John Munday (ca1770 – 7 September 1833)

I know nothing of John Munday’s background beyond the fact that he was born in Virginia according to the 1880 census records of his children who lived long enough to be enumerated.  But which Munday family he belonged to is mysterious.  My first sighting of him is his 1799 marriage in Franklin County, Kentucky to Mary Hulse.  He was not among the Franklin County  taxables in 1797 or in 1801, the only surviving tax lists for that period. (Nor were there any Hulses on those tax lists.)  Evidently both John Munday and his bride were newly arrived in the area and did not stay long.

He may have been related in some way to the brothers Edmund and James Munday who were also in Franklin County at about the same time, though there is no indication that they crossed paths with John Munday.  Edmund Munday left a will in 1800 naming. his children and the heirs of James Munday sold his land in 1813; in neither case was a John Munday among those mentioned.  ((Washington County, Kentucky Deed Book D, page 289.))

Marriage to Mary Hulse in Kentucky

John Munday and Mary Hulse married in Franklin County, Kentucky by bond dated 8 July 1799.1  Munday’s security  was a man named Thomas Glass and Mary’s father James Hulse gave permission by a note dated the prior day. (The identity of Thomas Glass, and whether he might be related in some way, is unknown.)

We know that this couple were the parents of Rachel Munday Anderson, who was probably their eldest child, as her husband John Anderson wrote a letter to the local newspaper on 20 April 1836 in which he mentioned arriving in Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio in 1814 when “the father and mother of my wife, Mr. John Munday and Mrs. Mary Munday, now dead, informed me of the whole of the transactions [referring to a local scandal]…”2

The only other mention of John Munday in Franklin County was his security just a month earlier, on 2 June 1799, for the marriage bond of one George Thornton to Barbary Faught.3

Settlement in Chillicothe, Ohio

Unfortunately, the 1800 census for Kentucky has been lost, as have the 1800 and 1810 censuses of Ohio.   The 1801 tax list for Franklin County, Kentucky survives, but John Munday was not on it, evidently having already left for Ohio.  We know from the fact that two children born about 1800 and 1805 later gave Chillicothe, Ohio as their birthplace that John Munday must have moved to the Chillicothe area sometime around 1800.   A history of Lick Township asserts that he was there “prior to 1812”.4  (Lick Township was then part of Ross County, but became part of Jackson County in 1816.)  As the letter by his son-in-law suggests, he was still there as late as 1814.

War of 1812 Service

He was surely the John Munday who appeared on rosters of Capt. Adam Berry’s Company of volunteer Ohio Militia, a unit whose men were drawn from Ross and Pickaway counties.  The company served for a month in September 1813 and for the period from April 11 to May 12 in both 1813 and 1814.5

Removal to Dayton, Ohio

He was living several miles northwest in Montgomery County, Ohio by 1818 when all three of his sons were enrolled in a Presbyterian church school located in Dayton.6   By the 1820 census we find him in “Dayton Town” with a household that appears to include three sons and five daughters.7   By 1830 one of the sons had established his own household, and perhaps one additional daughter had been born.8

Oddly, he does not appear to have owned land in Dayton or anywhere else in the county.  He does not appear as grantor or grantee in any of Montgomery County’s deed books.  That suggests that he was a tradesman of some sort.

Indeed, an 1840 letter by one George Grove to the editor of an early Dayton newspaper called the Log Cabin, states that “I do recollect when John Munday first arrived in Dayton he, said Munday, started a trunk manufactory on old Market Street…” 9

Mary Munday was a heir of her father James Hulse in 1832

Her father died intestate in 1829 in Jackson County, leaving 80 acres on which he lived.  A petition to partition the land was brought by one fo the heirs, listing eleven others as defendant heirs, among them John Munday and Mary his wife. (See the file on James Hulse for the details.)

Victim of cholera in 1833

John Munday died on 7 September 1833 according to the records of the Woodland Cemetery, where several other family members were buried.  His wife Mary died just two weeks later on 22 September 1833.  They were not originally buried in the Woodland Cemetery, which did not exist at that time, but its records show that a memorial was created for both of them on 2 December 1851.  The cemetery records do not indicate an age for either, but his birthplace was recorded as Virginia and hers as Kentucky.

John and Mary Munday died in the cholera epidemic that struck the Dayton area in 1833, killing at least 33 people.  Their names appear among a short list of victims in the 1889 history of Dayton.  Tragically, another cholera epidemic visited Dayton again in 1849, killing their grandson William Munday.

Children

Internet postings list nine children, but I have not uncovered the original source of this list.  Nor could I locate any probate records of any kind in Montgomery County.  I can independently identify seven children:

  1. Rachel Munday (c1800 – 13 November 1877) was apparently the eldest child.  Rachel was the mother of Mary Jane Anderson who married Moses Stewart, my great-great-grandfather.   Rachel Munday married John Anderson in Ross County, Ohio on 20 March 1817.   The couple appeared in the 1820 census of Ross County, Ohio and the 1830-1850 censuses of Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio.  John Anderson died in 1858 and in the 1860 census Rachel was living with Henry Anderson, her eldest son.  Her age was given as 50 and 60, respectively, in the latter two censuses and her birthplace as Kentucky.She died on 13 November 1877.  The records of Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery show her age at death as 78 and her birthplace as Ross County, Ohio (which was not yet Ohio in 1800, and which may be in error anyway.)

    Rachel Munday Anderson’s will was dated 5 September 1877 and proved a week after her death, on 20 November 1877.10   She instructed that “my beloved sister Emily Lozier shall be paid a just compensation for taking care of me”, and that one of her executors, Henry H. Laubach, place $100 in trust with the Woodland Cemetery Association, the interest of which was to be used for “the expenses of taking care of my plot”.    She also gave her bed and bedding to “my grandson William Anderson”.  The remaining estate was given “to my dear son Thomas B. F. Anderson in trust for the benefit of my three little grandchildren, the children of Thomas B. F. Anderson and his present wife Maggie”.  Thomas was to have the use of the money until the grandchildren reached the age of eighteen.  (The grandchildren were not named.)  Executors were “my brother Benjamin Munday and my nephew-in-law Henry H. Laubach”.   Rachel signed by her mark. Her children are listed in the separate document on John Anderson.

  2. Margaret Munday  (c1803 – 10 August 1881)  She was a legatee of her brother Madison Munday’s 1879 will, which left “my sister Margaret Munday” $200 per year for life.  She is buried in the same section of Woodland Cemetery, whose records show she was age 81 at death and was born in Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio.   That age was perhaps overstated, as census records suggest a birth a few years later.   There is no indication that she married, but she appears to have had children out of wedlock.  She was enumerated as age 46 in the 1850 household of Joseph and Mary Brauman.  In 1860 she was age 56 and headed a household of William Munday, age 23, and Henry Munday, age 20.  In 1870 she was age 67 with Henry Weatherby, age 25, in the household.  In 1880 she was age 77 and living in the household of Henry Weatherby, age 39, listed as his “mother”.  Her surname was “Munday” in each census.  The report of her death in the Dayton Daily Journal referred to her as Mrs. Margaret Munday , age 81 and mother of Henry Weatherby.
  3. Benjamin Munday   (c1806 – 14 May 1884) The marriage of Benjamin Munday to Miss Esther Riggett on 25 October 1827 was announced in the Cincinnati Chronicle issue of 27 October 1827.   The location was not specified, but it was probably Montgomery County, as he was heading his own household there in 1830.11  In the 1840 census, when he and his brother Madison were enumerated consecutively, Benjamin apparently had two of his unmarried sisters in his household.12   He was listed in 1850 as a cigarmaker (age 43) with children named Mary Munday (17), Sarah Munday (15), Benjamin Munday (13), Martin Munday (10), Abigail Munday (8), Thomas Munday (4), and Americus Munday (1).   His mother-in-law Abigail Rickett (73) was also in the household.   His oldest son, William Munday (c1830-15 May 1849) had died at the age of 19 in the 1849 cholera epidemic.13    In 1860 he was enumerated in Dayton as a tobacconist, age 53, with Esther and Benjamin (24), Abigail (19) and Americus (11) still in the household.   He appears in a number of Dayton city directories, in business with his son-in-law Henry Laubach as a producer and seller of tobacco products, including cigars.  (Henry Laubach had married Mary A. Munday.)  He was retired by 1880 when he was enumerated with Esther and the family of his son Americus F. Munday.  Benjamin and his wife Esther (1808-1890) are both buried in the same section of Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery as his parents.
  4. Emily Munday (c1812 – aft1880)  Her sister Rachel’s will directed that “my beloved sister Emily Lozier shall be paid a just compensation for taking care of me”.   Emily married David Lozier sometime around 1830.   They are in the 1850 and 1860 censuses of Cincinnati’s Ward 4 in Hamilton County, Ohio and in the 1870 census of Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky with children named John Lozier, George W. Lozier, James M. Lozier, and Mary J. Lozier.  David Lozier was listed in Covington’s city directories in 1866, 1869, and 1874 but Emily Lozier was listed in the 1876 directory as a widow.   She must have moved to Dayton almost immediately to take care of her sister in 1877.   In the 1880 census of Montgomery County she was living in the household of her daughter Mary J. and her husband Frederick Hackstadt.  (I note that she gave both parent’s birthplaces as Virginia.)
  5. Harriet Munday  (c1821 – 17 January 1890) She married Joseph Long in Montgomery County on 9 March 1841 with “Wm. B. Munday present” according to the marriage record.14   I did not track her further, but she and her husband appear to be the Joseph and Harriet Long buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery.  They were in the 1870 census of Miami County with four children, two of whom are buried in the same lot.
  6. Madison Munday (c1813 – 25 May 1879) An online database of marriage records sourced largely from family group sheets shows a marriage in Montgomery County, Ohio of “James Madison Munday” to Sarah Ann Long on 26 June 1836.   However, a review of the actual; marriage register and the marriage license shows that he was actually listed in both records simply as “Madison Monday”.15  Indeed, I was unable to find any record suggesting that he was named James.   I found him listed in several dozen records, including several deeds bearing his signature, but always as Madison Munday, and never with the first name James.   He had a son named James Madison Munday, but there is no evidence that the father also carried that name.  He was evidently the male aged 15-20 in John Munday’s 1830 census household, and he was enumerated in the 1840 Montgomery County census adjacent to Benjamin Munday.16   No children were in the household.   As a young man he was elected in 1841 as Commissioner for Dayton’s Fifth Ward, a position he would hold on and off for more than thirty years.  In 1850 he was enumerated in Dayton, age 36, occupation grocer, with Sarah and three small children: Sarah Ann Munday, 11, Clara Jane Munday, 5, and David B. Munday, 3.   (David B. Munday died the following year and is buried in the Woodland Cemetery.) A fourth child, James Madison Munday, was born a few months later.

    He served as a City Commissioner for several terms in the 1870s.  The Woodland Cemetery records show that he died on 25 May 1879, his age given as 66 and his birthplace as Virginia.His will was dated 9 May 1879 and probated on 29 May 1879 just four days after his death.17   The will made several provisions for his widow Martha Ann Munday, left $3,000 to his daughter Sarah Ann Decker, and $100 to Woodland Cemetery Association to keep his and his wife’s graves in good order.  It also left $200 per year to “my sister Margaret Munday…and at her death a place of burial in my lot.”  The rest of the estate was left in equal portions to “my daughter Clara Jane Crossley [wife of Benjamin] and my son James Madison Mundy.”  Executors were named as William Kramer, Martha Ann Munday and James Madison Munday.  He signed the will as “Madison Monday”.  His death was reported in the Dayton Daily Journal, his age stated to be “about 70”.

  7. William B. Munday (c1815 – 27 July 1854)  He first appears in deed records on 5 November 1836 mortgaging two lots in Dayton for $100. 18  The mortgage was signed by his wife Mary Munday.  The 1840 census lists him heading a Dayton household with another male in the same age category, two females under 5, and an apparent wife aged 15-20.  He was enumerated in the 1850 census as a physician, age 32, living in adjacent Darke County, Ohio.   He had apparently just recently married for a second time to a woman named Lurania and a child named Clarence Munday was in the household.   He is buried in the Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, where records give his age at death as 38 and his birthplace as Dayton.   (See also the note under Harriett Munday above.)  His wife Lurania A. H. Munday published a book of poems in 1857.  According to the foreword, she married Dr. W. B. Munday “who proved to be an indulgent husband and a kind father” but “at the expiration of eight years, Dr. Munday died” and she moved to Illinois.19

Two additional daughters are listed in a few internet family trees, but I found no records of either of them in Montgomery County:

Jane Munday  She is listed as a daughter of this family in a few online pedigrees, with no further information.  However, I found no trace of such a daughter.  There was a Jane Munday, age 15, who married Thaddeus Ramby  in 1851 with the permission of her mother Mary Monday — but she was clearly born after the deaths of both John and Mary Hulse Munday.  It is possible that she was a child of William B. Monday by his first wife.

Ophelia Munday  She is listed as a daughter of this family in a few online pedigrees, with no further information.  However, I found no trace of such a daughter.


 

  1. Loose Marriage Bonds of Franklin County, FHC microfilm #266194, image 323.  Also published in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 7, page 123. []
  2. The Extra Globe, Francis Preston Blair & Amos Kendall, Vol. 6, No. 5 (8 July 1840), page 69.  []
  3. Loose Marriage Bonds of Franklin County, FHC microfilm #266194, image 315.  Barbary’s father Lennard Faught gave permission by note dated 31 May 1799. []
  4. History of Lower Scioto Co, Ohio (Chicago, 1884). []
  5. Roster of Ohio Soldiers in the War of 1812 (Heritage Press, 1995), pages 32 and 96. []
  6. A History of the First Presbyterian Church of Dayton, Ohio: from 1845 to 1880, Clarke McDermont & Henry L. Brown, page 77-78 has a purported list of students as of 2 August 1818.  The list includes the sons Benjamin Munday, Madison Munday, and William Munday but none of the daughters. []
  7. 1820 census of Montgomery County, page 124:  John Monday 210001-31110. []
  8. 1830 census of Montgomery County. In Dayton’s Ward 2:  Jno Munday 01010001-1210101.  In Dayton’s Ward 4: Benjn. Munday 00001-00001. []
  9. Log Cabin edition of 22 August 1840, page 1.  The letter was partially in response to John Anderson’s letter regarding the “Petticoat Affair”.  W. B. Munday responded with a letter of his own, published immediately below Groves’ letter, that mentions mysterious “violence to my father”. []
  10. Montgomery County, Ohio, Will Book J, page 201. []
  11. 1830 census, Montgomery County, Dayton Ward 4:  Benjn. Munday 00001-00001. []
  12. 1840 census, Montgomery County:  Benjamin Munday 110001-210111. []
  13. Reprint of article in the Dayton Daily News 8 March 1931 “When the Cholera Plague Swept Dayton”. []
  14. Montgomery County Marriage Records, Vol. A-2, page 172. []
  15. Montgomery County Marriage Records, Book B-1, page 144 (register) and Book G-1, page 57 (license). []
  16. 1840 census, Montgomery County:  Madison Munday 00001-100001 []
  17. Montgomery County Will Book J, page 489. []
  18. Montgomery County Deed Book W, page 557. []
  19. “Acacian Lyrics and Miscellaneous Poems”, Lurania A. H. Munday (St. Louis, 1857). []