McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

Last week we looked at the political life of our ancestor Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray starting with the post, “Mystery Monday: Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray- Sheriff of Newton, Iowa?” Although the results of that election were very disappointing to the family, F. A. continued to be active in the Democratic party of Jasper County.

One later newspaper mention of his political activity was quite interesting.  It was published less than 2 years after he had won the election for Sheriff, taken the oath of office, paid his bond, and received the above Certificate of Election. The results were contested by his Republican opponent, and Fred had endured the wait of a recount, heard the news that he had actually lost by a very small margin, and then had to see his opponent actually take the office of Sheriff. At the 1901 Democratic Convention in Jasper Co., “Fred A. McMurray” was nominated for Sheriff. He was unanimously acclaimed by the party for the office.

But wait…

… Mr. McMurray positively declined as he had not time to attend to the duties of the office.

“Positively declined”- definitely understandable.

Fred truly was pretty busy- he was crying a lot of farm sales as an auctioneer, traveling to buy livestock and then traveling further to sell it. He had a number of business as well as real estate transactions in those years, and rebuilt a home for himself and his wife, Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray. So it was a legitimate excuse for not running.

Back at the convention, Fred quickly nominated another man, John Scarborough, who was unanimously acclaimed as the Democratic party’s man for Sheriff of Jasper County.

Being an auctioneer, buyer and seller of livestock and property, and long-time active member of the Democratic party most recently in a Republican era, Fred was a pretty astute guy. Turning down the nomination was a smart thing.

The person elected as Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa, in 1901, was not the Democratic candidate put forth by Fred, but the Republican: Charles H. Hook, who had beat Fred by just 8 votes two years before.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Hereby ends the sad saga of Frederick Asbury McMurray and the office of Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1.  “Mystery Monday: Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray- Sheriff of Newton, Iowa?” begins a 7-part series on this election.
   https://heritageramblings.net/2018/12/03/mystery-monday-frederick-asbury-f-a-mcmurray-sheriff-of-newton-iowa/
2. Past and present of Jasper County, Iowa by Weaver, James Baird, pages 92-93, via https://archive.org/details/pastpresentofjas01weav/page/92

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

December 14th, 1899 was a Thursday, and likely dawned cold and maybe icy in Newton, Iowa- temperatures can get down to 20 degrees below freezing there in December! At 10am the board that would determine the results of the race for sheriff in Jasper County, Iowa, began their work. They had 6,393 ballots to review.

The article printed that day on page one in the Iowa State Democrat was positive, despite previous articles that stated the Dems would lose the recount. Their comments included, “In our judgement a better board could not have been.” They went on to say,

We hope that the result may be reached without engendering any ill feeling.

By the time the paper went to print, three precincts had already been recounted, with Charles Hook losing one vote as the only change.

By Monday, December 18th, the count had been completed, and Charles Hook had won. His victory was not by many votes- only 8.

So what had happened with the original vote? The Newton Record article published on Dec. 21st stated that in two townships, a total of four ballots that were straight Republican tickets had mistakenly been counted with Democratic straight tickets. The actual count thus reduced F.A.’s votes by four, and increased Hook’s total by four.

The Newton Record applauded the recount commission: “…their work was done carefully and at the same time rapidly, so the count was finished in a remarkably short time.”

F. A. and some of his supporters were not so satisfied, however. He filed an appeal to the district court. Unfortunately F.A. had to file bonds that were equivalent to double the salary of the sheriff for six months, which would have been a considerable sum. We have not found any other mentions at a later date as to this appeal, and there is only one other mention of F. A.’s part in the election. After Charles Hook took office as Sheriff in January, one of the members of the review board noted that

Mr. Hook is fairly elected Sheriff and had no mistakes been made by the election boards of several precincts, Mr. Hook would never have needed to contest.

The above was said by the Democratic member.

The results must have been very disappointing to Frederick Asbury McMurray and family. Thankfully he kept his certificate showing that at one moment in time, it appeared he had been elected Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. “The contest is on,” Iowa State Democrat, 14 Dec 1899, vol.19, no. 50, p. 1, via newspaperarchive.com
2. “Hook wins contest,” Newton Record, 21 Dec 1899, vol 6, no. 22, p. 4, via newspaperarchive.com

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

“The expected has happened” began the story with the headline, “McMurray’s Election Will be Contested.”  It was just six days after the official count was released in the papers. The Democratic-leaning newspaper went on to say,

Unable to let go of the public nursing bottle the republicans have determined that McMurray must not be allowed to qualify for sheriff after having received a plurality of the votes cast at the recent election.

[Party platforms were somewhat flipped back then from those of today’s.]

A third person had been on the ballot with Charles H. Hook and F.A. McMurray- O. E. McBride, who received 49 votes. Third parties can often make the remaining vote a very close one.

So what would you do if someone bested you in a political race by just 2 votes out of 6,393? Probably the same as many of the candidates in our 2018 election (which had much wider margins though also more voters)- demand a recount. And that is exactly what Charles H. Hook did. His lawyers filed notice and provided a bond for costs with the Jasper County Auditor, who, as we have seen in a previous post, was Joe Horn, actually the cousin of F.A. McMurray. (Wonder if that was looked upon as a problem? It would have made for interesting Sunday dinner get-togethers and conversations.) Unfortunately we have not found any Republican-focused newspaper articles to see their point of view, although the Newton Record commented:

It will be remembered that on the face of the official returns that McMurray was declared elected by only two votes.

Despite the family connection, the Iowa State Democrat commented,

We have not the slightest doubt that McMurray will be counted out and Hook counted in. There is no need of comment.

The recount was scheduled for December 14th.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Sheriff election results contested– Iowa State Democrat, 23 Nov 1899, vol. 19, no. 47, p. 1, via newspaperarchive.com.

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

As you can imagine from looking at the Electoral College map from the 1896 election that was posted yesterday, the vote for a Democratic candidate- our F.A. McMurray- was a close one. F. A. received 3,173 votes for sheriff- just 5 votes more than his Republican opponent, Charles Hook.

The Iowa State Democrat of 9 Nov 1899 had results on page one of the paper.  “The republicans elected everything on the ticket save sheriff.” The outcome was not as the Democrats hoped, obviously. The paper blamed lack of turnout by Dems as causing the rout. They had statistics for 12 precincts (of 27), and stated that 184 Democrats did not show up at the polls. “The wonder is, why didn’t they vote?”

The votes for sheriff seemed to not have any specific slant- for instance, in Newton, which had 4 precincts, each candidate won 2. In some precincts, there was only 1 vote difference; in others 90 votes.

Nevertheless, the close vote was enough to get F.A. elected as Sheriff, and he received the above certificate on 14 November 1899.

The 16 Nov 1899 issue of the Iowa State Democrat offering the ‘official’ results can be found on newspaperarchive.com (sadly no free versions), and listed the tallies in each precinct by men on the ballot. F. A.’s lead had decreased to 2 votes with this official count, but he was still Sheriff-Elect.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Election in Jasper County-results– Iowa State Democrat, 9 Nov 1899, vol. 19, no. 45, p. 1, columns 3-4, via newspaperarchive.com.
2. “Sheriff election results contested,” Iowa State Democrat, 23 Nov 1899, vol.19, no. 47, p. 1, newspaperarchive.com.
3. “An Election Contest,” Newton Record, 30 Nov 1899, p. 1.

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McMURRAY Family (Click for Family Tree)

Unless someone in the family has letters or diaries, the source that may provide the most details about the election of Frederick Asbury “F.A.” McMurray to the position of Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa in 1899 would be newspapers. Back in those years, local newspapers were the FaceBook/Instagram/Twitter of most communities, and would mention who went where and when, all the gossip in town, politics, etc. Newspapers that were geared to the whole state, a political party, cultural group or profession might carry a story about something that happened miles away. Newspapers far away also carried stories of crimes, funny stories, or just human interest stories to fill their pages and entertain their readers, hoping to increase their subscription base.

The obvious for this election information would be to start with Newton, Jasper County, Iowa newspapers, since Newton was the county seat. The Newton Record of 12 March 1897 noted that F. A. McMurray was elected to be the Chief Marshal of the Jasper County Agricultural Society’s annual fair, which probably was a ceremonial leader, not a true ‘marshal.’ Another article on the same page, “Assignment of Hook and Ladder Hose Company for 1897” listed a Foreman, 1st and 2nd Assistant, as well as “Police– R.K. Lambert, F. A. McMurray.” This is the first mention we have found of F.A. having any work of a police nature. (Possibly they helped with crowd management, prevented looting, and helped to determine if the cause of a fire was arson?)

More than two years later, the Iowa State Democrat headlines included, “F. A. McMurray for Sheriff.” They endorsed him heartily, saying,

Mr. McMurray is so well known to the people of this county that he hardly needs an introduction. For thirty-one years he has been a citizen of Jasper county and for the past seventeen years he has resided in Newton.

His years of traveling far- even to other counties- to conduct auctions paid off, with the paper mentioning he was one of the best known auctioneers in that part of the state. (The people of Jasper Co. would have travelled to other counties to buy good horses, cattle, or farm implements.)

Since the newspaper had “Democrat” in its name, it was important for them to point out that

He is also a Democrat, tried and true, and has never before asked his party for office.

Many political offices back then were a ‘patronage’ type of office- ‘you get out the vote for me and I’ll get you a paid position once I’m elected.’ Good to know F.A. had never taken part in that sort of sometimes unethical wheeling and dealing.

The Iowa State Democrat went on:

He has been solicited by numerous friends throughout the county… should the convention decide favorably as to his candidacy, the party will have a strong candidate, who is popular, competent and worthy of the people’s support.

They ended the article with an endorsement (although today this could also be a warning to fact-check):

Every delegate should carefully consider Mr. McMurray’s claims.

The front page of the Newton Record of 27 Jul 1899 had a column detailing the county Republican convention, plus a column with particulars about the Democratic Convention, both of which took place in Newton that week. (Some may be surprised that we are actually interested in the Democratic convention…)

The democratic county convention met Tuesday in the court room. There was a good crowd present and considerable enthusiasm was worked up despite the heat.

[Have you ever been in Newton in July?? Hot and steamy… and no air conditioning in 1899.]

The permanent chairman of the committee made an address, and called “the present trouble in the Philippines a McKinley war and declared himself an expansionist only for silver.”

Opinions over the President and the war were hot and heavy on both sides, especially as elections loomed.

All the 1899 offices were nominated by acclamation- this is a voice vote and usually needs to be unanimous- except one:

The fight of the convention was on the office of sheriff and a great deal of oratory was let loose in the nominating speeches. Capt. Atwood of Clear Creek nominated Jas. H. Sutherland, declaring him to be a good man but not as great as Mark Hanna. Al Coleman, of Buena Vista, said the democrats of his township only wanted the earth, but above all they wanted to see Fred Pahre nominated for sheriff. A. M. Harrah nominated Fred McMurray and Frank Chipps put forth the name of D. L.  Graham. After an informal and two formal ballots Fred McMurray was declared the nominee.

This was quite different than the Republican convention. The Republican ballot for sheriff initially had 4 nominees, but went down to 3 for the second and third formal ballots. After Charles Hook received the most votes, one of his opponents conceded and moved that Hook be declared the unanimous winner, which was done- they were a bit more civilized than the Democrats.

The Democrats continued their convention with speeches from some prominent committee members.

The convention was remarkable for the violence of the language used by the different speakers in regard to the Philippine trouble.                                                                It was called Emporer William’s war and a war for conquest… The United States soldiers fighting there were termed as McKinley hirelings shooting down patriots…

One speaker urged democrats to vote for the principle advocated, not the men, and vote the ticket straight…

The newspaper stated that, “If that kind of wild talk is kept up through the campaign the republican majority should be up in the hundreds.”

[See also, “Military Monday: McMurrays and a Benjamin in the Iowa National Guard of 1898” for more information on the war.]

On that same day, the Iowa State Democrat reported on the convention on page 5, stating that F. A. McMurray and three others “spoke briefly, thanking the convention for the honor conferred upon them” by nominating them for office. The Democratic convention also elected Will E. McMurray (F.A.’s son), as a delegate to the state convention representing Newton’s First Ward.

The Iowa State Democrat continued to support the candidacy of F. A.:

He numbers his friends by the hundreds and is recognized as an honorable citizen and a man who is especially well equipped to make an excellent sheriff. And it looks as though the people intend putting him into that office by a rousing majority. (17 Aug 1899, p4.)

When the votes are counted it is hoped and believed that Fred A. McMurray will be found in the lead for sheriff. His extensive acquaintance with the people and territory of Jasper county, his knowledge of men and affairs, make him pre-eminently the man for the place.  (19 Oct 1899, p4)

We do know, by the certificate owned by the family, that Frederick Asbury McMurray was voted in as Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa, on 7 Nov 1899. Looking at the above map for how the Electoral College voted in the 1896 Presidential election, however, suggests that the election of a Democratic candidate 3 years later might not have been that certain.

To be continued…

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. “Agricultural Board Meets” in Newton Record, 12 Mar 1897, p. 1.
2. “Nominated a Good Ticket” and “Democrats in Convention,” Newton Record, 27 Jul 1899, page 1.
3. “F. A. McMurray for Sheriff,” Iowa State Democrat, Newton, Iowa, 20 Jul 1899, vol. 19, n. 29, page 1, column 1, via newspaperarchive.com, as are other quoted newspapers.
4.  “Military Monday: McMurrays and a Benjamin in the Iowa National Guard of 1898”– https://heritageramblings.net/2018/06/18/military-monday-mcmurrays-and-a-benjamin-in-the-iowa-national-guard-of-1898/

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