Sacramento Valley Biographies

JAMES MURRAY

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, July 2009.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

         The success achieved by James Murray, a resident of Sutter county, 
located thirteen miles southwest of Yuba City, has been entirely the result of 
his own effort and application. When he settled in California his first 
occupation was employment on the ranch which he now owns, his energy and 
ambition making it possible after two and half years to purchase the land, 
assuming a debt for the property which he successfully paid, and has since added 
by purchase until he owns six hundred and forty acres. This large property he 
devotes to the raising of grain and stock, in both of which occupations he has 
met with success. He is justly named among the representative citizens of this 
section. A native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, he was born August 3, 1841, and 
was reared to manhood on his father's farm, in addition to his inherited 
qualities receiving a training which has added no little to his success along 
independent lines. He remained in his native land until 1864, when he decided to 
emigrate, and accordingly came to California. He found employment on the ranch 
of three hundred and twenty acres which two and a half years later he made his 
own by purchase. In 1883 he added by purchase one hundred and sixty acres, and 
seven years later a like amount, making in all a ranch of six hundred and forty 
acres, which he still owns and farms. 
         May 29, 1868, Mr. Murray was united in marriage with Annie B. Burnett, 
who was born in Chicago, Illinois, January 7, 1843. Her father, John Burnett, 
was a native of Scotland, who came to the United States in 1838, locating twelve 
miles from Chicago. Later he removed to the city and engaged in draying and 
teaming, at the time of his location in Chicago, there being but one warehouse. 
He died in 1863, at the age of fifty-six years, after a fairly successful 
business career. His wife, formerly Anna Robertson, was also a native of 
Scotland, who came to Chicago, where her death occurred at the age of forty-nine 
years. When Mrs. Murray was about eight years old, with two younger sisters, she 
returned to her grandfather's home in Scotland, where she was reared to young 
womanhood. In 1864 she made a visit to Chicago, but returned again to Scotland, 
where she lived until 1868. In that year she came to California and was here 
united in marriage with Mr. Murray. They are now the parents of three sons, 
namely: William Robertson, located in San Bernardino, Cal.; George Alexander, at 
home; and James Rennie, a rancher of this section. In his political affiliations 
Mr. Murray is a stanch Republican, and religiously both himself and wife are 
members of the Presbyterian Church. 
  
"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento 
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906, Pages 
960-961.