In honor of Bridgeville’s quasquicentennial (125th) anniversary next year it is appropriate for us to review our compilation of local history and fill in some gaps. We have frequently mentioned various members of the Murray family and their significant contribution to our heritage but never focused a column on them; this week we will make up for that omission.
James Gailey Murray grew up on a farm in the early eighteenth century, then entered the mercantile trade in Allegheny City, on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. Based on that experience he opened a general store in Sodom (Clifton) which he operated successfully. Realizing the Bridgeville area’s potential, he and his wife Elizabeth (Boyer) decided to relocate there in 1867. At this point they had seven children, six sons and a daughter, Annie. They purchased three acres of land at 423 Washington Avenue, which included the historic (1828) house that currently is the location of “Antiques on Washington” and a store next door, on the corner of Bower Hill Road. That store eventually became “Billy Winstein’s store”, shown on page 22 in the Bridgeville Area Historical Society book “Bridgeville”.
Mr. Murray had numerous other business interests. He managed a sawmill and a grist mill, possibly at Sodom. An 1884 newspaper clipping reports that he was offering for sale “twelve head of Jersey cattle”. In addition, he was an influential politician, serving as Allegheny County Commissioner and Treasurer for several terms. The entire family was inflicted with typhoid fever in 1874; two of the sons died. The surviving sons were Albert Boyer, George Piersol, J. Frank, and Ulysses Grant. In the 1870s the Murrays acquired the Middleswarth mansion at 450 Washington Avenue. Albert and his family moved into it. “Bridgeville” has several pages of photographs of their family and their home, excellent examples of life in the Victorian Era. By the 1930s the mansion was the home and office of Doctor Quentin S. Kocher. It was demolished to permit construction of a parking lot adjacent to the Bridgeville Trust Company bank.
Albert Boyer Murray and his wife, Elizabeth (Wylie) had five children, four daughters and a son, James G. Murray II. James married Grace Sheffer and was still residing at the original Murray homestead when he died in 1959. His son, James G. (“Gailey”) was a highly decorated airman in World War II. Gailey married Betty Shepos, a neighbor of ours. One of the daughters, Alberta, married Walter E. Baker; they lived at 621 Chestnut Street. Mrs. Baker was a close friend of my mother. Their son, Walter E. (Bakey) Baker, Jr. was a young man in our general neighborhood when I was a teen-ager. My brother Joe remembers Bakey having a horse in a stable on the alley behind Elm Street. The other three daughters married and moved away from Bridgeville.
In 1894 the Pittsburgh society pages included an article describing the event of the year in the Chartiers valley – the wedding of George Piersol Murray and Margaret Ralston Kiddoo, the “petite and winsome” daughter of popular local doctor Samuel D. Kiddoo and his wife, Harriet (Champlain). The ceremony was performed at Bethany Church by Reverend Mealy, followed by a reception (with a guest list of 100) at the Kiddoos’ rose-covered cottage. Miss Kiddoo was a graduate of the Bishop Bowman Institute. Her husband was a prominent attorney and influential member of the Republican party. As early as 1892 he was involved in William McKinley’s attempt to be nominated for the presidency. They built a mansion at 710 Washington Avenue; it eventually became the Gumbert Funeral Home. The mansion was demolished in 1939 to facilitate construction of the post office. Mr. Murray was one of the prime movers in the secession of Bridgeville from Upper St. Clair and its incorporation as an independent borough in 1901.
J. Frank Murray married Sarah Davitt; they lived in Kirwan Heights. Mr. Murray had a large collection of violins, allegedly including the “Black Jack” Stradivarius that was played at Fort Couch during the Whiskey Rebellion: both he and his brother Albert were respected fiddlers. His son, Thomas Murray, married Charlotte Hoag and lived on Dewey Avenue. I believe he was an attorney and commuted into Pittsburgh on the train with my father. I also think his wife was a Southerner who refused to permit her husband to enjoy a holiday on Lincoln’s Birthday (back in the days when we still revered our sixteenth president) and forced him to go to work as usual that day. Their daughter Sara was an excellent amateur artist who returned to Bridgeville in her later years to care for her mother. She combined painting and woodburning to produce many memorable works before she died. Last Fall’s Bridgeville Public Art show at the local library featured three of them.
Ulysses Grant Murray married Nettie Hurd and moved to Pittsburgh (East End). He and his brother J. Frank were in business together, focusing on real estate and oil well prospecting. Annie married Robert McElroy and moved to Pittsburgh.
Another related family, the William Webster “Webb” Murrays, were also significant Bridgeville residents. Webb Murray was the son of Henry Harrison Murray, and “a cousin of the Bridgeville Murrays”. We presume Henry Harrison Murray and James Gailey Murray were brothers. Webb Murray was also a very successful politician, serving as Allegheny County Commissioner. The Webb Murrays lived at 432 Washington Avenue (page 30 in “Bridgeville”), a mansion that was occupied by the Lavelle Funeral Home by the mid-twentieth century.
The Murray family owned considerable property in Bridgeville, apparently including the four identical houses on James Street. Frank Russell’s painting of Bridgeville in 1893, on display at the Bridgeville History Center, identifies them as “Murrays’ Way”. It would be difficult to match the impact that the Murray family had on Bridgeville in the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.