JOHN H. MURRAY. The antecedents of this gentleman came to Washington county at an early day. John Murray, his father, married Margaret Henderson, who resided near Claysville, this county, and by her had six children, viz. : Hannah (deceased, was twice married. Her first husband's name being Murphy, and her second husband's Lavery); Michael, now living in Sedalia, Mo.; Charles, James and Thomas (all three deceased), and John H., the subject of this sketch. The father, who was a teamster by occupation, died in August, 1830, when John H. was but six months old, the youngest in a family of six children; the mother afterward moved to Illinois, where she died of cholera in 1852. John H. Murray was born February 12, 1830, in Buffalo township, Washington Co., Penn., and at the common schools of the neighborhood received his education, which, as he had to apply himself to work on the farm in early boyhood, was of necessity very limited. In 1849 he went West, and for two years followed agricultural pursuits in Illinois, and worked as a farmer and carpenter part of the time in Penusylvania and the balance of the time in Illinois. In l862 he enlisted in Company C, 22nd P. V. C., and participated in several engagements. In January following his enlistment, he was taken sick, for fifteen months was confined in hospital, and after his discharge as a convalescent he cooked for the officers' mess, one year. At the close of his term of service, June 1, 1865, he was mustered out with his company, and he then returned to Washington county, taking up his temporary residence in Buffalo township. Soon afterward he commenced a butcher business in Claysville, which he carried on one year, and then in 1871, removed to Washington and opened out a meat market on Wheeling street, which in 1874 be moved to Main street, and in 1886 to his present stand, on North Main street. On February 6, 1855, Mr. Murray was married to Sarah A., daughter of Joseph Magill, a resident of the Claysville neighborhood, but in 1857 she was taken from earth, leaving one daughter, then only fourteen months old, now the wife of David Sample, Jr., of Washington. In the spring of 1861 Mr. Murray married, for his second wife, Elizabeth J., daughter of Joseph Hutchison, now deceased. To this union four children were born, viz.: Mary, wife of Hugh Rodgers, Washington; William H., who is in partnership with his father; Annie, wife of Thomas Blair, of Wheeling street, Washington; and John E., living with his parents. Mr. Murray is one of the many progressive and prosperous self-made men of Washington, and is esteemed by a host of friends whom he has gathered around him by his thorough business habits and social qualities. In his political preferences he is a straight Democrat, but finds no time for office aspirations. His comfortable and commodious home is on Highland avenue, one of the most beautiful streets in the borough.

Text taken from page 283 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed February 1998 by Ed Macke of Flower Mound, TX as part of the Beers Project. Published February 1998 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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