Russell, James Murphy – 1853-1939

ASH, GRAY, KENT, NELSON, RUSSELL

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 10/28/2014 at 16:37:36

A letter recently received from Mrs. Mary Russell Nelson, a Jasper county girl by birth, tells of the death of her father, James Murphy Russell, at her home in Wichita, Kan., on April 6, 1939. He was buried there April 8.
Son of John W. Russell, he was born near Russell’s Station, O. Jan. 7, 1853. His mother died when he was a small boy.
Murphy Russell’s older sister, Mrs. Mary Ash tells the following incident of the Civil War. Just before war broke out, John W. Russell moved his little family to Memphis, Tenn., where he secured work as a cabinet maker in a large furniture establishment. The two children started to school.
One morning after the fall of Fort Sumpter, their father appeared at the schoolroom door telling them to get their books and come with him and for them not to talk to anyone.
Reaching home, Mr. Russell embraced his wife and burst into tears, telling her that a good brother Mason had given him a friendly warning that no Northerner could remain in Memphis. They hastily packed their belongings and left for Keokuk, Ia., on the last boat that left Memphis for the north until after the war.
They first settled in a log cabin where the village of Murphy was located years later. This was June 1, 1861.
In a few days, a little four-year-old daughter, Harriet Ash died of diphtheria and was the first person buried in the Slagel Cemetery.
They soon bought a farm and built for themselves a nice log house one mile south of the center of Buena Vista township, which is now Pilot Grove. They went to church at Hixson chapel, driving a team and spring wagon the four and one-half miles.
Murphy Russell and Jennie Kent were married at the Hixson Grove Chapel. Their attendants were Ira Fugard and Julia Kent (Morgan), Wildman Murphy and Mary Russell (Ash), Windsor Russell and Belle Russell (Geddes).
After a few years they moved to Nebraska but later returned to Iowa where for years they took an active interest in church and community affairs. In 1903 the family moved to Buchanan, N.D., where the wife and mother died in October, 1908. Since then Murphy had lived with his children in North Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas.
When in his teens he and the father of Mrs. R. A. Wilson helped his father build several school houses about 1868 and 1869 – McCord, Phillips, Pilot Grove and Jackson (now Killduff).
Surviving children are Mrs. Nellie Gray of Buchanan, N.D., Garnet Russell of Santa Monica, Calif., Mrs. Mary Nelson of Wichita and a married daughter, Lillian, in Oklahoma. Three brothers are George of Oskaloosa, T. G. Russell of Newton and Charles A. Russell of Aberdeen, S.D.
One son Harry, died at the age of four years and is buried in the Slagel cemetery.
Source: Newton Daily News; Friday; 16 June 1939; pg.7, col. 4