Surname Saturday – Nimrod Canterbury Murphy

You have to love a name like Nimrod Canterbury Murphy, but to date, my information on our Murphy branch of the family is limited.  Nimrod was born about 1809 in Kentucky. On June 24, 1830 in Jacksonville, Illinois, he married Cassandra Waters. Between 1831 and 1832 he served in the Black Hawk War.  In 1840 he is enumerated in census records in Carlinville, Illinois, and in 1850 in Gentry County, Missouri. He and Cassandra (born probably January 8-9, 1814 in Casey County, Kentucky) had 13 children: Lucinda, Joseph, Celia C., Margaret, Richard, Elizabeth, Nimrod, Paulina, W. Jackson, James Henry, Louisa, Greenill, and William Waters. Nimrod died September 11, 1860 in Allendale, Missouri, and is buried either there or in Morgan County, Illinois.

Cassandra lived nearly 40 years more. In 1860 she is enumerated in Washington, Missouri, listed as a weaver. In 1880 she is living in Franklin, Illinois. She died June 3 or 4, 1896 in either Murrayville or Pisgah, Illinois, and is buried in Pisgah’s Union Cemetery.

Nimrod and Cassandra’s daughter Celia, born May 16, 1842 in Illinois, married John H. Davis sometime between 1857 and 1860 and moved to West Union, Iowa.  They would remain in Iowa; according to the 1910 census Celia had given birth to 12 children, only 5 of whom were still living.  Their oldest child, Lucinda Blanche Davis, was born March 16, 1859 in Allenville, Missouri, and married Wellington David Wilson.  Lucinda and Wellington’s son Carl Ozro, was my grandma Blanche Wilson’s father.

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