Magnus Miller Murray (February 22, 1787 – March 4, 1838), served as the

mayor of Pittsburgh The mayor of Pittsburgh is the chief executive of the government of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Pittsburgh. Prior to the 1816 city charter, the Borough of Pittsburgh had its c ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

from 1828 to 1830 and again from 1831 to 1832. Mayor Murray now rests in Section 19, Lot 29 of Allegheny Cemetery.

Early life

Murray was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, to Commodore Alexander Murray and Mary Miller Murray. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Magnus Miller, a local merchant. He attended Pennsylvania University, earning both bachelor's and master's degrees in an era when many statesmen had only a grade school education. On January 6, 1806 he was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar. He married Mary Wilkens, daughter of John Wilkins, Jr. and Catherine Reagan Murray, on February 23, 1810.

Pittsburgh politics

Murray began politics as an understudy to his uncle, area judge and political insider William Wilkins. Under Murray's mayoral administration, the Western Terminus of the

Pennsylvania Canal The Pennsylvania Canal, sometimes known as the Pennsylvania Canal system, was a complex system of transportation infrastructure improvements, including canals, dams, Lock (water transport), locks, tow paths, Navigable aqueduct, aqueducts, and vi ...

was completed along the Grant Street corridor of the city. Murray was the first of a handful of Pittsburgh mayors to serve two non-consecutive terms in office, having to cede control of the mayor's office to Matthew B. Lowrie from 1830 to 1831, before regaining his mayoral powers.

Honors

Mayor Magnus Murray's son, James Butler Murray, President of the First Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh is remembered in the naming of Murray Avenue in Pittsburgh's

Squirrel Hill Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated ...

neighborhood.

Membership

Member of The Society of the Cincinnati as the oldest male heir of Commodore Alexander Murray.

Other

His daughter, Julia N. Murray, married politician John V. Le Moyne. Murray is an ancestor of actress

Julie Bowen Julie Bowen (born Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer; March 3, 1970) is an American actress. She starred as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom '' Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which she received widespread critical acclaim. She won the Primetime Emmy A ...

.Ancestry of Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer. ''Ancestry.com'' http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/bowen.htm Retrieved October 30, 2016

References