,600 miles away across an ocean in 1921, however, so we can eliminate the truly Greek Athens, to start.

Edward A. McMurray, Sr., probably circa 1920. May have been from around the time of marriage to Edith Roberts, or college graduation? [Click to enlarge.]
Family logically thought that the couple was married in Jasper County, Iowa, where they both grew up and their parents still lived, but no marriage license or announcement had been found in Jasper County despite years of looking. Iowa City in Johnson County, Iowa, was the next logical location as they were both attending school there. Since this article was published in an Iowa City newspaper and no other city or state other than “Athens” was mentioned as the place of the wedding, it is highly possible it may have taken place in their college town where all their friends were located. (Whew- they didn’t elope- that would have made it much harder to find records.) But why would the place be headlined as “Athens” in the middle of Iowa?

“Mr. Edward McMurray, of Newton, Iowa, and Miss Edith Roberts, of Prairie City, Iowa, a sophomore medical student, and a liberal arts junior, respectively, were happily wed last evening, at sunset, at the Congregational conference house.”

The details of the couple matched many that were already known, so that helped us make sure we had the correct individuals. Since their standings at school were noted, the Iowa City location was becoming a bit more promising. One interesting tidbit about the word “Athens”- it conjured up other articles previously found about Edith being a member of the “Athena Literary Society” at the University of Iowa. She had also created a very sweet scrapbook with treasures from Athena events, so looking into the history of the college and the town were the next steps. This research provided our answer- Iowa City, Iowa, was and still is known as “The Athens of the Midwest” due to its many educational and cultural opportunities and events. Skimming other newspaper articles and delving into their context revealed that “Athens” or “The Athens” was a regular replacement for the official name of the town. So now we had our first answer- Edith Roberts and Edward McMurray were married in Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa.

The date of the marriage was the next focus. The article was published in the November 29, 1921 issue, which was a Tuesday. It stated the couple was “happily wed last evening, at sunset” – how romantic! The ‘last evening’ mentioned would have been Monday, November 28. Browsing further through that newspaper issue, because the search software had picked up 2 instances of Edith’s name, was an article listing “Licenses to wed… issued by [the] County Clerk…” The names included “E. A. McMurray (21)” and “Edith M. Roberts (22),”- their ages were after the name. Definitely the correct people, as Edward was born in 1900 and Edith in 1899. No date was given in the paper for the license nor a date for the actual wedding, so Johnson County’s records were the next stop on this quest.

Finding the marriage record was actually quite easy as once the event with date had been put into Ancestry.com, the “Iowa, U.S., Marriage Records, 1880-1951” from the Iowa Department of Public Health appeared in a search. (You don’t have to wait for hints to pop up- just do a ‘Search’ using the button by ‘Tools’ and ‘Edit’ on the upper right of the Ancestry page for that person; Ancestry will use the facts already in your tree to help narrow the hits.) It provided the date of the license, 11/25/1921, and even the license number: 10059. The entry confirmed their names, ages (although it has Edith as 23, which is incorrect), residence (Newton for Edward,  Prairie City for Edith), their parents’ names (the middle initial for George A. Roberts is noted as “M.” which is incorrect), and that both were students and it was the first marriage for each. The record lists that they were married 11/25/21 in Iowa City, Iowa- wait, that is different from the newspaper report! Hmm, what should we do now? Thinking about the date, it is obvious that it was around Thanksgiving of that year, so maybe they married over Thanksgiving break, as students might do so they can have a short honeymoon. A wonderful website called TimeAndDate.com will show us a calendar for that month so we can see that Thanksgiving holiday was celebrated on November 24th that year. So it seems that on Friday (11/25/1921) after Thanksgiving, Edith and Edward went to the County Clerk’s office and received their marriage license. They were married by Rev. Walter Schafer that evening, and the return of the actual marriage was filed by the minister on the following Monday, 11/28/1921.

So maybe Edith and Edward had returned home to celebrate Thanksgiving with family, and then returned to school the next day. Was the wedding planned in advance but they waited until the last minute to get the license because they were so busy with exams? Did they make a spur-of-the-moment decision to marry on Thanksgiving or when they got back up to school? Were their parents or siblings in attendance? Rev. Walter C. Schafer was a pastor for students in Iowa City.  Seeing that the witnesses to the wedding were Brainerd Ullrich and Leon Wiggins, names totally unknown to this researcher, suggests that maybe the family did not attend, because a sibling is often the Maid of Honor or Best Man and officially witnesses the wedding.  We will likely never know, however. Because Edith and Edward divorced in less than ten years, there are no wedding portraits and it was not talked about much within subsequent families. Finding these records after years of wondering about details fills in some answers, but leaves the rest to our imaginations.

The last line of the newspaper article was interesting, and does need some explanation but that too will have to be supplied by our imaginations:

“Friends will wish the joy questioning collegians long life and happiness.”

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Photos are treasures from the family archives.
  2. See references listed in above paragraphs.
  3. Rev Walter C. Schafer- a student pastor who attended a Chicago conference for religious workers in American colleges and universities. Iowa City Citizen, Jan. 9, 1919, page 8. Also listed as a 33 year old minister in the 1920 Iowa City Ward 2, Johnson County, Iowa, Federal Census.

 

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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 2013-2021 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, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about the copyright or use of “Heritage Ramblings” blog material.



Guy Leslie Roberts? Jason Lee Roberts? and Georgie Roberts of Jasper County, Iowa, Part 2

Circa 1911-Possibly Guy Leslie Roberts, his wife Florence Myrtle Wilson, and Guy’s parents in back seat, Jason Lee Roberts and Julia French Roberts. [Click to enlarge.]
Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

As we work to identify the people in the above photograph, which was cropped from the original posted in Part 1, an internet search for images was not very helpful. Our own blog posts were the majority of the hits, so we revisited those.

We have posted the family photos from the large get-togethers of John Roberts’ descendants in the early 1900s.

Jason Lee Roberts Family, 1892, Jasper County, Iowa. From left: Orpha B. Roberts, Oca S. Roberts, Julia (French) Roberts, Guy L. Roberts sitting on fence, and Jason Lee Roberts. [Click to enlarge.]
In this image, Guy L. Roberts was only about 2 years old, so it doesn’t help us much to ID him, but his mother, Julia French Roberts was 29 and his father, Jason Lee Roberts, was 33. We can see adult features to help confirm our hypothesis as to half the passengers in the beautiful old Cadillac.

Jason Lee Roberts Family, 1900. Standing, in white dress is Orpha B. Roberts, her brother Guy L. Roberts, Jason Lee Roberts, his wife Julia (French) Roberts holding baby Ralph Roberts. Seated children, from left: Wiley Roberts, Willard Roberts, and Charley Roberts. Cropped from large family portrait. [Click to enlarge.]
This portrait taken 8 years later gives us an even better idea of the facial features of Jason, Julia, and Guy. Guy was about 10 years old in this family grouping, so his features will changesomewhat, throughout the next 10 years or so.

We also have a portrait of Jason and Julia from maybe 10 years after this last family picture, about 1910 or so:

Jason L. Roberts and his wife Julia French Roberts, possibly taken circa 1910. from the Harlan Family WordPress blog, with permission. [Click to enlarge.]
Ears and noses are good facial areas to focus on when trying to ID persons through the years, and those features do suggest the man in the back seat could be Jason Lee Roberts. The woman in the circa 1910 portrait and the younger images looks very much like Julia French Roberts, in this author’s humble opinion.

We recently found the following portrait in a box full of photos, with many of them Robertses and the photos unexpectedly old:

Probably Guy Leslie Roberts with his wife Florence Myrtle Wilson Roberts and two children- not confirmed. The children may be Cyrene Iris Roberts (later Stillwell) and John Malcolm Roberts, setting the time to around 1914. [Click to enlarge.]
If you have not read the caption, would either of these adults look familiar? This looks like the couple in the front seat of the car, so we feel they are most likely Guy and Florence Myrtle Wilson Roberts.  Again, we have found no other photos of Guy or Florence online or on genealogy websites to verify this identification, but it seems very possible we have the correct people. The first two children of Guy and Florence were Cyrene Iris Roberts (later Stillwell), who was born in 1912, and John Malcolm Roberts, born 1914. Florence would have a total of 10 children before she and Guy divorced in 1943. Guy remarried in 1947 and had one child, Guy L. Roberts, Jr., with his second wife, Bernice Harper Roberts (1908-1981).

Have we met the Genealogical Proof Standard in identifying these people? We do have a lot of circumstantial evidence, but is it a “preponderance of evidence”? Have we done “exhaustive research”? This is as much as we now know, and feel the hypothesis of those in the car being, from left, back seat, Jason Lee Roberts, Julia French Roberts, and in the front seat Guy Leslie Roberts and his wife Florence Myrtle Wilson Roberts is correct. We hope that someone will have other pictures to definitively prove our hypothesis, so please contact us if you can tell us more!

And of course, that car in the second picture of Guy and Florence… People took pictures of themselves with their most prized possessions, and since Guy founded two automobile insurance companies, we could suggest that he was very proud of his vehicles. We can definitely say it is not the same car as the first because of the back fender line angling down, whereas in the first/earlier car the back fenders ran straight to the rear of the vehicle. So this may be the latest and greatest model at that time. And that is the deepest this human, not vehicle, genealogist will proceed, leaving it to others who will better enjoy the fine nuances of successive car vintages to research.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure trove of pictures.
  2. Prior Roberts family genealogical research.
  3. A special “thank you” to the Harlan family for allowing us to share the image of Jason and Julia they posted on their WordPress blog.
  4. Thanks also to our wonderful family who has shared the boxes of pictures and tediously scanned them so we may all enjoy. More of those to come on the blog!

 

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 2013-2022 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, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about the copyright or use of “Heritage Ramblings” blog material.



Edward A. McMurray, Jr. and April 12, 1924- A Very Special Day, Part 2

Telegram with congratulations to Edith Roberts McMurray on the birth of her son, Edward A. McMurray, Jr., April 16, 1924. [Click to enlarge.]
Roberts Family (Click for Family Trees)

Since it is still the birthday week of Edward A. McMurray, Jr., let’s continue celebrating with some of the treasures we still have, in addition to all the wonderful memories.

Edward A. McMurray, Sr. (1900-1992) was still in medical school in St. Louis, Missouri, when his first son was born. Here he is with Edward A. McMurray, Jr., who was 11 months old at the time. “Dr.” McMurray would graduate from St. Louis University Medical School just a few months after this picture was taken:

Edward A. McMurray, Sr., with his first son, Edward A. McMurray, Jr., about March, 1925. [Click to enlarge.]
And here is the proud mama again, Edith M. Roberts McMurray, when Edward Jr. was a bit older, perhaps around his first birthday:

Edith Roberts McMurray with son Edward A. McMurray, Jr, about 1925. [Click to enlarge.]
On the Roberts side, Edith’s sister, Ethel G. Roberts Robison (1891-1969), had a son and two daughters, so Edward was not the first grandchild on that branch of the family tree. Sadly however, George Anthony Roberts (1861-1931), Edith’s father, had not wanted Ethel to marry the man she did (though in the long run Ethel made the better choice), and George would not even acknowledge his first three grandchildren. So to “Daddy George,” Edward’s nickname for him, Edward was essentially his first, and only, grandchild.

Edward A. McMurray, Jr., with his grandfather George A. Roberts, about 1926. From the photo album Edward put together in the late 1940s, when he was about to get married. [Click to enlarge.]
Edith’s mother, Ella V. Daniel Roberts (1866-1922), had passed away two years before Edward was born. It must have been very hard for Edith to not have her beloved momma with her to rejoice in the birth of a dear son!

On the McMurray side, Edward Jr. was the cherished very first grandchild. His paternal grandparents, Lynette Payne McMurray, and William Elmer McMurray, were doting grandparents:

Three generations of McMurrays: Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Sr. on left, his mother Lynette (Payne) McMurray holding his son Edward A. McMurray, Jr., and her husband and Dr. McMurray’s father, William E. McMurray on the right. Probably taken in 1924. [Click to enlarge.]
Edith, in the stories she wrote about her life, spoke about Will McMurray and what a “jovial and friendly” man he was, with “a most hearty laugh.” She called Will, “Dad” and Lynette, “Mother” and was very close to them throughout their lives. Edith wrote about how Will was known to all as “Bill.”

“He would be hailed from every street corner.  “Hey Bill, how goes it this morning?” Dad would have a ready answer.

He loved the circus.  When Edward Jr. was just six weeks old, we went to one out north of town.  Proudly Dad carried his first Grandchild on his fat tummy and you can imagine the attention he got.  “How about having a look at the boy Bill?”  Dad just beamed and the rest of us acted stupid, grinning from ear to ear.”

Lynette (Payne) McMurray holding her grandson, Edward A. McMurray, Jr. Taken sometime in 1924, as Ed was born April 12th of that year.

The family nickname for Ed’s paternal great-grandmother was “Amino” which was pronounced “AM-in-o.” The caption was written by Ed, Jr. in his family scrapbook he created around 1948, just before he got married. Since he was the oldest grandchild, perhaps he came up with her nickname as he was learning to talk!

William and Lynette’s other son, Herbert C. McMurray (1911-1989), Edward’s paternal uncle, was just 13 years old when Ed Jr. was born.

Edward A. McMurray, Jr., with his 13 year-old paternal uncle, Herbert C. McMurray, likely taken in April, 1924. Caption by Edward in his photo album. [Click to enlarge.]
A bit older, Edward looks like he is not so sure about this ride Uncle Herbert was providing:

Edward A. McMurray, Jr., being carried by his uncle, Herbert McMurray, circa 1925. [Click to enlarge.]
Edward, Jr. was lucky enough to have two great-grandparents still living when he was born.  We do not have any pictures of him with his great-grandfather Frederick Asbury “F.A.” McMurray (1859-1929), but here Ed is with Hannah Malissa Benjamin McMurray (1854-1932), F.A.’s wife. In his later years, Ed was able to recognize her in this picture, but all he could remember was, “She was very stern.”

Hannah Melissa Benjamin with her great-grandson, Edward A. McMurray, Jr., about 1925. [Click to enlarge.]
When he was a bit older, about 3 or 4, Ed hung out with his buddy Uncle Herbert:

Herbert C. McMurray with his nephew Edward A. McMurray, Jr. on left, and an unknown baby. The baby may be his niece, Mona Lynette Cook (1927-1970), daughter of Herbert and Edward Sr’s sister, Maude Lynette “Midge” McMurray Cook. Herbert did not have children when Ed was this young. Probably taken about 1928. [Click to enlarge.]
Herbert was such a favorite with Edward Jr.- in fact, Ed asked Herbert to be his best man when he married in 1948!

Edith adored her in-laws. She traveled back and forth between Newton and St. Louis to be with Ed Sr. who was still in medical school and then likely completing his residency there. Edith wrote:

“They were so good to me.  I stayed with them a lot, in the summer when it was too hot for us to be in St. Louis and later in an apartment on the north side of 322 E 4th St. W.  I can see where we were no doubt a nuisance as [Edward] had colic and one night we had a cyclone and both of us were so exhausted that is Edward and I, we slept thru it and his baby carriage was blown off the porch and Fourth street was blocked with trees blown down.

Dad sold my cakes I made so that I could make enuf money to go to St. Louis in the fall and I was always taken with them on Sundays to Des Moines and to Hudson where we went to visit the McMillans.  I believe they were cousins of Mothers.  It would have been so nice if Mother and Dad had gone by themselves.  On the way home nine times out of ten we had a flat tire.  It would be late at night and every one tired.  Dad and I would get out and Mother would hold the sleeping grandson… [while he was] getting it fixed…”

All that family love in the early years helped Edward Arthur McMurray, Jr. grow into the fine man he would later become.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure chest of photos, letters, ephemera, etc.
  2. Wonderful biographies written by Edith M. Roberts McMurray Luck about the  people she knew and loved. Provided above as she wrote them, with her spelling abbreviations and lack of punctuation- she was always too busy to pause for a comma or stop for a period!
  3. “The Saga of Ed McMurray, Family and Friends,” a scrapbook put together by Ed around 1948 before he got married. Perhaps it was partially a scorecard for his soon-to-be-wife, Mary T. HELBLING, to learn all his family members? The captions are just adorable, as are the pictures he chose. It is one of those few things that gives a little insight into who he was.

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