A BIOGRAPHICAL 
 APPRECIATION BY 
 
 HARRY V. RADFORD 
 
Columbia (HnitJewftp 
 
 intlifCitpofMmgork 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
 Bequest of 
 
 Frederic Bancroft 
 
 1860-1945 
 

ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
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ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL APPRECIATIOX 
 
 By 
 
 Harry V. Radford 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 
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 ' 'S'3o Ei-oa'dzikty 
 
 BROADWAY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 MONTREAL LOKDON 
 
 1905 
 
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 Copyright, i9»5, 
 
 BY 
 
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 ^ rj^HIS simple biographical sketch of 
 a national character, whom I 
 had the privilege of knowing intimately, 
 was first printed in the Autimm, 1904, 
 number of Woods and Waters. It was 
 originally written with no other object 
 than to do a trifling honor to the memory 
 of my illustrious friend ; but soon after 
 its initial appearance, a number of my 
 own and Mr. Murray's friends asked 
 me to put the bit of writing into book 
 form, and offer it, between substantial 
 
 3 
 
NOTE 
 
 covers, to the thousands of outdoor en- 
 thusiasts throughout the EngUsh- 
 speaking world who revered the great 
 sportsman-author and admired his writ- 
 ings. 
 
 I was the more wilUng to do this as 
 Mr. Murray himself had expressed the 
 desire that I should be his biographer; 
 and we were even planning a series of 
 visits to his Guilford homestead, during 
 which I could take copious notes cover- 
 ing the entire period of his life, when 
 that life was taken away, and with it 
 the opportunity of gathering the fuller 
 material for a more serious work. 
 
 The present sketch, however, is be- 
 
 4 
 
NOTE 
 
 lieved to be historically accurate, so far 
 as it goes; and I am heartily glad that 
 while the great man was still in the 
 flesh, I was able to gather, during our 
 occasional meetings, sufficient matter 
 concerning his every way remarkable 
 career, to make possible even a partial 
 fulfillment of his wish. 
 
 For some of the photographs here- 
 with reproduced, I am indebted to the 
 surviving members of Mr. Murray's 
 family. Those of the Guilford Institute 
 and the old town hall were kindly sup- 
 pHed by Mr. C. H. Scholey, editor of 
 The Shore Line Times, of Guilford. The 
 
NOTE 
 
 remainder I took during different visits 
 at the old homestead, between 1900 and 
 1905. H. V. R. 
 
 New York, Oct. 15 th, 1905. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Mr. Murray in 1898 Frontispiece 
 
 Facing 
 Page 
 
 The Murray Homestead, near Guilford, 
 
 Conn 14 
 
 The Guilford Institute 20 
 
 The Old Town Hall at Guilford 26 
 
 Mr. Murray in Shooting Costume 34 
 
 Murray's Island, Raquette Lake 46 
 
 Mr. Murray at the Age of Thirty-seven.. 52 
 
 The Fireplace in the Murray Homestead. 66 
 
 Mr. Murray's Favorite Sporting Arms. . 74 
 
 Mr. Murray and His Eldest Daughter... 78 
 
UNDER the wide and starry sky 
 Dig the grave and let me lie: 
 Glad did I live and gladly die, 
 And I laid me down with a wUL 
 
 This be the verse you grave for me: 
 Here he lies where he long'd to be; 
 Home is the sailor, home from sea. 
 And the hunter home from the hill, 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 "TTTHEN the Rev. William Henry 
 Harrison Murray — whom the 
 world knew as Adirondack Murray — 
 expired at his ancestral homestead 
 near Guilford, Corau, March 5, 1904, 
 in the same room in which, sixty- 
 four years before, he first saw the 
 light, American sportsmanship lost one 
 of its most conspicuous, brilliant and in- 
 fluential exponents, an orator surpassed 
 by none stepped forever down from the 
 public platform, and from the world of 
 polished letters there vanished one of the 
 
 II 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 strangest, strongest and most fascinating 
 literary lights this coiintry has ever 
 known. 
 
 Among sportsmen Mr. Murray was the 
 Frank Forester of his day. He typed 
 the truest and most enthusiastic school 
 of sport and nature lovers. He was a 
 sportsman for the sport's sake. His 
 prominence was preeminent, his position 
 impregnable. He stood head and shoul- 
 ders, in point of fame and achievement, 
 above all of his contemporaries. He was 
 one of the few great sportsmen America 
 has produced. Even his presence was 
 commanding. There was a magic in the 
 very mention of his name. No one since 
 
 12 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 the Civil War, unless perhaps Charles 
 Hallock, has been anywhere near so dis- 
 tinguished a sportsman as was Mr. 
 Murray. 
 
 As an orator, preacher and lecturer he 
 occupied, in his day, the very foremost 
 place. He was in the front rank of 
 great public speakers when Wendell 
 Phillips and Henry Ward Beecher and 
 Sumner and Gough and Brooks set the 
 country on fire with their eloquence, and 
 there are those who listened to every 
 orator of note a generation ago who say 
 he was superior to all. There has per- 
 haps never been an American clergyman 
 who held, continuously, such vast au- 
 
 13 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 dienccs iinder the spell of his high rhet- 
 oric and persuasive delivery as did Mr. 
 Murray during the years that he occu- 
 pied Boston pulpits. 
 
 In the firmament of American letters, 
 he is a star of the first magnitude, shin- 
 ing with a peculiar brilliance all his own. 
 His stories of the woods and of woods 
 life are classics, and will live as long as 
 the love of sport and nature — which he 
 did so much to cultivate — exists in the 
 hearts of the American people. That 
 his writings have passed into a 
 permanent place in the affections 
 of the people, and become thoroughly 
 nationalized, could not better be shown 
 
 14 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 than by quoting at some length the words 
 of an old Adirondacker in tlie West, 
 writing a review of Mr. Murray's works 
 some years ago: — 
 
 "There hangs my rifle; in the comer 
 there are my rods; these skins upon my 
 floor, that pile of traps, those two pad- 
 dles, and all the joy and health and fun 
 that they have brought to me — I owe it 
 all to him. It was his writings that 
 brought out the aboriginal in me, taught 
 me what a wretched being a puny, sickly, 
 scholarly (?) man is, and drove me into 
 the wilderness after health and life, 
 which, thank God, I fouod 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 "'Critics' and 'reviewers' do not and 
 cannot give an author his actual place- 
 ment in the world of letters. The people 
 do that ; the real author, like the president 
 of a university, should be independent of 
 and even indifferent to, temporary con- 
 ditions. He should hold himself aloof 
 from influences and tendencies that dis- 
 tract and degrade, and write and act out 
 of the forces that are in him, and which 
 make him. He should neither be bribed, 
 nor intimidated, nor commercialised^' 
 that last and foulest ditch into which a 
 literary man can stumble. And Murray, 
 as it seems to us, has kept himself in 
 this respect absolutely free from taint 
 
 i6 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 and stain. He is always natural, 
 genuine, true. 
 
 "Writing on subjects which strongly 
 tempt to extravagance, both in the di- 
 rection of narrative and humor, and dur- 
 ing a period of literary development 
 when many of our writers have been 
 bribed or forced by the prevalent condi- 
 tions into a greater or less sensationalism 
 of subject or treatment, he has resisted 
 all pressures. He is probably so con- 
 stituted that he is not susceptible to the 
 overtures of private profit or popular 
 fame ; for he has kept on writing on the 
 highest levels of English composition, 
 and with provoking leisureliness, slowly 
 
 17 
 
< 
 
 ADIRONDACK MURIL\Y 
 
 producing a few volumes which, in his 
 generation, must look for readers only 
 among the most refined, the genial and 
 cultivated of our communities. It is 
 likely that he has acted thus out of the 
 habit of his nature, which, during the 
 period of his brilliant career as a public 
 man, made him apparently indiflierent to 
 the eddying prejudices and opinions of 
 that time, and gave to his oratory a 
 frankness and fearlessness as unique as 
 it was noble; but if calculation had been 
 the moving cause, it is certain that he 
 could not have acted more wisely, for his 
 works, because of their excellent and at- 
 tractive qualities, are sure to take their 
 
 i8 ^ 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 place in the permanent literature of the 
 country. 
 
 "One thing is most remarkable. It is 
 nigh on to thirty years since his first 
 volume on the Adirondacks was issued 
 from the press of Ticknor & Fields, then 
 the foremost publication house of the 
 country, with the title of Adventures in 
 the Wilderness. Many of us can remem- 
 ber the furore that it created. It told 
 us of a wilderness at our very doors, of 
 mountains and lakes almost numberless 
 that had never been measured or named ; 
 of a great natural sanitarium for those 
 suffering from consumption and pul- 
 monary conditions, aUno^t ip sight of the 
 
 19 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 chambers where they lay stricken; of a 
 natural resort for the overworked pro- 
 fessional and business man, the nervously 
 exhausted teacher, and overtaxed 
 motherhood, where rest and revitaliza- 
 tion could be obtained, and of a paradise 
 for sportsmen not a hundred miles dis- 
 tant from the capital at Albany. How 
 strange it seems to us of to-day, looking 
 at the mammoth hotels and thousands of 
 cottages and camps, which accommodate 
 a quarter of a million of visitors each 
 summer in the Adirondacks, that Mur- 
 ray's delightful revelation of the woods 
 and wood-life was not believed! The 
 cancaturist and cartoonist pounced upon 
 
 20 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 the young author and handled him with- 
 out gloves. Editors of great journals 
 called the book a 'monstrous hoax/ and 
 noted divines declared that 'he had dis- 
 graced his high station by thus practic- 
 ing upon the people, especially the 
 weakly and the sick, a cruel joke;' and 
 those who took the volume as true and 
 credible and started northward, were 
 stigmatized as 'Murray *s Fools/ 
 
 "But the little book, which, as Wendell 
 Phillips once said, 'has kindled a thou- 
 sand campfires and taught a thousand 
 pens how to write of nature/ was not a 
 'cruel hoax,* but a truthful revelation, as 
 all today know, and Murray had not 
 
 21 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 only 'discovered a wilderness at our 
 doors,' but discovered himself and a new 
 field ready for American literature to en- 
 ter and possess. But though thirty 
 years have passed since his first book 
 was published — and when before has 
 such a success not bred imitators? — and 
 though all his writings in the same gen- 
 eral vein have been welcomed with in- 
 creasing heartiness by the reading and 
 lyceum public, nevertheless he remains 
 to-day as he always has been, the sole 
 representative on the platform and in au- 
 thorship of a style of description and in- 
 terpretation of nature that is as fresh 
 and vital as herself, and of a humor that, 
 
 22 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 while it never offends the most delicate 
 and refined, is as provocative of laughter 
 as humor can be. In explanation of this 
 solecism in the world of successful writ- 
 ing it has been said that he is the only 
 American that is master of expression 
 and woodcraft both. . But this, after our 
 way of thinking, does not meet the case. 
 It is an explanation that does not explain. 
 The Old Trapper's explanation would 
 probably be that he 'had nateral gifts for 
 the work.' And after our own way of 
 thinking that does explain it. 
 
 "The truth of it is, Murray's nind is 
 a many-sided one, and his moods are as 
 multiform as nature's. To borrow a 
 
 23 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 figure from the lapidist, his mind is cir- 
 cular and cut into facets, and each facet 
 is a mirror to reflect what stands over 
 against it. Whoever will read his works, 
 questioningly as to the source of his 
 power, will be impressed with the inter- 
 pretive and prophetic character of his 
 words touching nature and of his wide 
 and deep knowledge of her. His 
 'John Norton' is a myth — a creation of 
 his imagination — for he has told us so, 
 and indeed we can credit it, because there 
 never was quite so good a man as the 
 Old Trapper is, and never will be. As 
 Mr. Murray humorously says: 'He 
 had the privilege of making hira 
 
 24 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 himself and so he made him perfect. 
 
 "But whence came John Norton's 
 knowledge of nature and men, his rever- 
 ence and humor, his strong common 
 sense and his shrewd wit, his intimate 
 knowledge of nature in her every phase 
 and detail of expression, his tenderness 
 of feeling and strong sense of right and 
 wrong, so old-fashioned and splendid, 
 and his all-including wisdom which so 
 often gives to his utterances the finality 
 of supreme authority — whence came all 
 these things to John Norton the Trap- 
 per? 
 
 "It is not the least of our surprises 
 and pleasures in reading these works 
 
 25 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 that when we are fully absorbed in the 
 Old Trapper's sayings and doings, in the 
 humor, the wisdom, and the piety of him, 
 so that we are actually in the woods 
 with him and he an actual and real hu- 
 man being with whom we are in closest 
 touch and sympathy, we suddenly call 
 to mind that this character, this Man of 
 the Woods, who is so wholly and per- 
 ' fectly that and nothing else, is a creation 
 i of one born in New England, of uni- 
 versity education, of civilized antecedents 
 by heredity for two hundred and fifty 
 years; a man of cities and crowds, a 
 finished result, in manners, education 
 and. speech, of books and schools and of 
 
 26 
 
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AN APPRECIATION 
 
 platform appearances — that test and tax 
 of highest development. And yet John 
 Norton never slips or trips in speech, 
 thought, imagery, or habit of life. He 
 is ever the man of the woods, an old type 
 New England man, with all the strong 
 characteristics of the stock he represents, 
 developed into a splendid manhood far 
 away from cities and trade, the conven- 
 tional customs and habits of civilization, 
 a man so whole-hearted and wholesome, 
 so clean and true, so brave and tender, 
 that thousands write and speak of him as 
 'Dear Old John Norton.' New England 
 never had pictured a nobler embodiment 
 of the finest characteristics of her ances- 
 
 27 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 tral stock. Their courage, their rever- 
 ence and piety, their shrewd sense, their 
 humor, and love of justice, all live again 
 and free of accompanying defects, in this 
 Trapper of the Woods. 
 
 "Of Mr. Murray's relation to the out- 
 door life of the nation we need not 
 speak, save in grateful acknowledgment 
 of the services he has rendered to the 
 American people in this direction. A 
 rifleman, an angler, a canoeist, a yachts- 
 man, a trailer and naturalist, an old-time 
 camper, whose camp sites almost bisect 
 the continent in both directions, the earl- 
 iest advocate of outdoor life for women 
 and children, he has well been called, 
 
 28 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 'The Great Evangelist of Outdoor Life 
 for the People.' We remember vividly 
 what was the condition of things in New 
 England when he began to preach and 
 write and lecture. We remember when, 
 as a young clergyman, he organized his 
 first rifle club in the old conservative hill 
 town of Washington, Litchfield county, 
 Conn., the fame of which speedily be- 
 came a sensation. We remember the 
 gossip and scandal because he shot a rifle, 
 competed with the members of his con- 
 gregation in rifle matches, knocked 'sky 
 balls' on the village common for the 
 young men, members of the baseball 
 team, shot woodchucks at long range for 
 
 29 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 the farmers, and coasted and skated 
 moonlight nights with the boys and girls 
 of the town. It took stiff New England 
 grit even to advocate, much less prac- 
 tice, in those days, habits of thought and 
 conduct which to-day are universally ac- 
 cepted as right and wise. And here was 
 a young man, misunderstood by some, 
 suspicioned by others, abused by many, 
 calmly and courageously urging the right 
 of men and women to be their natural 
 selves, advocating the liberties of the out- 
 door life and world, and pleading for 
 that splendid physical and mental devel- 
 opment which happy exercise in the open 
 air would surely bring to them. What 
 
 30 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 changes has he not caused and helped on- 
 ward in the views, the opinions, the fash- 
 ions, and habits of the people? Looking 
 backward along the line of his life and 
 his writings, the changes in the habits 
 of our people seem incredible. 
 
 "In John Norton the Trapper he has 
 created a character of the noblest dig- 
 nity and grace. So true is it to the old 
 New England type of manhood that as 
 a portrait it has historical significance 
 which will grow and deepen with the 
 passage of time. Were it not for the 
 'Leather Stocking' of Cooper, 'John Nor- 
 ton' would stand absolutely sole in litera- 
 ture ; and even if one suggests the other, 
 
 31 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 the resemblance is one of environment 
 and not of nature and characteristics, for 
 Murray's hero is as much nobler, wiser 
 and more impressive than Cooper's as his 
 knowledge of the continent and of wood- 
 craft is superior. Cooper was a sailor, 
 a naval officer, and his sea tales are of 
 the very highest order. But when he 
 came to write of the woods and wood- 
 life, he wrote of what he had seen and 
 known little, and hence unsatisfactorily 
 to the highest criticism. But the creator 
 of 'Jo^^ Norton' knows the woods as 
 Cooper knew the sea — his trails from 
 north to south and from east to west 
 have never been equaled by any other 
 
 32 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 sportsman, naturalist, or geographer. He 
 has seen and studied every phase of 
 forest and frontier life, and the char- 
 acter of both races, and his knowledge of 
 woodcraft — even as his too brief notes in 
 Mamelons prove — is so full and accurate 
 as to make us old campers and sports- 
 men, who know something of the woods 
 ourselves, wonder. Among the moun- 
 tains, on the plains, and in the recesses of 
 that interminable forest of the north, he 
 moves as easily from scene to scene, and 
 with as much facility and precision, as 
 Cooper upon the sea. When we reflect 
 that the old conditions of life on our con- 
 tinent are fast passing av/ay; that there 
 
 33 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 will soon be no frontier life ; that the only 
 connection that the children of the future 
 can make with the old-time folk will be 
 through literature, it is not too much to 
 say that America owes him a tribute for 
 preserving to future times a portrait of 
 so noble a character, as type of their an- 
 cestors, as the Trapper. And especially 
 does he deserve well of New England; 
 for in his John Norton, more than in any 
 other character in literature, do the 
 strength, the nobility, the courage, the 
 reverence, the strong common sense, and 
 the humor of the old-time New England 
 man appear. To have created such a 
 character and in such connections as to 
 
 34 
 
Mk. Mi:rk.\v in Siiootixg Costumk. 
 
 Taken \vhile he was a young minister, in 
 Meriden, Conn., about 1866. 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 make him forever popular, while the love 
 of nature, of outdoor life, and of inter- 
 esting reading abides among us, is to 
 have done what New England should not 
 and will not forsfet" 
 
 I knew Mr. Murray well. We had 
 a peculiar intimacy. He was, in many 
 respects, a man after my own heart. 
 There was no fraud or pretense in his 
 love of nature. He did not belong to the 
 school of authors who write of outdoor 
 life because it is the literary fashion of 
 the day, and who laboriously put together 
 
 35 
 
ADmONDACK MURRAY 
 
 words to express an exaggerated and far- 
 fetched admiration for the wild creation 
 which they do not feel. He belonged to 
 no school. He followed no Hterary cus- 
 toms. He inhabited no ruts. He was 
 himself a school, which had a thousand 
 imitators, but no rivals. Nor as a sports- 
 man did he parade before the public his 
 prowess with rifle or rod, or line his walls 
 with staring, glass-eyed victims of the 
 chase. He could have done so had he 
 wished, for few have brought to earth 
 a greater variety of North American 
 game animals, or shot them in regions 
 more widely separated, than this master 
 of marksmanship and Grand Old Man 
 
 36 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 of the field. As I have said, he was a 
 patron of sport for the sheer love of the 
 sport, caring nothing who heard of his 
 triumphs in the field, and seldom men- 
 tioning the taking of a life even in his 
 discourses upon the chase. Of his sport- 
 ing implements, of which he possessed a 
 fine collection, he was most fond. These 
 he loved to fondle and inspect. A thou- 
 sand times in the evening of his life, as 
 he sat before the picturesque old fireplace 
 in his beloved New England farmhouse, 
 would he glance up at the famous double 
 muzzle-loading rifle (made by Lewis, of 
 Troy) and the historic paddle, which 
 hung above the mantel. Few guests were 
 
 37 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 bidden to his venerable homestead^ dur- 
 ing his latter years (though Mr. Murray 
 was a man with whom hospitality was a 
 pleasure), and these were always kindred 
 spirits — men who he knew could enjoy 
 his reminiscences of old-time sport, who 
 had a relish for literature and a contem- 
 plative temperament, who could appre- 
 ciate and admire with him the beauties of 
 his rural surroundings, and, above all, 
 who were enthusiastic lovers of the 
 woods. I was one of those who knew his 
 home as an occasional visitor — the 
 
 ^ Built more than one hundred years ago, 
 the original building, on the same spot. 
 having been erected in the early part of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 3S 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 youngest of his group of intimates. Aiid 
 mine is one of those "thousand pens" 
 which he "taught to write of nature" — 
 albeit the lesson is as yet but poorly 
 learned. 
 
 Mr. Murray came of a sturdy New 
 England ancestry that, since their landing 
 in America, more than one hundred years 
 previous to the French and Indian War, 
 had always been attached to the soil — the 
 stock that has produced most of the great 
 writers and thinkers of the land. The 
 farm on which he was bom, April 26, 
 1840, and where he died — popularly 
 known as "The Murray Homestead" — 
 had been in the possession of his ances- 
 
 39 
 
ADIRONDACK MURR.'^Y 
 
 tors for over two centuries and a half. 
 Mr. Murray was proud of the ancient 
 family ownership of his lands, and was 
 fond of retelling to his children the fam- 
 ily tradition, which had been handed down 
 from generation to generation, concern- 
 ing the great buttonwood tree which 
 stands a short distance from the house, 
 and which is ^id to have been planted 
 two hundred and sixty years ago by an 
 Indian medicine-woman, or witch. Tra- 
 dition has it that incantations accompan- 
 ied its planting, and that a spell was put 
 upon it which would never permit the 
 land on which it stood to pass perma- 
 nently from the family so long as it stood 
 
 40 
 
AN APPRECIATION - 
 
 and lived, but that should it ever, while 
 still living, be felled by ax or blown down 
 in a storm, the farm would pass forever 
 into the hands of strangers. It is need- 
 less to r.ay that that tree has ever been 
 regarded with the utmost solicitude, and 
 the greatest care taken that it should re- 
 ceive no injury. 
 
 Mr. Murray's career was a shining ex- 
 ample of a "self-made man" — of the rise 
 of an humble New England farmer lad 
 into worldly prominence and worth. 
 His parents were poor, but respectable. 
 At seven he began to earn his own living. 
 At fourteen he read all the books he 
 could lay his hands on. He earned the 
 
 41 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 money to pay for his tuition at the Guil- 
 ford Institute by threshing wheat and 
 other labors upon the neighbors' farms, 
 and it is said that his services were 
 eagerly sought, as his great strength and 
 activity enabled him to perform a larger 
 day's work than most of the men could 
 do. He used to walk bare-footed each 
 day four miles from his home to the 
 school and back again at night — except 
 when he consented to remain over night 
 in Guilford and room with one or other 
 of the boys, which, because of his happy 
 disposition and popularity, he was fre- 
 quently importuned to do. Indeed, so 
 highly was his companionship valued that 
 
 42 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 it is said there existed a spirited rivalry 
 among the students as to who would 
 next entertain young "Bill" Murray. 
 Even in those early years he evinced a 
 decided tendency to football, woods 
 roaming, eloquence, and English com- 
 position. He was handsome and good- 
 natured and powerfully built, full of life 
 and enthusiasm, and always a leader 
 among his fellows. 
 
 Those were the days of the old New 
 England lyceum and of debating socie- 
 ties. The men of Guilford, like the men 
 of scores of other New England villages, 
 had their local society. The younger ele- 
 ment got little or no opportunity of par- 
 
 43 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 ticipating in the debates, which in those 
 days constituted a form of popular amuse- 
 mento This state of affairs greatly in- 
 censed the young fellows, who envied 
 their elders' triumphs of the platform, 
 and could not see why they should be 
 shut out from displaying their own ora- 
 torical abilities before the villagers in 
 the town hall. Discussion ran high, 
 and the wrongs of the young men 
 grew, as they thought, more intoler- 
 able. Finally, the dissatisfaction broke 
 out into open rivalry at a sug- 
 gestion from Murray. "I say, boys," 
 he exclaimed one morning as, somewhat 
 breathlessly, and sv/inging his arms in 
 
 44 
 
AN APPRECUTION 
 
 his enthusiasm, he came hastening up 
 to a group of his schoolmates who were 
 clustered near the Institute building just 
 previous to entering to begin the day's 
 studies, discussing with heat an unusually 
 successful debate which the grown-ups 
 had conducted before a large audience 
 the evening before, "let's all go up to J. 
 Russel's room to-night and organize a 
 society of our own." The plan met with 
 clamorous approval. The proposed meet- 
 ing was held that evening and the "Clio- 
 nian Society" duly organized. Young 
 Murray became one of the officers. Pub- 
 lic debates were at once inaugurated, and 
 in a short time the new society became 
 
 45 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 so popular with the townspeople that the 
 older organization was forced to disband 
 because the entire patronage of the vil- 
 lagers had gone over to the tyros. The 
 young bloods had the field entirely to 
 themselves, and old residents of Guil- 
 ford say that for several years the 
 town hall was packed upon every occa- 
 sion that the young men appeared in pub- 
 lic. Out of that little country debating 
 society have come a number of notable 
 orators. One of them — the greatest of 
 them — was William H. H. Murray. 
 
 Murray had determined, without any 
 encouragement from his parents, to work 
 his way through college. Soon after 
 
 46 
 
Murray's Island, Raquette Lake. 
 
 From a woodcut in Wallace's " Descriptive Guide to the 
 Adirondacks," edition of 1S72. 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 completing his studies at the Institute, he 
 set out on foot for New Haven, nineteen 
 miles distant from his farm — and entered 
 Yale College. He had $4.68 in his 
 pocket and two small carpet-bags in his 
 hands — one with his few books and the 
 other with his few clothes. Murray's old 
 neighbors at Guilford have told me that 
 in order to save his boots from wear, he 
 was wont, when walking back and forth 
 between Guilford and New Haven, to 
 carry them under his arm, not putting 
 them on until about to enter town. 
 When he started for Yale, some of the 
 neighbors said, one to the other: "Won- 
 der what Bill Murray thinks he can make 
 
 47 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 of himself?" But "Bill" Murray paid 
 little attention to their jests. He had, 
 as he said, "taken hold of the hope of 
 knowledge with a good grip, and he held 
 on." During the summers he worked 
 hard upon his own and neighboring 
 farms in order to earn money to pay for 
 his college education, and each fall he was 
 back at Yale, a close student, a prodig- 
 ious reader, always good-natured, full of 
 sport, and loving nothing better than an 
 opportunity to spend an afternoon afield 
 with a gun or along some familiar an- 
 gling stream. His classmates at Yale 
 included Franklin McVeigh, Joseph 
 Cook, Professor Ely and Governor 
 
 48 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 Lounsbury, of Connecticut. The late 
 William C. Whitney was in his class for 
 some time, but graduated a year after 
 Mr. Murray. 
 
 A single fact will illustrate the rapid 
 progress which Mr. Murray made in his 
 studies while at college. Fitz-Greene Hal- 
 leck, the immortal author of "Marco Boz- 
 zaris/' was a fellow townsman of Mur- 
 ray's, and though much his senior in 
 years, they were intimate friends, mutual 
 admirers and frequent visitors at each 
 other's homes. It is said that Halleck 
 taught Murray much of literature and 
 poetry. Recently the story had gained cur- 
 rency that Murray had learned hi? 
 
 49 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 Greek from his illustrious neighbor, and 
 that the former often walked out from 
 New Haven to Guilford to take Greek 
 lessons from the great poet. The facts are 
 quite the contrary. Halleck knew little 
 of Greek until instructed in this lan- 
 guage by his young friend, Murray, who 
 early in his college course became so 
 proficient that he was able to translate 
 for Halleck a letter which the latter had 
 received from the Greek government 
 stating that the poem, "Marco Bozzaris," 
 had been translated into Greek, printed 
 in that language and widely distributed 
 among the Greeks with the object of 
 increasing their patriotism. 
 
 50 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 At Yale Murray won prizes for de- 
 bating and essay writing, and upon his 
 graduation in 1862 entered an advanced 
 class of the East Windsor Theological 
 Seminary, continuing his studies under 
 the Rev. Dr. Edwin Hatfield, of New 
 York City, serving as his assistant pastor 
 until the latter's resignation. From New 
 York he was called successively to Con- 
 gregational pulpits in Washington, 
 Greenwich and Meriden, Conn. 
 
 While at Washington, Conn., an inci- 
 dent occurred which is amusing, and 
 which showed the marked personality 
 of the man rather more markedly than 
 the decorous parishioners of that con- 
 Si 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 servatlve village believed to be edifying. 
 Mr. Murray never lost an opportunity 
 to spend a day gunning on the hills sur- 
 rounding the village. One evening he 
 was unusually late in returning. A re- 
 ligious service was scheduled to occur 
 that night in the church, and the parish- 
 ioners, as usual, assembled in the edifice, 
 eager, as ever, to hear Mr. Murray's 
 beautiful discoursings upon spiritual sub- 
 jects. The time set for the commence- 
 ment of the service arrived, but no 
 preacher appeared. The congregation 
 waited and wondered and grew impa- 
 tient. Questioning glances were ex- 
 changed, and whisperings grew into ani- 
 
 53 
 
W. H. II. Mlrrav, age 37. 
 
 Phologra])li taken in 1877, when Mr. Murray was 
 
 at the zenith of his Boston fame as 
 
 preacher and author. 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 mated conjecturing as to what could have 
 befallen their handsome and talented 
 young pastor. Even displeasure was be- 
 ginning to be expressed among those 
 v/hose tempers were the easiest ruffled, 
 at being thus brought from their homes 
 for nothing, when the door of the church 
 burst suddenly open, and in strode the 
 belated preacher, quite heated from hur- 
 rying, dressed in his shooting- jacket and 
 velveteen breeches, and carrying in his 
 hand his game-bag and fowling-piece. 
 Without making excuse for his unortho- 
 dox g^rb, or changing the same for min- 
 isterial vestments, he quietly hung the 
 game-bag over the back of a convenient 
 
 53 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 chair, leaned the gun against the wall, 
 mounted the pulpit, and opened the serv- 
 ice. At the close he begged forgiveness 
 of his hearers for having kept them so 
 long waiting, explaining that it was 
 wholly unintentional on his part, but that 
 he had strolled so far in his eager pur- 
 suit of game without noting the flight of 
 the hours that it was impossible for him 
 to get back to the village at the time set 
 for the service; in fact, he had come 
 direct from the field to the church with- 
 out pausing to taste a mouthful of sup- 
 pei", in order that he might not delay the 
 congregation a moment longer than 
 could possibly be helped. 
 
 54 
 
 i 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 From Meridcn Mr. Murray was called 
 to the Park Street Church in Boston, then 
 one of the most prominent pulpits in 
 America. It was in Boston that he 
 earned his greatest fame, and won his 
 richest laurels as preacher, orator and 
 lecturer. 
 
 To say that his career as a pub- 
 lic man from this moment was phe- 
 nomenal, does not convey an idea of the 
 meteoric swiftness and brilliance of his 
 rise as a man of national fame and im- 
 portance. He fairly took Boston by 
 storm. Within a few weeks after his 
 advent in the city, the entire country was 
 talking of the wonderful powers of per- 
 
 55 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 suasion and masterly oratory of the 
 young clergyman who had but recently 
 come from an obscure Connecticut 
 farm. 
 
 While yet in his twenties he was com- 
 posing sermons which were being circu- 
 lated and quoted throughout the entire 
 continent, and even in Europe, and which 
 to this day, after a lapse of nearly forty 
 years, are constantly reprinting. At 
 thirty he was considered one of the intel- 
 lectual giants of America ; and within the 
 next few years was receiving a salary 
 and perquisites of $15,000 to $20,000, 
 besides earning $10,000 additional an- 
 nually upon the lecture platform. A 
 
 56 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 single lecture upon the Adirondacks, he 
 delivered before over five hundred audi- 
 ences. For several years he edited and 
 published the Golden Rule, a weekly, 
 "one of the few brilliant literary and 
 artistic religious papers of its day." 
 
 In the spring of 1869 his first work 
 — Adventures in the Wilderness; or 
 Camp Life in the Adirondacks — v/as 
 published by Ticknor & Fields, which 
 gave him his well-known sobriquet. It 
 became at once the most popular book 
 of the day, reached an enormous circula- 
 tion, and created what is probably the 
 most remarkable movement of hunters, 
 anglers and campers towards an Ameri- 
 
 57 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 can wilderness in the history of sport 
 on this continent.^ 
 
 Murray's triumph was now com- 
 plete. Besides enjoying a popularity 
 in the pulpit not surpassed by that of ^ 
 Henry Ward Beecher, who was his 
 
 'The "Murray Rush"— still a familiar 
 memory in the Adirondacks — began early in 
 the summer of 1869, and continued unabated 
 for four or five seasons, during which the 
 Woods were so filled with visitors — every one 
 of whom seemed to carry a copy of Mr. Mur- 
 ray's book — that the few rude hotels then in 
 existence were utterly inadequate to accom- 
 modate the crowds ; and guides were equally 
 insufficient. Log cabins, barns and tents were 
 converted into lodging places ; every old, bat- 
 tered scow boat or dugout that could be 
 resurrected commanded a fabulous rental ; 
 and all the farm boys who could possibly 
 be spared from home were pressed into serv- 
 
 58 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 warm friend, he was the literary lion 
 of his day. Because of his magnificent 
 physique and handsome countenance, 
 his affable and gracious manners, his 
 distinguished presence, his deep learn- 
 ing and his religious fervor, his corn- 
 
 ice as guides, at wages not infrequendy 
 double that received at present by the most 
 experienced woodsmen. Hundreds, who, upon 
 reading Mr. Murray's narrative, had left at 
 once for the North Woods without even writ- 
 ing ahead for accommodation, upon arriving 
 at the terminus of some stage-line entering 
 the Wilderness — perhaps after a nerve-wrack- 
 ing ride of forty or fifty miles over an abom- 
 inable corduroy road, — finding that neither 
 guides, boats nor quarters were procurable, 
 were obliged to return at once, bag and bag- 
 gage, to the railroad. And yet, despite the 
 extraordinary numbers and consequent con- 
 fusion, the fullest good humor prevailed. 
 
 59 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 panionship was courted by the lights of 
 the country. The greatest states- 
 men, the most noted divines, the most 
 prominent authors, the leaders of 
 thought and the moulders of opinion, 
 sought acquaintance with the remark- 
 
 The Wilderness has never since presented a 
 scene of such picturesque animation. Many 
 of the visitors, drawn toward the Adiron- 
 dacks by the entrancing pen-pictures of the 
 young Boston clergyman, were women and 
 children ; and all seemed imbued with the 
 spirit of keen sport and frolic which was 
 so well known to characterize their great 
 preceptor, Murray. Every incoming stage- 
 coach from the railroad — then thirty to sixty 
 miles distant — was loaded down with sports- 
 men and outers, carrying rods and rifles, and 
 bent on seeing as much as possible of the 
 wonderful new region of health and happi- 
 ness which Murray had so wonderfully de- 
 
 60 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 able young clergyman. Dinners were 
 given in his honor by the most distin- 
 guished personages in Boston and the 
 country at large. Emerson, Longfel- 
 low, Whittier, Holmes, Hawthorne, 
 Halleck, Agassiz, Prescott, Beecher, 
 
 scribed ; while behind the coaches, creaking 
 and groaning beneath their burdens, lum- 
 bered the slower moving wagons, heaped 
 high with the trunks, portmanteaux, tents, 
 bales of blankets, and other baggage of the 
 sight-seers. Throughout the wilderness 
 proper the same gay activity was every- 
 where in evidence. Boatloads of jolly 
 campers and sportsmen, with their guides and 
 outing impedimenta, were constantly passing 
 and repassing along the principal waterways, 
 which in those days were the only avenues of 
 communication leading towards the choicest 
 sporting sections of the Woods. The carries 
 and trails were thronged. Every log-cabin 
 
 6i 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 Phillips, Fields — to name his personal 
 friends and acquaintances would be to 
 call the roll of the great men of his 
 time. For ten years every Sabbath ser- 
 
 halfway house, situated on lake or river bank, 
 which made any pretension at all of providing 
 either food or shelter, was at all times the 
 centre of a motley gathering, — sure to be in- 
 teresting as well as picturesque, — in which 
 sportsmen and sportswomen from different 
 States, togged out m every shade and degree 
 of fashion, and lack of it, guides, lumber- 
 men, trappers, and an occasional red Indian, 
 mingled in a true backwoods democracy that 
 was at once pleasant, amusing and inspiring. 
 The spirit of fellowship and hospitality ex- 
 tended to every camp, and wherever smoke 
 curled upward from any shore, it was a sign 
 of welcome to any who might chance to pass 
 that way. 
 
 Thousands who came to this region for 
 the first time, attracted by Mr. Murray's book, 
 
 62 
 
AN APPRECIATIOxNT 
 
 mon that he preached was printed and 
 sent broadcast throughout the land. 
 
 There was one gathering of notables 
 at which Mr. Murray was present 
 which I shall mention, for the reason 
 that it had a most important bearing 
 
 found in the Wilderness charms not even 
 enumerated in that volume, and, forming an 
 attachment for the country, repeated their 
 visits, year after year, becoming gradually more 
 interested in the region itself, and in the 
 preservation of its natural attractions, than 
 in the taking of game or fish ; so that in 
 time there grew up the present splendid 
 body of men and women — the life-guard of 
 the Wilderness — who, from their long asso- 
 ciation with the Adirondacks, their known 
 love for, and efforts in behalf of, its forests 
 and their wild inhabitants, and their interest 
 in its history, literature and legendary lore, 
 have come to be designated as "Adirondackcrs" 
 
 6i 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 upon his later literary work. It was 
 a dinner given by the famous pub- 
 lisher and literatus, James T. Fields, 
 to a number of prominent authors. 
 
 Emerson was there. During the even- 
 ing the conversation turned upon the 
 
 — a title that is a just pride to those who can 
 claim it. It is to these men and women 
 that the public rightfully look to form and 
 guide the policy of the State with reference 
 to the Adirondack Park, and to exercise a 
 check upon any who, through selfishness or 
 ignorance, might endanger aught of its nat- 
 ural attractiveness or value to the people. 
 
 The Murray Rush gave birth to the guide 
 book period in the Adirondacks, which fol- 
 lowed closely, as a natural sequence, early in 
 the seventies. The few hotels were enlarged, 
 and new ones built to meet the ever-increas- 
 ing demajid Hundreds of sturdy woodsmen 
 adopted the honorable and not unremunera- 
 
 64 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 question as to what constituted a truly 
 "great" story. Mr. Emerson defined it 
 as one which would evoke both tears and 
 laughter. The definition impressed Mr. 
 Murray. Later, discussion arose con- 
 
 tive profession of guides; and from that time 
 on the Adirondacks — which previous to the 
 appearance of Murray's magic book had re- 
 mained an unvisited waste, known only to a 
 few adventurous sportsmen, hunters and 
 trappers — continued to grow in general popu- 
 larity and fame, until, at the present time, with 
 railroads penetrating to its choicest localities and 
 good carraige roads radiating in many directions, 
 with hundreds of hotels — many of them pala- 
 tial in construction and furnishing — and full 
 as many public and private camps, some 
 of which are not less luxurious, these 
 Woods are annually visited by not less than 
 450,000 persons, and their glories have 
 reached to the uttermost ends of th^ e^rth. 
 
 65 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 cerning the reason why "great" stories 
 such as Mr. Emerson had defined were 
 never written which did not contain at 
 least one female character. After most 
 of the company had been heard from, 
 "Parson" Murray was called upon to 
 
 For all this, in large measure, we have 
 pioneer Murray to thank. Some persons, as 
 Charles Hallock quotes, have deprecated the 
 "ruinous publicity" given by Mr. Murray to 
 the sporting attractions of the Adirondacks, 
 lamenting that this exceptional region should 
 have "fallen from that estate of fish and soli- 
 tude for which it was originally celebrated." 
 But, while it is true that, to a large degree 
 the wildness and exclusiveness of the Adiron- 
 dacks have been modified by the myriad 
 changes which have come to this region since 
 1869, and while to some extent the forests 
 have been thinned and the game diminished, 
 yet the writer holds the view, that, for the 
 
 66 
 

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AN APPRECIATION 
 give his views. He expressed the opin- 
 ion that it MTOuld be possible to compose 
 a story that would be up to Mr. Emer- 
 son's definition, and yet which would 
 not include a single female character. 
 
 Fields never forgot what Murray had 
 said, and whenever he met the latter he 
 was sure to remind him of the state- 
 
 increased facilities of ingress and improved 
 accommodation which his exploitation of ilie 
 Adirondacks brought about, thereby enabling 
 thousands to enjoy the incalculable benefits 
 to body, mind and soul which life in these 
 Woods affords, where formerly they were 
 within reach only of the individual, Murray 
 has put humanity— and especially the people 
 of New York State and of the United States 
 —under a debt of gratitude that can not be 
 easily estimated, and can less easily be re- 
 paid 
 
 67 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 ment he had made at the dinner, and to 
 urge him to write such a story. In 
 course of time Murray composed the first 
 story of his series of ''Adirondack 
 Tales," with the great character of John 
 Norton the Trapper as their central 
 figure. He published it in his Golden 
 Rule. Fields read the story and went at 
 once to congratulate its author. "Mur- 
 ray, you have done it !" he exclaimed ; 
 "you have written a story that is up to 
 Emerson's definition — for I have both 
 laughed and wept over this one ; and you 
 have not introduced a woman into it." 
 All during these years Mr. Murray 
 was devoting every moment which he 
 
 68 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 could spare from his clerical duties to 
 the pursuit of outdoor sports, to travel, 
 and to literature. In 1864 he made his 
 first trip to the Adirondacks, continu- 
 ing to visit this region annually until 
 1877. Even in the wilderness, his activi- 
 ties were on a large scale. He cruised 
 on countless waters, trailed far and wide, 
 and carried his explorations into the 
 wildest and remotest corners of the 
 Great Forest. During the fourteen sea- 
 sons that he patronized this region, he 
 brought a large following of personal 
 friends with him into the Woods, his im- 
 mediate party sometimes numbering as 
 high as twenty or thirty, including 
 
 69 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 guides ; for, as might be expected in one 
 so genial and generous of nature, Mr. 
 Murray was fond of human companion- 
 ship, and human companionship was fond 
 of him. Among those who thus accom- 
 panied him into the Woods (many of 
 whom were of national fame, chiefly 
 clergymen and authors) was the late 
 United States Senator O. H. Piatt, 
 of Connecticut, who for many years was 
 one of his best beloved camp-mates and 
 sporting associates. 
 
 Not always did Mr. Murray travel in 
 company when in the Woods, for often 
 he entirely abandoned his friends, sev- 
 ered communication with even the rude 
 
 70 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 civilization of the forest encampment, 
 and, with a single guide for companion, 
 plunged into the most labyrinthian re- 
 cesses of the then little-known Wilder- 
 ness, where for days and weeks at a time 
 he buried himself in the untrodden 
 wilds. 
 
 It was during these solitary expeditions, 
 doubtless, that he gathered most of that 
 wondrous fund of woods-lore and woods- 
 wisdom which gives to his literary pro- 
 ductions the stamp of the master, and it 
 was chiefly while engaged in such ex- 
 plorations that he performed those feats 
 of strength, agility, hardihood and en- 
 durance, and those exploits with rifle, 
 
 71 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 rod, paddle and oar, of which, to this 
 day, the traveler in the Adirondacks will 
 encounter so many tales and anecdotes, 
 especially among the old-time guides and 
 woodsmen who are able to boast the dis- 
 tinction of having, at one time or an- 
 other, companioned with this Patron 
 Saint of Adirondackers. Mr. Murray's 
 favorite camp site was undoubtedly the 
 rocky little island in Raquette Lake, near 
 the mouth of Marion River, which now 
 goes so appropriately by the name of 
 Murray's Island, and which in future 
 years is sure to become a famous liter- 
 ary shrine and a gathering place of 
 sportsmen and nature lovers from all 
 
 72 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 quarters of the continent.^ His favorite 
 guide was the great woodsman, "Honest 
 John*' Plumley, of Long Lake, who be- 
 came celebrated as the leading character 
 
 * Murray's Island, fortunately, is State land, 
 a portion of the proposed but long delayed 
 Adirondack Park, which, when all its area 
 has been purchased by the State (as it should 
 be at once), will include approximately 
 3,475,000 acres, and will be the grandest pub- 
 lic domain in the world. It was upon this 
 islet that Mr. Murray for many years 
 had his permanent camp known as "Terrace 
 Lodge." Here he frequently found time to 
 compose portions of his earlier books, and 
 from this point, as a centre, he set out upon 
 his numerous excursions into the deeper 
 wilderness. Some persons have attempted to 
 supplant the historic and significant name of 
 Murray's Island (given it in loving recogni- 
 tion and remembrance by the people) with 
 thtf pretty but far less worthy one of Osprey 
 
 73 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 in Murray's first book, Adventures in the 
 Wilderness. From time to time he 
 brought out a new vohime of Adirondack 
 stories, all of which have obtained 
 
 Island; and against this apparent forgetful- 
 ness of a great man I make earnest pro- 
 test. Wallace, the Adirondack annalist, says 
 in his Descriptive Guide (page 430, edition of 
 1897) : "This island was so named (Murray's 
 Island) because for 3'ears it was the favorite 
 camping place of W. H. H. Murray, author 
 of several charming volumes on the Adiron- 
 dacks. And yet, neither lake nor mountain 
 " commemorates the name of him who opened 
 the eyes of the world to this grand sanita- 
 rium and pleasure ground !" Let us at least 
 insist that his name shall be perpetuated in 
 the single little island to which, more than 
 any other spot in the Wilderness, he was at- 
 tached, and which (he has himself told me) 
 he would be best pleased to have bear his 
 name. 
 
 74 
 
Mr. Murray's Favoritk Sporting Arms. 
 
 The flintlock, formerly his father's, and 
 the gun of his boyhood ; the .44 cal. Win- 
 chester repeater, which he carried on 
 most of his hunting trips in later life ; the 
 heavy tournament rifle, with telescope, 
 with which he performed his greatest 
 feats of marksmanship; and the old, 
 highly-ornamented double Lewis of Troy, 
 (muzzle-loading) rifle, " Never Fail," 
 which he acquired in early young-man- 
 hood and continued to use as a hunting 
 arm long after the introduction of the 
 
 breech-loader. 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 a wide circulation, though the book b)) 
 which he is best known is his first 
 work. 
 
 At the age of forty he retired from 
 the clerical profession, and for seven 
 years traveled almost continuously in 
 Europe, Africa and America, visiting 
 every State and Territory of this coun- 
 try, and penetrating far into the recesses 
 of northern Canada. He wrote copi- 
 ously, but always well, and besides issu- 
 mg numerous books on sport, travel, his- 
 tory and education, was a frequent con- 
 tributor to the prominent magazines and 
 newspapers. "Sport, history, nature in 
 all her moods, romance and story capit- 
 
 75 
 
ADIRONDACK AIIJRRAY 
 
 iilated to his fascinating pen." Again he 
 took the lecture platform, and toured 
 the country, speaking on a variety of 
 subjects, but more often reading extracts 
 from his pubHshed works. "How John 
 Norton the Trapper Kept His Christ- 
 mas" he had read before half a thousand 
 audiences, receiving as high as $ioo to 
 $500 a night for his entertainment. An 
 idea of the immense popularity of his 
 writings may also be had from the fact 
 that, up to the time of his death, his 
 profits from the sale of the "Adirondack 
 Tales" alone had amounted to $58,000. 
 
 The last twelve years of his life Mr. 
 Murray had lived almost continuously 
 
 76 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 on his Guilford homestead, spending his 
 time in cultivating his farm, and in the 
 private education of his four daughters, 
 and devoting all of his leisure to author- 
 ship and the revision of his published 
 works. 
 
 The latter comprise : "Adventures in 
 the Wilderness/' "The Perfect Horse/' 
 "Adirondack Tales'' (including "The 
 Story the Keg Told Me'' and "The Man 
 Who Didn't Know Much"), "Holiday 
 Tales" (including "Hozu John Norton 
 the Trapper Kept His Christmas" and 
 "John Norton's Vagabond"),, "The Old 
 Trapper's Thanksgiving/' "The Busted 
 ex-Texan; or, the Story of the Man Who 
 
 77 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 Missed It," "Mamelons" "Ungava/* 
 "Daylight Land," ''How Deacon Tub' 
 man and Parson Whitney Kept New 
 Years, and Other Stories," "Lake Cham- 
 plain and Its Shores," "Deacons," "The 
 Old Apple Tree's Easter," and numer- 
 ous collections of sermons, lectures, ad- 
 dresses and humorous sketches. His last 
 work was published but a few years be- 
 fore he died, and was a description of 
 "How I Am Educating My Daughters/' 
 and received a notable reception at the 
 hands of the public. 
 
 Mr. Murray was the same ardent 
 sportsman and passionate lover of na- 
 ture up to the last. Even during the final 
 
 78 
 
?>Ir. Murray and His Eldest Daughter. 
 Taken in 1896. 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 years of his life he occasionally allowed 
 himself a fox-chase in the woods and 
 lields surrounding his farm, continuing 
 to be an expert marksman until in- 
 creasing years and failing sight inter- 
 fered with his once perfect powers. Nor 
 did he, as the years passed by, lose any 
 of the courtliness of manner or splendid 
 presence (never so fine as when with his 
 crown of white hair he was seen as a 
 familiar figure driving through the 
 streets of Guilford accompanied by one 
 or more of his young daughters) which 
 had in earlier life contributed so much 
 to make him a national celebrity. Until 
 the end, he was always the same cheer- 
 
 79 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 ful, energetic, enthusiastic Murray that 
 he was so well known to be "when the 
 life within sparkled white to the brim, 
 and all flowers were lilies, and all lilies 
 were sweet, and the woods were striated 
 with perfumes which blew from the 
 meadows of heaven." 
 
 The home life of his latter years was 
 indeed beautiful. His love for his chil- 
 dren and theirs for him was most tender 
 and touching. There is a picture before 
 my mind, as I write these words, which 
 I count one of my treasures of memory, 
 and which time will never efface. It is 
 of a great man, in the evening of life, 
 seated in his ancient and weather-worn 
 
 So 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 New England farmhouse, before the 
 blazing fire, enjoying the generous heat 
 from a giant oak trunk, "which the Lord 
 had felled," and which required all of 
 his own great strength to get through 
 the door and roll to the fireplace. It is 
 "The Children's Hour." One daughter 
 is encircled by his arm, another leans 
 against his shoulder, while the youngest 
 of the family sits contentedly upon his 
 knee, and the eldest no farther away 
 than is necessary, in a chair by herself. 
 The contrast between the strong, white- 
 haired man, massive in form and feature, 
 seasoned with a wide knowledge of the 
 world, and browned and furrowed by a 
 
 8i 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 
 life-time of exposure in the open air, 
 and the fair, intelligent children clinging 
 about him, jealously shielded from the 
 world's taint, modest and unselfish, 
 graceful and light-hearted, is perfect and 
 highly fascinating. Firelight and 
 shadow complete the effect — a superb 
 chiai'oscuro. 
 
 Mr. Murray died surrounded by his 
 family. His last word was an inquiry 
 for his eldest daughter, whom, through 
 failing sight, he could not see. Ac- 
 cording to his request, he was buried 
 on the old homestead, to which he was 
 so much attached, under the historic but- 
 tonwood tree before referred to. There, 
 
 82 
 
AN APPRECIATION 
 
 on his ancestral farm, but a short dis- 
 tance from the gray old house where 
 in life he had spent so many happy hours 
 in the companionship of his wife and 
 daughters, and where I had more than 
 once known his hospitality ; beneath the 
 boughs where song-birds build their 
 nests and sing their morning hymns and 
 evening lullabies ; surrounded by the 
 odorous woodlands through which as boy 
 and man he so often roamed in highest 
 glee, and almost within sight of the blue 
 waters of Long Island Sound (not quite 
 two miles distant), repose the mortal re- 
 mains of one of the greatest writers and 
 thinkers, one of the noblest orators and 
 
 83 
 
ADIRONDACK MURRAY 
 preachers, and one of the keenest sports- 
 men and most devoted lovers of nature 
 America has ever known. 
 
 84 
 
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