Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/36

 MURDOCH

MURFREE

1865, where he engaged in grape culture, but after a time resumed lecturing on elocution before the School of Oratory in Philadelphia, and was professor of elocution at the Cincinnati College of Music. His last appearance on the stage was as Hamlet and Charles Surface in a benefit given liim in Cincinnati, April 23, 18S7. He was married in 1831 to Elizabeth Middlecott, daughter of a London silversmith. He is the autlior of: Orthophony, or Culture of the Voice, with "William Russell (1845); The Stage (1880). He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 19, 1893.

MURDOCH, John, zoologist, was born in New Orleans, La.. July 9, 1852; son of John and Eliza- beth (Smith) Murdoch; grandson of John and Louise (Ramundeau) Murdoch, and of William and Caroline (Smith) Smith, and a descendant of William and Mary Murdocii, who came to Philadelphia from xVrmagh, Ireland, about 1738. He was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1873, A.M., 1876, was appointed naturalist and observer to the U. S. international polar expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska, in 1881, and remained with the expedition till 1883. He was married, July 23. 1884, to Abby De Forest Stuart. He was librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-92, and in 1896 was appointed assistant in the cata- logue department of the Boston Public library. He studied zoology at the Museum of Compara- tive Zoology, Harvard, and made a special study of the habits of the Eskimo race. He is the author of: Natural History, in the report of the Point Barrow expedition; Ethnological Ees^dts of the Point Barroio Expedition, and many articles on Eskimo enthnology and linguistics and on zoological subjects.

MURFREE, Hardy, soldier, was born in Hert- ford county. N.C., June 5, 1752; son of William and Mary (Moore) Murfree. His father was a delegate from Hertford county to the convention at Hillsboro, Aug. 21, 1775, and to the congress at Halifax, Nov. 12, 1776, which framed the con- stitution of the state of North Carolina in force, 1776-1835. He was appointed captain in the 2d North Carolina regiment. Continental line, Col. Robert Howe, Sept. 1, 1775, and served through- out the Revolution, during the early part of the war in the army of General Wasliington. He was promoted major, Feb. 1, 1777, commanded a North Carolina battalion of picked men at the capture of Stony Point, N.Y., in July, 1779, liis " good conduct and intrepidity " being mentioned in General Wayne's letter to President of Con- gress John Jay, Aug. 10, 1778, and was sent with his command to the South in 1780, to reinforce General Lincoln. He was promoted lieutenant- coloDel. and in 1782 was transferred to the 1st North Carolina regiment, Continental line. He retired to his plantation on the Meherrin river

near Murfreesboro, N.C., after the war and in 1807 removed to Tennessee and settled on Mur- free's fork of West Harpeth river in Williamson county, which land was granted to liim for military services dui-ing the Revolution. The towns of ISIurfreesboro, N.C., and Murfreesboro, Tenn. were named in his lienor. He was married, Feb. 17, 1780. to Sally, daughter of Matthiiis Brickell (by his first marriage) of Hertford county, N.C., who was a lieutenant-colonel of North Carolina militia during the Revolution and a member of the provincial congresses at Hillsboro, Aug. 21, 1775, and Halifax, April 4, 1776. Colonel Murfree died in Williamson county, Tenn., April 6, 1809. On the following Juh' 9 a public funeral with Masonic rites, military honors and a memorial oration, was held at his grave in the garden of his late residence in the presence of a great con- course of people. The Nashville Clarion of July 21, 1809, says: " The surrounding lulls were cov- ered with vast numbers of people and the awful silence which pervaded such an immense crowd evinced the feelings of the spectators for the memory and virtues of the deceased."

MURFREE, Mary Noailles, author, was born at Murfreesboro, Tenn., Jan. 24, 1850; daughter of William Law and Fanny Priscilla (Dickson) Murfree; granddaughter of William Hardy and Elizabeth Mary (Maney) Murfree, and great granddaughter of Col. Hardy Murfree (q.v,), an officer in the Revolutionary army. She became lame in childhood, and thus debarred from active amusements, at an early age devoted herself to books, becoming a hard student, and later earnestly turned her attention to literary work. The family in 1856 removed to Nashville where she was chiefly educated, although she spent some time at school in Philadelphia. In 1872 they re- turned to Murfreesboro, and from there removed to St. Louis, Mo., in 1881, and back to Murfreesboro in 1890. She spent her summers in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, and devoted herself princi- pally to the portrayal of human character as connected with life in the Tennessee mountains. Her first story," The Dancin' Party at Harrison's Cove ", appeared in the Atlantic Monthly over the signature " Charles Egbert Craddock." Other stories and novels followed, published also in book form, and she succeeded in concealing her identity until 1885. She is the author of: In the Tennessee Mountains, stories (1884); Where the Battle was Fought, a novel (1884); Doivn the Ravine (1885); The Prophet of the great Smoky Mountains (1885); In the Clouds (ISS6); The Story of Keedon Bluffs (1887); The Despot of Broom- sedge Cove (1888); In the Stranger- People's Country (1891); His Vanished Star llSdi): The Mystery of Witch-face Mountain and Other Stories (1895); The Phantom of the Foot-Bridge and