Mary Ellen Magruder

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When Mary Ellen died in December 1925, one of the finest tributes to her character and worth was paid her by former Bullitt County Judge William Morrow who boarded with her in 1874. His tribute was this: "She was the best woman I ever saw. She did not know the meaning of the word bad. She was good to everybody and a friend to all."

Mary Ellen Magruder was born in Bullitt County in November 1835, the fifth and middle child of Archibald and Verlinda (Swearingen) Magruder. Her father descended from a line tracing back to the Scottish Highlands, while her mother's ancestors arrived in America from Holland.

Mary Ellen was but six years old when her eldest sister Susan married George W. Maraman in 1842 at the age of 17. Then her only other sister, Sarah Elizabeth, died at 18 in 1849, the same year that her father died.

Her oldest brother George had married Julia Combs in October, and the 1850 census showed the family headed by Verlinda with George and his new bride, along with Mary Ellen and her four younger brothers: Samuel, Henry, Ezekiel and Francis.

Shortly after her 18th birthday, Mary Ellen married Charles R. Samuels in November 1853. Charles was the middle child of nine born to Robert Franklin and Malinda (Joyce) Samuels. His father was the Bullitt County Clerk, and Charles served as his assistant.

Charles and Mary Ellen's first child, a daughter they named Julia Katherine, was born in June 1857. That same year Charles arranged with the county to purchase about 100 acres of vacant land lying between Cane Run and Wilson's Creek in southern Bullitt County.

Then they had a son they named Charles Lee Samuels in October 1858. The next year they purchased a couple of town lots from the estate of Theodocia Purcell. They sold part of the 100 acre tract to Casper Herps in April 1860, making a small profit on their investment. Their third child was a daughter named Josie Swearingen Samuels, born in October 1861.

Robert Samuels had died the previous June, and Charles Samuels was now serving as County Clerk in his place. Charles was also the executor of his father's will, and it soon appeared that Robert owed more than could be paid without selling off what property he owned, mostly some lots in Shepherdsville.

In December 1862, Charles R. Samuels sold the remainder of the 100 acres to Michael L. Troutman. Then the following April, Mary Ellen received 84 acres as her part of the division of her father's eastern Bullitt County farm.

The family had never been what you might call really prosperous, and in February 1865 they sold the two town lots purchased earlier to Edward H. McCormick. A year later, on March 6, 1866, Charles died, leaving his 30 year old widow with three young children.

Following the deaths of two of her brothers, Mary Ellen received an inheritance of an additional 100 acres of the family farm from the distribution of their estates, and the working of that land likely brought her additional income.

Following the death of her mother-in-law, Malinda Joyce Samuels in April 1870, Mary Ellen purchased part of Shepherdsville lot #25 in September. We're not completely certain where she had been living in town, but feel it is likely she was purchasing the house she was living in. We know that the 1870 census puts her and her children in Shepherdsville, and that she was renting rooms to S. M. Simmons, a lawyer, and James Jenkins, a local school teacher at the time.

This house and lot stood on the east side of Main Street between Second and Third Streets, and was about in the middle of that block. It was here that she reared her children while running a boarding house for single gentlemen like the future Judge Morrow.

In November 1871, she sold the 184 acres of Magruder land, leaving her with just her town house and lot.

Now we turn for a bit to the family of Christian H. Barrall who was born in 1826, the second of ten children of Christian and Elizabeth (Harshfield) Barrall. The Barralls lived along Knob Creek Road in northwestern Bullitt County, farming the bottomland, growing fruit trees on the hillsides, and harvesting lumber for their sawmill.

Christian married Ravia Jane Martin in November 1848, and they proceeded to have five children, three of whom reached adulthood: Francis Marion, Lewis Martin and Thomas J. Barrall.

Ravia Jane died in December 1876 in her 47th year, leaving Christian and his three young adult sons. And after a respectable nine months, Christian asked Mary Ellen to marry him. She was approaching her forty-second birthday, and had lived independently for more than a decade with her three now grown children. He was fifty-one with three grown sons, and reasonably prosperous; and, like apparently all others, he knew a good woman when he saw her.

They were married on September 9, 1877, making two households one in that Knob Creek Valley which, in 1932, J. R. Zimmerman described this way: "There is not a prettier place on earth than the Knob Creek Valley. The creek itself is usually clear and blue as indigo, as it mirrors the arching skies, and the symmetrical hills which push their rock embattled summits skyward, are as blue as the waters of the murmuring creek which fights its way westward over thousands of stones great and small. When June spreads her green banners over the valley, and hundreds of thousands of beautiful fragrant flowers bloom on the fertile hillsides and in the valley, and a grand chorus of vocal music is sent heavenward by the brilliantly colored songsters from hedge and forest, it really seems more like heaven than Knob Creek."

Apparently also, Christian wasn't the only Barrall to recognize a good woman, for the next month his son Francis married Mary Ellen's daughter Josie. And then a year later, in December 1878, Lewis Barrall married Kate Samuels.

Now settled in the Barrall home, Mary Ellen cut her ties to Shepherdsville when they sold her house and lot there to Susie Bowman that same month.

Francis and Josie Barrall had one son and Josie was expecting their second child when her husband died of consumption in January 1885 at his father's home, likely being nursed by his step-mother. A local paper described him as "one of the most prominent young farmers and lumber dealers in this county."

Josie would deliver their second son in June. Almost two years later, she married Francis' brother Thomas in April 1887.

Meanwhile Lewis and Julia Barrall had two sons; Christian Thomas in 1878, and Marion Foskett Barrall in 1885.

Mary Ellen's son, Charles Lee Samuels, married Lizzie Shepherd on New Year's Eve 1885, and settled in as a farmer along Knob Creek. They would give Mary Ellen four grandchildren; Charles, Lee, Katie and the baby Nettie Pearl who was born in 1905.

Christian and Mary Ellen enjoyed more than 26 years together before his heart gave out and he died in March 1904 at the age of 78.

Mary Ellen continued living along Knob Creek for two more decades. Her daughter Kate passed in December 1922, but most of the rest of the extended family lived nearby, and as Christmas approached in December 1925 they all hoped to celebrate it together; but she died in her sleep a week before Christmas, and was laid to rest in the Hebron Cemetery next to the grave of her daughter Kate.

On the Christmas Day edition of the local paper, J. W. Barrall, its editor, wrote, "Mrs. Barrall's name was a synonym for all that is pure and lovable in womankind. Those who knew her and her real worth to her family, church and community never forgot her. Her long life of ninety years was one of service, service to her Master and God, service to her family and loved ones, service to her friends and community and service to mankind."

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Copyright 2026 by Charles Hartley, Shepherdsville KY. All rights are reserved. No part of the content of this page may be included in any format in any place without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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