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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Tina Hursh
frog158@juno.com
January 30, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg. 70
Elmo Austin Murray. Some men possess not only the ordinary and conventional
virtues, which they exemplify in a greater or lesser degree in thier
every-day life, but have in addition exeptional qualities which bring about
achievements and attract to them the admiration and respect of their
co-workers. Simple dignity, evidences of human sympathy, ceaseless
application and habits of thrift, will bring about a successful career, and
continued advancement will be noted invariabley when to the qualities just
named are added power of initiative and quick decision, shrewdness, force of
character, confident judgment and resourcefulness. These qualities have been
noted in the career of Elmo Austin Murray, now shop superintendent of the
Chesepeake & Ohio Railway at Huntington, and a man who has won his own way up
the ladder of success from the bottom round.
Mr. Murray, who is of Scotch descent and belongs to a family which founded in
Colonial Virginia prior to the Revolution, was born at Staunton, Virginia,
September 1, 1876, a son of Robert P. and Mary Elizabeth (Whitlock) Murray.
His father was born in 1833, in Rockingham County, Virginia, where he was reared
and educated, and as a youth went to Louisa County, Virginia, where his marriage
occured. Following that event he was a resident of Staunton, and from 1852 was
a fireman for the Virginia Central Railroad until the outbreak of the Civil war.
In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate Army and served throughout the struggle
under Captain Kemper in a Virginia volunteer infantry regiment. On receiving
his honorable discharge he resumed work as a fireman on the Virginia Central,
and was later promoted to locomotive engineer, remaining with that road when
it became the Chesapeake & Ohio and continuing as one of its most trusted
employes until his death at Clifton Forge, Virginia, in 1889. He was a
democrat in politics, and a regular member and strong supporter of the
Baptist Church. Mr. Murray married mary Elizabeth Whitlock, who was born in
1833, at Frederick Hall, Virginia, and died at Clifton Forge in 1912. They
became the parents of five children, as follows: Alice, who died unmarried at
Clifton Forge at the age of twenty-one years; James, who died at the same
place when twenty years of age; Elmo Austin, of this review; Robert F., who is
engaged in the dry goods business at Clifton Forge; and Virginia, the wife of
Harry E. Blaine, of Clifton Forge, a freight conductor for the Chesepeake &
Ohio Railway.
Elmo Austin Murray was educated in the public schools of Clifton Forge, which
he left at the age of fourteen years to enter the service of the Chesepeake
& Ohio Railway Company, starting at Clifton Forge, where he served his
apprenticeship as a machinist. He was made gang foreman there, and
subsequently was sent to Covington, Kentucky, as general foreman of the
company's shops in 1903. in 1910 he was again promoted and sent to Lexington,
Kentucky, in the capacity of master mechanic. In 1911 he was transferred to
Clifton Forge, where he remained as master mechanic until 1920, at that time
being promoted to the post of shop superintendent of the company's shops at
Huntington, his present position. Under his supervision there are 2,500
employes, his office being situated at Twenty-seventh Street and Eight Avenue.
Mr. Murray maintains an independent stand in regard to political matters,
voting for the man rather then the party and using his own judgement as to
principles and policies. As a fraternalist he holds membership in Allegheny
Lodge, A.F. and A.M.; Clifton Forge Chapter, R.A.M.; Stevenson Commandery No.
8, K.T. of Staunton, Virginia; and Acca Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., of Richmond,
Virginia. He owns a modern and attractive home at No. 1227 Tenth Avenue,
located in one of the preferred residence sections of the city.
In September, 1901, in Botetourt County, Virginia, Mr. Murray married Miss
Willie Carper, daughter of William B. and Rebecca (Allen) Carper, the latter
of whome still resides in Botetourt County, where Mr. Carper, who was an
extensive agriculturist, died in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Murray are the parents of
two children: Aline, a student at Stuart Hall, Staunton, Virginia, and Elmo
Austin, Jr., who attents the Huntington Hight School.
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