Edith M. Roberts- 8th Grade Graduation, 1914, and Rural Schoolhouses and Children

Edith M. Roberts’ 8th grade diploma from the Jasper County, Iowa, Public Schools. [Click to enlarge.]
ROBERTS Family (Click for Family Tree)

Today we head farther back in history from our previous post of Edith M. ROBERTS, (later McMurray, then Luck), when she was a part of the Prairie City High School Class of 1918. Four years earlier, on the 26th of June, 1914, Edith had graduated from 8th grade in the “Public Schools of the State of Iowa.” But what school was it?

We know that Edith could see her brother, George A. Roberts, Jr., and their sister Ethel Gay Roberts, later Robison, coming home from school- she wrote about this in stories to her family. The Mound Prairie schoolhouse was just a quarter of a mile down the road from their farmhouse. Edith adored her older sister and brother. Being the youngest by eight years, she would be at home with her mother, and could stand on a chair and watch out the window for her siblings to leave their one-room schoolhouse.

Jasper County Iowa-Schoolhouse near the farm of the George Roberts family. Photo taken about 1972. [Click to enlarge.]
This is the schoolhouse down the road from their family farm as it looked in the 1970s. If memory serves, the schoolhouse was along W 60th St S, between S 60th Ave W and S 68th Ave W.

Jasper County Iowa-Schoolhouse near the farm of the George Roberts family. Photo taken about 1972. [Click to enlarge.]
This building that housed eager (!?) scholars for many years was used for storing hay in the 1970s.

Edith’s father, George Anthony Roberts, Sr., was on the local school board and hired teachers- and the family also boarded them, more often than Edith’s mother, Ella V. Daniel Roberts, would wish. One more mouth to feed and another person in the small house was a challenge, especially if the schoolteacher had a difficult personality. (We have written earlier about some of those, and need to finish up those thoughts in some new posts. See notes.)

Old schoolhouse, taken in 1910-1920s probably, in with Roberts family pictures. [Click to enlarge.]
Finding this very old picture- 100 years old!- of the same or a similar schoolhouse in with Roberts family pictures was interesting. These photos were taken possibly in the 1920s, or even back into 1910 or so.

We believe that Edith attended this school, Mound Prairie, for her first eight years of schooling. She may have attended another school for the latter part, however, as her father had built a second house in Jasper County where he and her mother moved, but we do not know if Edith was already graduated by that time or if there was another school closer to the new place. We do know that in high school she rode her horse to her paternal grandparents’ house, that of John Roberts and Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts, in Prairie City. (They had moved there when John sold their farm and retired.) She would leave the horse at their house and go on to Prairie City High School, and she did the same for church on Sunday.

We also found some old pictures that we think may be children by this old school, or perhaps by another school. (Click to enlarge any of them, or request a higher quality picture.) It is likely that the same floor plan was used for many of the county schoolhouses, and similar exterior materials. Foundations may have been just what was around, especially if the soil was rocky, so those differences may help to differentiate schools.

We do know that Edith Roberts taught in some of the rural schools after she graduated either high school or college, so they could have been the children in her class. They might have instead been family or neighbors who attended this school near the homeplace, or another Jasper County school. Some of the Roberts, Daniel, and Murrell family lived in nearby, or in nearby counties, with some family as far away as northwestern Iowa, Missouri or Illinois- even out into the Dakotas. Some of the same children, especially four handsome boys that look like an energetic handful, are in multiple pictures we have. While the pictures are quite evocative of a very different time and lifestyle and enjoyable in their own way, we surely would like to identify the people and share with other descendants who would also enjoy these pictures. So if you can identify any of these children or the place, please let us know in the Comments section!

#1- Four boys sitting on ground.

#2 Three boys

#3- Eight children that include some of the previous boys.

#4 Four children with coats and caps

#5- Two cute little girls and a dog by a building- school or house?

#6- Eight small children, by schoolhouse?

#7- Nine or so children on a log; perhaps it is Edith Roberts standing?

#8- Eleven girls, likely by a schoolhouse.

#9- Large group of children, by a schoolhouse? Includes some of the boys in earlier pictures.

#10- Five children by a fence- at the schoolhouse or on a farm?

 

More images to come- please do let us know if you can help identify the people in the images or the places.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure chest of photos, the “Roberts Family Photo Album, circa 1910-1920s.”
  2.  “Those Places Thursday: Jasper County Schoolhouse.”  https://heritageramblings.net/2018/04/19/those-places-thursday-jasper-county-schoolhouse/

 

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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.



Guy Leslie Roberts? Jason Lee Roberts? and Georgie Roberts of Jasper County, Iowa, Part 1

The Roberts Family (likely), out for a drive. Possibly Guy Leslie Roberts, his wife Florence Myrtle Wilson, and Guy’s parents in back seat: Jason Lee Roberts and Julia French Roberts. (ID needs to be confirmed further.) [Click to enlarge.]
ROBERTS Family (Click for Family Tree)

First,  it is important to say that **we do not know for sure the identity of these people in the car. **  We are hoping that a kind reader out there will share some of their images to confirm or refute our educated guesses.

Second, what a fun picture! Wonder where they are going, dressed in their finery. Looking at the intricate and beautiful hats of the ladies, they most likely will not be driving very fast with the top down.

This RPPC (Real Photo PostCard- photos were printed on heavy cardstock for mailing) was found in a collection of wonderful very old pictures that included many persons in the Roberts family of Jasper County, Iowa. There were no names on this image to definitively ID the individuals, but because it was a postcard, we got very lucky that it was completed to be mailed to a person and has a signature. Sadly there is no postmark to give us an approximate date. With this information, however, plus previous research, we can make an educated guess about the people out for a ride in this amazing new machine, the automobile.

Reverse of above image.

Again, while we do not know for sure that this image is of the people we listed in the caption, there are quite a few clues that have helped us to come to these conclusions. Here is a bit of the thought process and information used to verify steps in our hypothesis- it is not quite a genealogical standard of proof, but as close as we can get with the data we can find:

1. The car and clothing of the persons in the photo suggest the early 1900s time period in the United States.

2. On the front grill of the car, the name appears to be “Cadillac.” A Google search for Cadillacs from 1900-1930 was a starting place to ID the car, so we could determine approximately when this was taken and who in the family would have been alive at that time. Using the comprehensive “New Cadillac Database” was easy as one can to scroll through all the pictures and confirm with the text the specs and profile of a vehicle. Identifying features of the vehicle include distinctive square lights on the side with round lights in front. There is a curved cowling to separate the longer hood from the four-seater body. The car had a top (a demi-tonneau) that could unfold above the seats for protection from the weather if needed. If this non-car-person’s assessment is correct, this may be a 1909 Cadillac Thirty, an exciting new vehicle with a 30 horsepower engine. Top speed would have been about 50 mph, which isn’t bad considering how few roads were paved, especially in rural areas like Iowa. This model may have been the Model G demi-tonneau. The base price was $1350 (about $46,000 today), with a speedometer, lamps, a generator for the lamps (instead of oil or gas lamps), a detachable tonneau, a second battery, etc. all adding to the price- selling cars hasn’t really changed much, has it? This could instead be a 1910 or 1911 model, 1911 being the last year a crank was used to start the car. So we can say that likely this car is circa 1910, which helps us pin down the time. [Please do leave us a note if we have not found the correct Cadillac model- we appreciate true expertise in identifying this vehicle!]

3. We know the Roberts family had cars fairly early-on, as Edith M. Roberts spoke of her grandparents, John Roberts (1832-1922) and Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts (1835-1917) having a car. Her father, George Anthony Roberts, Sr., enjoyed driving it before they had their own.

“I can remember the Reo runabout grandpa bought.  To have an automobile then was something.  They would drive out to visit us during the week, but never on Sundays.  Always they were in church on that day.  No one did anything on Sunday but go to church and make calls in the afternoon.  They would come chug-chugging in the farmyard… It was quite level at that time.  Grandpa so tall, and grandma so little, with her veil flying back of her in the wind.  They wore tan dusters.  They would come in for dinner.  Mother would have chicken and noodles, because they like that, and all the goodies that went along with a good country meal.

“After dinner dad would go out and get in the automobile and drive it around in a circle.  Of course I was right behind him having a ball.  No one else in the family had a car at that time.  About four o’clock they would leave and the next week they would visit one of the other children. “

REOs (pronounced ree-ohs) became available in 1915, and were produced until 1953. R.E.O. are the initials of Ransom Eli Olds, the founder of the company. And, for those of a certain era, the name of a 1915 truck called an ‘REO Speedwagon’ was the origin of the name of the excellent 1970s-80s band REO Speedwagon! (The letters were spelled out in the band name, however.)

4. Another good clue for identifying this image was on the back. As a postcard, the name and address were there: “Mr. Geo Roberts Jr” of Monroe, Iowa. We know that George Jr lived in Jasper County, Iowa, for his whole life. Georgie, as he was known, was born June 11, 1889 on the family farm near Monroe, Iowa in Jasper County, to George Anthony Roberts, Sr. (1861-1939) and Ella Viola Daniel (1866-1922). Georgie worked the family farms, both as a boy as well as when an adult. This helps us know to look at extended family and friends of the Robertses.

5. “Guy” is a less common name in the family, and a search within the family tree takes us to Guy Leslie Roberts, born December 9, 1890, in Mound Prairie Township, Jasper County, Iowa, to Jason Lee Roberts (1859-1940) and Julia French Roberts (1863-1917). Bingo! Jason Lee was the oldest of the three Roberts brothers born to John Roberts (1832-1922) and Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts (1835-1917).

Three Roberts Brothers of Jasper County, Iowa: (from left) William Edward “W.E.” Roberts, Jason Lee “J.L.” Roberts, and George Anthony “G.A.” Roberts, taken around 1900.

That meant that Guy and Georgie were cousins, and they all lived about two miles apart in rural Jasper County! Since there is no postmark the photo postcard was not actually mailed and likely presented in person, again suggesting that we most likely have the correct “Guy.”

 

Next: A few more identification details and photos…

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasures chest of photos and ephemera. A special “thank you” to all of those through the last 150 years or so who have preserved and passed on the beautiful images of our dear family.
  2. A special “thank you” to Edith M. Roberts McMurray Luck for the stories she wrote about her life growing up along with her sweet biographies of our ancestors, and the grand-daughter who encouraged her to put those thoughts on paper for the generations to come.
  3. Descriptions and Specifications of Cadillac Cars 1905 – 1912.https://www.newcadillacdatabase.org/static/CDB/Dbas_txt/Cad05-12.htm
  4. REO cars, and REO Speedwagon- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REO_Motor_Car_Company, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REO_Speedwagon

 

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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.

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.



George Anthony Roberts, Sr. of Jasper County, Iowa

George A. Roberts, Sr., at home on the family farm. Note picture of him with his two brothers on wall to the right, and his daughter Edith’s picture on the piano. Probably taken in the early 1920s. (Click to enlarge.)

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

George Anthony Roberts, Sr. (186 -1939) was a strong-willed, self-confident man.   “A man’s home is his castle” is definitely reflected in this picture of him at home on the farm.

It is charming to see the picture of George, probably in his early 60s, in front of the picture of him as a younger man with his brothers on the back wall of the parlor. William Edward Roberts is on the left in the portrait and Jason Lee Roberts in the center, with George, the youngest son, on the right; it was probably taken somewhere between 1880-1900. This photo bridges time in many other ways, too, as the photo of George’s youngest daughter sits on the piano. That picture of Edith Roberts was probably taken when she was in college, sometime between about 1918-1921.

Although very obviously from the outside a typical farmhouse of the late twentieth century, the Roberts home and furnishings also bridged time. There were lovely American Arts and Crafts, also known as Craftsman-style, features on the inside. The tall baseboards and wide trim around the windows were very linear in the newer style, unlike the frou-frou, curvy Victorian designs of earlier years. If the image is enlarged to see the stairway in more detail, the squared balusters, the simple, angular hand rail, the wooden ‘strap’ detail on the stairway newell posts, and the angular little bench to the side of the stairs that had a cupboard below all reflect Craftsman style. There is no seat cushion on the bench, just a pillow to the side. (Our ancestors were obviously tougher people than we are today!) The cabinet door face is what many would now call ‘Shaker style,’ but it was very typical for the Craftsman era, in which handwork and fine craftsmanship were emphasized over the factory-manufacture of thousands of the same mediocre items.

While George’s rocker was Craftsman-style (note the leather seat, squared tapering of the legs, and the detail of small supports where the leg meets the chair arms), other elements of the decor were still Victorian. Most people did not have enough money to change out all their furnishings to a new style, and may have wanted to keep some furniture that had sentimental value from parents or times past. The piano and bench had ornate capitals at the top of their legs and on the supports of the upright portion of the piano. The table behind George had a decorative spindle front, and the table at the left had the sweet curved legs consistent with Victorian style. The linens in the room are also older in style. The Craftsman look still used linens to protect a tabletop, but they were much simpler, not as lacy as those on the table or piano top, and in the Craftsman style, the linen would have left part of the beautiful wood of the table visible for admirers to enjoy quarter-sawn oak or other beautiful woods. The curtains in this room are lace too, but Craftsman-style window coverings would often be a shade or simple gauze, cotton, or linen curtains, perhaps with small appliqué or stenciling. The ferns in the room kept the Victorian look as well- people of that era just loved ferns. (Ferns grew well inside the darker homes of the past, too.)

It looks like they moved things around for this second picture, likely taken at the same time.

George A. Roberts, Sr., at home on the family farm. Probably taken in the early 1920s. (Click to enlarge.)

Even the folder/mat of the first picture has Craftsman elements in the simple but elegant embossed detail framing the picture.

These are great pictures of George A. Roberts, Sr., plus they give us a glimpse into the daily homelife of George, his wife Ella Viola (Daniel) Roberts, and their children, George Anthony Roberts, Jr., Ethel Gay Roberts, and Edith Roberts. Can you imagine a cold winter day with the winds blowing across the Iowa prairie, a harvest safely stored in bins or sold to provide for the family for the next crop, and next year? Can you see the family here, young Georgie teasing his sisters while George Sr was in his rocker trying to read and Ella was mending the clothes of hard working farmers by gas light or finally, electric lights? Their home bridged eras, and the family’s preservation of these wonderful images and stories has bridged time for us, too.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck talked often of her father, and is the source of much information about the family. Her stories about life on the farm have been quoted in many articles, and there are still more to share.
  2. Image from our shared family treasure chest of photos.

 

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 2013-2019 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 copyright or use of our blog material.



A Visit with John and Lizzie (Murrell) Roberts- well, almost

Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck at her desk in Newton, Iowa, 1980.

Many of us are fortunate to know our parents and grandparents, and some of us have actually visited with a great-grandparent. The chance of meeting a great-great grandparent is pretty slim, although today, thanks to the foresight of Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck (1899-1982) and the persistence of a beloved little red-haired girl- Edith was once one of those too- we can, in a sense visit that many generations back.

That little red-haired girl was not me, but I am a beneficiary of the stories Edith wrote about her years growing up on the farm and the people she loved. She gives us so much detail about her family that it is almost like we are there for a visit too.

The John and Elizabeth Ann (Murrell) Roberts Family, 1904.

In the above picture, the fourth child from the left sitting on the ground with long ringlets and a big bow in her hair is Edith Roberts. She was four, and the young woman standing above her in the light dress is her sister Ethel Gay Roberts; her brother George A. Roberts is just to the left of Ethel and their mother, Ella V. (Daniel) Roberts, is in between. Edith’s father George A. Roberts, Sr. is to the right of his daughter Ethel. You can, most likely, pick out John Roberts and his wife Elizabeth Ann “Lizzie” (Murrell) Roberts further to the right in the picture, as they are the oldest in the family and both dressed in dark clothing. (John is the fourth from the right standing, Lizzie the fifth.) Family get-togethers like these on the farm were how Edith learned so much about her family history, and how she had an opportunity to really get to know her grandparents, uncles, aunt, and cousins.

That little red-haired, persistent girl named Edith grew up telling her own descendants about their ancestors, and she finally wrote much of it down, due to the persistence of that other little red-haired girl. (Thank you both!)

Edith’s words are what will be shared here, with minimal additional comments from yours truly- mostly just enough for clarity and to help keep us straight with factual family history. [Editor’s notes will be in italics.]

Edith wrote:

“My grandpa and grandma Roberts were something else. They … had moved into town from the farm. They first lived in Monroe, but later moved to Prairie City.  John and Elizabeth Roberts. I have always liked that name. I like to pronounce and write it and see it in print. ROBERTS, Welsh name it is. Two brothers came over here from Wales. One became a Tory and went to Canada during the Revolutionary War, and our ancestor came west. He was a Whig, and I suppose this is why we have been Republicans all these years. It makes conservativeness, maybe? Never thought of that before. 

[The story of two immigrant brothers, one a Tory (British loyalist), and one a Whig (American patriot) is a common one, but that great political divide is also one that was sometimes true even for brothers born here. Thus far, almost all of what Edith stated about her family history has been found to be true with copious research, so this story bears looking into. A Roberts family history, however, states that the original Roberts immigrant came to America from Wales. (That may still count as being a Tory? Knowing when they came over would help us to determine if this story is true or not.) Also, research is very challenging with such a common name, but maybe with all that is available these days, we will find an answer soon.]

“Grandpa [John Roberts, 1832-1922] was indeed one of the finest looking men you can imagine. Very, very tall. Over six feet, thin, and stately. As I remember him he never walked with a cane or in any way showed his age, except his white hair. It was sort of bristly like, cut short, and always immaculate. He smelled so good. He used a nice smelling cologne I suppose. In those days that was really something. I cannot remember my dad ever using anything like that, or my brother either. He was always well turned out. Clean, neat and sprightly.  

[Despite his age- 72- John Roberts is the tallest of the family in the 1904 picture! And he does look “well turned out.”]

“But what a disposition. So different from grandpa Daniels [Edith’s maternal grandfather]. He [John Roberts] would argue at the drop of a hat on any issue no matter what it was. He harped on religion a lot. There were two churches in Prairie City, one Methodist and the other Christian. Grandpa Roberts was a member of the Methodist church, and if you were not, you were no good. The Daniels belonged to the Christian Church; that is where they attended. Really I don’t think they ever had anything to do with each other. Lived in this little town of maybe 500 people and probably never saw each other except at the post office. By the way, the post office was common ground for every one in town. No mail delivery then. You had a post office box and had to pick up your own mail. A gossip center perhaps.  

The “Homeplace” of George A. Roberts, Sr. and Ella V. (Daniel) Roberts, Jasper County, Iowa. Image taken circa 1900 and hand colored. Part of this farm had belonged to John and Lizzie Roberts previously.

 

“I have often thought that maybe it was because of grandpa Robert’s disposition, caused my dad to leave at such an early age. He farmed for himself before he was twenty, and mother was only sixteen or eighteen when they were married. Dad had trouble with his brother Jason, who was grandpa’s pet, and grandpa was always blaming dad for uncle Jason’s doings. Anyway this is dad’s side of the story. Once I understand they had a “knock-down and drag out” and after that did not do so much “trouble-making” for dad. 

[Ironically and sadly, George A. Roberts, Sr. was a strong-willed, quick-tempered man like his father. George disowned his daughter Ethel when she married a man he did not approve of, and he averted his eyes and did not speak if he saw her or his grandchildren on the street in their small town. Ethel made a good choice, however, as the man George had in mind for his oldest daughter turned out to be a ne’er do well. George did have quite a soft spot for his youngest daughter Edith, however, despite her sneaking notes between her sister and her eventual husband, Bert Robison.]

“Dad had three brothers and one sister. Uncle Ed [William Edward Roberts, 1858-1935] who was a dear. So gentle and kind with beautiful mirthful brown eyes. Aunt Mollie [Mary Jane (Roberts) [French] Blount] 1863-1947] lived in Des Moines and was considered ‘city folks’. Will tell you that story another time. Then dad, and then uncle Jason [Jason Lee Roberts 1859-1940]. There were lots of cousins. Uncle Ed had three children, uncle Jason had seven, aunt Mollie six, and we had three. A lot different than our small close-knit family on mamma’s side of the house.  We were just another grandchild to them. Their house was more interesting than grandma Daniels. I suppose they had more worldly goods. As I look back on it now. Once we had to go there for Christmas and how we kids did complain. Always it was Christmas at grandpa Daniels, or it just was not Christmas. Grandpa Roberts had bought four silver tea sets (we still have one). Each set was in a clothesbasket and what to do about the giving of them. We had Christmas the next day at grandpa Daniel’s but it was not the same as if we could have had it on Christmas Day. 

” Now dear little Grandma Roberts [Elizabeth Ann “Lizzie” (Murrell) Roberts, 1835-1917], as a fretting, busy always at something sort of person. She was so small she could stand under grandpa’s outstretched arm. She loved flowers, and this is what I remember most about that place. There were flowers everywhere. I never see one of those tiny, tiny pansies that I don’t think of grandma Roberts. She was so quiet and kind, and never crossed grandpa, but took his tirades in stride.  

“She came originally from West Virginia. She remembered the slaves and how bad it was for them. Only in whispers did I hear mamma and her talking about this. I was not supposed to be listening.  

“Going back to the flowers, she had a terrarium…  I can see it yet. It was in a large jar and was most interesting. Her dining room was filled with flowers. Always there was a huge fern. You had to be careful not to touch the ends of the fronds or they would die. They would too. The houses were larger then, but I can remember this dining room was most cluttered. 

“I can remember the Reo runabout grandpa bought. [Edith was in her 70s when she wrote these stories, and still very sharp.] To have an automobile then was something. They would drive out to visit us during the week, but never on Sundays. Always they were in church on that day. No one did anything on Sunday but go to church and make calls in the afternoon.  They would come chug-chugging in the farmyard…  [that area] was quite level at that time. Grandpa so tall, and grandma so little, with her veil flying back of her in the wind. They wore tan dusters.  [A long coat was necessary to keep off the road dust as few roads were paved back then.] They would come in for dinner. Mother would have chicken and noodles, because they like that, and all the goodies that went along with a good country meal. Mamma was considered an excellent cook. There was a good relationship between mamma and grandma. [They were in-laws.]

A current example of a 1906 Reo Runabout, via wikipedia

“After dinner dad would go out and get in the automobile and drive it around in the [open area near the farmhouse], in a circle. Of course I was right behind him having a ball. No one else in the family had a car at that time. About four o’clock they would leave and the next week they would visit one of the other children. Strange, all three brothers lived in this area. Each just two miles from each other.  

[Each son received part of John and Lizzie Roberts’ land from his will, before he passed away, or they bought it from him. Some of that land is still owned by descendants.]

She [grandma] always had handwork. Her little hands were never idle. I wish I had some of her handwork… Her workbasket was a most tempting place to get into. Not that I did. I really had a sort of stand-off attitude towards both of them.  

“I don’t seem to remember much about the passing of either of them.  Seems to me grandma went first [she did] and uncle Ed moved in with them and they took care of grandpa because they eventually lived in this house for years. It is still there and I can show it to you some time.  

“Well my pets, this is just off the top of my head; there’s much more that could be written…  I hope this will be meaningful to all of you, and that you will be [as] proud to have them as your… [ancestors], as I am to have them as grandparents.”

 

I hope that you enjoyed our little visit with Edith’s grandparents, and they are now more than names, dates, and a few pictures. What a treasure she has left us!

.

 

Notes and Sources:

  1. Family treasure chests of photos and stories.
  2. Reo image– https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reo_Runabout_1906.jpg

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images. 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 2013-2019 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.




Shopping Saturday: William Elmer McMurray and Marketing a Small Town Grocery Store

“Great Slaughter Sale of Groceries” on 14 January 1901 at the McMurray Grocery store in Newton, Iowa. Published in unknown newspaper (framed by family), part 1.

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

Many businesses complete an inventory on at the end of the year in order to prepare their income taxes, and that may have been the impetus for this big sale at the McMurray Grocery in Newton, Iowa, in 1901. Maybe they used a fiscal, rather than calendar year, or the invoices to them had piled up and they needed to generate cash to pay their vendors- or Uncle Sam.

Marketing a local business was much simpler in the days before social media and the internet. Advertisements were placed in newspapers for a fee, local reporters would interview or create a story about the business or owner(s), paper flyers might be given out, and/or special coupons, stamps, or tokens would be used to get customers into the store and ensure their loyalty. Old advertisements, such as this framed family treasure, are a great way for family historians to understand the breadth of items offered in a store, like the grocery store of Will and Lynnette (Payne) McMurray.

The canned foods listed are interesting- how many of us today would buy one gallon cans of peaches or apricots? We don’t make jams and jellies like they did in those days, nor multiple pies when the threshers would come through at harvest.

Take a look at the prices, too. “2 cans good Peaches for 25¢” would cost about $7.44 in today’s dollars, according to inflation calculators. That does seem like quite a lot for 2 cans of peaches, but we do not know the size of the cans, they did not have ‘factory farms’ in those days so supplies were more limited, and sometimes those calculators are somewhat off. Edith Roberts McMurray Luck, in her later years, recounted that she remembered the store from her childhood, but her mother thought the McMurray store was too expensive so they did not patronize it regularly. (Edith later married the son of Will and Lynette, Dr. Edward A. McMurray.)

Soaps, of course, were big sellers and important for hard-working, getting-dirty jobs like farming or blacksmithing, plus many families dug the soil to produce their own fruits and vegetables. Calumet Soap was around for a very long time- some may still remember it- and Ajax also made a powdered cleanser. Lye soaps were still used back then, and Will even offered a discounted price for lye soaps with damaged labels- just 5¢ per can, vs. the usual 8-10¢.

The McMurrays carried a variety of oils in their grocery, but those listed in this ad were not cooking nor motor oils- they were for lamps. Getting a good oil that did not smoke much or smell bad, and that gave adequate light, was important in the days before rural electrification (which occurred in the mid 1930s and after). “Palacine Oil” was a brand that came from the Oklahoma oil fields:

“Palacine Oil” advertisement from unknown newspaper (likely Oregon, Missouri, or Forest City, Missouri), 1 May 1896, at https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90061417/1896-05-01/ed-1/seq-4.pdf. [Absurdly, there is no way to determine what paper this is from the website, despite it being a result in a Google search. What poor scholarship, Library of Congress.]
The grocery store also carried other non-food items, like axle grease for the wagon which would have carried a customer into town:

“Great Slaughter Sale of Groceries” on 14 January 1901 at the McMurray Grocery store in Newton, Iowa. Published in unknown newspaper (framed by family), part 2.

Will left the reader with his good prices for hams, with sugar cured hams costing 11¢ per pound in 1911, which would be about $3.30/lb. today. (A HoneyBaked Ham© today is over $11 per pound!)

Both the McMurray-Killduff and the McMurray Grocery/ McMurray Grocery and Meat Market were featured frequently in one-line ads that were slipped into the regular columns of stories in the local newspaper. Examples from March, 1899:

We have a complete line of fresh and salt fish.

We have the best $1.00 flour in town.

Lowney chocolates, the finest in the world, at McMurray & Killduff’s.

Try those 10¢ hams at McMurray & Killduff’s.

SYRUP- 5 gallon keg, $1.25, at McMurray & Killduff’s.

Other businesses, such as a 12 Dec 1913 ad for ‘Benedict Flour and Feed Company’ in Marshalltown, Iowa, listed distributors of their products, and one of the names included was “W. E. McMurray, Newton”- good publicity for their small store.

Ads for the McMurray grocery were not only for what they were selling, but for what they were buying:

We pay the highest prices for Produce.

WANTED- Live Poultry, for which we will pay the highest market prices.

The above were from from a March, 1899 newspaper. Another article from July 20, 1899, stated the “Local Market” price for live chickens was 6¢ each. Supply chains for food were much different in those years, especially in rural areas. They would buy from local farmers and women who raised chickens, grew fruits and vegetables, and made butter, cakes, or pies, then sell to local customers. They also shipped to other places- a June 2, 1902 newspaper article stated “McMurray shipped to Des Moines this morning 1000 pounds of butter.” While we cannot be sure this was Will E. McMurray rather than his father, Frederick Asbury “F.A.” McMurray, the auctioneer, it is more likely that it was Will, or maybe they made the deal together. F.A. was known to ship carloads of livestock but I have not seen evidence of him shipping something like butter, though it is possible, since F.A. was such a wheeler and dealer. Will did buy a carload of peaches at one point thus did deal in large quantities, so it is very plausible that the butter was shipped by him.

Being the son of an auctioneer (Frederick Asbury McMurray) and sometimes being an auctioneer himself (per his daughter-in-law, Edith Roberts McMurray Luck, and an ad for “McMurray & Sons, Auctioneers”), Will knew how to write an ad or spin things to make them attractive to buyers. (Lynette probably did too, coming from the sophisticated West Coast.) Another sale ad in 1899 was for “Bargain Day in Groceries” and “On the above date we will sell you [various foods] …the prices are for this day, only” at McMurray & Killduff’s “Big Cash Grocery.” Good salespersons know that they have to build excitement and get the sale closed before there is much time for the consumer to think about a purchase. A one-day sale does that pretty well, and was the predecessor to our internet “Today’s Deals,” “Prime Day,” or QVC channel, with a countdown timer and note of how many items are remaining in the deal.

“Bundling” is not a new concept in sales only used in the insurance industry to get you to buy home, auto, and life policies together – McMurray & Killduff’s used ‘bundling’ in an ad from Oct. 5, 1899, in the Newton Record. They offered a “Big Special Sale” on Oct 11th and 12th. Good prices were offered on a variety of items, but they also listed a package of 12 grocery items with the regular prices, which totaled $6.40. “We will sell on either above day to you this package for $4.90.” This was almost a 25% discount- that is pretty good considering the small margins of profit in the grocery business.

Sponsorships of sports teams, charity events, or even local cookbooks could get the name of a store in front of the public, so Will used that tactic as well. “Will McMurray Meat Market” was listed as a sponsor in a 1907 Newton, Iowa, cookbook published by the Willing Workers class of First Baptist Church. Recipes included Lettie Miller’s White Cake, Chicken Pie with Oysters, Poor Man’s Pudding, Bread Sponge Cake, Picca Lili and Quaker Cabbage.Each time a woman opened the cookbook to make a favorite recipe, they might page through the ad for Will McMurray’s Meat Market. That was definitely targeted advertising, though not as intrusive as what we endure today. This ad also lets us know that in 1907, the McMurray store may have been only a meat market.

Soliciting business outside of the store itself helped to market it as well. McMurray & Killduff was listed as providing $42.65 worth of goods to the poor farm, and $6.60 to the poor, in a list of claims allowed to be paid from taxpayer dollars. This list from the Board of Supervisors of Jasper County was printed in the 19 Apr 1900 Newton Record, so it got the name of the grocery out to the public. It also suggests that the quality of their inventory was considered to be good, since their claim was allowed.

Trading stamps offered at McMurray & Killduff Grocery, Iowa State Democrat, 5 July 1900, p8.

The grocery also had trading stamps, something those “of an age” will recollect licking and pasting into booklets (back in the 1960s) that could be exchanged for items in a catalog that was often drooled over for months. (You could get great things with trading stamps!) Somehow today’s loyalty cards that are needed for sale prices while they track every purchase and then sell that information to other companies just aren’t the same.

Growing up with a father who was quite a salesman as an auctioneer and trader of livestock, Will McMurray likely learned how to make consumers want to buy his goods. All these records show us that he definitely put those techniques to good use!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Inflation calculator–http://www.in2013dollars.com. Another calculator was used with similar results.
  2. For more information about electricity becoming available in Iowa to rural families, see “Electricity” at http://www.iptv.org/iowapathways/mypath/electricity
  3. Palacine Oil advertisement, unknown newspaper, May 1, 1896–https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90061417/1896-05-01/ed-1/seq-4.pdf
  4. 1899_0302McMurray-Killduff Grocery Ads, Newton Record, Newton Iowa, 2 March 1899, vol. 5, no.32, page 8, columns 3-4, via newspaperarchive.com.
  5. Benedict Flour and Feed company ad– Evening Times-Republican, Marshalltown Iowa, page 3, via GenealogyBank.com. This same ad was run on a number of different days.
  6. McMurray-Kilduff “Big Cash Grocery” sale, Iowa State Democrat, Jul 20,1899, page 4.
  7. McMurray shipment of butter to Des Moines, Newton Daily Herald, June 2, 1902, page 1, via newspaperarchive.com.
  8. “Oldtime Cookbook Has Flavorful Recipes” (Will McMurray’s Meat Market sponsorship), Newton Daily News-Centennial Edition, August 10, 1957, page 5 (of 148) via ancestry.com.
  9. McMurray-Killduff claims approved by Board of Supervisors of Jasper Co., Newton Record, 19 Apr 1900, page 7.

 

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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 2013-2018 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 copyright or use of our blog material.