Roberts Family, Murrell Family

We have written a number of posts about the family of Wiley Anderson Murrell and his wife, Mary “Polly” Magdalene (Hons/Honts/Honce/Hance) Murrell. (Use ‘search’ in the box to the left to see them all, or scroll down and click on “Murrell Family.”) We are in the process of sharing what we know with the Botetourt County, Virginia Genealogy Association, so thought that a good start might be to collect some basic information and images for this couple and their children, all in one convenient post.

Wiley Anderson “W. A.” Murrell was born 2 Feb 1806 in Virginia or West Virginia to unknown parents. (We have searched and searched… yet know nothing about his early life.) Wiley married Mary “Polly” Magdalene Honts/Honce/Hance on 9 Apr 1834 in Botetourt County Virginia. Wiley died 27 Mar 1885 in Jasper County, Iowa.

Mary “Polly” Magdalene (Hons/Honts/Honce/Hance) Murrell was born on 9 Sep 1806 in Botetourt County, Virginia, the second child of Henry Honts (1781-1850) and his first wife, Catherine Kauffman/Coffman (1784-1867). Mary died 13 Jul 1887 in Jasper Co. Iowa.

W. A. and Polly migrated from Botetourt Co. Virginia to Roseville, Swan Township, Warren County, Illinois with their children in 1853, then on to Jasper Co. IA in 1868. (Jasper migration year per their obituaries, however the family is not found anywhere- not Iowa, as expected, nor Illinois nor Virginia- in the 1870 US Federal census).

The above image appears to be a combination of two photos- note where their clothing overlaps. The image of Polly appears larger, though she may have actually been a larger woman- but we do not know anything about their stature. She does look to be much older than W.A. in these photos despite them being born the same year, so a later photographer may have combined two images taken at different times to make it appear as a family portrait.

We wish we had a photo of the family when the children were young, but they likely were quite poor as they did not own land in Botetourt County.

The oldest known child of W.A. and Polly was Elizabeth Ann Murrell, born 1 Feb 1835 in Botetourt County, Virginia. When Elizabeth was eighteen, she, along with her parents and siblings, migrated to Illinois. She married John Roberts (1832-1922) in Roseville, Illinois, on 8 Mar 1857. Four children were born to them in Illinois, and they later migrated with her parents to Jasper County, Iowa, about 1868. Both died in Jasper County: Elizabeth on 2 Feb 1917, 82 years and 1 day since her birth; John on 22 Jan 1922.

John Henry Murrell was the second known child of W.A. and Polly Murrell. He was born in Botetourt Co. on 2 Jul 1837. He migrated with his family to Warren County, Illinois in 1853, and at age 25 he married Lydia Reborn (1844-1920) there. By 1870 John and his family had moved to Elk Fork, Pettis County, Missouri, where he died 23 Mar 1880 in Green Ridge, Pettis, MO, just a couple of months before the birth of their sixth child.

We do not have a portrait of John Henry Murrell.

All we know of the third child of W.A. and Polly Murrell is that Mary Catherine Murrell was born in Botetourt County, Virginia on 18 Sep 1839, and she died seven years later, on 6 Nov 1846, in Botetourt. We have not found her grave, but due to the family’s probable poverty, they may not have been able to afford a headstone. We do have this record of her life in our Murrell family bible.

William Anderson Murrell was the fourth known child of W.A. and Polly Murrell. Also born in Botetourt County, Virginia, on 25 May 1841, William was a teenager when he migrated with his family to Warren County, Illinois. William served his country, enlisting on 1 Aug 1862 in the Union’s 83rd Illinois Infantry for 3 years; he also served as a Private in the First Light Artillery, Co. H, and mustered out 26 Jun 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee. William married Cordelia Talley (1850-1941) in Warren County, Illinois on 1 Oct 1867, and they had four known children. William and his wife stayed in Roseville, where he died on 1 Aug 1922.

James Edward Murrell, the fifth known child of W. A. and Polly Murrell, was born 15 Nov 1842 in Botetourt County, Virginia, and was 11 when the family migrated to Illinois. During the Civil War James joined the Illinois Cavalry, as his older brother John Henry Murrell had, but was in Co. I, Reg. 11 as a private; he was discharged 30 Sep 1865. After the war James moved to Pettis County, Missouri, where his brother John was living. James married Mary E. Robinson and they had six children. At age 70 he was in the National Home for Disabled Soldiers in Leavenworth, Kansas. He and Dillie E. (Carter) [Todd] Fox applied for a marriage license on 22 Mar 1924 in St. Louis County, Missouri; he was 81 (he stated 83 on the application), she 54. We have not found a marriage record, however Dillie was the informant on his death certificate, which also stated that “Dillie E. Murrell” was his wife. 

W. A. and Polly Murrell started their family with a daughter, and their last known child was also a daughter, Ann Elisy Murrell (AKA AnnEliza), born 21 Dec 1845 in Botetourt County, Virginia. She too migrated to Warren County, Illinois with the family when a child, and married there, on 15 Sep 1869. With her husband Aaron Brown, she had 3 children born in Illinois, and 2 more were born in Jasper County, Iowa. (They migrated between 1875-1878.) Ann died on 2 May 1892, just 46 years old; her husband Aaron died two years later, age 48, both in Jasper County, Iowa. Sadly we have not found photos for any of this family.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Please see previous Murrell posts for more details and references about each of these persons.

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Original content copyright 2013-2019 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

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

After about 15 years in Illinois, the fertile lands of Iowa (and possibly adventure?) called to our Roberts, Murrell, and Daniel ancestors who had migrated from Virginia originally and were living in Warren County, Illinois in the late 1860s. A possible migration would have been a discussion around a fire or the supper table for many nights. Each of the families had done such a migration once or even twice before, so it may not have been quite as daunting to plan as their first trips. By 1868, the railroad was well established in Iowa and Iowa had been a state for over 20 years, so it was not as if they were moving to a new frontier.

In 1868, John Roberts & Elizabeth Ann (Murrell) Roberts sold off what they could or gave away items, and packed up the rest of their household into a covered wagon. John was 36 years old, Elizabeth 33, and their three sons and one daughter ranged from 5-10 years old; the father of Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck, George Anthony Roberts, was just 7 years old- what an adventure that must have been for a young boy!

Elizabeth Ann’s parents, Wiley Anderson Murrell and Mary Magdalene (Honts) Murrell were both 62 in 1868, and all their children were grown. Two of their sons (John Henry Murrell and James Murrell) had moved to Missouri; one, William Anderson Murrell, was married and living in Roseville. Their daughter Ann Elisy Murrell chose to stay in Roseville, and married the next year, in 1869. So Wiley and Mary packed up their household as well, and made the trip of about 175 miles to Iowa with their daughter Elizabeth Ann, her husband John Roberts, and the four grandchildren.

Edith often told the story (and wrote it down!) that the Daniel family also packed up their worldly goods and family and headed to Iowa that same year, in 1868. She did not know which family arrived in Iowa first, but it is highly likely that they came together in their covered wagons, or one soon after the other. (A big Conestoga wagon could hold the goods of 4-5 families.) Charles M. Daniel was 50 years old, & his wife Elizabeth (Thomas) Daniel was 52. Although they had only been in Illinois for 4-8 years, they too decided to head west. They brought their four youngest children with them, ranging in age from 19-12: John T. Daniel, Mary Daniel, George Wesley Daniel, and Susan Syrena Daniel.  Their oldest son, James W. Daniel, (abt 1842-aft 1910), had stayed in Missouri when they migrated to Illinois in the early 1860s. Another son, Charles M. Daniel (Jr.) (1844-1915) stayed in Warren Co., Illinois and married, then moved to Story County, Iowa (needs to be confirmed) and thence to Madison County, Iowa by 1870. Daughter Nancy J. Daniel (1846-1922) had already married, in 1867, but she and her husband moved to Jasper County, Iowa by 1870, so both Charles and Nancy and their spouses may have travelled with the family group. (Nancy and her husband migrated further west by 1880, to Nebraska.)

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Family stories, Murrell Family Bible, and vital records as found on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.

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

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

[20 Sep 2019 Editor’s Note: caption and post corrected from original identification as John S. Roberts, who was the father of the John Roberts married to Elizabeth Ann Murrell.]

Roberts Family, Murrell Family (Click for Family Tree)

Once the Wiley Anderson Murrell-Mary Magdalene Honts family settled in Roseville/Warren County, Illinois, their daughter and our ancestor Elizabeth Ann Murrell met a young farmhand named John Roberts. He had moved from the family farm of his parents, John S. Roberts (1805-1875) and Jane Saylor/Salyers (1806-1880), in Indiana, looking for work in the productive grain fields of Illinois. The convergence was fate, as John and Elizabeth married on 8 March 1857 in Roseville, where they set up housekeeping. Elizabeth’s brother John Henry Murrell was living with them in 1860 and working as a farm laborer. Elizabeth had already borne two sons, William Edward Roberts, born in 1858, and Jason Lee Roberts, born in 1859, so it would have been a busy farm household. Their son George Anthony Roberts (the father of Edith Roberts McMurray Luck) was then born in 1861, and finally a daughter, May Jane Roberts, joined the family in 1863, and was also born in Illinois.

We know that the Roberts family had a friendship with a Daniel family in Warren County. Charles M. Daniel (1819-1875) and his wife Elizabeth Thomas (1817-1885) had both been born in Virginia. Elizabeth and then their son, Robert Woodson “R. W.” Daniel (1843-1922), were born specifically in Rockbridge County, Virginia, just north of Botetourt. This family may have known the Murrell or Honts families even as far back as the early 1800s in Virginia, as suggested by some research that still needs more work. The Daniel family, however, decided to migrate to Missouri about 1845 (R.W. was just 2 years old), and then on to Illinois around 1864-1865. Their second migration is understandable, too, by considering the Civil War, as we did for the Murrell family. Being a border state, Missouri was a very dangerous place to live during that conflict. A farmstead could be raided by the Rebs in the morning, and then have Union troops descend that evening, also looking for food, supplies, and “spoils of war.” And then there were the border gangs that took no heed of any allegiance and were themselves committed to violence… It was challenging for a family to survive in Missouri, no matter the side they championed or who was beating on their door.

“R. W.” Daniel  enlisted in the Missouri State Military Cavalry in 1862, and served until 1865. (More on R.W. in the future.) Some sources state that he was in Warren County, Illinois in 1865, but he did marry Margaret Ann Hemphill (1839-1915) on 18 January 1866 in Pike County, Missouri. (He likely knew her from when he lived there, and may have gone to Warren Co. to recuperate from the war after his discharge.) The couple moved about 150 miles north to Young America, Warren County, Illinois, where their first child, Ella Viola Daniel, was born on 29 October 1866.

The John and Elizabeth Roberts family went to visit and congratulate the Daniel family on the birth of their child. John and Elizabeth took their sons and daughter with them for the visit, per their granddaughter, Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck. It was the first time that little George A. Roberts, about to turn five years old, saw his future wife for the very first time.

And that is why this is a “Sentimental Sunday” post!

To be continued…

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Vital records such as birth, marriage, and census that can be found on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, etc.
2. Family stories written and told by Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck.

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

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

[20 Sep 2019 Editor’s Note: caption and post corrected from original identification as John S. Roberts, who was the father of the John Roberts who was married to Elizabeth Ann Murrell.]

Roberts Family, Murrell Family (Click for Family Tree)

Elizabeth Ann Murrell was the first born child of Wiley Anderson Murrell (1806-1885) and Mary Magdalene Honts (1806-1887). Her birth was 1 February 1835 in Botetourt County, Virginia, where Mary’s family had lived for a while- we still don’t know where Wiley was living before the marriage in 1834.

[BTW, Botetourt is pronounced in a uniquely Virginian way: “BOT-a-tot.”]

Elizabeth was just five years old when the 1840 US Federal Census was taken. Her father was enumerated in District 8, Botetourt County, Virginia, and she likely was there too. (The 1840 census only lists the head of household.) She was specifically listed with the family in the 1850 US Federal Census, however, again in District 8 of Botetourt; she was 15. As her father was a farmer, she most likely lived the hard-working life of a farm family- she would have helped her mother with milking the cows, caring for and slaughtering the chickens, slopping the pigs, bringing water to the house for cooking, drinking, and bathing, and she would have stayed busy working in the family garden. And that was just the outside work! Inside, she would have watched over her siblings, made the beds and done housework, mended and possibly made family clothing and bedding including quilts, and cooked meals for the family and anyone who was visiting or helping to work the fields. Hopefully she was able to attend school, and maybe have fun at dances and neighborhood get-togethers.

Just a few years later, when Elizabeth was 18, she migrated with her family to Warren County, Illinois. Her father continued to farm, so Elizabeth would have continued her own hard work as a farmer’s daughter.

The Murrells and many of their neighbors were probably too poor to have had any slaves while in Virginia (none are noted in the census), but they would have been surrounded by an economic and social environment that depended on slavery, as did the rest of the south. They may have been isolated enough by the mountains- the Blue Ridge Mountains are on the eastern borders of the county, and the Appalachians on the west- that they did not see the horrors of human bondage on a daily basis, but it was still pervasive.  There was an incident in August of 1835 (Elizabeth was just 6 months old) concerning the lynching of an Englishman in Lynchburg, Virginia. (The irony of the place name is not lost.) It was said the man was an abolitionist who was circulating pamphlets that were anti-slavery, thus a mob hunted him down and “inhumanly [sic] executed” him. This was picked up by many papers, but thankfully turned out to be “fake news.” (History repeats itself.) The case was entirely plausible, however, and believed by many initially, adding to the tension in our country due to the vigorously opposing sides in the slavery question.

Elizabeth and her siblings would have grown up in this divisive climate. It is a question to ponder as to how the family felt about slavery. Some descendants feel that their move to northern Illinois, plus the fact that two of three sons enlisted in the Union Army, suggests that they too believed in abolition, and wanted to leave the South before a war exploded. They were probably smart enough to see that if there was to be a civil war, Virginia’s lands would be one of the places it would be fought. Residents of a place are generally caught between armies, and lose their food, animals, family treasures, and sometimes their lives, so a migration before the tipping point was a good choice,  though surely daunting. Of course, we will never know for sure about the family’s political beliefs, unless a diary or letters are found from the family. (Do you have any in a shoebox in the back of a closet??) But the family did all survive the Civil War, and that would have been much more challenging to do had they stayed in Virginia.

The story of Elizabeth Ann Murrell and John Roberts continues…

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. “How to Talk Virginian” at cohp.org/va/notes/placenames_pronunciation.html
2. “Virginia Mob,” New-York Spectator, 20 August 1835: http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Virginia_Mob_New-York_Spectator_August_20_1835
3. Vital records such as birth, marriage, and census that can be found on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, etc.
4. Family stories written and told by Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck.

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

Original content copyright 2013-2016 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

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.

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.

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.

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

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