William Thomas Murray, Paola, KS., then Grant Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to USGENWEB by Mike Miller


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William Thomas Murray.  One of the best-informed timber men in the South is William Thomas
Murray, general manager of the Tremont Lumber Company of Rochelle, Grant Parish.  Mr.
Murray knows trees and lumber as other men know books, and for twenty-five years has been a
member of the grading rules committee of the Southern Pine Association, of which he is at
present chairman, in which connection he is co-operating with the United States government in
the standardization of timber.  Mr. Murray has been for years active in trade association work in
the lumber industry, having been one of the original directors of the Southern Pine Association
and one of the original and present directors of the Hardwood Manufacturers Institute.

Mr. Murray was born at Paola, Kansas, October 26, 1874, and is a son of James W. and
Katherine (McMullin) Murray.  His father, the son of a Scotchman, was born at Rivers John,
Nova Scotia, and was but a child when taken by his parents to Cambridge, Ohio.  While he
resided there the Civil war came on and he enlisted in Company F, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, with
which he fought gallantly until the close of the struggle between the forces of the North and
South.  He returned from the war with nothing but his horse and saddle, but, being ambitious,
determined and thrifty, faced life courageously and soon founded a home of his own through his
marriage to Katherine McMullin, who was born at Cambridge, Ohio, the daughter of an
immigrant from Ireland.  Together they moved to Paola, Kansas, in 1870, and there Mr. Murray
began farming in Miami County, also operating a transfer business for a time to eke out his
meager returns from a new farm.  His hard work paid him in the end, for he became one of the
wealthy farmers of his locality, where still, at the age of eighty years, he has valuable farming
interests, in addition to being a stockholder in the Peoples National Bank of Paola.  A republican
in his political allegiance, he has taken an active part in local affairs and has served on the Paula
city council and as a member of the school board.  He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and to
the Grand Army of the Republic, and is one of his community's highly respected citizens.  Mrs.
Murray, who also survives, is seventy-nine years of age.  They were the parents of three sons:
James Harrison, a photographer by calling and a veteran of the Spanish-American war, who died
at the age of thirty-five years; Frank, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits in the vicinity of
Rossville, Kansas; and William Thomas, of this review.

William Thomas Murray spent his school days at Paola, where he was reared as a playmate and
schoolmate of Victor H. Mason, who is now president of the Grant Timber and Manufacturing
Company at Selma, and with whom he has maintained a close lifetime friendship.  After two
years' experience as a bookkeeper in a local lumber yard Mr. Murray, at the age of nineteen
years, went to Little Bay, Arkansas, following his friend, Mr. Mason.  There he became a
bookkeeper for the Little Bay Lumber Company and also acted as railroad and express company
agent it that place.  He was called upon to put in many hours each day in his manifold duties, but
he thrived on hard work and prepared himself for the advancement that was awaiting him.  After
four years at Little Bay he went to Farrell, Arkansas, as sales and office manager for the William
Farrell Lumber Company, but in 1902 returned to Little Bay as manager.  He remained there
three years and resigned to become general manager for the Fordyce Lumber Company at
Fordyce, Arkansas, remaining until September, 1919, when he was induced to take the
management of the Tremont Lumber Company at Rochelle.  This company, which was
established in 1908, is one of the largest plants in its locality, and its operations are of such
magnitude that many miles of railroad are necessary in handling its product.  There are 1500
employes, and the organization is perfect in character, the men being loyal to the company and
holding their chief, Mr. Murray, in the highest confidence.  He, in turn, has full confidence in his
men, whose faith he has never violated.  The company operates large mills at Rochelle, on the
Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Tremont & Gulf Railroad, and at Eros, Jackson parish, on the
Tremont & Gulf Railroad.  The equipment at these plants, and particularly the plant at Rochelle,
is the most modern to be secured in the lumber industry, and is kept in the finest possible
condition down to the most minute detail.  As before noted, Mr. Murray has been for a quarter of
a century a member of the grading rules Committee of the Southern Pine Association, of which
committee he is now chairman.  By invitation of Secretary Herbert M. Hoover of the United
States Department of Commerce he is co-operating with the government in standardization, and
is in constant touch with his entire organization, making frequent trips to the woods.  He has
been a lifelong democrat, and while a resident of Fordyce served as a member of the city
council.  He was also identified there with the organization of the First National Bank and other
financial institutions.  The family belongs to the Methodist Church, and Mr. Murray is a member
of the Board of Stewards of the church at the family home at Alexandria, while at Fordyce he
was president of the church board.  A prominent Mason, he belongs to Trinity Commandery, K.
T., at Alexandria.

On February 11, 1896, Mr. Murray married Miss Anne A. Goodwin, daughter of W. H. Goodwin
and a member of an old family, and to this union there have been born three children:  Mildred,
a graduate of Galloway College and Smith College, who married George Marvin Graham, a
graduate of Hendricks College, Conway, Arkansas, now general manager of the Graham Motor
Company of Fordyce, Arkansas;  James G., who is attending Culver Military Academy; and 
William Thomas, Jr., who died at the age of five years.

NOTE:  The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 329-330, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.