Warren County Biographies
Byron J. Murray, M. D.
Byron J. Murray, M. D., who has been in successful practice at Saratoga Springs since 1887, is a physician of great natural endowments and much acquired skill and learning. He has given many years of earnest study to the problems presented by disease, and has been remarkably successful in his treatment of patients. He is a son of Dr. George and Angeline (Canfield) Murray, and a native of Luzerne, Warren County, New York, at which place he was born February 27, 1850. The family to which Dr. Murray belongs is of original Scotch stock, but for several generations were natives of England, to which country they had removed. The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, General Murray, was born and reared in England, and served for many years as an officer in the British army. It was in that capacity that he first visitied America, during the revolutionary war, and after the war was over and his term of service had expired he returned to this country and settled in Connecticut. He was a gentleman of the old school, became widely known in his locality, and was always addressed as General Murray. Among the sons born to him in his Connecticut home was George Murray (grandfather), who grew to manhood and was educated in his native State, but while yet a young man removed to Luzerne, Warren county, New York, where he engaged in farming, and became prosperous and wealthy. He was a whig and republican in politics, and filled a number of local offices in his town and county. In religion he was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and died at his home in Warren county in 1873, aged ninety-six years. His son, Dr. George Murray (father), was born at Luzerne, Warren county, in 1813, and remained a citizen of that village all his life. After leaving school he studied medicine, and practiced his profession successfully in his native county until his death in 1863, at the age of fifty years. Politically he was a whig and republican, and for a number of years served as captain of a military company at Luzerne. He was a prominent member of the Baptist church of that village, and greatly esteemed for his upright life and noble Christian character, as well as for his skill and success as a physician. In 1837 he married Angeline Canfield, who survives him, and is now in the seventy-eighth year of her age. She was born at Arlington, Vermont, and for many years has been a devoted member of the Baptist church at Luzerne. She now resides with Dr. B. J. Murray in Saratoga Springs. Her father, Dr. Sackett Canfield, was a practicing physician who removed from Arlington, Vermont, to Luzerne, Warren county, New York, where he died about 1859, at the age of four score and two years.
Byron J. Murray, the youngest of a family of two children, remained at Luzerne, Warren county, until his thirteenth year, when he began life for himself. He obtained a fair English education in the public schools at Glens Falls, that county, and then removed to Michigan, and locating at Hamilton, that State, was engaged in the drug business for a period of four years, in partnership with Dr. C. H. Kimber. His attention was here strongly drawn toward medicine as a profession, and in 1870 he entered the literary department of the university at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and after completing the course in that department entered the medical department of the same institution, and was duly graduated, with the degree of M. D., March 29, 1876. Soon after graduation Dr. Murray located at LaGrange, Indiana, where for a year he was engaged in practice, after which he came back to New York, and on April 3, 1877, opened an office at Wilton, Saratoga county, where he continued a successful practice until 1886. In the latter year he removed to the city of New York, and spent one year in practice in that metropolis. In 1887 he came back to this county and began practice at Saratoga Springs, where he has been continuously engaged in the duties of his profession ever since. He now has a fine practice, and is rapidly gaining recognition as one of the leading physicians of Saratoga county. Dr. Murray is a member of the State Medical society, and a frequent contributor to prominent medical journals of this country.
On January 14, 1874, the Doctor was united in marriage to Ida V. Stowe, a daughter of William Ransom Stowe, of Batavia, New York. Their only child, a son named S. Leon, died February 17, 1886, in his tenth year, having been born August 24, 1875. Dr. Murray is a member of Hathorn Lodge, No. 241, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in his political affiliations has always been an ardent republican. While a citizen of Wilton, from 1881 to 1883, he served as a member of the board of supervisors. The Doctor is an affable, pleasant gentleman, and is popular alike for his excellent social qualities and his great skill as a physician.
Source: "History of Saratoga County, New York: with historical notes on its various towns" by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, Chicago, Ill.: Gresham Pub. Co., 1893, 638 pgs.