REV. WILLIAM M. MURRAY, minister, Fairfield, is One of Nature's noblemen, and may be regarded as one of the most useful members of society in Wayne County. He was born in Bond County, Ill., June 1, 1844, being the son of William and Jane (Harris) Murray, whose children were
His father was born in Virginia in 1808, was reared in Bedford County, Tenn., and came to Bond County, Ill., when there were only seven families living in the county, and died in Fayette County, Ill., in February, 1876.
His mother, the daughter of John and Harris, was born in Warren County, Ky., in 1825. Her grandfather, Rev. William Harris, was for forty years pastor of the Pilot Knob Presbyterian Church, in Logan County, Ky. He at one time sat in the pulpit with seven of his sons, all Cumberland Presbyterian ministers. From the old patriarch seems to have sprung a race of preachers, our subject being the twenty-ninth in the line occupying the sacred desk. On November 30, 1865, in Fayette County, Ill.
He married Mrs. Anna Surber, daughter of Edmund Green, and to them were born
Our subject was first a soldier in the Ninety-eighth Illinois Infantry, but was transferred to Sixty-fourth Regiment, with which be served to the end of the war.
In 1866, he was converted, and united with Cumberland Presbyterian Church, received under care of the McLin Presbytery in October, 1868, licensed as a probationer in 1871, and ordained to the whole work of ministry in September, 1875, in Fairfield (Albion Presbytery), where, with the exception of nine months, he has remained pastor to the present time. Mr. Murray is a minister of great energy, untiring in his labors, and has probably received more members into his church in Wayne County during his pastorate than any other minister. His style is that of his fathers, and one that will attract attention in any community. He has twice been a delegate to the general assembly of his church.
Being very popular, his party, in 1882, placed him in the field as a candidate for Treasurer of Wayne County, and with a strong party majority against him and one of the strongest men in the county as a competitor, he came within eight votes of being elected. He has a grand field of usefulness before him as a minister, and, if he lives to be old, will, in all probability, be a prominent factor in the history of his church.
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