Biography |
- From Bell's History of Northumberland County 1891: SAMUEL WILSON MURRAY was born at Lewisburg, Union county, PennÂsylvania, October 16, 1829. He was educated at the old Lewisburg Academy under Hugh Pollock and his successor in that venerable institution, John Robinson. When he was about seventeen years of age he went to Lancaster, where his father then resided. Two years later he went to Portland, Maine, and entered the Portland Locomotive Works for a term of three years for the purpose of learning the trade of a machinist. At the expiration of his time at the Portland Works he spent a year and a half at Vernon, Indiana, and in Rhode Island, after which he returned to Lancaster and was employed for the three succeeding years as draughtsman in the Lancaster Locomotive Works.
In September, 1856 he went to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and in conÂnection with William Vanderbilt and Charles Bowman engaged in the machine business under the firm name of Vanderbilt, Murray & Bowman. About the middle of the following January their works were entirely destroyed by fire. They immediately purchased another establishment then owned and operated by John B. Hall, but during the following summer came the great commercial crash of 1857, and this, together with their losses by fire, crippled the firm to such an extent that they deemed it expedient to resell the works to Mr. Hall and retire from business. Mr. Murray then returned to Lancaster, and shortly afterward went to Pittsburgh, where he was employed a year in the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The succeeding year he spent in the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Philadelphia.
In the fall of 1860 he returned to Lewisburg, and became interested in the firm of Slifer, Walls, Shriner & Company, which was about to engage in the manufacture of agricultural implements. In February, 1864 he came to Milton, and in connection with several other gentlemen, founded the Milton Car Works, with which enterprise he is still identified.
Mr. Murray was married December 17, 1866 to Sarah Matilda Meckly, a daughter of Dr. John Meckly, of Milton, and two children, a son, John Heber, and a daughter, Helen Beatrice, are the result of this union.
While a resident of Portland, Maine, Mr. Murray cast his first vote at the municipal election at which Neal Dow was elected mayor of the city and which resulted in the enactment of the famous "Maine Law." He became at that time a convert to the theory that prohibition was the only practical remedy for the evils of intemperance and he has remained a life-long adherent to the cause. In early life he joined the Methodist Episcopal church, to which creed his parents and sister also adhered, and he has been a prominent leader in church work for many years. He has been a liberal contributor to religious and benevolent purposes and his business career furnishes evidence that a competence can be secured without the sacrifice of religious principles or honor.
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