BIO: Joseph Alexander Murray, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ ______________________________________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm ______________________________________________________________________ PART II. HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER XXXVIII. BOROUGH OF CARLISLE. 388 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. JOSEPH ALEXANDER MURRAY, the youngest son of George and Mary (Denny) Murray, was born in Carlisle October 2, 1815. His preparatory education had been obtained in his native place and elsewhere, and in August, 1837, he graduated from the Western University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh. In the autumn of the same year he entered the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Penn., and from it graduated in the autumn of 1840. In October of the same year he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Ohio, which then embraced the churches in and about Pittsburgh. Soon after he received invitations to visit vacant churches, and accepted one to preach at Marion, Ohio. This church he supplied for six months, from December, 1840, to May, 1841, inclusive, but finally declined a unanimous call to become its settled pastor. He then visited his native place, and in October, 1841, received and accepted a call to the united congregations of Monaghan (Dillsburg) and Petersburg, and was ordained and installed pastor of the same by the Carlisle Presbytery in April, 1843. This relation happily and usefully subsisted for about eighteen years. During his pastorate the present church edifice was erected at Dillsburg. For years he served there also as school director, and was president of the board. During the same period he had received several invitations to churches at other places, which he declined. Finally, however, in consequence of impaired health, he resigned the charge. The pastoral relation was dissolved in October, 1858, and he then retired to Carlisle, but he often afterward ministered to the charge in Dillsburg, and supplied for years the church at Petersburg. His health never again permitted him to undertake the active work and assume the responsibilities of a settled pastor, though he has often filled vacant pulpits and assisted his clerical friends. Of all the members who belonged to the venerable Presbytery of Carlisle in 1841, when he joined it, he is now the only one who is still in connection with it. The body now numbers forty-two ministers and three licentiates, but only two are before him on the presbyterial roll, and because of their prior ordination, which was the basis for the reconstruction of the rolls in the union of the two branches of the church in 1870. On four different occasions he has been chosen by his presbytery as a commissioner to the General Assembly - in 1844, 1861, 1865 and 1875. On the last occasion he had also been 389 BOROUGH OF CARLISLE. chosen by his synod, with the Hon. H. W. Williams, to defend, if necessary, a decision of said body before the General Assembly, and in this highest church court he was appointed one of the judicial committee. In 1876 he was chosen, by acclamation, moderator of the Synod at Harrisburg. In 1869 his alma mater conferred on him the honorary degree of D. D. In 1870 he was elected a corresponding member of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. At a public meeting held in Carlisle in 1876 he was selected to prepare an historical address pertaining to Cumberland County, to be delivered on the 4th of July of said year, but circumstances prevented. In 1880 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. In 1886 he was elected a director of the Western Theological Seminary, in Allegheny City, Penn. In the same year he was appointed to furnish biographical sketches for the centennial anniversary of the Carlisle Presbytery, but declined in favor of his alternate. He is president of the Cumberland County Bible Society, also secretary of the Hamilton Library and Historical Association of Carlisle. Several of his discourses and addresses have been published. He frequently contributes to some of the periodicals of our country, literary, historical and religious, in which work he still continues, as well as preaches and ministerially officiates when desired, and is able to do so. But in no instance would he accept of any work or position that would interfere with his high calling and character as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dr. Murray has been twice married - first, April 25, 1848, to Miss Ann Hays Blair, of Carlisle, daughter of Mr. Andrew Blair, born May 5, 1819, and died September 14, 1875; secondly, October 2, 1879, to Miss Lydia Steele Foster, of Philadelphia, born March 9, 1836, in Carlisle, daughter of Mr. Crawford Foster, and niece of Dr. Alfred Foster, all natives of Carlisle. By the first marriage he had one child, born February 11, 1848; graduated in 1866 from the Mary Institute, Carlisle, then under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. Francis J. Clere, and in January, 1868, married Prof. Charles F. Himes, Ph. D., who has been an honored member of the faculty of Dickinson College since 1865.