Roberts Family, Daniel Family

Farmer’s wives had a hard life, as did their husbands. When Ella V. Daniel (1866-1922) married George A. Roberts (1861-1939), she was just 18, George 23. They lived on their farm in Mound Prairie Township, Jasper County, Iowa, with three of the four children born to them, as their first child had died in infancy. George Anthony Roberts, Jr., worked hard on the farm his whole life, and his sister Ethel Gay Roberts worked hard as well (although she apparently was more fond of reading than chores). Their baby, Edith Roberts (McMurray) (Luck), who was mentioned as a wonderful gardener earlier this week, wrote stories for her grandchildren about her years growing up on the farm. She detailed the personalities and events of family, and these are such precious stories to have today, and to tell our own children. (We have our own family version of Little House on the Prairie!)

Shopping was a big thing when one lived on a farm, way out in the rural parts of the county. Usually the whole family traveled together in the horse-drawn buggy for the big outing to town. Edith wrote about a shopping incident that happened probably around 1901-2:

My first recollection of mother was very early. She carried me into the store called Carriers and set me on the counter while she did her shopping. We called it trading. As she went out she evidently heard a clerk say, “They will never raise that baby.”

For farm wives, shopping days were not only picking out new calico for a dress, or staples they could not raise on the farm themselves, but they were truly trading days. Ella would bring in items she raised, gathered, or made, in trade for the items the family needed. Edith continues the story:

In the winter we sold butter and in the summer cream.

Mother was a very good butter maker. The secret was getting all the whey out and later the salt water. We came to Newton each Saturday and they say Mr. Hough had regular customers for mother’s butter and if it was to bad for us to get in the folks would rather scrimp along on what they had until mother came in. It was all shaped in rectangular pieces and she would put designs on top and wrap them in snow-white sugar sacks that she had bleached during the summer.

Ella also baked cakes and pies, skills she taught her youngest daughter well. Edith’s pies, cakes, and cookies were always the first to sell at church bake sales, and Ella’s bakery items were esteemed as well. Ella did sell to other grocers in town, including one named Will McMurray. Will and his wife Lynette Payne McMurray had two sons who probably helped out in the store. One of them, Edward A. McMurray, would eventually become Edith’s husband. Shopping was, obviously, a good way to meet and chat with family, friends, and neighbors- and even future sweethearts.

Edith’s story about her father included:

He dabbled in county politics. The time we spent sitting on the bench at Houghs grocery store waiting for Dad. He would be out on the street talking to some one about the county and township politics.

No doubt this was a frustration to Ella too. As a farmer’s wife, she knew there were lots of chores awaiting their return to the farm. But the wait for George who was deep in political discourse would have been a regular part of their shopping day, so the family learned to be patient.

More about those chores awaiting their return to the farm in our next post.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Family treasure chest of stories by Edith Roberts Luck.

2) Workday Wednesday: Tilling the Soil, Part 1- https://heritageramblings.net/2015/05/06/workday-wednesday-tilling-the-soil-part-1/

3) Workday Wednesday Continued on Thursday: Tilling the Soil, Part 2- https://heritageramblings.net/2015/05/07/workday-wednesday-continued-on-thursday-tilling-the-soil-part-2/

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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

I’ve got dirt under my fingernails and mud caked to the lugs of my work boots. My body aches, but it is the tired throb of hard physical work well done. My soul is satisfied and my heart filled with promise, too, for I have been gardening.

Yes, technically it is not ‘dirt’ under my fingernails- the ‘dirt’ under one’s fingernails would actually be the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. The phrase, however, has more literary panache than ‘soil’ under my fingernails. Though that is what was actually there- soil, a living, breathing organism that gives us all our very life.

I do say ‘was’ there, because I have actually cleaned up since digging and fertilizing and planting and mulching and watering. I did shirk a bit on the watering- I am letting Mother Nature mostly take care of it since big thunderstorms are forecast for tonight. While I was working, though, my connection to the earth and to my ancestors filled me. Much of this post was composed in my head as I listened to pileated woodpeckers announcing their territory. I observed a jagged slime path glisten in the sun as it lengthened, carrying a snail toward my tender young plants for a delightful repast. I rescued a plump Lumbricus to be an Earthworm Engineer for me 24/7/365 and create tunnels for water and nutrients while creating rich soil and fertilizer for my new gardens. I gently tucked in my new plants with compost and topsoil, mulch on top, using my hands for a final grounding into the earth so the roots could grow well and heartily. How many times had my ancestors done the same?

So many of our ancestors were farmers, and they may have not waxed poetic at the long, back-breaking labor required to feed their families and take produce to market to provide supplies into the next crop year. But they loved the soil and the earth- Edith Roberts Luck would tell stories of her father and his connection to the land, and one could see it in her as well. In addition to the crops and animals grown on the farm, she gardened to supply food for the family, like most women with a patch of land did in bygone years. She had a big garden at the family farm, a smaller garden on land she rented at the edge of town, and then a garden at her house that took up most of the back yard of her little Craftsman bungalow in Newton, Iowa.

She grew vegetables such as Burpee Big Boy tomatoes- so good warm from the field that they were a meal in themselves, requiring just a touch of salt to make one’s taste buds burst with joy. Big ears of corn would be snapped off the tall, big-leaved plant, with a pot of boiling water already on the stove when we got back from picking; one shucked quickly and dropped the ears into the scalding water to stop the change from sugar to starch that happens the moment an ear of corn is severed from its stalk… they were so full of milky sweetness that an ear only required a hint of butter. Digging little red potatoes was amazing as a child- how could roots become such deliciousness? Edith grew more raspberries and strawberries than a family could eat, but that was so she could share with the birds, freeze some to enjoy during the long cold Iowa winter, and then there was the amount she knew would be eaten while harvesting, never even making it to the table.

Beautiful cut flowers filled Edith’s home with color and scent, and no visit out to one of the gardens would end before a bouquet was cut of irises, gladiolas, roses, or one of many other flowers she grew in rows just for cutting. She always had little vases on a windowsill or side table too- perfect for grandchildren to fill with pansies, or the beautiful-to-us clover and dandelions that plagued her suburban yard. Those little painted glass vases we filled, probably from the Five & Dime, are priceless to us today. It always amazed me that she spent time and energy on growing flowers rather than only food, practical woman that she was. But throughout history, women would grow flowers and gather them to make home smell just a bit sweeter, make a log cabin a bit warmer to one’s heart, and life just a bit prettier.

So many of today’s children do not have opportunities to grow plants, to see where our food really comes from- that it doesn’t just magically appear in the supermarket- or to appreciate soil for the life-giving properties it has. Digging in the soil and observing those who call it home was a favorite pastime for our son. When he was just five and visited the family farm in Iowa, of course he had to take a bucket and shovel. Sitting in between rows of corn taller than himself near the old homeplace, he happily scooped the fertile soil into the bucket and held it in his hands. All of a sudden he looked panicked- “Mom, something is wrong with this soil.” (Yes, he really said ‘soil.’). “It’s black, not red like our soil. The corn won’t be able to grow very well.” Being raised on the red clay of the south, our son had only seen black soil in the flowers we potted together each spring. He was relieved to learn that the corn would grow even better in the richer, looser soil, but we did fill a jar, and brought it back with us as a reminder that our roots grew in that soil too.

Next: some of our farming ancestors.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Family photos.

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Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Daniel Family, Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

[Edited to add- Oops! This was supposed to post next week, after the Workday Wednesday posts- sorry.]

Robert Woodson “R.W.” Daniel was the husband of Margaret Ann Hemphill and the father of Ella V. Daniel, who married George A. Roberts 16 April 1885. Ella V. and George had two children who provided them descendants: Ethel Gay Roberts Robinson, and Edith Roberts McMurray Luck.  R.W. and Mary Ann also had another child who lived to have children: Lily G. Daniel, wife of George Washington Walker. If you are descended from any of these folks, R.W. and Mary Ann are two more ancestors who tilled the soil. (See the post “Workday Wednesday: Tilling the Soil, Part 2“)

The 1880 US Federal Census Non-Population Schedule for Robert Woodson “R.W.” Daniels tells us that he owned 80 acres of Jasper County, Iowa farmland in 1879-80. The land was worth $2000 total, plus they had $110 of farming implements and machinery, and livestock worth $670.

Using an inflation calculator to compare R.W.’s farmland value indicates it would have been worth aboR.W. paid $3 in 1879 for farm labor, which included value of board (food). His expenses also included $17 for building and farm repair in 1879.

The Daniel’s farm production for 1879 was valued at $1072, which included any commodities consumed, on hand, or sold. This amount was equivalent to about $25,500. in 2014 dollars, which does not seem like a lot of income for a family. They did, however, grow most of their own food, so their farm income would stretch a lot further than it seems.

Acreage included 6 acres mown, 10 not mown, and those grasslands produced 6 tons of hay. On the 35 acres planted in Indian corn in 1879, 1,700 bushels were produced (48.5 bu/ac; today we get 4-5 times that amount with our high intensity farming practices); 514 bu. of oats (for the working horses?) were produced on 16 acres; 8 acres sown with rye seed produced 150 bu., and 8 acres of wheat resulted in 96 bu. of that essential grain, probably much of it to be ground for home use for flour.

R. W. also planted 3 acres in potatoes, providing 400 bu. for the family and for sale, and they most probably had a vegetable garden as did most families in rural areas, although that would not have been listed in the schedule.

Interestingly, the number of acres listed above totals 86 acres, but only 80 were listed as his total.

R.W. and Margaret Ann had 7 horses on hand to do the farm labor and provide transportation. On 01 June 1880, they had 2 “Milch” cows (Margaret Ann probably milked them) and 4 ‘other’ head of cattle. In the year 1879, 2 calves were dropped (born) on the farm, 3 cattle were sold living, and 1 died, strayed, or was stolen.

The milch cows produced enough rich milk to make 250 lbs. of butter that was churned in 1879, probably by Margaret Ann and her daughters, Ella and Lily. R. W. and family also owned 17 swine and 100 chickens on 01 June 1880. In 1879, their chickens produced 300 eggs; caring for the chickens and gathering eggs was probably also a part of the chores of Margaret Ann and the girls.

R.W.’s daughter, Ella V. Daniel Roberts, and her daughter Edith Roberts McMurray Luck mentioned in Workday Wednesday: Tilling the Soil, Part 1, did a thriving business in eggs and butter in their days, too, on the Old Homeplace. They sold them in town, to a grocer named William Elmer McMurray… who just happened to be the father of Edith’s future husband.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Robert Woodson “R.W.” Daniel (1843-1922), Margaret Ann Hemphill (1839-1915).

2) R.W. Daniel 1880 Agriculture schedule: Census Year: 1880; Census Place: Mound Prairie, Jasper, Iowa. Ancestry.com. Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. (OS Page:11, Line No. 09, Enumeration date 10 July 1880.)

3) Inflation calculator- https://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php. Inflation calculators take a lot into consideration, and may vary widely in the values calculated because of those factors.

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Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Washington Receiving a Salute after the Victory at Trenton, NJ on 26 Dec. 1776. William Holl engraving c1860 after a painting by John Faed. Library of Congress. (Click to enlarge.)

➡ McMurray Family, Horn Family

Those of us ‘of an age’ to remember the days when our two greatest presidents were born, and those births celebrated separately, so that one could reflect on the accomplishments of each, know that today is the anniversary of the birth of George Washington.

Back in those days, on February 12th, schoolchildren learned about the horrors of the Civil War and how a lanky farm boy from Illinois held our country together and freed the slaves, and was so eloquent that he could sum up the deep emotions of our citizens in the 10 short sentences of the Gettysburg Address. On February 22nd, schoolchildren listened to the myth of the cherry tree and learned lessons about honesty. That lesson modeled how such a solid, moral foundation could make a middle-born person great enough to help a small group of citizens fight and earn the rights of a democracy, even against the greatest power in the world at the time, Great Britain. Of course, all that learning, reflecting, and honoring individuals ended with the federal government’s “Uniform Monday Holiday Act” that took effect on 1 Jan 1971, and the commemoration of these two great men became a 3-day holiday for bank and federal workers on the third Monday in February. (And don’t forget the commercial President’s Day sales.)

Technically, today is the date George Washington may have celebrated his birth once he was 20 years old, when England changed to the Gregorian calendar. Contemporary records (those created at the time) had dated his birth as 11 February 1731 using the Julian or Old Style (O.S.) calendar. In 1752, England finally came around to the calendar the rest of the world was using, the New Style (N.S.) or Gregorian calendar. This calendar changed the first day of the year to 1 January, instead of 25 March, so any events between those dates had a number of days added- it depended on which year as to how many- plus the year was corrected to the next. So George Washington’s birthday then became 22 February 1732.

I do ramble about our heritage (hence the most appropriate blog name), but there is a reason to mention George Washington when one discusses our family history. We have no proof that a family member met George Washington, but there certainly was opportunity. At least three ancestors may have been in the same place as George Washington at the same time, and, of course, a number had their lives permanently altered because of his actions. These men are Jonathan Benjamin, Henry Horn, and Wiley Anderson Murrell; Washington surely influenced many other ancestors from that time and since. These next few weeks we will be learning more about these men and their families, so stay tuned.

[Is this just name dropping? Hopefully dear reader, you are not thinking that. We are merely interested in putting our ancestors in the context of the times, and knowing ‘famous’ persons would have been a part of that history. It is just as important as a young man fighting a Civil War battle,  a couple taking their friends to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis as newlyweds (Anna May Beerbower and William Gerard Helbling), a woman casting her first vote in 1921, our generation watching men walk on the moon for the first time, or any relative participating in any big event, or even the mundane ones- all context.]

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington’s_Birthday

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McMurray Family, Roberts Family

Ancestors who took up residence in Jasper County, from earliest to latest:

Sylvanus Rufus Benjamin and Sara Ann Palmer in 1865 or 1866 (from Ohio)

Jonathan N. Benjamin and Hannah E. Ford in 1867 (from Ohio)

John S. Roberts and Elizabeth Ann Murrell by 1868 (from Illinois)

Robert Woodson Daniel and Margaret Ann Hemphill by 05 Aug 1870 (from Virginia to Pike Co., Missouri; then to Warren Co., Illinois, thence to Jasper County, Iowa)

Frederick Asbury “F.A.” McMurray and Hannah “Melissa” Benjamin by 1870 (from Pennsylvania to Cedar County, Iowa to Jasper County, Iowa.)

We know the Daniel-Hemphill family came by covered wagon, and the remaining families probably did as well.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Grandma Edie stories and family oral tradition.

2) Census returns, newspaper articles, obituaries, etc.

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Copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.