Sarah Murdock (Crill) of Knox County, Ohio - Linking Her To Her Parents, John and Sarah Murdock of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania
Our ancestor Sarah Murdock was John Crill’s wife and the mother of my great-great-grandmother Harriet Crill (Kinney). It has been relatively easy to go back from my grandmother Edna Clawson (Laird), tie her to her mother Sarah “Sadie” Kinney (Clawson), and then tie Sadie to her parents William Harrison “Harry” Kinney and Harriet Crill (Kinney). Harriet’s parents were John Crill and Sarah Murdock (Crill). Getting to John or Sarah’s parents has been a much more difficult challenge.
I have worked for over two decades to determine the ancestry of Harriet’s parents - John Crill and Sarah Murdock. While the difficulty of determining John Crill’s ancestry is for another time (there are Krills in the same area as the young Sarah Murdock), I have had some success with the search for Sarah’s family, and this page is about the search for Sarah’s ancestry.
This page shows how I systematically worked back from Sarah’s life in Knox County, Ohio to her early life in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. As you will see as you read through the page, I worked through what we know about the adult Sarah to get back to her youth - and then once the connection to her family in Pennsylvania was made, scoured the records of her home County - Lebanon County, Pennsylvania - to determine what could be learned about her family. This page is that story.
Linking Sarah Murdock (Crill) of Knox County Ohio to her family in Pennsylvania
Sarah Crill’s census entries from 1850 to 1880 - when she is shown with her husband John Crill and their children in Ohio - list her birth state as Pennsylvania, and place her birth year in the 1816-1818 period. Below left is the 1850 census entry from Chester Township in Wayne County, Ohio, which shows Sarah’s age as 33 (born ca 1817) and birth state as Pennsylvania. Below right is the 1860 census entry from Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio, which shows Sarah’s age as 42 (born ca 1818) and her birth state as Pennsylvania. The 1870 census entry, posted just below the 1850 and 1860 census entries, is from Green Township Ashland County, Ohio, and shows Sarah age 53 (born ca 1817) and born in Pennsylvania. The 1880 census showing John and Sarah in Pleasant Township of Knox County, Ohio, posted farther below on this page and the first census to list the birth states of an individual’s parents, shows Sarah age 64 (born ca 1816), born in Pennsylvania, with her father was born in England and her mother in Pennsylvania. All four census entries where Sarah appears by name, indicate that she was born in Pennsylvania, and was born between 1816 and 1818.
Sarah’s tombstone in Knox County, Ohio gives her birth year as 1819 (which would make her birth year a year or two later than all the census entries just above). She was buried in Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio in Forest Cemetery - next to her husband John Crill. Their daughter Harriet, also our ancestor, is shown buried in the same cemetery.
Sarah’s 1897 obituary shows that she was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania - and that her maiden name was Murdock. I have not been able to obtain an original copy yet, but I have an abstract from the Mt. Vernon Republican News of May 20, 1897, Thursday morning edition, which reads: “Mrs. Sarah Crill – Dies at an Advanced Age, Leaving a Large Family.
Mrs. Sarah Crill, an aged widow, whose maiden name was Murdock, died at her home, 601 E. Front street, at 10 o’clock, Wednesday morning, of paralysis, at the age of 79 years. Deceased was born in Lebanon, Pa., and lived most of her life in Fredericktown, until last September, when she came to this city to make her home. . . .” If she was 79 years old at the time of her death, she would have been born ca 1818.
The civil war pension record Sarah filed on behalf of her son John Crill - who died in 1864 in Nashville, Tennessee while in an Ohio regiment, shows she married John Crill in 1837, but lists no location. Also, this declaration lists Sarah’s age as 63 when she filed it in July 1881 - which would make her birth year in the latter half of 1817 or the first half of 1818.
Sarah’s 1880 census entry shows her father born in England and her mother in Pennsylvania. As a result, it is more than likely that her father came over as a very young adult.
Before I knew Sarah was born in Lebanon County, I compiled every 1820 Pennsylvania census entry for a Murdock head of household that included a daughter under the age of ten - figuring that one of these entries contained Sarah Murdock (Crill). The 1820 census categories were by gender and age with only the name of the head of household listed. The category for the youngest entrants was the age “under ten”. In Lebanon County, there were two – John Murdock and Robert Murdock. John Murdock’s 1820 entry is shown below:
The 1820 census entry for Robert Murdock, in Jackson Township of Lebanon County, is posted below:
The next step was to gather information about John Murdock and Robert Murdock. I gathered the will and orphans court records of John Murdock, who died in 1831 in Lebanon County. The orphans court record – which lists four children: Sally, Susannah, Eunice, and Lavina (which is shown above as the header of this page). Susannah is also the name of John’s widow. There is also a reference in the probate to Daniel Murdock, who received a payment.
In researching Robert Murdock, I found the following information: Robert Morduck (sic) – shown in Jackson Township of Lebanon County in the 1850 census, taken on October 4, 1850. Robert, 73, none under occupation, property valued at $2500; Catherine, 76; John, 40, shoemaker; Lydia, 35; and David Riegle, 17, a shoemaker, all born in Pennsylvania. NOTE: In the History of Dauphin County and Lebanon County by William Henry Egle is a Jackson Township cemetery reference for Robert and Catherine, shown in Union Cemetery, on Main St. (unclear city Myerstown?). Listed are Catherine Murdock, born October 6, 1772 and died on September 25, 1857; and Robert Murdock, born on February 2, 1776 and died on October 31, 1858. This Robert matches the 1820 census entry - and the girl under ten appears to be Lydia, not Sarah. Robert is also shown as born in Pennsylvania, which does not match Sarah Murdock Crill’s 1880 census entry with her father shown as born in England.
These records point to John and Susannah Murdock of Lebanon County as Sarah’s parents. Given Sarah’s obituary that names Lebanon County, Pennsylvania as her county of origin and her maiden name as Murdock - and given her age and the 1820 census, given the facts that rule out the other possible Murdock - Robert Murdock - and given the naming of Sarah (Sally) in John Murdock’s probate - this evidence supports John and Susannah Murdock as Sarah’s parents.
John and Susannah Murdock - Who was in their family and what information has been collected about them?
I will include below everything we know about John and Susannah Murdock in Lebanon County. By the end of this section, I was able to conclude who was in John and Susannah’s immediate family, and I will lead with it here to be able to give context to the records I will then post in chronological order.
John and Susannah Murdock. John Murdock was born between 1780 and 1790 in England, married Susannah ca 1811, likely in Pennsylvania, and died February 1, 1831 in Lebanon Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Susannah was born between 1780 and 1790 in Pennsylvania, and died after 1840.
John and Susannah had six known children. Based on this and their future records indicating a birth year, the six children would be: 1) Daniel, born abt 1812, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, died abt 1875, probably Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, married June 15, 1834, Jackson, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania to Anna Catherine Hartman, born abt 1813 and died 1887, prob Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania - eleven children: Anna Mary, John, Samuel, Jacob, William, Solomon, Eliza, George Ross, Henry, Leah Jane “Dilla”, and David; 2) John, born between 1810-1815; 3) Eunice, listed in probate, but no further record or birth date located; 4) Sarah (listed as Sally in the orphan courts records), my ancestor, born 1819 probably in Lebanon County, died May 1897, Knox County, Ohio; married March 22, 1837, location not known, to John Crill, born 1814 in Pennsylvania, died May 26, 1889, Knox County, Ohio; eleven children: Lavina, Franklin, Harriet, William, Sarah, John, Lucy Ann, Margaret, Jacob, Samuel, and Joseph Daniel [NOTE: the accompanying page on this website about John Crill and Sarah Murdock gives the detailed history of this family]; 5) Susan, born October 3, 1822, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, died July 3, 1906 Hummelstown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, married ca 1848 Thomas Baldwin, born January 6, 1819 and died on November 25, 1865; eight children: James, Jonathan, William, Lovina, Elizabeth, Rosa, Malinda, and Mary; and 6) Lovina, born June 16, 1829 prob Lebanon County, died January 30, 1883, married ca 1858, John Barnard, born August 21, 1831 in Pennsylvania and died on July 31, 1908 (he remarried after her death), ten known children: David, Henry, Elizabeth, John, Elmina, Robert, William, Emma, Kate, and Franklin.
There are a few significant items to note in the listing of the names of the children of the six children of John and Susannah Murdock. Every one who had children had a son named John, and Daniel’s oldest son was named John. Sarah and Susan each had children named Lavina. Sarah gave her youngest son the middle name of Daniel. I have a longer text document that includes the families for each of the children of John and Susannah. I am not posting it here, but would make it available to interested researchers. It has not been updated recently, but contains a substantial amount of information about these families.
Assumptions on which the above family listing are based. Combining the age categories for them in the censuses of 1820 and 1830 (and for Susannah alone in 1840), they were born between 1780 and 1790. The 1830 census indicates that they were likely the parents of six children – two boys and four girls. In John’s probate after his 1831 death, four daughters were listed in the orphans court – Sally, Susannah, Eunice, and Lavina. Two sons were the oldest children as shown by the 1820 census, and not listed in the orphans court records – likely because both were too old to be listed as a minor child in the 1831 probate. But the probate lists a payment to Daniel Murdock, who was clearly a relative, and likely one of the six children and one of the sons. I will treat Daniel and the four children named in the orphans court record as the children of John and Susannah and will speculate that the sixth child was the John Murdock shown in marriage records in 1832 in Lebanon – and/or Lebanon tax records in 1842 - although I have no proof he is the sixth child. When he was also shown in the household of Michael Fortney, as a single man, in the South Lebanon 1842 tax records - it places him where the rest of family members and those involved with John Murdock’s probate lived, as Michael had been shown by the others in John Murdock’s probate in the 1840 census. This does not resolve an 1832 marriage and an 1842 listing as a single man, but John just happens to be in the right place with a logical name at the time. I listed these six children just above - and below - based on these assumptions.
Chronological Listing of Records of John, Susannah, and Family Members in Lebanon County.
Lebanon County was formed from portions of Lancaster and Dauphin Counties on February 16, 1813 - most of the new county had previously been in Dauphin County. The first record for John Murdock in Lebanon County was in 1816. It is possible that there were previous references, but in another county. For a Murdock to have appeared in the 1810 census and be in the same place to where they were in 1820, they would have been in Dauphin County. In the 1810 census for Lebanon in Dauphin County - some of the people next to John Murdock in 1820 were there together, but not John Murdock.
If Sarah Murdock Crill’s 1880 census entry is correct - and her father was born in England - he would have immigrated sometime in that period. I have some ship passenger records for John Murdock’s into Philadelphia after this section, in the avenues for future research section.
The following is copied from the baptismal records of the Reformed Lutheran Church Book, which appears to be from Schaefferstown: p. 160 On September 22, 1816, John, son of John and Catharine Hetrich was born and the sponsors were John and Susanna Murdock. This is the earliest record I have found for John and Susannah – but according to future census records their two sons would have been born by this time.
John Murdock is shown in the 1820 census in Lebanon, Lebanon County, with two boys under ten (Daniel and John), one man between twenty-six and forty-five (John Sr., born between 1775 and 1794), one girl under ten (Sarah), and one woman over the age of forty-five (Susanna, shown as born before 1775 - which is at least five years older than the two next census references for her). I have thought that another of the daughters, Eunice, was old enough to be in this census - she is shown in the 1830 census in the right age category. The three people before John on the census page were Joseph Zimmerman, Amadisano (?) Krider, and Martin Krider and the three listed after John were Tobias Lantz, Leonard Zimmerman and Jacob Zimmerman.
John Murdock is shown in the 1830 census in the Township of Lebanon, Lebanon County, with one man (John) and one woman (Susannah) each between the ages of forty and fifty (born between 1780 and 1790); two boys (Daniel and John) and one girl between the ages of fifteen and twenty (Eunice?); one girl between ten and fifteen (Sarah); one girl between five and ten (Susan); and one girl under the age of five (Lovina). John Murdock is the first person listed on the census page. The next entries were Tobias Krider, Tobias Lantz and Leonard Zimmerman. Based on this, it would imply that Eunice was the oldest girl, but does not explain the absence of a second girl under the age of ten in the 1820 census entry for John Murdock.
It is significant that the next three people in the census after John’s listing were Tobias Kreider, Tobias Lantz, and Leonard Zimmerman. Tobias Kreider and Leonard Zimmerman were the witnesses to John’s 1831 will. Tobias Lantz was one of two guardians to John’s children, also listed in 1831.
John Murdock’s will is shown in Lebanon County Will Book B, p. 124 in 1831, abstracted just following and posted below: “Nuncupative Will of John Murdock. Memorandum. That on the 28 or 29 day of January in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and thirty-one. John Murdock Late of the Township of Lebanon in the County of Lebanon and State of Pennsylvania being sick of the sickness whereof he died on the first day of February in the same year. Did [died?] at his dwelling house here in the same township, make and declare his Last will and Testament Nuncupative in these or the like following words. I give unto my dearly beloved wife to have for herself Two Beds, one Chest, one Bureau, The House Clock & Case, Fifteen Bushels of (good – good is written with a little arrow between of and wheat) wheat (but the affirmant or witness Leonard Zimmerman thinks only twelve bushels of wheat but not certain) Twelve Bushels of Good Rye; Twelve Bushels of Good Indian Corn; Two Hogs and a Cow her choice, Two sheep and also every and any thing in the House she chooses to take and keep for herself. It is also my further will that my wife and children shall continue to live on the farm we now live on for another year from the first day of April 1831 to the first day of April 1832, and farm the same in a good and farmer like manner, when all the residue and remainder of my personal property of what kind soever shall be sold at public venue. These words to the like effect the said deceased declared in the presence of the witness whose names are hereunto subscribed with an intention that the same should stand for and to his Last Will and Testament and the said John Murdock did (?) the said witnesses bear witness thereto. In witness whereof we Tobias Kreider Leonard Zimmerman have hereunto subscribed our names in witnesses to the above written nuncupative will of the said John Murduck this Sixteenth day of February in the Year of our Lord one Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty one. /s/Leonard Zimmerman, Tobias Kreider.
Lebanon County Pa(?) Be it Remembered that We Tobias Kreider and Leonard Zimmerman the subscribers witness to the foregoing and written nuncupative Last will and Testament of the said John Murdock appeared before John Uhler Esquire Register in and for the County of Lebanon aforesaid in the Registers office at Lebanon and being by him duly affirmed. They and each of them did on their solemn oath affirm and declare that they were present on the said 28 or 29 day of January last past at the dwelling house of the said John Murdock late of Lebanon Township aforesaid decd. and in the time of the last illness and did then and there have the said dec’d the contents of the said nuncupative will to be his last will and did (?) us witness that such was his will and at the time of so doing he was of perfect and sound (?) mind and memory and understanding to the best of our and each of our knowledge & belief. /s/ Tobias Kreider, Leonard Zimmerman. Affirmed and subscribed before me this 16 day of February, 1831. Jn. Uhler, Regis. Recorded, February 16, 1831.”
NOTE – No names of wife or children were mentioned. In the index of probate records, Susana Murdock was mentioned as the widow. In the following orphans record, there were four children listed. There was also no reference for John Murdock in the grantor – grantee index in Lebanon County for this period.
In the Lebanon County Orphans Court Docket Volume 3, p. 539, dated April 9, 1831, on the petition of Susanna Murdock, widow and relect of John Murdock, deceased, the court appoints Tobias Lantz guardian of Sally and Susanna Murdock, and Samuel Houcks of Eunice and Lavina, respectively, of the said John Murdock, deceased. I had originally misread this to think that a Samuel Murdock was included – but it means that four children were named, and two older sons shown in the censuses of 1820 and 1830 were not needing of guardianship.
There is a John Murdock who married Susanna Speck in Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church Records – the church being in Lebanon and the same place that Susanna below was married in 1843. The marriage took place on April 10, 1832, and their residence was not given. This would be the age that fits a son of John Murdock – and the name is likely, as the first or second son would have likely been named for his father.
In the Lebanon County Orphans Court Docket Volume C, p. 683, dated January 12, 1833, in the matter of the estate of John Murdock, deceased, Daniel Murdock is paid $37.50 by the estate for services rendered.
A further note from the 1906 History of Westmoreland County, Volume II pp. 313-14, the pertinent part of the biography that links Daniel Murdock to Lebanon County: “Jacob H. Murdock, a well known merchant in Ligonier, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and for many years a citizen in that town, whose bravery and endurance were noted and recognized during the Civil War, traces his ancestry to Scotland.[No further reference to this ancestry.]
(I) Daniel Murdock, father of Jacob H. Murdock, was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in 1812, and for some years followed the occupation of milling in that county. . .” The biography further states he moved to Pleasant Unity, and then to West Latrobe. He was shown to have eleven children. In addition to tying Daniel to Lebanon County, John Crill - who married Daniel’s sister Sarah, was also in milling most of his life.
Susana Murdock is shown in the 1840 census in Lebanon Township South Ward with one woman between fifty and sixty (Susannah) and one girl between the ages of ten and fifteen (Lovina). The three people listed before her were Joseph and Henry Bamberger and Adam Mock and the three people listed after her were Michael Beckly, Henry Miller, and Mathew Barnthaler (sp?).
There are tax records for the 1840’s for Lebanon County. They are tedious to go through - by township and in some cases alphabetical, in other cases, not. The taxpayer list is alphabetized, but if the taxpayer was renting to someone, the renters were not alphabetized - but listed with the taxpayer. All these factors make it uncertain that every reference to a Murdock or associate has been found in these records.
I found the record below in the 1842 South Lebanon Township listing - for John Murdock, a single man, a laborer, living with Michael Fortney. In the 1850 census, there is a Michael Fortney, age 46, a laborer, living with a wife and children in Lebanon Township. In the 1840 census, which is posted a bit below here - Tobias Kreider, Tobias Lantz, and Michael Fortney are all listed in sequence - pointing to this John Murdock quite possibly being of our family.
There is an 1843 marriage record of Susannah Murdock to Andreas Keller, posted below from the Salem Church records. Susannah and Andreas are shown as being of Annville Township [Annville Township was divided into two townships - North and South - in 1845.].
I had surmised that the daughter of the same name would be old enough to marry that year – and she would have been 21 – but she was married ca 1848 to Thomas Baldwin. It was either a first marriage for her and Andreas died before the marriage to Thomas, or it was Susanna the mother. But I can find no further record of Susanna the mother or Andreas after the 1843 marriage record. I did check the Lebanon County tax records for Annville Township in this period - through 1845 - and have found a John and Jacob Keller referenced, but no Andreas Keller.
Concluding Who Were the Children of John and Susanna Murdock. Based on census categories in the John Murdock entries of 1820 and 1830 – and the probate records, there appear to be six children in this family. Four are named in the orphans court records – Sally, Susanna, Eunice, and Lavina. It appears that there were two boys who were old enough to not be in these records, and one is Daniel Murdock, who is named for getting a payment in the John Murdock probate. I have speculated that John, who might well be the John married in 1832, and/or the John listed in the 1842 tax record, was the sixth child.
Based on this and their future records indicating a birth year, the six children would be: 1) Daniel, born ca 1812; 2) John, born between 1810-1815; 3) Eunice, listed in probate, but no further record or birth date located; 4) Sarah (listed as Sally in the orphan courts records), my ancestor, born 1819; 5) Susan, born 1822; and 6) Lovina, born 1829. I arranged the children in this order in the family description above, and there included a listing of their marriages and children - such as I know them.
Opportunities for Future Research - Passenger Records for John Murdock; Names of People in Records with John Murdock - And a Timeline of Locations Where the Murdocks Were
John Murdock Philadelphia Passenger Records
