VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
943
it was to avoid religious persecution that the
early ancestors left their native Scotland to
settle in Xorthern Ireland, where they were
permitted largely to direct their own local
concerns, and to pursue their own methods
of worship. Thus they gathered in com-
munities, keeping aloof largely from those
about them, and preserved in consentrated
form the idioms, usages and faith of their
forbears. On their arrival in Virginia they
became at once Americans, fighting for civil
and religious liberty, and developing the re-
sources of the country through their indus-
try and enterprise. The ancestors of the
Mc]\Iurran family became prosperous, were
prominent in local affairs, representing their
community in the legislature, and setting
forth by moral example and generous hos-
pitality the highest and purest of domestic
virtues. Of this family Joseph McMurran,
born 1794, in Jefferson county, died August,
1854. He married, in December, 1822, Eliz-
abeth Snodgrass, also of Scotch ancestry,
who died in February, 1870. The}- had chil-
dren : Margaret, Ann, Joseph (died in in-
fancy), Elizabeth, Joseph, William Snod-
grass, Maria, Mary Susan, James, and Lulu
Peyson.
James McMurran was born May 29. 1840. in Shepherdstown, Virginia, and was edu- cated tmder the care of private tutors and at Delaware College. He started out in life in the mercantile business, and in July, 1861, Iiaving just passed his twenty-first birthday anniversary, he enlisted in Company G, of the Fourth Virginia Infantry, under Captain R. F. Trigg and Colonel James F. Preston, which became a part of Stonewall Jackson's brigade, of the Confederate army. In this service Mr. McMurran received a wound which caused his discharge from the army, and during the last year of the war he served as collector of taxes in the counties of Montgomery and Floyd. After this he went to Hillsville, Carroll coimty, Virginia, where he conducted a store, and at the same time edited a newspaper called the Carroll "Weekly News." He married. February 26, 1868, Sallie E. Early, born August 13, 1844, and their children were : James Early, men- tioned below ; Josephine, who became the wife of D. Kemper Kellogg, now treasurer of the Richmond. Fredericksburg & Poto- mac railroad, and they are the parents of five children.
James Early McMurran was born Decem-
ber 17. 1869. in Hillsville. where he attend-
ed the public schools, and was subsequently
a student at the Wytheville Military Acad-
emy. Following this he studied at the Vir-
ginia Military Institute, where he pursued a
course in civil engineering. On leaving
school he entered the service of the Norfolk
& Western railroad, where he continued
until 1S93. In the following year he was em-
ployed in railroad construction work, and
before its close settled at Newport News,
where he was engaged by the Newport
News Ship Building and Drydock Company,
as a clerk. Here he won rapid promotion,
and was made chief clerk of the coast de-
partment, and also assistant auditor. Mr.
McMurran is a man of ver}' quiet taste, and
does not seek to mingle in public affairs. His
chief diversion is shooting in the game sea-
sons, and at other times he is very closely
devoted to his work and his family. He has
a very handsome home, where harmony
rules and hospitality lends aid in promoting
the joys of life. Mr. McMurran takes no
part in politics, and does not hold member-
ship in any clubs or societies other than the
Presbyterian church, in which he is a faith-
ful and devoted member. He has now spent
twenty-one years in the service of the ship
building company, and is appreciated as one
of its most faithful, capable and trustworthy
employees. He married, December 20, 191 1,
Katie Pitman, daughter of Dr. William E.
and Martha (Bell) Pitman, of Lynchburg,
Virginia. They have two sons : James Ed-
ward, born January 28, 1913, and Joseph
Pitman, born November 17. 1914.
Richard Leonard Henderson. Richard Leonard Henderson, cashier of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, springs from ancient Virginia families, and embodies many of the characteristics and virtues which distinguished the pioneers of the Old Dominion. The name of Hender- son appears in Virginia as early as 1664, when Gilbert Henderson had a grant of five hundred acres in Accomac county, and James Henderson one of four hundred acres. In 1701 a James Henderson had a grant of one hundred and fifty-five acres in King and Queen county. The name appears to have been brought into Scotland in the Danish invasion of that country, and is of great an- tiquity. For four centuries the family has flourished in the county of Fyfe, Scotland,
