Denver-Pueblo County CO Archives Biographies.....McMurtrie, Samuel 1857 - 1914
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 22, 2008, 2:57 am

Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918)

SAMUEL McMURTRIE.

     Samuel McMurtrie was an engineer of exceptional ability to whom was
entrusted work of importance by large corporations. His life record illustrates
the adage that power grows through the exercise of effort. His ability developed
with the passing years as the scope of his activities broadened and his labors
proved a potent force in the upbuilding of the state.

     Mr. McMurtrie was born at Summit Hill, Carbon county, Pennsylvania,
November 8, 1857, and his life record covered the intervening years to the 16th
of September, 1914, when he passed away in Denver. He was the son of Josiah and
Rachael Frances (Bush) McMurtrie, the former a civil engineer of Pennsylvania,
and a man who won leadership and substantial success in his profession.

     Samuel McMurtrie acquired his education in the Lehigh University of
Pennsylvania, chosing as a life work the profession to which his father had
given his energies. Following his graduation from the engineering department he
came directly to Colorado. He had been one of the youngest members of his class
at Lehigh, but his youth seemed no bar to his ability and his progress. He made
his way to Colorado, where his brother, John A. McMurtrie, had preceded him and
was residing in Pueblo. He then was in the employ of Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad. Later they formed the firm of McMurtrie Brothers & Stone, which became
one of the leading engineering and contracting firms in the west. Their work was
the expression of the highest scientific skill and practical methods. They
constructed a large part of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, also the Southern
Pacific in California and transformed the Denver & Rio Grande from a narrow to a
broad-gauged road. They also contracted for work on the Colorado Midland and the
loop at Georgetown. They found ready solutions for the most difficult, intricate
and involved engineering problems, becoming recognized as authority upon
everything connected with civil engineering, especially in relation to railroad
building through the mountains of the west. In 1892 Samuel McMurtrie went to
California and remained in that state for ten years and there, in addition to
his engineering work, he contracted for large cement holdings at Suisun,
California. After spending a decade on the Pacific coast he returned to Denver.

    On the 22d of September, 1887, in Chicago, Mr. McMurtrie was married to Miss
Era Easley, who was born in Linneus, Linn county, Missouri, a daughter of George
W. and Logan (Waters) Easley. Mr. and Mrs. McMurtrie had a family of three
daughters and a son: Eleanor Waters, now living at home with her mother; Persis,
the wife of W. R. Owen, Jr., of Denver, by whom she has two children. Persis
McMurtrie and Billy Owen: and Era Frances and Samuel, Jr., both at home. The
family reside in a new home at No. 170 Downing street. This home was planned by
Mrs. McMurtrie and her children and is of the New England style of architecture,
Mrs. McMurtrie superintending the work of construction from start to finish.

     Mr. McMurtrie was devoted to the welfare of his wife and children, counting
no personal effort or sacrifice on his part too great if it would promote their
happiness. He was loyal in friendship and in citizenship and while a man of most
important business interests he never neglected any duty of life. Opportunity
was to him a call to action—a call to which he made ready response. Holding to
the highest professional standards, he continually advanced along that line
until he ranked with the most prominent civil engineers of the west and his name
is associated with the prosecution of some of the most important engineering
projects which have led to the upbuilding of this great western empire.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF COLORADO

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME III

CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918


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