Representative Roy William Murray View All Years

Compiled Historical Information
Date of Death: 1/24/1944
Birth Place: Vernon, Illinois
Party Affiliation: Republican
Assemblies Served:
House: 36 (1915) - 37 (1917)
Home County: Buena Vista
Roy William Murray
Buena Vista County
Representative from Buena Vista county, was born in Vernon, Marion county, Illinois, April 12, 1873. His father was the late Rev. William Morgan Murray, a noted preacher in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Illinois, who served in the Civil War with Company B 61st, Illinois Volunteers. His mother Annie E. (Green) Murray was born at Chapel Hill, Tennessee. The ancestors originally came from the Perthshire Hills of Scotland and the north of Ireland to Virginia as early as 1736. From Virginia they immigrated to Tennessee and Kentucky and in 1832 to Bond county, Illinois. He attended public schools at Fairfield, Illinois. High School at Owensville, Indiana. Dixon Business College, Dixon, Illinois; Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. Moved from Owensville, Indiana to Logan county, Illinois in May 1897, where he was married the 27th day of June, 1900, to Miss Louie Ethel Keys, daughter of the late John James Keys of that county. They have five children, known as "The Murray Stairsteps, namely: Ida, Estella, Grace, Virginia and William Keys. Moved to Storm Lake, Iowa, October 19, 1908 but lived the year of 1911 in Park Rapids, Minnesota. Has followed farming and merchandising but for several years has been successfully engaged in the real estate business. Is a member of the Storm Lake board of education, a member of the Grant Club, Des Moines, a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Mason, a Shriner and a member of the I.O.O.F. and Knights of Pythias. Elected representative 78th, district in 1914. Re-elected in 1916. A republican in politics.