John Crill - Sarah Murdock

John Crill - Sarah Murdock

John Crill and Sarah Murdock were our ancestors, the parents of my great-great-grandmother Harriet Crill (Kinney).  Harriet’s life is detailed on this website’s section on the Kinneys, as she is shown there with her husband William Harrison “Harry” Kinney and their five children. This page contains information about the lives of John and Sarah - although it has been difficult to learn anything about John Crill’s life prior to his marriage.

John Crill was born somewhere in Pennsylvania in 1814 and died in Knox County on May 26, 1889.  I have not connected him to a Crill family in the previous generation. There was a Grill in Wayne County when John and Sarah were there ca 1840, and there were Grills in the same area where Sarah lived in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, but I have not found an obvious connection as yet - ruling out a connection to the Mercer County Pennsylvania Crills early, which is where I originally thought there was a connection.

Sarah Murdock Crill was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania in 1819 and died in Knox County about May 19, 1897.  The story of her family is shown on another page in the Crill - Murdock section here on Murdocks in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.

According to the civil war pension record of their son John Crill Jr., John and Sarah were married on March 22, 1837 - with no location listed. Based on the civil war pension record for John Crill Jr., filed by his mother and containing the list and birth dates of most children, together with early census records, leads to the conclusion that John and Sarah had eleven known children:

1) Lavina, born August 18, 1837 in Ohio, died July 7, 1904 in Newark, Licking County, Ohio, married March 1, 1860 in Ashland County, Ohio to Wilson S. McCreary, born November 3, 1840 in Perrysville, Ohio and died on September 29, 1891 in Newark, Licking County, Ohio, four children; 2) Franklin, born about January 18, 1840 [his tombstone inscription implies he was born on this date in 1836, which is likely not correct - I have assigned the birthdate to the probable year of birth] and died on September 5, 1862, no apparent marriage or children; 3) Harriet “Hattie”, born July 5, 1842 in Wayne County, Ohio, died July 2, 1911, Middlebury, Knox County, Ohio, married December 2, 1865 in Knox County, Ohio, William Harrison “Harry” Kinney, born March 22, 1840, Knox County, Ohio and died January 10, 1913 in Berlin, Knox County, Ohio, five children; 4) William, born February 2, 1844, Knox County, Ohio, and died July 5, 1862, possibly Tennessee, no known marriage or children; 5) Sarah, born February 24, 1845 died 1847; 6) John, born April 7, 1847 and died in the service, Nashville, Tennessee on August 16, 1864, no known marriage or children; 7) Lucy Ann, born June 29, 1850, Ohio and died August 5, 1928, Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, no known marriage or children; 8) Margaret A., born April 5, 1852, in Ohio, died August 29, 1928, Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio; married June 3, 1873 in Knox County, Ohio to Thomas D. Popham, born April 10, 1852 in Ohio and died September 19, 1941, Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio; one child; 9) Jacob, born September 17, 1855, Perrysville, Ashland County, Ohio and died June 22, 1937, Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, no known marriage or children; 10) Samuel, born May 29, 1858, in Ohio, and died June 24, 1908., St. Louisville, Licking County, Ohio, no marriage or children; and 11) Joseph Daniel Crill, born August 10, 1861, Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio, and died August 3, 1929 in Brinkhaven, Knox County, Ohio; married first November 19, 1884 in Knox County, Ohio, Nina Knode born April 16, 1866 and died August 25, 1901, five children; married second, Caroline “Carrie” Grace Niederhouse, born June 15, 1876 in Ohio; and died on May 3, 1925, Knox County, Ohio, two children.

John and Sarah in Public Records

According to the civil war pension record of their son John Crill Jr., shown below, John and Sarah were married on March 22, 1837 - with no location listed. The reference to the marriage is just in the middle of he page among other facts - in a record from 1881 - the only reference to their marriage I have found anywhere. Lavina, the oldest child of John and Sarah, is shown as born in August 1837 in Ohio. There has not been a marriage record found for John and Sarah - and was likely to happened in Ohio or Pennsylvania.

John Crill is shown in the 1840 Ohio census in Wooster Township, Wayne County, the first known record of John and the first of John and Sarah together - showing him employed in agriculture, with one boy under five (Franklin), one girl under five (Lavina) , and a man and woman each between the age of twenty and thirty (John and Sarah).  This fits the family of our John and Sarah Crill as shown above. The 1840 census entry is shown below.

1847 Deed to John Crill in Wayne County, Ohio. At the February Term of Wayne County Court of Common Pleas John Crill purchased land from the estate of Joseph Shornick, late of Wayne County, with John and Henry Frank Administrators. The land was described as part of the NW Quarter of Section Fourteen, Range 120 and Township 14, containing forty-nine and eighteen one hundredths acres. Range 120 and Township 14 appear to be in Chester Township - which is where John Crill and family were shown in the 1850 census below.

The 1850 census shown below has John Crill in Chester Township, Wayne County, Ohio, in an entry taken on September 11, 1850.  He is shown as a miller, 35, with property valued at $4,000, born in Pennsylvania.  He is shown with Sarah, 33, also shown as born in Pennsylvania, and five children, all shown as having been born in Ohio: Lavinia, 13; Franklin, 10; Harriet, 9; William, 6; and John, 4.  All children but John are shown to have attended school in the past year.

Wayne County court records are indexed on a microfilm held at the Salt Lake City Genealogical Library. There are two references to John Crill, one in 1851 and the second in 1852, and they are posted below. Unfortunately, there are not corresponding films of the records. The 1851 record refers to a Funk inventory - and a Nancy Funk is shown in court probate records in that year. It is unclear what the second record refers too.

John Crill is not shown in the 1856 Wayne County map of property owners at the location where the previous deed was located in Chester Township.

In an 1860 entry is Ashland County Deedbook 16 is the following item - which referencs the years 1858, 1859, and 1860 and is about “letters patent to John Crill of Ashland County, Ohio from Gabriel Natcher of Marion County, Indiana. William Crill is shown as a witness. The item does not reference any land is shown below.

The 1860 census finds John Crill in post office and town of Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio, in a census taken on July 30, 1860.  John is shown as a miller, 45, with property worth $265 and born in Pennsylvania.  He is with Sarah, 42, also born in Pennsylvania, and seven children born in Ohio, Harriet, 18, William, 16, John 13, Lucy A., 9, Margaret, 7, Jacob 4, and Samuel 2. This is the first known record for John and Sarah in Knox County - where they lived most of the rest of their lives.

Crills in the Civil War Era. Three of the sons of John and Sarah Crill died in this period - and two were in Ohio regiments in the civil war. Franklin Crill died in September 1862, and I have found no record of him in an army unit. His tombstone, in Forest Cemetery in Knox County, is shown below. It was concluded that his age was 26 years, and therefore, his birth year was 1836. However, census records seem to indicate that he was born in 1840. He was one of the three children not listed in the records of her children in John Jr.’s pension record - and I have used the birth date in 1840 in the family records listed at the beginning of this page.

William Crill died on July 5, 1862 after being discharged from the 20th Ohio, Company A (the same unit his future brother-in-law William Harrison Kinney served in for the duration of the war - made up of men from Morrow and Knox Counties in Ohio). William’s service cards are shown below, which describe his physical description at the time of enlistment, and his discharge at Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee on April 10, 1862.

John Crill Jr. served in the 121st Ohio, Company G - enlisting on February 11, 1864 and dying in a Nashville Hospital on August 16, 1864, and is buried in the Nashville National Cemetery. His mother applied for and was granted a pension, and that pension file has contained vital information on Sarah and her children that I have not able to find in other locations - the list of her children and their birth dates has contributed greatly to the information on family members at the beginning of this page. The pension record also contained information about John’s service, posted below - including his service cards, his enlistment form, an inventory of items at his death. I also got a photo of his gravestone in Nashville from Find-A-Grave.

John and Sarah’s residences after the civil war. The civil war pension declaration indicates that John and Sarah lived in Knox County near Fredericktown from 1864 to 1872, except for the period of 1867 to 1870, when they lived at Perryville in Ashland County, Ohio.  From 1872 to 1873 they lived near Mt. Vernon in Knox County, and from 1873 to 1874 lived near Gambier in Knox County.  The next two years they lived in Gann(also known as Brinkhaven) in Knox County, and then moved back to Gambier and lived five years.  In October 1881 they moved back to Fredericktown and were living there at the time the pension was applied for in 1883. That portion of her statement is the pension file is below:

Civil War Pension File Affidavits

There are a number of affidavits filed for John Crill, Jr.’s civil war pension records filed in the 1880’s that provide information about the life of John and Sarah after the death of their son John Jr. in the civil war. While these affidavits were filed in the 1880’s, many detail John Crill Sr.’s life beginning at the time of the Civil War. There are some common themes in these affidavits and it appears that there was at least some level of coordination in what they said.

I will post portions of the text on these affidavits below, and then pick up with an 1869 deed and the 1870 census and later records following the affidavit abstracts.

Artemus C. Rowley, dated August 12, 1884: “that during the year 1863 and part of the year 1864 he lived the nearest neighbor to the said Sarah Crill and her said family and their houses were not over forty feet apart.  That at that time the husband of the said Sarah Crill who is a miller by trade worked in what is known as the Ellicott (sp?) Mills and lived in a house close to the mill, said mill and house being situate about two and a half miles northeast of the village of Fredericktown, Knox Co., Ohio.”

“. . . that John Crill the husband of the said Sarah Crill was much addicted to strong drink at that time and would often get intoxicated and neglect his work and the fact of his being a hard drinker was notorious.  He had the delirium tremers while I was his neighbor as aforesaid and was treated by a Dr. King of Fredericktown who informed affiant that the said John Crill the husband of Sarah Crill had the tremers.”

“He owned no property whatever real or personal at that time save and except some household and kitchen furniture.  That affiant can not tell what the income of the said John Crill Senior was at that time, but it was not much.  He rented the mill aforesaid, but owing to his hard drinking he did little business and he was compelled to give up the mill as he had lost about all his customers.  That the family were very poor, and in reduced circumstances.  The son John Crill junior worked in the mill the best he could and really did more work than his father.  He was a good steady young man and did what he could to assist his mother and family, the whole proceeds of his labor going to their support.”

“That after the spring of 1864 I ceased to live the nearest neighbor to the said Sarah Crill and her husband and family, but lived within one half mile of them up to 1867 when I left the County.  That the said John Crill the husband was still a hard drinker up to the date I left the county and did not provide for his family as a man should do.”

“For the last eight years I have been well acquainted with the family and have seen him frequently all that time.  He is now and has been ever since I knew him a drinking man and gets intoxicated and neglects his business and family.  He owns no property real or personal and he nor his wife the said Sarah Crill have never to my knowledge owned any property real or personal, except household and kitchen furniture and have always been poor and in reduced circumstances.”

“The said John Crill the son of Sarah Crill always lived at home before entering the service and was a good boy and worked and labored to assist his parents from the time he was old enough up to date of his enlistment.”

James J. Wages, dated May 3, 1886 (interestingly, there are Wages/Wagers ancestors on my father’s side - with the Wagers appearing in the Maryland area and then subsequent generations moving west to Ohio and Indiana. Our ancestor John Wagers was born in Maryland, lived for a time with his family in Ohio, and then settled in Pulaski County, Indiana for the remainder of his life. John Wagers’ great-great-grandson Ralph Laird Sr. married Edna Clawson, great-grand daughter of John and Sarah Crill.): “That in the year 1864 the said John Crill was crippled in the arm the same having been broken and by reason thereof was not able to do hard manual labor.  He was then working at what is known as Strongs Mill near Fredericktown, Knox Co., Ohio.”

“That prior to entering the service his son John Crill lived at home and worked with and assisted his father being a young man and his parents being poor, and the proceeds of his labor went to their support.  In my opinion the income of the said John Crill in 1864 would not exceed one hundred and fifty dollars, and I am of the opinion that it would not exceed that sum any year since that time.  The family were very poor and have had a hard time to get along.  He is a miller by trade and I got my grinding done at his mill part of the time for the reason that he was poor and could not do much and I desired to help him.”

Alex Keller, dated January 25, 1886: “That in the year 1863 the said John Crill was the miller at Strongs Mill near Fredericktown, Knox Co., Ohio and affiant was then living in said village and the saw the said Crill very often.  That in the year 1863 the said John Crill had his right arm broken near or at the wrist and by reason thereof he was compelled to quit work at said mill, and went about with his arm in a sling and that he was incapacitated for work for several months.  That affiant was on very intimate terms with the said Crill at that time and distinctly remembers the circumstances of the said John Crill being crippled at that time as above set forth.”

James Rock, dated January 25, 1886: “. . . that in the year 1864 the said John Crill was crippled in the arm which had been broken and was not in the condition to do hard labor.  That ever since that time he has been more or less crippled up with his said arm and the rheumatism has also caused him much trouble year by year since this war.”

“In my opinion his income during the year 1864 would not exceed one hundred and fifty dollars and hit has not exceeded that amount in my opinion any year from 1864 to the present times and I am satisfied that some y ears his income has not exceeded one hundred dollars.  He has always been a poor man, and had a hard time to get along.  I testify to the above from my own personal knowledge. . .”

Alexander Love, Sr., undated: “. . . that in the year 1863 the said John Crill was suffering with a broken arm, which had been broken that year.  It was his right arm and was fractured at or near the wrist.”

“That by reason of his arm being fractured as aforesaid the said John Crill was incapacitated for doing hard labor.  He was then the miller at Strongs Mill near Fredericktown, said County, and by reason of his crippled condition he was compelled to quit work and had his arm tied up in a sling.”

“I was then a near neighbor to him and saw him almost daily and distinctly remember his condition at that time.  He carried his arm in a sling for several months.”

Isacher(sp?) Rowley, dated August 12, 1884: “. . . in the year 1863 he was the nearest neighbor to the said Sarah and John Crill who then lived near Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio.  That prior to entering the service the said John Crill in 1863 and up to the date of enlistment, worked with his said father in a mill which the father had rented; that he was a good industrious young man and assisted his parents and the proceeds of his labor went to their support.  That he was a single man, and left neither wife nor child surviving him.  That the father of said John Crill the husband of the said Sarah Crill was much addicted to strong drink and the fact of his hard drinking was notorious.”

“That while the said John Crill lived a neighbor to this affiant in the year 1863 he had an attack of the delerium tremers(?) caused by his hard drinking.  That the said Sarah Crill nor her husband at that time owned any property real or personal except their household goods.”

“. . . Affiant says that he cannot give the amount of the income derived from the labor of the said husband John Crill in 1864 nor at any other time since but affiant says that by reason of his excessive drinking in 1863 and 1864 it could not have been much as he neglected his business a good part of the time during said years, and that he has never entirely ceased his drinking since that date and that as a result he has always been in poor circumstances.”

B.F. Deaver, dated May 3, 1886: “he has been intimately acquainted with John Crill for the last 28 years.  That in the year 1864 the said John Crill was crippled in the right arm the same having been broken.  He was unable to do any lifting or hard work with said arm for years.  That prior to going into the service the son, John Crill, lived at home with his parents, being a young man, and the proceeds of his labor went to his parents.”
“He worked in the mill with his father, his said father being a miller by trade.  That by reason of the crippled condition of the father, John Crill the said son John Crill Jr. assisted his father at the mill and worked there steadily all the time for a year or two before he entered the service.”

“That since the year 1864 the said John Crill by reason of his crippled arm and being also afflicted with the rheumatism, has not been able to do hard manual labor, nor has he been able to do the work necessary in working at his said trade, being unable to load and unload wheat and other grain left to be ground.  I am of the opinion that his income in 1864 would not amount to one hundred and fifty dollars, and that it has not exceeded that in the years since that time.”

“. . . I know that persons taking or sending grain to be ground at the mill where the said John Crill was working would have to carry and handle the same at the mill or send someone to do it for the reason that the said Crill was unable to do it on account of his crippled condition.  My acquaintance has been continuous with him during the period aforesaid as he has lived in Knox County all of said period save and except a short time and I saw him frequently even while he lived in adjoining County I saw him frequently.”

William G. White, dated August 12, 1884: “That he was acquainted with the father and mother of the said John Crill prior to his entering the service.  That the said John Crill, Sen., the father of the soldier and husband of the said Sarah was at that time a hard drinker and much addicted to it.  That he there owned no property real or personal except household goods and was considered poor.”

“That I have been acquainted with the said Sarah and John Crill ever since I came home from the service.  That the said John Crill the husband has always, since my first acquaintance with him been much addicted to strong drink, and has been in very poor circumstances and neither he nor his wife the said Sarah Crill have ever to affiants knowledge owned any property, real or personal, except a few household goods, and have no revenue or income save the proceeds of their own labor.  That his acquaintance is such with the said Sarah and John Crill that if they had owned any property the same would have been known to them.”

Records from the last Decades of John and Sarah’s Lives

All four census entries for John Crill Sr., from 1850 to 1880, list his occupation as a miller. The affidavits above mention him as a miller - and that his son John Jr. was also in this trade. Above John is shown as a miller at Strongs Mill ca 1863.

From a Helen Grubaugh letter of July 13, 1982 to Ralph and Dotty Laird, a discussion of post cards and of John Crill as a miller (Helen Westler Grubaugh was the daughter of Myrtle Kinney (Westler) and my grandmother Edna’s first cousin): "I will see if I can find the 'old grist mill' owned and operated by John Crill. Now he would have been your Grandma (Sadie) Clawson's grand father and your great, great grand father I think. Some years they sell books with old time pictures in. These pictures were way before my time, but I like to look at them anyway. This John Crill and his wife are buried out here in Forest Cemetery here at Fredericktown, O. His Grist Mill was here in Fredericktown also."

A 1970 Publication of the Ohio Historical Society, “Waterwheels and Millstones: A History of Ohio Gristmills and Milling”, by D. W. Garber, has a chapter on “Some Historic Ohio Mills”. One of them is Kenyon Mills by Gambier, and John Crill is listed one of the millers there. I have posted the entire section on Kenyon Mills from that publication below, because it details much of the history of a mill where John Crill worked. In the summary above of where John and Sarah lived after 1864, Gambier is listed twice in the 1870’s as a place where they lived. One of the explanations for their frequent moves could be related to where John worked - meaning he worked at a mill in each of these locations where they lived.

The 1870 census, posted below, shows the Crill family in post office Perryville, Green Township, Ashland County, Ohio, taken on June 6, 1870.  The entry shows John Crill, a 56 year old miller born in Pa., with property valued at $500/$4,000, with Sarah, 53, “keeping house” and also born in Pa., and five children, all born in Ohio: Lucy 20, at home; Margarett, 17; Jacob 15; Samuel 12; and Joseph 9. The location of this entry matches Sarah’s pension statement that they lived in Perryville from 1867 to 1870.

Ashland County Land Transaction.  John Crill is shown purchasing land in Green Township, Ashland County – where he and his family are shown in the 1870 census record above.  He purchased the land in 1869, there is a news article about it in the November 24, 1869 edition of the (Ashland County) The States and Union, and then there is a delinquent tax notice for John in Green Township in the same newspaper on January 11, 1871.  All these items are posted below.

The 1880 census shows the Crill family in Pleasant Township, Knox County, Ohio, in an entry taken on June 8, 1880.  The entry is confusing as the surname looks like it is written Quill, and it is shown in the index as such.  John is 66, married, a miller unemployed for eight months in the previous year, born in Pennsylvania with both of his parents born in Pennsylvania.  Sarah is 64, keeping house, married, listed as John’s wife, born in Pennsylvania with her father born in England and her mother in Pennsylvania.  Joel Crill, listed as son, is shown as 18, a miller, unemployed for six months of the past year, born in Ohio with both his parents born in Pennsylvania. Joel is likely their youngest son, Joseph Daniel.

This entry is the only one taken where John and Sarah list the birth states of their parents. It is significant that both of John’s parents are listed as born in Pennsylvania - and that Sarah’s father is shown as born in England, and her mother in Pennsylvania.

John Crill is shown in the death record of his daughter as having been married to Sarah Murdock -- and both the death record and census records show that both of them were born in Pennsylvania. John and Sarah’s tombstones in Forest Cemetery in Knox County show him to have been born in 1814 and died in 1889 -- and Sarah born in 1819 and died in 1897.

There is an obituary for John Crill in the INDEPENDENT-STAR (Bellville, Richland Co., Ohio): 30 May 1889, Vol. 2, No. 7: “Fredericktown -- John Crill, who has been on the sick list for several weeks, died last Sunday morning. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. J.T. Black, of the Presbyterian Church, at the house Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock.”  The issue of the Independent would have been Thursday, May 30.  So it is likely that the service was conducted on Wednesday, May 29 and he would have died on Sunday, May 26.  There is an obituary for John Crill in the Mt. Vernon newspaper of the same time.  The abstracter calculated his death date as May 27, 1889 and lists his age as seventy.  It mentions his widow Sarah Crill, and mentions the IOOF and Fredericktown.  The age is off by about five years, according to his tombstone.

The civil war pension records show that Sarah died in May, 1897. Sarah’s obituary – which was contained in the Mt. Vernon Republican News of May 20, 1897, Thursday morning edition – 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.  She had been a consistent member of the Presbyterian church since she was 17 years of age, and was highly respected.  She is survived by four daughters and three sons, as follows: Mrs. Thomas Popham and Mrs. Carrie Kenney of Fredericktown, Mrs. L. McCreary of Newark, Mr. J. D. Crill of Brink Haven, Mr. Samuel Crill of St. Louis, Mr. Joseph Crill and Miss Lucy Crill (the latter of whom lived with her mother) of this city.  Funeral services will be held at the house Friday morning, the time not being fixed yet.  Interment will be at Fredericktown.” This obituary is significant, as it was the one record that linked Sarah to a specific place in Pennsylvania and led to the research that uncovered who her family was in Lebanon, Pennsylvania - which is chronicled on a separate Murdock page on this website.

John Crill and Sarah (Murdock) Crill are buried in Forest Cemetery in Fredericktown, Ohio. Photos of their tombstones, from the Find-A-Grave website, are posted below.