The Joseph Murray House and Barn
The Murray Family
This is were Joseph Murray got shot.
Joseph Murray immigrated from Derry, Ireland. He built a home here in Middletown, New Jersey. In Ireland, Joseph was a stonemason. His home is still standing today in Poricy Park. Joseph was a patriot for our country. He was bayonetted and shot for his duty, on June 8th, 1780. The reason he was killed was that he stole a horse from Edward Taylor (a loyalist). Edward's men killed Joseph for his crime. The reason Joseph stole a horse was that he enlisted in the militia. Joseph had a wonderful family. He had four children and a wife (Rebecca was Joseph's wife, and his children,William, James, Joseph, and a little girl which no one knows the name of ). William was the oldest child. When his father died, he was only nine years of age. So William became the man of the house.
The Murray Farmhouse
This is the barn.
The farmhouse was the first object built on this property. They did this because if they built the house first all of the animals would have to stay in there. So, they built the farmhouse first. In the farmhouse Joseph kept all of his animals in there except the chickens. The chickens would walk around. Also in the farmhouse there was a root cellar. A root cellar holds vegetables that grow in the ground for the winter. If they do not have the root cellar they will not have food for the winter. Lastly in the farmhouse there is a section where Joseph would work. He has a station for his carpenters items,linen making items and, stonemason items.
The Murray House
This is the house and the place wood was stored.
The Murray house had tons of rooms. There was a room for all of the children to sleep in. There was a bedroom for the parents. There was also the sewing room were the mother and the girl would sew. Also the boys would have jobs but they were mostly outside. The two bedrooms and the sewing room were on the top floor. Two rooms which were living spaces. One of them was red and the other was blue. They were on the middle floor. Also on the middle floor was the kitchen. And outside there was the bathroom, the garden, the wood holder, and the fridge. The barn was also out side but it was about 100 feet away. In the pictures below there are pictures of the rooms.
This is the fridge and where they stored food
This is the blue parlor. The kids would play games in here.
This is the red parlor.
This is where the children slept.
This is where the parents slept.
This is where the wife and the girl sewed.
This showed the money Joseph Murray used to buy the land.
This is the kitchen. (stove behind us)
How This Relates to the World Today
This topic relates to today is because this house shows how families back then lived. Without this house we could of never knew about what happened back then. This is also such an important landmark because Joseph Murray was helping fight in the Revolutionary War. He was shot on his own property because he stole a horse belonging to Edward Taylor. He then died some days later from being shot with a bayonet by three of Edward Taylor's men. When Edward Taylor found out about Joseph Murrays death, he was satisfied with his mens' work.
