William Henry David MURRAY, Congress, OK (1869-1956)

MURRAY, William Henry David, a Representative from Oklahoma; born near Collinsville, Grayson County, Tex., November 21, 1869; attended the public schools and was graduated from College Hill Institute, Springtown, Tex.; editor of newspapers in Dallas, Tex., in 1893 and in Corsicana, Tex., in 1894 and 1895; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced practice in Fort Worth, Tex.; engaged in teaching in Limestone and Navarro Counties, Tex., 1886-1890; moved to Tishomingo, Johnston County, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1898; legal adviser to the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation 1898-1901; engaged in ranching near Tishomingo, Okla.; member of the Choctaw-Chickasaw Coal Commission in 1903; chairman of the Oklahoma Code Commission in 1903; vice president of the Sequoyah constitutional convention in 1905; member of the Oklahoma constitutional convention in 1906 and served as president; chairman of the first Democratic State convention held in Oklahoma in 1907; member of the State house of representatives 1907-1909 and served as speaker in the first legislative session; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1908, 1912, 1916, and 1932; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1917); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1916; moved to South America and became engaged in setttling southeast Bolivia 1924-1929; returned to Oklahoma in 1929; Governor of Oklahoma from January 12, 1931, to January 14, 1935; unsuccessful for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1910, 1918, and 1938; attempted by petition to enter the 1938 general election as an Independent candidate for the United States Senate but the State supreme court ruled that the petition was filed too late; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for nomination for United States Senator in 1942; retired to his farm near Tishomingo, Okla.; died in Oklahoma City, Okla., October 15, 1956; interment in Tishomingo Cemetery, Tishomingo, Okla.

Bibliography

Bryant, Keith L. Alfalfa Bill Murray. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968; Crawford, S.J., and L.R. Musslewhite. ‘’Progressive Reform and Oklahoma Democrats: Kate Barnard v. Bill Murray.” Historian53 (Spring 1991): 473-88.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present