James R. Murray

Born in Andover, Massachusetts, on March 7, 1841, James R. Murray studied at the Musical Institute in North Reading under renowned music teachers such as Lowell Mason and George Root. Murray enlisted as an Army musician during the Civil War and began to write songs then. After the war, he worked as a piano teacher before accepting work at the Root & Cady publishing house in Chicago as editor of The Song Messenger and assistant in the writing and publishing department. In 1871 he returned to Andover to work as a music teacher, and he also became an active temperance worker. In 1881, Murray joined the John Church Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to work as the editor for The Musical Visitor and to be in charge of the publishing department. Murray died in Cincinnati on March 10, 1905.