JOHN C MURRAY, b 26 Feb 1854

MURRAY, GILFILLAN

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 7/13/2004 at 16:16:13

John C. Murray was born Feb. 26, 1854, at East Brook, Lawrence Co., Pa. In November, 1855, the family, of which he was then the youngest member, came to Maquoketa, Iowa, and George Murray, the father, commenced the practice of medicine in the then new West. Educated in the common schools of his own county, he went to the old home of his parents, and attended High School at Franklin, Pa. During the time that he was in school at Franklin, Mr. Murray was a member of the family of his uncle, the Hon. C.W. Gilfillan, then representing his district in the Forty-second Congress. Returning to Iowa, Mr. Murray, in 1873, commenced a course in the Iowa State University, and during the time spent there managed to support himself by his own exertions. Upon leaving the University, and after a short time spent in the pursuit of special studies in Cornell College, he assumed the control of the city schools of Bellevue, Iowa, where he remained over four years, and during that time succeeded in connecting the schools of Bellevue with the State University, for which institution Mr. Murray always has a warm feeling and a good word.

Closing his labors as a teacher in 1883, Mr. Murray went to the West, and after spending some time there, returned and commenced the study of law, and graduated from the Law Department of the University of Iowa, in the class of 1884, since which time he has been engaged in practice at Maquoketa. Mr. Murray, besides his regular duties as a member of the law firm of Murray & Farr, has been engaged in general outside business, as is so customary and charactertistic of Western members of the legal profession.

Besides speculating in Western lands, Mr. Murray, in 1884, organized the American Red-Polled Cattle Club, and from a small beginning of seven members has increased the society until there are now over 400 owners and breeders of this new and popular breed of cattle. In 1886-7 he made a trip across the water, and imported both cattle of his favorite breed, and also the first Suffolk Punch horses ever brought to the State. Being a real lover of out-door life, he devotes much of his time to the development of his interests in live stock, and has in that interest edited the "American Red-Polled Herd Book," and is at present engaged in bringing out a second volume of the same work.

It is only in the West that we find men of college breeding, capable of winning not only a sustenance but also honor in their professions, who also find the time and have the energy to build up outside and purely commercial enterprises, and there can be no doubt that the success of importing and improving, on a large scale, two new breeds of domestic animals, connected with the editing of a technical work such as the American Herd Book, coupled with success in various more common commercial enterprises, entitles Mr. Murray to be known by the slang Western appellation, "A Rustler."

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)