Person:James McMurray (12)

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James McMurray
 
 
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Name James McMurray
Gender Male
References
  1.   OLD FORTIFICATIONS., in Durant, Samuel W, and Pliny A Durant. History of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania: with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, from original sketches by artists of the highest ability. (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts Co., 1877)
    Page 120.

    Samuel Sample, from Carlisle, Pa., moved to Pittsburgh about 1806. His father, Robert Sample visited the Beaver Valley at a very early period and purchased several tracts of the “Donation Lands,” but did not settle upon them. He returned to his home at Carlisle, Pa., where he soon died. His sons, Samuel and James, came together and settled on these tracts, about 1807. Samuel and his brother-in-law, James McMurray, were in Captain Kildoo’s Company during the War of 1812.
    Joseph McMurray, a Revolutionary soldier, in 1808 settled on the land lately owned by Joseph Anderson, having come from near Chambersburg, Pa. Samuel Sample married his daughter, Esther, about 1809. Mr. McMurray lived on his place in the valley until his death in 1847.
    In 1810-1811 there was a great flood in the Beaver River and its branches, and nearly all of the bottom lands were overflowed. It was the greatest inundation ever known to this section.
    Joseph McMurray lived on his place in the valley until his death, at an advanced age, about 1847. His wife survived him about one year. Mr. McMurray lived at Crow's Bottom, on the Ohio river, in Beaver county, about a year before removing to Lawrence county.
    Mrs. Samuel Sample (Esther McMurray) was born on the 1st day of January, 1787, and is consequently now in her ninety-first year. Samuel Sample died in April, 1870, aged eighty-five years. They never had any children. Mr. Sample and James McMurray, his brother-in-law, were at Erie during the war of 1812, in Captain Kildoo's company.
    When the Samples and McMurrays first settled on the Beaver the country was wild and new and the only roads were Indian trails and bridle paths, with the exception of the New Castle and Beaver State Road, which was laid out as early as 1800 but not worked very much for many years.