Mystery Monday: Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray- Sheriff of Newton, Iowa?
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:
- 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.
- Certificate from family treasure chest- thank you, Uncle!
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