McMurray Family, Payne Family (Click for Family Tree)

Am I related to Joseph H. Payne? Yes, if you are a descendant of Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Dr. Herbert C. McMurray, or Maude “Midge” (McMurray) Cook. They are the great-grandchildren of Joseph H. Payne. You would also be related if you are a descendant of Cornelia Mary (Payne) Hinckley and her husband, Horace A. Hinckley of Lake County, Illinois. 

Click here to open “Sons & Daughters of Thunder” trailer: https://vimeo.com/380634117

As a part of Black History Month, WPQT, a PBS station in the Quad Cities* will air the program, “Sons & Daughters of Thunder- The Beginning of the End of Slavery in America.” This film is about an event that has been forgotten now but in 1834, it was highly divisive, front page news, incited violence, and a part of the rocky path that led to the Civil War decades later.

Our ancestor, Joseph Hitchcock “J.H.” Payne, was right there in the middle of it all.

The film will be aired tomorrow, Sunday, February 9th, 2020, at 8pm. It is a docudrama, so those with docuphobia can rest at ease, and hopefully enjoy it if they are in the Quad Cities area. The program will be followed by a documentary on Harriet Beecher Stowe from the same producers. Harriet was also there for these events, and was influenced enough by them, along with her travels, to write the novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” This book was a bestseller in its time, and changed the course of our country and our people. Hopefully PBS will pick up these films to air throughout the country, but right now, you can purchase “Sons & Daughters of Thunder” through Amazon or directly from the Fourth Wall Films website. (And let PBS know that you want to see both!) I have not seen these films yet so cannot really say how in depth they go, etc., but the subject matter is so important.

The film profiles the people involved in the Lane Debates that occurred over 18 days in February, 1834. Lane Theological Seminary was a Protestant school in Cincinnati, Ohio, a boom town of about 25,000 people. Although the area was still somewhat a frontier, because Cincinnati was located on the Ohio River, which led to the Mississippi River and down to the Gulf of Mexico, commerce and services for those traveling the river made it one of the largest cities in America at the time. Across the river was Kentucky, a slave state, and many Kentuckians crossed the river to do business in Cincinnati.

Joseph H. Payne, very religiously devout, was a 24 year old student, working toward his Divinity degree at Lane. He had previously attended the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York, and would have met Theodore D. Weld there. Weld was about seven years older than J.H., but the two had many similar ideas. Many Oneida students followed Weld to Lane Theological, as did J.H. Payne. Lyman Beecher, a minister, became the President of Lane, and his daughter , Harriet Beecher (who later married Calvin Stowe), joined him in Cincinnati.

Angelina Grimke, daughter of a Southern slave owner, had left her home in Charleston, South Carolina once old enough to act on her feelings about the immorality of slavery. She married Theodore Weld, so J.H. probably knew her as well. Angelina and her sister Sarah Moore Grimke had become abolitionists, Quakers, and suffragists; they were prohibited from ever returning to the South due to their stance on slavery. Frederick Douglas, the well-known former slave who became a powerful orator against slavery, was another of the cast of abolitionists you will see in this film.

While rhetoric and debate were always important in American higher education, the Lane Debates went too far for the acceptable topics of public debate- the subject was just to controversial. Violence and the loss of business from pro-slavery residents of Kentucky and those traveling the river could be consequences of the persuasive student debates, and the Seminary wanted to avoid being seen as a part of that political point of view. So the administrators of Lane prohibited the students from holding public debates on slavery. The students would not back down, despite the threat of being dismissed from the Seminary. The charismatic Theodore Weld brokered a deal with the financially ailing Oberlin Collegiate Institute (later Oberlin), and on 15 Dec 1834, 51 men signed a thoughtful, respectful statement detailing what had happened and why they were leaving the Seminary and going to study at Oberlin. It was published in William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator,” and read throughout the country. (Well, it probably was used in the fireplace more in the South than read.)

The risks the Lane Rebels took in standing up for their beliefs makes them all American heroes, and founders of a movement that led to abolition, women’s rights, and freedom of speech for college students. We will explore these topics in upcoming posts, and are so pleased that this period of history is being presented to new generations of the American public. Watch the film wherever you can, buy the DVD, read upcoming posts, and ask yourself: “Would I have done the same as my ancestor, Joseph H. Payne, and the other ‘Lane Rebels’ and abolitionists?”

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Before anything else, a huge thank you to the producers, Kelly & Tammy Rundle and Kent Hawley; Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter who wrote the original play; and all the other folks who worked to made this production happen. This is such an important story to share!
2. Unfortunately we have not been able to communicate with descendants of Cornelia Mary (Payne) Hinckley and her husband, Horace A. Hinckley. Mary, as she was known, was one of three children of Joseph H. Payne. Her sister, Ruby D. Payne, died at age 11 in 1850. Her brother, Edward B. Payne, survived childhood and had one daughter, Lynette “Amino” (Payne) McMurray, who was the mother of the two doctors and daughter “Midge” listed above.
3. *Moline, East Moline, Rock Island in Illinois, and Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa are considered the “Quad Cities” even though technically that is 5, not 4, cities.
4.  IMDb is a movie database that is now owned by Amazon. The link for this movie is https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3835150/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt
   You can also click for ‘full cast’ but Joseph H. Payne is not listed as a character. This may be because there is very little found of his specific role in the debates, etc. He definitely was, however, one of the “Lane Rebels” as they were called, and upcoming posts with tell more about Joseph.
5. “Cincinnati”- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati
6. “Backstory- In The Beginning There Was a Play… And It Was Good!” Details on the playwright and film adaptation of Sons & Daughters of Thunder. https://docublogger.typepad.com/thunder/backstory/
7. You can order the film from the producers/Fourth Wall Films at https://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm. Although the website states “Not secure” due to new Google requirements, the purchase section of the website opens up a secure window through PayPal. Amazon also offers the film: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082Z9L8D6?pf_rd_p=ab873d20-a0ca-439b-ac45-cd78f07a84d8&pf_rd_r=A9FVVWY3QW9G3ZCD2JVG
8. Lane Seminary- “Defence of the Students”: https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/LaneDebates/RebelsDefence.htm

 

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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. 

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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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

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.

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

[This photo is poorly retouched- sorry, but still better than the original with a gash across his eye. Need to learn to restore photos…]

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. From the family treasure chest of photos and other gems.

 

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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.

McMurray Family, Horn Family (Click for Family Tree)

The day broke, almost hesitantly through the low gray clouds, over the snow and ice, the raw cold and winds, and what would become a fateful workday for our Hessian ancestor Henry Horn, as well as for the rag-tag Continental Army of a fledgling country that became the United States of America.

Previous posts have described this battle and its consequences to our McMurray ancestor Henry Horn, but today we will look at it from another angle, that of the Continental Army. You have seen the images of George Washington crossing the Delaware so many times in your life (and even in stupid television ads), but there is so much more to the story.

Two hundred forty-two years ago, the Christmas holiday of 1776 was completely unlike the warm, food- and family-filled celebration that so many of us have just experienced. Christmas was not the huge celebration we experience today, and the country was in the midst of the “Little Ice Age”- the weather was brutally cold and unpredictable as the Revolutionary War wore on. The American troops were apart from their families and worried about the safety of their wives, children, siblings, parents, and that of their property, including food stored for the winter and livestock, as the British and Hessians marched through and ravaged the colonies. The rebel soldiers were despondent over so many recent losses to the British crown, and food, warm uniforms, ammunition, shelter, and other supplies were very short. In addition, many of the soldiers had enlistments about to expire at the end of the year, with some deserting even before the date arrived. The workdays of our troops were miserable at this time in history, as they are even today for some of our military who protect our freedoms while we celebrate or sleep. (Thank you to those who stand watch today- and every day- for us!)

The harsh winter weather was usually a time when troops hunkered down to regroup, heal, restock, and avoid fighting with muskets in cold wet weather. (Damp powder does not ignite well.) George Washington, however, knew that he would lose a large number of his soldiers with the upcoming enlistment expirations, plus thought if they attacked over the holiday, he would be able to surprise the Hessian soldiers (German auxiliaries/mercenaries for the British, including our Henry Horn), who were hunkered down and controlling the area around Trenton, New Jersey. Secret plans were made and strategic movements began, with boats moved down the Delaware and troops marched to camps near enough to the departure point yet far enough to not arouse suspicion of an impending attack.

Troop assembly for the crossing had begun about 3 pm on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1776, and the sky grew dark as the sun set before 5. The almost full moon rose about a half an hour later, providing some light for the actual crossing, but as the clouds moved over the moon, the crossing was made more difficult with the deeper darkness and the worsening weather.

It began to snow, adding to what was already on the ground, and around 11 pm, a nor’easter blew up and the snow became a mixture of driving rain, razor-sharp sleet, and pounding hail. George Washington commanded the troops that included experienced boatmen who had to break the ice and dodge ice floes in a swift current as they moved their heavy boats and flatboats laden with the weight of men and supplies across the river at McKonkey’s Ferry. Some of the men ended up in the water, though none perished despite most of them being unable to swim. It may have taken up to ten hours to ferry about 2,400 men, 100 horses, and 18 cannon and artillery wagons across the river in multiple trips. The American rebels had somehow accomplished the seemingly-impossible task of crossing the icy Delaware River from Pennsylvania into New Jersey by 3 am on December 26th. Freezing, wet, and exhausted, the men and horses began to move off about an hour later. The operation still had about nine miles to march in silence to Trenton, and they would lose their cover of darkness for the surprise attack due to the delays that morning.

Before they marched from camp to the ferry, the men had all been issued three days of food and fresh flints to ensure proper firing of their muskets. They were told they were going on a secret mission, and silence within ranks was important. Once the arduous crossing had been completed, questions must have filled their minds as they began the trek southeast on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. As they marched toward the dawn, their heartbeats would have risen like the sun, knowing they were getting closer to the big fight.

Among the American rebels who crossed the Delaware River as part of their ‘workday’ on December 25-26, 1776 were:

George Washington– our future first President and Commander of the Continental Army, who masterminded and commanded this logistically difficult and decisive operation

 

James Madison?– our fourth President, co-author of The Federalist Papers (which supported the Constitution), has been said to have been present at Trenton, but he was a small, petite man, often sickly; he may have advised Washington prior to the crossing, but most likely did not participate in military actions even if he was in the area. (Sources are contradictory about his presence.)

 

Lt. James Monroe– our fifth President, who was wounded in the shoulder by a musket ball during the Battle at Trenton.

The ball severed an artery but Monroe survived due to the quick action of the company doctor who clamped the artery and kept Monroe from dying from blood loss.

 

Alexander Hamilton– he was Aide de Camp to Washington, became the first Secretary of the Treasury of the new United States, and founder of our national bank and financial system; he and his New York Artillery company were stationed with Washington at the highest point in Trenton, guns aimed at the Hessian barracks to prevent them from leaving and returning the attack.

 

Aaron Burr– 3rd Vice President of the US (Pres. Thomas Jefferson’s first term); he distinguished himself at the Battle of Quebec with Col. Benedict Arnold, was a staff member to Washington but preferred to be on the battlefield, and he killed his political rival and fellow soldier at Trenton, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel in 1804.

 

Arthur St. Clair– later President of the First Continental Congress, and the first governor of the Northwest Territory (which became Ohio, etc.),   a Brigadier General at Trenton, his strategy to capture Princeton, New Jersey just eight days later provided another morale-boosting victory for the Continental Army.

 

John James Marshall– Fourth US Secretary of State (1800-1801) and 4th and longest serving Chief Justice of the US (1801-1835); he served in a Virginia regiment during the Trenton campaign

 

And of course, on the other side of the battle was “our” Heinrich (or Henrich) Horn, a private in von Knyphausen’s regiment of Hessians. Henry was only 18, and would have been told that the Americans were rebelling against their king, so the insurrection had to be contained. (The ordinary Germans of that time had no understanding of democracy.) The Hessians were well-trained troops but in a foreign land and around a language foreign to them, and within their units they would have spoken German. Henry would have been exhausted on that Christmas Day in 1776, sleeping in his uniform with musket alongside when he could, as the local militias had been harassing the Hessian troops and causing small skirmishes here and there just to wear them down. Would Henry have been aware of their precarious situation, which their commander had made worse by not fortifying the town as recommended by others? The Hessian workday, like those of most soldiers throughout time, was either “hurry up and wait,” watchful waiting, or fighting hard like his unit had at previous engagements in New York and New Jersey. He likely was disappointed that his Christmas holiday was so very far from family, but even more disappointed as the Americans caught the German and British troops off-guard the next morning and stormed the town. Becoming a prisoner of war in a foreign country must have been terrifying…

The series of posts about Henry Horn’s military workdays can be found here:

“Henrich Horn: Military Career”– https://heritageramblings.net/series/henrich-horn-military-career/

A post specific to the Battle of Trenton may be found here:

“Military Monday: Henry Horn & the Battle of Trenton”– https://heritageramblings.net/2015/12/28/military-monday-henry-horn-the-battle-of-trenton/

An excellent new article in the Journal of the American Revolution gives many more details as to the logistics of the actual crossing:

“Christmas Night, 1776: How Did They Cross?”– https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/12/christmas-night-1776-how-did-they-cross/

The wonderful book, Washington’s Crossing, by David Hackett Fisher, is an excellent read about the crossing, and has been produced as a movie as well.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. How is Henry Horn related? His granddaughter, Mary Ann Horn (1824-1891) married Henderson McMurray. Henry Horn is therefore the third great grandfather (g-g-g-gfa) of Dr. Edward A. McMurray (1900-1992).
2. “Military Monday: Henry Horn & the Battle of Trenton”– https://heritageramblings.net/2015/12/28/military-monday-henry-horn-the-battle-of-trenton/
3. James Monroe– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Monroe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Virginia_Regiment
4. Alexander Hamilton– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton#Revolutionary_War
5. Arthur St. Clair– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_St._Clair#Revolutionary_War
6. Washington’s Crossing, David Hackett Fisher, Oxford University Press USA, 2004.
7. Friends of the American Revolution (written with a British POV)– https://21stcenturycicero.wordpress.com/events/1776-1226-battle-of-trenton/
8. “Battle of Trenton”- there may be some inaccuracies in this article, such as stating that James Madison took part; this too is a British site and has some great images. — https://www.britishbattles.com/war-of-the-revolution-1775-to-1783/battle-of-trenton/
9. “Christmas Night, 1776: How Did They Cross?” in the Journal of the American Revolution— https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/12/christmas-night-1776-how-did-they-cross/

 

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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 2013-2019 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.

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:

The grocery store also carried other non-food items, like axle grease for the wagon which would have carried a customer into town:

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.

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–https://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 https://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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