Burrall Families
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Alternate Spellings - Burrall, Burrell, Burrel, Burrill, Barrell Links - Sources - We have had no contacts to date (12/2009). We have not researched this family in depth as we are not related but are including them because of connections to Eliza and New Boston Townships - the subjects of this web site. Our information is from early land records and the 1882 History of Mercer County. |
Burrall/Burrell Early Land PurchasesThe following are listed in public land purchases by Edward Burrall/Burrell in Mercer County (all purchased at $1.25 per acre):July 27, 1836 Eliza Township - Section 22 W2SE 80 acres; Section 26 NW 160 acres; WSNE 80 acres; Section 27 SE 160 acres; Sec 28 W2SW 80 acres; Section 34 W2SE 80 acres; Section 35 E2SW 80 acres; SE 160 acres. Millersburg Township - Section 5 W2NE and NW NE 166.58 acres. Duncan Township - Section 33 W2SW 80 acres. March 6, 1855 Eliza Township - Section 23 E2NW 80 acres. The following are listed as purchases of Edward Burrall/Burrell Jr. Several in Perryton Township in 1839. Eliza Township - Section 14 W2NW 80 acres at .50 per acre on 7/6/1855. Burrall/Burrell History in Mercer CountyThe following are excerpts from the 1882 History of Mercer County.:Page 80 (under New Boston Township) "In September of this year, 1834, the town of New Boston was laid out (the first of any in the county). The land, as has been previously stated, was owned originally by Wm. Denison. He sold out his claim, or two-thirds of it, to Elijah Iles, of Springfield, and Edward Burrall, of Massachusetts." Page 308 (under Perryton Township) ""The earliest carpentering was done in building houses and barns for McHard, Gingles and Burnall by Andrew Gingles, a son of Robert Gingles and nephew of James Gingles." Page 309 "In 1837 Mr. Burrall, and perhaps Perry, made more sod fence, and began the making of rails, which afterward constituted the sole fencing material, until the unentered land was stripped of everything which would make a rail or pole." Page 311-312 "Perry says in 1836 Maj. Edward Burrall had twenty acres broken on the SW 1/4 of Sec. 28, now the property of David Blue and that William Moore broke some land on southwest of 30, and put up the body of a log house. ...In 1837 Ed. Burrall, Jr., and Alfred Perry, living on the west side of Sugar Grove, broke prairie for Maj. Burrall on S. W. 1/4 38 (possibly error for 28?) and for Dr. Perry on E 1/2 of 28. ...A. Perry and E, Burrall did the first farming on the ridge in Perryton, and during this year, Dr. Perry came west and in the winter of 1837-8 built a log house near the timber on the northeast of 28....Burrall built the first frame house on southwest of 28, for Sheldon Wooden as tenent (In 1838). ...In 1844 Hamlet Cooper stopped at Burrall's with his wife and seven children, a yoke of oxen and cart and cow and a calf. ...At that time there was living on the south side of Camp Creek...Edward Burrall and Robert Gingles on Section 29... . Page 320 "The justices of the peace of Perryton township, so far as we were able to make up the list from the county records, are as follows: Edward Burrall, elected April 30, 1838, and resigned April 6, 1839... Edward Burrall 1847... . Burrall/Burrell Census Records in Mercer CountyWhen time permits we will try to verify some of the above information further in census records, particularly to try to sort out Major Burrall as opossed to Edward Burrall, Jr. Well the above was a nice thought but I got nowhere. I have paper copies of the original censuses from 1840 and 1850 in Mercer County and went through them line by line looking for Edward Burrall of any spelling and found nothing. From the 1882 History we know that Edward Burrall was a Justice of the Peace in Perryton Township as late as 1847 but still found nothing in the census so he was evidently missed or his name is just too unreadable to find. I also checked the index to the Mercer County Cemetery records and found nothing. In the 1855 Rock Island Census, Township 16, there is an Edward Burrell, age 30-40 with a family shown. I am not sure if it is the same as one of the Edward Burrall's from Mercer County as unfortunately the Burrall name of various spellings is fairly common. He is also listed in Black Hawk, Rock Island in 1865 but the details are not readable. In the federal census in 1860 there are two Edwards in Black Hawk Rock Island, County, Ill. Edward Burrall, 44, born approximately 1816 in Connecticut is listed and Edward Burrell, age 33, born Ireland is also listed so neither matches the Massachusetts origin given in the 1882 History. |