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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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MURRAY, JOHN LYALL (1828-1900)

MURRAY, JOHN LYALL, lumberman, carpenter, and hotel keeper; b. Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, 23 Jul 1828, s/o Donald Murray and Margaret Campbell; m. 1864, Amelia Ann MacKay, d/o William MacKay and Ann Cameron; d. Doaktown, 16 Aug 1900.

John L. Murray arrived in Pictou Co., N.S., in 1832 with his father, who was a discharged soldier, and other members of his family. He grew up in the district of Loganville, near West Branch, and migrated to the Miramichi as a young man to work in the lumber industry. He was also employed at carpentry and was enumerated as a carpenter in the census of 1861. After his marriage in 1864, he settled down permanently in Doaktown, where he continued to be engaged in both the lumbering and construction fields. In 1881 he was supervisor of construction for the first Presbyterian church erected at Doaktown.

During the building of the Northern and Western Railway in the mid 1880s, Murray and his wife, the daughter of a Boiestown innkeeper, opened a hotel in Doaktown known as Murray House. In 1888, the Miramichi Advance stated that the hotel's dining room was being well-patronized and that Mrs Murray's tables compared favorably with those of "any first-class hotel in either Chatham or Fredericton." The establishment continued to flourish in the 1890s, especially as an eating place for railway passengers. After Murray's death in 1900, the business was continued by his widow. After she died in 1904, it was sold to Saunders Price, whose family kept it in operation until the early 1920s. It had been a private residence for about twenty years before it was lost to fire in 1942.

Murray and his wife, Amelia A. MacKay, had five children, three of whom survived them. Their only son, William M. Murray, married and raised a family at Doaktown.

Sources

[b] Scottish vital records [m] Head Quarters 13 Jan 1864 [d] Advocate 22 Aug 1900 / Advance 26 May 1881, 12 Jun 1888, 27 Dec 1888, 25 Dec 1889, 5 Feb 1891, 10 Jan 1900; Advocate 25 May 1887, 16 Nov 1904, 1 Mar 1905; Allen; Commercial World 30 Apr 1942; Martin; Murray family data; Presb. Witness 25 Aug 1900


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