McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

Now that the 2018 Midterm Elections have had all the recounts settled (well, maybe), and runoffs take place this week in many places, it is a good time to discuss a family member who was up for election in Jasper County, Iowa.

A dear uncle sent this image of a certificate in his possession. It reads, in part:

CERTIFICATE OF ELECTION

Jasper County

At an election holden in said County

on the Seventh of November 1899

F. A. McMurray

was elected to the office of Sheriff

for said Jasper County-Iowa for the term of

two years from January 1”_A. D 1900-

This was quite a surprise- in all my Jasper County family research, I had never seen that F. A.  McMurray held the office of county sheriff, nor had I ever come upon anything stating that he had been involved in any sort of law enforcement. He had been a farmer and auctioneer as far as the family knew and the records stated. So this was definitely an intriguing avenue to research.

First, let’s look carefully at the certificate for clues. Our first question should be, “Does it appear to be original?” The paper does look old, with the light and dark areas. The seal has probably changed from a bright gold to the darker and worn raised areas we can easily see. The ink appears old, especially the lighter brown underlines, which really look like old faded ink. The images on the certificate are definitely an older style, and since the Iowa State capitol is shown at the top, we can assume the certificate was provided by the state.  There was a dotted line to the left of the Capitol image for the county name to be written in, but someone made that a bit fancier, with “Jasper” being written within a folded banner.

What about the word, “holden” which was used where we today would say the election was “held”? That too suggests some age to this document.

The certificate continues:

and until his successor is elected and qualified, and he has qualified by giving bond and taking the oath of office as required by law. As witnefs my hand and official seal

this 14” day of November AD. 1899.

W. J. Miller [Charm?]

Attest Joe Horn Auditor

The word, “witnefs” has a ‘long s’ or ‘long f’ in it- that was common in colonial writing, and was used instead of using two letters “s” in a row. The practice held on for many years, as in this legal document. The ordinal numbers for “1st” and “14th” were written with the number and two apostrophes (”) after it, instead of the letters- again, an older way of writing.

We could do some research and determine who W. J. Miller was, and if the word after his name meant “Chairman”- possibly of the Board of Elections? Or a County Commission? We do know the Joseph H. “Joe” Horn who attested to the election results as county auditor. His name appears as county auditor in many places over the years- newspaper articles, county records, etc. As is often the case in small towns, many persons are related, and Joe also was the cousin of F. A. McMurray- F. A.’s mother was Mary Ann (Horn) McMurray (his father was Henderson McMurray); Joe Horn’s father, Frederick Monroe Horn, was the brother of Mary Ann.

Another clue as to whether or not this is original is just common sense- they did not have copiers or home computers/printers in 1899 to manufacture a document such as this. Of course, it was printed, but back then type had to be set by hand, so would not have been done for just one document copy. The morals and ethics of the day and place most likely would not have allowed such certificates to be given out with a toy badge at a county fair- at least, not with the real name of the county listed.

One last important piece of data- provenance. “Provenance” is the history of the ownership of an item. The certificate is currently owned by a direct male descendant of F. A. McMurray, so the ‘chain of custody’ adds quite a lot of authenticity to the document.

There is a preponderance of evidence to suggest this is an original document, given to F.A. McMurray once he was elected Sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa, in 1899. So now we move on to learning more about F. A. and the 1899 election.

To be continued…

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. So how are you related to Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray? He was the paternal grandfather of Dr. Edward A. McMurray, so great-grandfather of Dr. McMurray’s children, great-great-grandfather of their children, etc.
2. Certificate from family treasure chest- thank you, Uncle!

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

Maybe not so much a “Friday Funny” in hindsight but apparently those involved thought it might be a “hilarious pastime of throwing butcher knives and cleavers at one another.”

The newspaper article continues, stating that one of the men, Lee Griffen, who was a butcher by trade, “proved too good a marksman” and threw a knife that ended up in Charley Stott’s leg- it cut through skin and muscle “to the bone for several inches.” A local doctor was called and used eleven stitches to close the wound after cleansing and applying antiseptics. Since antibiotics would not be discovered for another 23 years, the “danger of blood poison” was a possible consequence of the day’s entertainment, if the knife had not been properly cleaned after its last use. Otherwise, Stott would recover soon, per the physician.

The grocery store of Will and Lynette (Payne) McMurray in Newton, Iowa, changed over time, beginning as a partnership and then owned only by Will and Lynette. There are some references to their meat market but we do not know if it was a separate store or a section of their grocery.

A close reading of the article reveals it was a Sunday afternoon when the “hilarious” event took place.  The store was likely closed on Sundays, so that would have provided a private opportunity for the event, with no thinking person present to stop the dangerous contest. Will and Lynette had probably been to church (at least Lynette- we don’t know about Will). Later, gathering with the family or visiting friends would probably have been the order of the day. Will and Lynette would have thought the store was safely locked and they did not need to worry about their livelihood. Little did they know their store would soon be a page 2 article in the newspaper of a nearby town. (The McMurrays did have family and friends in Marshalltown and visited there often.)

There is no mention of damage to the shop, though the knives and cleavers were probably dulled if they went into walls or wood. Gashes would likely have to be repaired- not just in Mr. Stott’s leg, but in the walls and doorways, and there would have been cleanup that included blood not of the usual meat market bovine, porcine, fish, or fowl varieties.

As one of the men, Lee Griffen, was listed as a butcher, and the store had probably been locked, perhaps he was employed there and had a key? There is no mention of the men ‘breaking and entering’ so this might be the case. If so, maybe the phrase, “was employed” is true not just because we are looking at an event in the past, but also because Will may have fired him if he had been an employee.

It would also be interesting to know if alcohol was involved prior to the contest, or if it was just a testosterone-laden event.

Either way, this “Friday Funny” reinforces that gross stupidity is not a new invention of today’s generations. It’s just that in 1905, they could not film it with their pocket-sized phone and go viral.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. See caption.

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Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

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Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

Yesterday’s post reviewed a bit of the life of John White, our Puritan ancestor who immigrated to New England about 1638 with his family. The sources listed below will provide more details about all the land he was granted in the Puritan colony of Wenham, which was a part of Salem, Massachusetts at the time.

Although the Puritans came to the New World to find religious freedom, the Puritans wanted only those who worshipped the same way to live in their colonies- no religious tolerance was allowed by the Puritans. Those who had other ideas and challenged the Puritan church were expelled from the colonies, such as Anne Hutchinson, a lay minister (and a woman!! and mother of 11…), and Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island where all could practice religion as they desired. Mary Dyer was hanged by the Puritans of Boston for her Quaker beliefs and not leaving the colony when ordered to do so. The Puritans also were very intolerant of Anglicans,  Baptists, but especially Catholics: a Catholic who had been banished from the colony once would be executed at a second offense.

So was John White a Puritan? It seems he would have been required to be of the faith, since he was granted so much acreage by those in charge of the colony. He, in fact, was one of the largest landholders.

But, his “…name does not appear upon the church roll” per an 1898 letter concerning the Church Record kept by Rev. John Fisk, Pastor of the First Church in Wenham, Massachusetts, organized in 1644. (The Fisks married into the White family.)

We do know that his wife, Joane (West) White, became a member of the very first church formed in Salem on Feb. 26, 1642-3, and three of their children were baptized there- but in their mother’s name. This is curious because in the Puritan faith, the father was the undisputed head of household, and held all power within the family.

The family held lands in Wenham, which was considered a part of Salem, Massachusetts at that time. As the population grew with “The Great Migration” from England, a second church, actually in nearby Wenham, was formed. To become a new member of that church, which was closer to their home, Joane had to be dismissed in good standing from the Salem church, and then accepted into the new church.

Part of her dismissal letter to the Wenham church read:

Whereas Joane White a member of our Congregation, by reason of her abode with you, cannot so well partake with us in ye Ordinances: nor live under our watch…

Know you therefore yet we have consented thereto & request you to receive her in ye Lord, as becometh Scts. & watch over her, administering to her all ye holy things of his house yt she may be prsented blamelesse in ye day of Jesus Christ…

Part of the Puritan faith included watching over the other members and ensuring that they followed the rules of the Bible and society. This preserved order as well as prepared individuals, if they were chosen by God, to go to Heaven. The Puritans did not believe that a life of good works would get one to Heaven- they believed in predestination. However, if chosen, their life would need to have been “blamelesse” in order to receive the Grace of God in the hereafter.

The letter was dated “Salem, 10, 2, 45”- the Puritans dated with the day of the month first, then the month. At that time, the 2nd month of the year was April, as their year started in March, not January. The year was 1645. Seeing that they casually left off the first two digits of the year, as we often do today, could they have imagined that their descendants would have to determine which century they were referencing 373 years later?? They would not have been able to even comprehend the technology that we are using at this moment for me to write this, nor you to read it via computer and the internet. (Nor can we predict how our descendants might read this 373 years from today, in the year 2391!)

Joane’s letter of dismissal from the Salem church was only the first half of her move to the new Wenham congregation. On that same day, 10 April 1645, the letter was read and accepted by the Wenham faithful at a church meeting. As caretaker’s of each member’s soul, the new church wanted to make sure that Joane was faithful enough:

Hereupon ye church desired of her being present to make a declaration of ye worke of Grace on her soule w’ch was done, ye substance whereof was this:

She was brought up in a poore Ignorant place &c. [etc]

her 1st conviction was of ye sins of ye breach of ye sabbath & ye taking of Gods name in vayne, from Commandments 3 & 4th, her hearte being drawn towards New England because good people came hither:–

At last by a providence comeing over was shut up for a long space of time liveing far remote in ye woods from ye means, (of grace) & reading in Romans 10, Faith commeth by hearing: put her affections onward, towards ye desire of ye meanes: — afterwards at Ipswich…– her consent & closure.

Puritans believed that it wasn’t enough to just say that you were a Puritan- one had to have a conversion, or “conviction”- a spiritual event within oneself that bound your soul to God. So the church elders would have asked her about that event, and Joane stated that she was brought up ignorant of the faith. She did have a realization that she was sinful in not keeping the Sabbath and by taking God’s name in vain. Knowing that the faithful were migrating to New England, she too desired to make the journey, which became spiritual as well as physical. Once she got to the colony, however, it was such a deep wilderness and there was little mobility for a woman with many children when walking, riding horseback, or going by boat were all dangerous journeys due to the wildlife, the natives, the weather, etc.

Joane did, however, probably have her Bible in the wilderness, and as she was probably able to read Romans 10, she realized that she needed to be a part of a church with a preacher to speak of the faith. She apparently decided that at Ipswich, which was about 7 miles from Wenham. (This is about a three-hour walk today with paved roads, but going through the wilds of Massachusetts in 1645 might have taken much longer.)

The men of the church asked Joane more questions, and she gave her confession and acceptance of the church Covenant.  Satisfied with her conviction and answers, the elders told her to come back the next Sabbath.

Three days later, on 13 April 1645, Joane returned to the Wenham church:

After ye sermon & singing, ye letters of dismission concerning Joane White were publickly read, and after that ye Church had by vote manifested their willingness to reach forth unto her ye right hand of fellowship: –she was admitted & pronounced and actual member of this church.

Knowing that the family practiced Puritanism, we can surmise that the whole family was literate. Puritan leaders believed that wives, children, and servants should be able to read the Bible as well as civil laws, and in 1642 in Massachusetts, the leaders required husbands to teach reading and writing to their family and servants. Five years later Massachusetts required a teacher and school for any town over 50 households, and Harvard and Yale were founded to further educate men for the ministry.

Learning of Joane’s involved process of becoming a church member, we can understand why her husband, John White, may not have been listed on a church roll. By the 1640s, the second generation of the first Pilgrims had become more lax in requiring a “conviction” experience, yet some were allowed to “be” Puritans so that the faith would not lose members. John may have been one of those who had not experienced a “conviction” or who was more interested in survival and business than his own spiritual journey, so he probably never joined the church. A Puritan wife, however, had the duty of ensuring that her children were brought up properly in the faith, and Joane did just that.

The Puritan tradition lived on in the Congregational Church, and we have quite a few ancestors who were deacons,  ministers, and/or missionaries in the Congregational church. None were descended from John White, but they carried the spirit of Puritanism that he must have embodied despite not officially being a church member.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. I am definitely not an authority on religious thought and practice, but the above is my understanding from the copious reading I have done on the subject. For more information on Puritanism and some of our other family members who practiced that faith, see also “Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Day has New Meaning This Year”–http://heritageramblings.net/2015/11/26/thankful-thursday-thanksgiving-day-has-new-meaning-this-year/
2. “Sorting Sunday: John White, Our Puritan Immigrant,” Heritage Ramblings blog.  http://heritageramblings.net/2018/11/25/sorting-sunday-john-white-our-puritan-immigrant/
3. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. 1638-1900, in Two Volumes. Almira Larkin White, 1900. Volume 1 has provided information for this blog post. Both volumes are available on archive.org.
4. Ancestry.com. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Accessed 11/24/2018. Original data: Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.
5. “Puritans”– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans#Puritans_in_North_America; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Puritans_under_King_Charles_I#The_foundation_of_Puritan_New_England,_1630–1642; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan_migration_to_New_England_(1620–40)
6. The Puritan Family: Religion and Domestic Relations in Seventeenth-Century New England by Edmund S. Morgan, 1966.

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McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

Now that we are all post Thanksgiving-turkey-and-pie-food-comas and on to the shopping frenzy, if your feet or fingers would like to take a break, here is a bit about our own Puritan immigrant, John White.

First, an important note: There are two other men named John White who came to the colonies very early. One, a minister and founder of Massachusetts, travelled the ocean on another ship named Mayflower– not the original, 1620 vessel- and the other came in 1632 on the ship Lyon. Our McMurray-Benjamin line is not related to either of these men, as far as we have been able to ascertain. (See notes below.) There are some online family trees, however, that do have these three men mixed up (I too was confused by them for many years), so be careful out there in wild, wild GenealogyTreeLand.

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The years before 1638 were difficult ones for the English. Charles the First was king, and he, like his father, had abandoned many of the practices of the Anglican Church founded by Henry VIII in the 1530s. The “Eleven Years Tyranny” from 1629-1640 was also called “The Personal Rule,” as Charles insisted on the return of sacraments and religious ceremonies similar to those of the Catholic Church, which had been outlawed for much of the previous century. This “return to popery,” as many called it, caused the Puritans to become even more dissatisfied with the English government. Charles 1 created illegal taxes as well, placing significant burdens on the common people, including many merchant Puritans, and was so frustrated with Parliament not giving him what he wanted that he disbanded it several times. (Hence, “The Personal Rule.”) With further persecution of Puritan clergy and laymen alike, many more decided to leave England. By 1638, four Puritans had been “martyred” to the cause (tortured and imprisoned, but not executed), the last of them due to importation of works censored because they were critical of the king and his government. Many Puritans lost hope that their religion and country would be reformed to be more “pure.” Perhaps this was the final motivator for “our” John White and his family to undertake the perilous voyage to New England. It was good timing, as civil war was soon to come in England (1641).

We have no record of exactly when and from where the John White family took leave of chaotic England and set sail, nor the name of the ship that carried them to the shores of New England. In 1784, a descendant recorded that John came from the west part of England, and more recent research verifies that he was baptized in South Petherton, Somerset, England (SW England), and born about 1602. He married Joan West in Drayton Parish of Somerset, in 1627.  Five of the known White children were born in England, with Mary born there about 1635; the rest were born in Massachusetts. There is record of John White being “of Salem in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1638,” per the White genealogy, although a GoogleBooks description states they migrated in 1639 to Salem, Massachusetts. (This date might be because of the land grant date- see next paragraph.)

The Puritans had strict rules for those who lived in their colonies, and John was officially “received an inhabitant of Salem” in August, 1639, when he was granted 60 acres of land. On Feb.1, 1642, he was granted 6 acres of meadow at nearby Wenham, which he had already been mowing “for these 2 or 3 years past.” Town records note at least 48 more acres were granted to John White, and the first saw and grist mill in Wenham was built on a stream that ran through John’s land.

Although there has been an assumption that John White was a Puritan, curiously, we have no real documentation of him being a church member. More to come on that point, but we do know that he lived in Puritan colonies and was granted land by the Puritans. He and his family came to New England just 18 years after the first Pilgrims landed, but their stories differed in many ways- we will explore that further in future posts.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. “Mayflower” was a common name used for ships in England. A second Mayflower made the trip to Plymouth Colony in 1629, also carrying Puritans from Leiden. In 1630 this same Mayflower was a part of the Winthrop Fleet, and the “other” (Rev.) John White, of Dorchester, England, was a part of passengers in this fleet. This Mayflower made 3 more successful trips to the colonies but was lost on a fourth trip in 1641.The original Mayflower of Plymouth Rock fame had returned to London in 1621, and her captain and owner died in 1622. The ship laid in the Thames in London (it is believed) until an appraisal in 1624 for Capt. Jones’ estate inventory. No one knows for sure what happened to her after that time, though it is surmised she was taken apart and timbers used in various land structures. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower for more information.
2. Yet another John White of Messing, Essex, England, immigrated to the colonies in 1632 on the ship Lyon. He first lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then Hartford, Hadley, and Hartford again. See The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vols. 1-3, page 1976-1979, by Robert Charles Anderson, NEHGS.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Puritans_under_King_Charles_I
4. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. 1638-1900, in Two Volumes. Almira Larkin White, 1900. Volume 1 has provided information for this blog post. Both volumes are available on archive.org.
5. Ancestry.com. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Accessed 11/24/2018. Original data: Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.
6.  Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. Almira Larkin White, Chase Brothers, 1900. (Also brief bio.) https://books.google.com/books/about/Genealogy_of_the_Descendants_of_John_Whi.html?id=uqVbAAAAMAAJ

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

The above photo was taken in 1892, in front of Willis McCollom’s grocery store on the northeast corner of the square in Newton, Iowa. Will McMurray is the tall slender man who is the second from the left. Behind his left shoulder is a salesman from Chicago (in the deep shadow) and the man to the right is Willis McCollom, store owner. (Note spelling on awning vs. spelling in caption.)

Seven years later, the Newton Record of Feb. 23, 1899 printed the following ad on page 8:

“We are young in years

but not young in the grocery business.”

If Will McMurray & William Charles Killduff had been employed for a “few years” by Grocer McCollom, possibly since about 1896, Will would have been about 22 when he started there. William Killduff was three years older than Will McMurray; maybe as teens they worked as delivery boys for McColloms.

How did these two end up partners? It was more than having worked at the same store or possibly being friends- William C. “W. C.” Killduff married Will McMurray’s cousin, Mae Benjamin. Mae was the daughter of Jonathan Elliot Benjamin, brother to Will McMurray’s mother, Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray. So, with W. C.’s marriage, the two Wills became cousins.

The year 1899 was quite a special year for both families. In addition to purchasing the McCollom Grocery in February of 1899, Will married Lynette Payne on 6 June 1899 and W. C. married Mae Benjamin in October of 1899. The two gents were preparing to support a family with the purchase of the store, so this event was more than just a business decision.

More to come about the McMurray-Killduff Grocery.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Newspaper clippings from family treasure chest but referenced above.

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