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Below is a family biography included in The History of Dade County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Marshall C. Murray, stock-dealer and farmer of Grant Township, Dade County, Mo., and the son of Judge John and Sarah (Lettreal) Murray, was born in McMinn County, Tenn., in 1831. The parents were natives of North Carolina, the father born in 1799, and the mother in 1796. They were married in Tennessee in 1819, and afterward moved to Greene County, Mo., being among the first settlers of Southwest Missouri. Mrs. Murray died there in about 1844, and Judge Murray in about 1866. He was a farmer and stock-raiser for many years, and was also judge of the county court of Greene County, Mo. He served on the frontier in removing the Indians at an early day. He and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His father, William Alexander Murray, was born in North Carolina, and died in Tennessee. He was of French origin, and was a soldier in the War of 1812. His grandfather was a Frenchman. Mrs. Sarah (Lettreal) Murray was of Scotch-French descent and the daughter of Lewis Lettreal, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and died in Tennessee. Marshall C. Murray was the fifth of nine children, six sons and three daughters, and was reared in Greene County, Mo., from four years of age. He received a very limited education, owing to the scarcity of schools, and in 1858 he was united in marriage to Miss Frances Jane, daughter of Zachariah and Eliza Jane Sim, then of Greene County, Mo., where Mrs. Murray was born. Her parents were formerly from Tennessee. Mrs. Murray died October 25, 1886, leaving nine children, seven sons and two daughters. Mr. Murray lived in Greene County, Mo., until 1878, when he came to Dade County, Mo., and settled on his present farm, which then consisted of wild prairie land. He now has 490 acres of well improved land, all the result of his own efforts, and is one of the prominent agriculturists and stock-raisers of the county, having followed this business for the last fifteen years. During the late war he was in the Confederate Army, Company C, of Campbell’s Battalion of Missouri, and operated in Southwest Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. He was captured at Big Black Bridge, Miss., in the spring of 1864, was taken to Camp Morton, Ind., and a few weeks later to Fort Delaware, where he remained a few months. He was then taken to Point Lookout, on Chesapeake Bay, where he was held about three months before peace was declared, and then returned home after four years of hardship and suffering. He was in the battle of Pea Ridge, Corinth, Grand Gulf, and was in the fights at Iuka, etc. Politically a Democrat, his first presidential vote was for Franklin Pierce, in 1852, and for nearly every Democratic candidate since. He has been a member of Lodge No. 101, of the A. F. & A. M., at Springfield, since twenty-two years of age, is a Master Mason, and has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for about thirty years. Four of his children are, and Mrs. Murray was also a member of the same church.

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This family biography is one of 68 biographies included in The History of Dade County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Dade County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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