My Genealogy Hound

Edward Hunter Murfee, president of the A. I. U., is a native of Southampton County, Va., the son of James W. Murfee, and grandson of Rev. Simon Murfee. At the age of sixteen Edward Hunter Murfee was sent to the University of Alabama, in order that he might be in charge of his brother, James T. Murfee, who was a professor in the university, and from the above mentioned institution he received the degree of Master of Arts. Soon after the war he taught select schools in Marion, Ala., and Demopolis, of the same State. In 1871 he was elected professor of military engineering in the Alabama University, and subsequently was elected professor of mathematics in Union University, Tennessee. Resigning from the latter institution, he obtained a charter for the Mississippi Military Institute, and was superintendent of the same until elected to the position of professor of mathematics in the Arkansas Industrial University in 1885. During the fifteen months ending August 29, he was acting president of the A. I. U., and at the latter date he was elected president without solicitation. In 1886 he was honored by two colleges, Bethel College, Kentucky, and Wake Forest College, North Carolina, with the degree of LL.D.