Sullivan County IN Archives Biographies.....Briggs, Murray 1880 - 
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Author: Goodspeed (1884)

   MURRAY BRIGGS, editor of the Sullivan Democrat, is a native of Licking
County, Ohio, where he was born April 26, 1880, and where he was reared and
educated. When quite young his mother died, after which sad event he lived on a
farm with a family of strict Scotch Covenanters or Reformed Presbyterians,
remaining until about the age of fifteen, when he met with the misfortune of a
broken leg, and upon recovery, entered a printing-office. This event changed the
current of his life, for he has been a printer ever since. After attaining his
majority, he gratified a desire for traveling by visiting several places in
Virginia and elsewhere, and by taking a trip West, stopping for a time in St.
Louis, and Jacksonville, Ill., in all of which places he worked at his
profession. In the summer of 1854, he took a pleasure excursion around the
lakes, visiting Niagara Falls and other places of interest, returning to Newark
in the fall of that year. About this time he received a copy of the Terre Haute
Journal, containing a marked paragraph headed "An Editor Wanted," and signed
with the name of Joseph W. Wolfe. In the paragraph it was stated that the editor
of the paper at Sullivan had disappeared, and that the citizens and especially
several gentlemen who had indorsed his notes were anxious to secure somebody to
take the office off their hands. A correspondence was begun which led to the
coming of Mr. Briggs to Sullivan, and the buying of the office of the Sullivan
Democrat, which he has since owned. Few men have figured more prominently in the
affairs of Sullivan County than Mr. Briggs. He has identified himself with every
movement to better the condition of the people, and, through the medium of his
paper, has exerted a silent though potent influence which has brought a wider
diffusion of knowledge and a more enduring state of excellence in morals. He
served as County School Examiner several years, commencing about the beginning
of the rebellion; was appointed and then elected County Auditor, the latter
occurring in 1867: has served for about fifteen years as a member of the School
Board of Sullivan; was appointed by Gov. Williams one of the Board of Trustees
of the State Normal, of which body he has been President for four years, besides
occupying other positions of trust. He is a member of the encampment in Odd
Fellowship. His marriage with Miss Ellen Elliott in April, 1855, was followed by
her death in the autumn of the same year. In 1858, he married Mrs. Margaret
(Briggs) Evans, who bore him three children—Benjamin, Murray and Ellen; his
wife, Margaret, having died, he married Mrs. Clara (Reader) Dutton, in April.
1868, and to this union four children have been born—Sarah, Howard, Aletha and
James, of whom only the last two are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Briggs are members
of the Presbyterian Church.

Additional Comments:
Hamilton Township

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF GREENE AND SULLIVAN COUNTIES,
STATE OF INDIANA,
FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT; TOGETHER WITH INTERESTING BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES, REMINISCENCES, NOTES, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED.

CHICAGO: GOODSPEED BROS. & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1884.

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