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Will McMurray and Harry McMurray- Off to Training Camp for the Spanish-American War

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Will McMurray and Harry McMurray- Spanish-American War
Lieut. Col. Elliott Ellsworth Lambert, Provost Marshall of Camp McKinley, Des Moines, Iowa, possibly around 1898. Posted with the kind permission of our new-found cousin.

McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

[Are you related? Yes, if you are a descendant of the Jasper County, Iowa McMurray,  Benjamin, or Lambert families. This would include having Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Dr. Herbert McMurray, or Maude “Midge” McMurray Cook as ancestors.]

(Continued from yesterday.)

Will McMurray and his younger brother Harry McMurray, their cousin Roland Benjamin, plus the other Company L, National Guard of Newton, Iowa members met at the Old Armory at one o’clock on Tuesday, April 26th, 1898, for one last time. The nineteen men and two cooks formed up to march off to the train station for their trip to training camp in Des Moines, Iowa. Lieut. Col. Elliott Ellsworth Lambert (1863-1948), above, another cousin on the Benjamin side, mounted a very handsome black charger and the horse pranced off down the street. A large crowd had gathered at Lister’s Opera House to see off their sons, brother, fathers, friends, and neighbors. An “eloquent prayer” was offered by the Methodist minister, and the Mayor spoke briefly. A minister of the Christian Church gave the benediction for the young men, and the crowd heartily sang the hymn, “America.”

Company L once again formed up to march. About forty veterans from the Civil War, members of the G. A. R. (Grand Army of the Republic- a group of Civil War veterans) led the Knights of Pythias and then “the heroes of the day,” Company L, in a march to the train depot. The young men bravely sang, “The Battle Song of the Iowa Troops” written especially for this war, trying to distract themselves from the sadness of the moment.

A special train of six coaches arrived at the train station at about three p.m. to rousing cheers. The cars already contained young volunteers from Davenport, Muscatine, Maquoketa, Grinnell, and Student Cadets from the State University at Iowa City.

“Soon the last farewells were spoken and the last kisses received from the mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts. There was scarcely a dry eye or a lip that did not quiver in the vast crowd…”

The Newton soldiers marched into their own car, which was added to the train. The steam train chugged out of the station as the crowd waved goodbye, and likely many more tears were shed.

“Thus the boys have won their first battle, and though hallowed by tears instead of blood, it was one of the hardest battles that they will be called on to meet– the sad goodbyes with loved ones and going out from home for the first time with the possibility of never returning.”

 

(To be continued…)

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. “Our Boys March Off to War,” The Newton Record, 28 April 1898, Vol. 4, No. 40, P. 1.
  2. Lieut. Col. Elliott Ellsworth “E. E.” Lambert was the son of Reuben K. Lambert (1839-1918) and Cynthia Adeline Benjamin (1841-1925). Cynthia was the sister of Hannah Melissa Benjamin.
  3. The photo of Elliott Ellsworth Lambert appears to have embossed on it “G.L. Bates” and to the left of the name, probably “Newton,” to the right, “Iowa.” There was a photographer named G. L. Bates in Newton Iowa at least from 1901-1902, and one, possibly the same person, in Prairie City, Iowa (near to Newton), from 1884-1885. See “Langdon’s List of 19th & Early 20th Century Photographers” at https://www.langdonroad.com/ban-to-baz.
  4. E. E.’s uniform in this picture was likely ceremonial dress. http://www.spanamwar.com/American49Iowauniform.htm
  5. The ‘hymn’ “America” was originally a poem, and sung to as many as 75 different tunes before being first published in 1910. We know it today as “America the Beautiful.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful for details.

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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. 
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The McMurray Brothers– Will and Harry– and the Spanish-American War

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Will McMurray and Harry McMurray- Spanish-American War
“Our Boys March Away to War” headline in The Newton Record, 28 April 1898, Vol. 4, No. 40, P. 1.

[Are you related? Yes, if you are a descendant of the Jasper County Iowa McMurray,  Benjamin, or Lambert families. This would include having Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Dr. Herbert McMurray, or Maude “Midge” McMurray Cook as ancestors.]

McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

In a previous post some time ago, we mentioned that William Elmer McMurray (1874-1957), his brother Harry James McMurray (1876-1962), and their cousin Roland “Rollie” E. Benjamin (1868-1950?) were members of the Iowa National Guard at Newton. They were in Company L, Second Regiment in 1898, even before the April call to war by President William McKinley. Tensions leading to the Spanish-American War had been building for some time, including the January explosion and sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor (“Remember the Maine!”), and Spanish atrocities in the Cuban War for Independence.

The sinking of the USS Maine after an internal explosion, 1 Jan 1898. Via Wikipedia, public domain.

Those in the Guard likely knew that they might be called soon for actual fighting in a foreign land. Will was just 23, Harry 21, and Roland was 29. Will and Harry were not yet married; Roland had married four years before but had no children. Were these young men excited at the patriotic thought of serving their country, traveling to a foreign land, proving themselves as men? Did they understand the politics of the situation? Were they afraid, but courageous enough to continue in the Guard anyway? Probably some of all the above.

On 22 April 1898, Congress authorized an increase in our military forces, and the very next day President McKinley declared war on Spain (including in the Spanish colonies such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines). It had only been 35 years since the horrors of the Civil War, and those dark times were still fresh in the nation’s collective memory. Newspaper headlines included “Newton Again Witnesses the Scenes of 1861-1862” as their young men marched off to war.

“Dreaded war, with all its train of heartaches, sorrows, suffering and devastation, is again upon us… we are living over again the sad scenes of 1861-2– giving up sons, brothers, husbands and fathers, the very flower of our young manhood, to battle again for the old flag and in defense of our country’s honor.”

The article continued with “Last Tuesday’s scenes will never be forgotten by the people of Newton.”  The parents of Will and Harry, Frederick Asbury “F.A.” McMurray (1850-1929) and Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray (1854-1932) [AKA “The Scary Lady” by some of her descendants- you know who you are] must have been beside themselves with sadness yet full of pride as their two oldest children marched off to war, along with their McMurray and Benjamin cousins.

William Elmer McMurray, five years later, in 1903.

Orders were prepared quickly and Company L was to be “hastily” transported to Des Moines, Iowa, about 30 miles west. They would rendezvous with other Iowa troops from across the state, drill, and receive their final equipment before heading off to war.

The train was to leave Newton at three p.m. on Tuesday, April 26th. Every business in Newton closed that day at 1 p.m. and the school children were dismissed for the afternoon. The town was decorated with the stars and stripes, patriotic fever infecting the town. In a town of about 3,700, it was estimated that two thousand persons filled the streets to see their boys off.

(To be continued…)

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Read “Military Monday: McMurrays and a Benjamin in the Iowa National Guard of 1898,” Heritage Ramblings, 18 June 2018, for some background on the war and our family.
    https://heritageramblings.net/2018/06/18/military-monday-mcmurrays-and-a-benjamin-in-the-iowa-national-guard-of-1898/
  2. Wikipedia also has a more complete article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish–American_War
  3. Newton, Iowa, population statistics for 1900 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton,_Iowa
  4. Will McMurray image was cropped from a family photo. We do not have a photo of Will, Harry, or Roland in uniform- does anyone out there have a photo from this time, or any other time? Please contact us if you do.

 

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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.
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Amanuensis Monday: Will McMurray’s Grocery in Newton, Iowa

McMurray-Killduff Grocery Ad- best grocery stock, Newton Record, Newton Iowa, March 2, 1899, Vol. 5, No. 32, Page 8, Columns 3-4.

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

An “amanuensis” (A-man’-U-en-sis) is a person who copies or writes from other works or dictation. The term is pretty archaic, and was used much more in the early- to mid-1800s. After that time those persons, still required to hand write much since we had no copiers or scanners, were more often called “scriveners” or “scribes.” Scribe is actually an even older word, but it too lost favor especially once typewriters, dictation machines (remember “Dictaphones”?), and computers came on the scene.

We have been telling the story of William Elmer McMurray (1874-1957) and the grocery he and his wife, Lynette Payne McMurray, owned in Newton, Iowa. Will initially had a partner, William Charles Killduff, but later Will and Lynette owned the store on their own. The store carried a wide variety of items through the years, and placed advertisements regularly in the local newspapers. Here are some of the items they carried, transcribed from a variety of sources, some listed below.

fresh and salted fish “which we will sell cheap”

fresh oysters in bulk and can

McMurray-Killduff Grocery Ad for Hams, 2 Mar 1899, Newton Record, Newton Iowa, Vol. 5, No. 32, Page 8, Columns 3-4.

lettuce, celery, radishes

[Grocers back then also bought directly from local farmers. Other than tinned (canned) foods, there were fewer middle distributors with food sitting in a train car for days going cross county, or sitting in a warehouse for days or months. Stores did carry some items that came from afar, but some, like oysters, would only be available “until the season closes.”]

peaches, by the carload

[train carload? Suggested a better price due to the quantity the grocery purchased.]

“Use Marshall’s Best Flour- $1.20 per sack. Sold by McMurray & Killduff.”

[This flour must really have been the “Best” because an ad for the grocery published 22 June 1899 that there had been “25,000 sacks of this flour sold in Newton and vicinity.” The population of the city of Newton was just 3,682 in 1900, and Jasper County 26, 976. The ad does not state the time period of the sales number quoted, but still, that’s a lot of flour in one area!]

Minnesota Flour, Kansas Flour

[Flours have different amounts of protein, depending on the type of wheat that it was milled from, with low protein flours considered “soft” wheat and best for pastries or cakes; “hard” flour has more protein and gluten, which are better for breads. Back then most desserts and bread was made from scratch in the home, especially in rural areas.]

Fruit jars… “at a great discount”

[for canning from your home fruit trees, bushes]

Japan Tea

Japan Rice

[A short-grain, sticky rice.]

 

Writing down information gleaned from the various advertisements also helps us learn a bit about how the store evolved over the years:

2 March 1899 ads above indicate the name of the store, and its owners, are McMurray & Killduff

9 September 1901- store listed in ad as “Will McMurray, Northeast Square, Newton, Iowa”

In the 1920 Newton Iowa City Directory, on page 104, the entry

McMurray WILL E, Groceries and Meats

tells us at that time, there was no partnership, and the grocery belonged solely to Will and Lynette. The bold lettering may have been paid for as a business, as the listing also states “(See page 7).” The directory listing noted that the store was located at 106 N 2d av E, but Will and Lynette resided at 322 E 4th N.  Just above the listing for Will was one of Will’s brothers:

McMurray, Roy, mngr meat dept W E McMurray

[It has been said by some that the McMurrays were “clannish.” They lived near each other, socialized together, took vacations together, and worked together, as this directory shows. All of these, back then, were much more common to do within a family group than it is today.]

Newspaper clippings about family business are a great way to get a feel for the times in which our ancestors lived, and a bit about their daily lives. Writing it down (being an “amanuensis”) and putting it all together is a great way to share with family too!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Newton Record, Feb. 23, 1899, p. 8.
  2. Newton Record, Newton Iowa, March 2, 1899, Vol. 5, No. 32, Page 8, Columns 3-4.
  3. Newton Iowa State Democrat, Aug 17, 1899, Vol. 19, No. 33, Page 4.
  4. “Carload of Peaches,” Newton Daily Record, Sept. 9. 1901, page 2.
  5. Population statistics for Newton from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton,_Iowa; Jasper County– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton,_Iowa

 

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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.

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.

Tuesday’s Tip: Using County Histories to Understand F. A. McMurray’s Time as Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Jasper County Iowa- Sheriff Election, 1899
Frederick Asbury McMurray, circa 1890?
Frederick Asbury McMurray, circa 1890?

McMURRAY Family (Click for Family Tree)

Now that we are reasonably sure of the authenticity of the certificate naming Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray as an elected sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa in 1899, we need to determine just what happened after the election. Did F.A. actually serve ant time at all as sheriff? If so, were there any interesting events that occurred during his tenure? If he did not serve, then what chain of events caused him to step down after running for office- and winning?

First, let’s review the important facts from the Election Certificate posted yesterday:

  1. The election was for Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa.
  2. The election occurred on 7 November 1899.
  3. Term of service was two years, beginning 1 January 1900.
  4. F. A. gave bond and took the Oath of Office by 14 November 1899.
  5. The Election Certificate was signed on 14 November 1899.

Now we know the dates and place to use in searches.

County histories were written for many midwestern states around the time of the Centennial celebration in the US, in 1876. Jasper County did publish a history, so the first search was for the page that listed county officers. Since this book was published in 1878, it would not contain the election information we seek.

We can, however, look to see if F. A. McMurray was listed, and if there was any work in law enforcement. The volume only lists “McMurray, F., far., S. 11; P. O. Newton.” We would need to check land records to confirm that our F. A. McMurray is the same as this farmer who worked on Section 11 in Jasper County. In 1870, “Asbury” McMurray had been working on a farm, probably his family’s with his father (Henderson McMurray) and 3 brothers in Jasper County, and he had $350 in personal estate- perhaps his savings for a farm of his own? It is highly likely that “McMurray, F.” and F.A. McMurray are the same man, as F. A. was 28 that year (1878), had been married for 5 years to Hannah Melissa Benjamin, and they already had two children, William Elmer McMurray and Harry James McMurray. As a married man with children to support, and especially since he had some cash as a single man 8 years earlier, F.A. probably had a piece of land he worked, whether owned or rented. F. A. was then listed as a farmer in the 1880 US Federal Census for Newton, Jasper County, Iowa. (That census does not list whether a farm was owned or rented, and there are no agricultural censuses available from that year.) So we could be talking about the same man.

The county histories from this era are often called, “Mug Books” since they contain portraits of individuals and pictures of family homes, along with a very favorable biography of an individual. Many of the publishers required payment to have an entry in the book, so that is why some people may not be included. As an example, F.A.’s father Henderson McMurray was listed as a farmer in both the 1870 and 1880 US Federal Censuses for Jasper County, Iowa, yet he is not listed in the county history. “F. McMurray” may have paid a small fee for his very short description. As the biographies got longer and more detailed, one could generally surmise that the material wealth and community standing of an individual increased as well, and probably the cost of their self-advertisement. (Nevertheless, these books give family historians great information sometimes!)

The older county history did not include any information about F. A. being in law enforcement in those early years, so let’s look for a more recent history. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa was published in 1912, so we may be able to find the information we seek within these pages. Volume 1, pages 92-3 contain a list of Jasper County Sheriffs, but C. H. Hook was the sheriff in 1899 and 1901; F.A. McMurray was not listed. (Joe Horn, who signed the certificate, was listed as the County Auditor elected in 1898 and 1900.) There is no biography for any McMurrays in either volume.

So interestingly, despite the family having a certificate that states F. A. McMurray was elected as Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa, in 1899, he apparently did not serve. We need more detailed sources to tell us the whole story.

 

To be continued…

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. The History of Jasper County, Iowa, Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, &c: A Biographical Directory of Its Citizens, War Record of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics … History of the Northwest, History of Iowa… Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1878, pp 452, 576. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_History_of_Jasper_County_Iowa_Contai.html?id=IHwUAAAAYAAJ
  2. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa by Gen. James B Weaver, B.F. Bowen & Company, 1912, Vol. 1– https://archive.org/details/pastpresentofjas01weav/page/n5  Vol. 2– https://books.google.com/books/about/Past_and_Present_of_Jasper_County_Iowa.html?id=H3wUAAAAYAAJ

 

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