{"id":4711,"date":"2013-11-28T15:46:27","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T23:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/?p=4711"},"modified":"2013-12-07T22:16:21","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T06:16:21","slug":"william-mcmurrys-cow-pasture-river-home-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/william-mcmurrys-cow-pasture-river-home-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"William McMurry’s Cow Pasture River home, part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cowpastureriverpostcard\"<\/a>While writing the last post<\/a>, on the McMurry family’s migrations from Virginia to Kentucky<\/a> in the late 1770s to early 1790s, I was somewhat vague about where they lived in Virginia. Other than one source\u2014which states that William’s youngest son, Robert McMurry,was born in Fincastle on December 6, 1772\u2014all of the sources I’ve seen state that William McMurry and his family lived on the Cow Pasture River. The location has been more specifically described as being on the lower Cow Pasture River and near a stream called McMurry Creek.<\/p>\n

From what I’ve been able to learn so far, there is no tributary to (or anywhere near) Cow Pasture River that is still called anything like “McMurry Creek.”\u00a0A distant cousin and fellow family historian, John Drye, has contacted the local history society for that area to see if they might have any insight into where McMurry Creek might have been, but he’s gotten no information so far. John suspects that the McMurry farm might have been in the area around Nicelytown, and that area is a leading candidate for me, too.<\/p>\n

The Cow Pasture River is fairly long\u2014just about 50 linear miles from source to mouth, but slightly over 80 miles as the river flows, because of the meandering nature of the river.\u00a0It would be great to be able to be able to narrow down possible locations for the McMurry home along this river.<\/p>\n

I’ve been reading through some excellent research notes by Don McMurray (a distant cousin), who’s spent much time, effort and money doing historical research on the McMurrys in Virginia, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere. In his notes were a couple of additional clues to the location of the McMurry property on the Cow Pasture River that made me think it might be possible to start narrowing down possible specific locations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In his notes, Don McMurray stated,<\/p>\n

The term “lower Cowpasture” was used in Court records to denote the area where the Cowpasture River flows into the Jackson River at Iron Gate, east of Clifton Forge, Va. The confluence of the two rivers is the headwaters of the James River.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don also quite helpfully notes that William is on the Tax List and is shown as having 35 acres “in Capt. Beard [Baird]’s Company, assigned to the 27th Military District,” and then stated that,<\/p>\n

Burton’s book [Botetourt County, Virginia, Its Men 1780\u20131786] contains a map showing the 23rd Company’s area as bounded on the south and west by the Jackson River, on the east by the Cowpasture River and on the north by the northern line of Botetourt Co. This means William [VA]’s land was on the west<\/span> side of the Cowpasture River somewhere between the junction of the rivers [near Iron Gate] and about three miles north, where Burton’s sketch shows the river leaves Botetourt [he says “now Allegheny”] County.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So there are now several hints that may help shed light on the location of the William McMurry farm:<\/p>\n