Alfalfa Bill Murray ... On Both Sides of the Red

Last edited by Cedar on Sat 30 Aug 2008, 7:00 pm; edited 2 times in total

I knew that William Henry David Murray had been born in 1869, in a little settlement called Toadsuck, which eventually was supplanted by the town of Collinsville, in Grayson County. Bill lost his mother at an early age, and the replacement whom his father chose was not overtaken with sentiment for her new stepson. In at least partial consequence of this bitter relationship, young Bill eventually fled the family home -- by then located in Montague County -- and worked his way, farm-to-farm, until he was admitted to the College Hill Institute at Springtown, Parker County. What I didn't know until late is that he lived and worked for quite some time in Aurora, Wise County. There, he was taken into the kind keeping of a local woman, who became a second mother to Alfalfa Bill (recounted below).

It seems that he tried hard to remain in his native state, but when his luck here did not prosper, he pushed northward .... if just across the Red River. He was a fiery, controversial gentleman -- unafraid to live his convictions -- and I would have lent support to about 75% of his platform. And oh ... to have had the chance to hear him speak ....

The outlines of his story may be found here, though not in depth much of anyplace else:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmu16.html

http://www.opsu.edu/News/PressReleses/Others/PRAlfBill082307.html

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/M/MU014.html
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The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Just a bit more about Alfalfa Bill's time in Texas:

He was born in a one-room, plank home in Toadsuck. His dad was Uriah Dow Thomas Murray; his mom Bertha Elizabeth Jones. The senior Murray hailed from Tennessee, and worked for Elizabeth's father, at a gristmill, in the vicinity of present-day Collinsville. Elizabeth died in childbirth in 1871.

Bill Murray's instructor at College Hill Institute, D. P. Hurley, influenced the future Governor of Oklahoma greatly. According to Murray's biographer, Mr. Hurley taught Bill " ... how to teach himself .... For the rest of his life he used College Hill as a measuring rod to evaluate higher education." *

* Alfalfa Bill Murray, by Keith L. Bryant. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968, pages 3-7.
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The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

South of the Red (and confirmation of the above):

William Henry Murray lived with his maternal grandparents until he was about four years of age, when his widowed father remarried. Unfortunately, this new arrangement did not prove beneficial for the young boy. In fact ...

Alfalfa Bill's "home life under the domination of his stepmother was so unpleasant he left home and began striving for a way to 'make his mark' in the world. His efforts ultimately led him to Aurora [Wise County] where he lived in the home of the Ed Loper family and worked in the brickyard. Mrs. Loper was the only mother he ever knew."

Etta Peg, Aurora, Texas: The Town that Might Have Been (1975).
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The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves