1832 Birth:976 Birth date of 2 January 1832 taken from 1901 obituary in the
Wapakoneta Republican, which also gives birth place as Dayton, Ohio.
1850 U.S. Census:1773 Sophia enumerated in the household of her father Robert McMurray in Washington Township, Auglaize County, Ohio as a female, age 18, born in Ohio
1901 Obituary:976 Mrs. Sophia Cordell. Mrs. Sophia Cordell died on Sunday morning at the residence of her daughter Mrs. Maggie Lusk, three miles east of St. Johns, this county, after a protracted illness at the age of 69 years and eighteen days. The deceased was the youngest daughter of Robert and Sophia McMurray, natives of England, but for many years prior to their death residents of Wapakoneta. She was born in Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 2, 1832. At the age of fifteen years she was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal church. She removed to Auglaize County with her parents in 1848, and was united in marriage with James W. Cordell in 1850. To this union were born six sons and six daughters, all of them living except two sons. She became a widow in 1878 and the year following she left her native state to be near her children in Illinois, where she resided until four years ago, when her health failed and she returned to Auglaize county to make her home with her eldest daughter. She was a great sufferer for a year prior to her death, but when the final summons came she was ready and willing to go, exclaiming "I am going home to die no more." Of the ten children living Mrs. Laura Smith and Mrs. Alice Franks reside at Coln, Iowa; Mrs. Kate Kiser at Keokuk, Iowa, Thomas Cordell, William Cordell, Mrs. Tallie Burnham and Robert Cordell in McDonough County, Illinois; Roy Cordell at Galesburg, Illinois; Mrs. Ethel Wycall at Jackoba Center, Ohio, and Mrs. Maggie Lusk in this county. Besides the children the deceased leaves thirty grandchildren. The funeral took place from the residence on Mrs. Lusk on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock, services being conducted by Rev. S. H. Worthington, pastor of the M.E. church at St. Johns. The remains were interred in Greenlawn Cemetery, Wapakoneta.