From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, currently out of print.
James Allen McMurry, brick contractor, settled in Dallas in 1874 and remained a resident of Dallas for the duration of his life. He built many of the early brick buildings and foundations in Dallas and throughout the state of Texas.
He was born in Smith County, Tennessee, on November 14, 1842, the eldest son of James and Emily Black McMurry. The McMurry family were among the early settlers of Orange County, North Carolina. Family Tradition has been that the earliest McMurry came from Scotland before 1750.
The earliest McMurry of whom we know was James McMurry who purchased land 8 December 1756 from Lord Granville in Orange County, North Carolina. His son, Samuel, married Elizabeth Wilson and raised a family of six children, all of whom he named in his will. He died on March 15, 1802.
Samuel’s son, Charles, married Jane (Jannet) Douglass in Caswell County, North Carolina in 1789. Jane Douglass was the daughter of John Douglass, a Revolutionary War Patriot, and Hannah Debow. Hannah Debow was descended from the Debow-Van Hook families who settled in this country prior to 1650. Charles and Jane were the parents of twelve children. The family moved from North Carolina to Middle Tennessee in the late 1790’s.
Charles McMurry died in 1820. Jane McMurry died before 1850. Their son, James, was born in Sumner County on October 25, 1798. James McMurry took as his wife Emily Black, and they raised a family of seven children. He was a farmer and a millwright and died in Smith County on November 28, 1868. His wife died before June of 1870.
Their son, James Allen McMurry, enlisted in Company D, Fourth Tennessee Cavalry in 1861. After twelve months he was discharged and re-enlisted in 1862 in Company F, Fifteenth Tennessee Cavalry and continued to serve until he was taken prisoner. He was confined at Rock Island and was exchanged before the Battle of Petersburg when he subsequently rejoined his company and continued to serve until the close of the war. He suffered two wounds during his service. He returned to his home and on June 2, 1870 married Emily Turner in Sumner County.
Emily Turner was born on October 15, 1852, the daughter of Edmund Turner and Eliza Whitworth Byram. Edmund Turner was born in 1793 in North Carolina. He settled in Sumner County in the early 1800’s. He remained a resident of Sumner County until his death in 1871. During his lifetime he was a successful farmer.
Edmund Turner was married circa 1815 to Jeney Dodson and raised a large family. His wife, Jeney, died before 1850, and in 1851 he married Eliza Whitworth Byram who had suffered the loss of her husband, Weeden Byram, in 1850. Eliza Whitworth was born in Sumner County, Tennessee in 1810. She was the daughter of James Whitworth and Ann Harding. The Whitworth and Harding families were among the early families of Virginia. The record shows the Harding family in Northumberland County, Virginia by the year 1650.
Eliza Whitworth Byram Turner moved to Dallas after the death of her husband, Edmund. She remained there until her death in 1888.
James Allen and Emily Turner McMurry settled briefly in Obion County, Tennessee and in 1874 moved to Dallas. They were the parents of eleven children, six of whom survived to maturity. They had five grandchildren, and their descendants are residents of Texas as well as several other states.
McMurry researchers owe a debt of gratitude to Professor John McMurry Hill of Indiana University, a descendant of a cousin of James Allen McMurry. The unfinished product of his research, done before his death in 1966, is in the custody of the Genealogical Library of The Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah.
James Allen McMurry’s oldest sister, Permelia Jane, and her husband Renzal Rodgers, also settled in Dallas circa 1875. He was a blacksmith.
James Allen McMurry died on December 6, 1920, and his wife, Emily, died on June 7, 1922. They are buried in Oakland Cemetery in Dallas.
By Mrs. James Holpin, Metuchin, New Jersey
