Dedicated to Ralph

Aunt Mary

Aunt Jane

Aunt Rachel

Aunt Martha

Great Grandmother

by

Hazel Murphy

The Long Long Days of Childhood

A M was a very pious person. Her husband had died shortly after the war and left her with L L F E, four small children. She packed them up and came back to G Grandmother. G[randfather] gave her 40 acres beside his she built a cabin and raised her family with the aid of a pension.

After G Gfather died she let one of her girls stay with G Gmother until she died.

A. M. was very much interested in politics and what the govt was doing. How Congress was going to do this or that. She took a daily paper and read a great deal. About twice a year she would come to our house and explain it all to mother. Father read all those things but didn’t take time to explain them to the family and mother was so busy cooking 3 meals a day, doing all the sewing and mending, washing and ironing for 5 and sometimes 6 that she didn’t have any time left for the ups & downs problems [of the nation] ups & downs of the nation. The country church and school were all the farther she she was could vitally interested in give time for. Anyway Washington and Congress seemed a long way off.

When Grandfathers first wife died A. M. brought her family united it with Gfs 3 and kept house for him for a couple of years. She wasn’t too good a cook and father used to say A. M. always burned something when she cooked a meal, and if she was only cooking one thing she would burn that!

The children had a fine time and often talked of the things they did together. One of the big achievements of my father and Ed Graffis was to make a little wagon wheels and all. How they prized that wagon. I wonder if the boys of today would have as much engunity as that. Sometimes I doubt it.

[A. M.] Loved her church and was a faithful attendant until rheumatism crippled her until so she was not able to get there. She took her R very seriously and felt a deep interest in the spiritual life of the community. She favored new things to bring interest into the meetings like -- The organ piano and music and thought it quite a joke when Charly Dunn played a Solo on a horn coronet and oone of the oldest trustees got up in meeting and said “It was time to dehorn the church”.

The pioneers were sturdy strong and God fearing and instilled that into their children and hoped they would hand it on down to each generation as they came along.

Aunt Mary -- Who’s Who

Aunt R was the oldest of the family. She had two husbands. Her first husband’s name was Eph Moore. When he died there were 2 children -- Lillian Day and Nathan. Her second husband was David Hastings one of the highly esteemed men of the church and community. Known to every one as Uncle David -- never Dave -- always David.

She was also the fattest of the family. Her voice was fine and sharp. Grandfather had a big rocking chair bought to fit a fat man and Aunt R filled it all up when she sat in it.

How well she liked to hitch her pony to the phaeton and come down to spend the day. in She always picked a nice warm summer day. She was quite a good seamstress and loved to piece quilts. So all the family took their scraps to her and she made many fancy comforter tops and quilts.

The Post Office used to be in her house before the Mooresburg Store was built. In the early days Aunt Mary G used to ride a horse to Star City for the mail twice once a week after the rail road was built through to Chicago. A letter must have been a real event in those days and a daily paper something undreamed of.

Aunt Mary and Aunt Jane attended college at Valparaiso. It was a Methodist college then and they roomed with the Methodist preacher while there. Aunt Jane’s beau never came back from the Army War of 61 so she never married. She was a good seamstress learning the Tailors trade and sewing for the Winamac tailor for several years. In later years she devoted her time to being a good cook and excellent housekeeper for her widowed brother. She not only liked to cook fancy things but she enjoyed eating them as much well as anyone. In the winter time she used to make a sweet bread seasoned with cinnamon that she called Russian bread. It was as good as cake. I never saw a recipe for it. So I think is was one of her own inventions. Like so many older folks she liked cookies and her favorite was a spiced sugar cookie with a scalloped edge. They always tasted the same -- and I never saw a burned or scorched product that she made.

Aunt Rachel -- Who’s Who

Aunt Martha was not here very often. She had married young to James Dunn who soon died leaving one son Will. Aunt M brought him home to live with G.G. and Aunt Mary untill he was old enough to go to college. He worked his way through DePaw and became the only Methodist preacher in the family.

His mother remarried but did not live near the rest of the folks. She was small and had curly bangs.

One summer she came home to visit the relatives spending two or three weeks at each home. After she left we didn’t hear anything about her untill her death.

It was quite an event one summer when Fan and Aunt Jane went to visit Will Dunn when he was preaching in Terre Haute.

Aunt Martha -- Who’s Who

William N. Dunn was a Methodist Episcopal Minister in the Indiana Northwest Conference from 1887 to 1900.

Source: Archives of DePauw University and Indiana United Methodism Special Collections of DePauw University
Search: Indiana Ministers Database for Dunn, William N

Fan (as we all called her) lived with her grandmother [Martha Barbara Kerr Murphy] after Great Grand father [Nathan Hunt Murphy] died as did Will Dunn [s/o Martha E. Murphy, William Kerr Murphy’s sister, and wife of James M. Dunn] and one of the Doud boys. So Fan heard many stories of the family that the others didn’t know. I asked her one time to write them down for me. And what follows is what she wrote the year before she died:

“Nathan Hunt Murphy {a wagon maker, Tailor, Shoe maker} came to Indiana [Harrison Township, Pulaski County, Indiana] in 1837 and bought 160 A for $2500. Moved here in 1838 in February [though he and Martha Barbara and the kids are still on the 1850 Concord Twp, Miami Co, Ohio census]. There were two fields cleared. The one west of Deany Warfield’s house and the one north of that were clear. The field north of the house was an orchard. In March of 39 they commenced to get rough lumber for the Mooresburg M. E. Church. A Mr. Martin lived on the Dunn place and he helped Great Grandfather [Nathan Hunt Murphy] do the most of the carpenter work. They also furnished all the cash which was $125. The church was finished in one summer and they had church in it before Thanksgiving.

“Great Grandfather entered 120 acres. The 40 where Chas Mitchell’s house is now (1950). Vina Brown’s 40 and a 40 west of these. They sold it while I was at g. grandmother’s for $600 and divided it among the children (Mary, Rachel, Sarah Jane, Martha & Will). He also bought 80 acres where Harvey Hiatt lived for $300.

“Great Grandfather built a log house 7 years after he came to Ind. It stood in the Orchard north of Denny Warfield’s house. The barn was a log barn too and was South of the house.

“Preacher Doud bought the farm just West of where the church stood. He couldn’t make a living so the people asked him to preach. I don’t know how much they paid him but they bought him a cutaway coat suit costing $30 and a silk dress for his wife. He preached for 7 or 8 years untill he died. The Douds were so poor Uncle Wills [William Kerr Murphy] raised the oldest boy (Benny) and grandmother raised Birch.

“Uncle Ephraim Moore's people built the mill at Mooresburg. Later they sold and Uncle Will had a share. Mr. Borders and Uncle Eph (Ephraim Moore) built the Ways Mill and moved down there (north of where Starks live now 1950).

“My mother often told me about going down to the mill and how afraid she was as there were Lynx in the woods. They would often follow her and scream. I don’t blame her. It almost scared me to death when I heard one scream one time.

“Ma often told me about going to the Grandpap Slanes -- Aunt Elizabeth’s [Sarah Elizabeth Slane, first wife of William Kerr Murphy who died in 1873] Mother and father [Catharina and A. M. Slane]. They owned a butcher shop at Delphi. Ma told of going 3 times in one summer with Uncle Wills. They had cat fish in the shop so large grandpap would slice it like ham. A slice large enough to fill a platter.

“Mooresburg was a Burg when our folks came -- 1850. Had 2 dry goods stores and a blacksmith’s shop. One store was where Kennards house stands (Ralph Shrader lives there now). The other was where Orin Crane’s barn is now with the Blacksmith shop between the two. Jew Phillips run the one store and a Mr. Gossage the other. Jew moved to Winamac and run a store there for a long time.

“Jen Murphy (my aunt) [probably Sarah Jane Murphy, William’s sister] took it so hard the way grandpap Slane ate at the table. He always left his hat on, ate out of all the dishes just as tho it was a side dish for him, so Uncle Will told Jen to always give him a good helping of everything in a dish by his plate and I remember so well how he took it. He always called her Jinny. He said, “Why, Jinny, how thoughtful of you.” So you see she had that problem solved.

“I must tell you a joke. Bob Crawfords kept house for Grandpap 2 or 3 years. A book agent came one day and Bob was drunk. He told the agent Grandpap was a tumbler in Barnium’s show. Grandpap was hard of hearing and did not understand what Bob was saying. The agent told Uncle Wills when he went there and did they joke Grandpap about being a tumbler.

“Grandpap Slane always came to visit Grandmother Murphy every 2 or 3 months. He told her one time that the people from “Virginie” were so much smarter than those in Ind. Said he went to Illinois to visit his brother and that the people there said nag instead of “hoss.” Once Grandpap told Uncle Will his eyes were so bad he saw two objects instead of one. Uncle asked him if he saw two grandmothers and he said no if he did he would leave home! He had been married 2 times.

“Martha Barbra Kerr Murphy 1806-1867 was one of 8 children 7 girls 1 boy all born in Southern Virginia. They crossed the famous Natural Bridge of VA. on their way to school.

“Martha, Arena Black, Harriet Hathaway were college graduates. John Kerr was a lawyer -- studied law at Troy, Ohio. Went to Salt Lake City & came to visit Martha in 1885.

“When the Kerr family lived in Virginia the family owned 1200 slaves and farmed or managed several hundred acres. When they moved to Troy, Ohio all the slaves were freed. Martha (GG) was 20 years old. 3 of the slaves came with the Kerrs as they were afraid they could not make a living without the master. They, the colored families, lived in hollow Sycamore trees untill they could build houses. Many colored people lived along the river in these large trees some of them 10 feet across.

“In 1826 when the Kerrs moved to Troy there was a large fort and for 2 years the whites slept in the fort watched by 8 guards. The Indians were very savage to the whites but left the colored folks alone. Martha Barbara was married when she was 23 (1829). They moved to Indiana in 1850 1838 with their four children Rachel, Mary, Wm and Martha.

“Nathan Murphy died at 56 with Hydrophobia. The Dr gave him heavy doses of morphine. He lived 5 days it took two men to take care of him. He learned the shoe maker’s trade. When his daughter Mary was 7 he made her a pair of shoes, one shoe had a round toe and the other one a square toe. He learned the wagon maker’s trade and there is where he made his money. In the summer he farmed some. Put out 80 A of corn in the river bottom and 12 acres of flax on higher ground. He always kept a hand and they boarded 2 Clark boys & Jim Murphy, Grandfather’s brother.

“Grandmother [Martha Barbara Kerr Murphy] had a colored woman do the washing and ironing and a colored man tend the garden. They baked their yeast bread in an outside oven built in the back yard. And their corn bread in the fireplace.

“The Miami River flowed back of their barn and the children fished in that and caught many a mess of fish.

“Twice while they lived there the river flooded and washed out their corn by the roots. All the corn they had to feed the stock those winters was what washed down around the Sycamore trees, but it kept the stock through although they did not keep very much stock. They usually raised 4 or 500 bushels and sold it to a distillery across the river.

“Nathan (Grandfather) [Nathan Hunt Murphy] had 3 sisters and two Brothers. William & Jim lived in Missouri. The girls were Oney, Offa & Polly Murphy Compton (Aruna Compton’s grand mother). Oney died while they lived in Ohio. Offa was scalped by the Indians and died. Grandfather’s mother was named Ovey and is burried in the Mull Cemetary [Pulaski County, Indiana].

“There was no draft in Harrison Twp [Indiana] for the Civil War. They paid $1000 and that exempted all men in the Township. All that went volunteered.

“Great Grandmother [Martha Barbara] had an ettiquette book which she prized very highly. She said it was essential to know all about ettiquette so she made the girls study the book. The book had been bought in Virginia.

“When people went to Winamac in those days there was no bridge to cross the river but Tunises had a boat at their crossing South of Dead Mans Hollow so people that walked went by way of Tunises. There were fords where one could drive a team. Aunt Mary told of seeing very beautiful trees in full bloom along the river in the spring. The flowers looked like Holly hocks.

“Once Aunt Mary walked to Winamac to buy a BROOM. She took Caroline Venard with her for company but Winamac was out of brooms and so was Star City. So grandmother made 2 out of green hickory which Ma said did very well.

“All grain was hauled to Logansport while Grandfather [Nathan Hunt] lived and Mary went with him spring & fall to do the trading. They went one day and came back the next and tried to buy things to last six months.

“Grandmother M [Martha Barbara] was a big woman she had a double abdomen and was very uncomfortable in hot weather. [Fan (Graffis) stayed there 10 years and received 25 cents a week for helping Aunt Jane (Sarah Jane Murphy) take care of her. She was away from home only once during the 10 years.]

“The folks from Ohio came to visit and they all went to Will’s [William Kerr Murphy, s/o Nathan Hunt and Martha Barbara]. They brought a bobsled on the grass and G. M. [Grandmother Murphy - Martha Barbara] rode in the sled.

“She liked to knit and made stockings for the rest of the family. Bill Dunn [s/o Martha E. Murphy and James Dunn; grandson of Martha Barbara and Nathan Hunt Murphy] said she smoked a pipe -- none of the rest of the family ever mentioned it!!!