Sutter County
Biographies
WILLIAM
McMURTRY, M. D.
WILLIAM
McMURTRY, M. D.
The
progenitor of the McMurtry family was Joseph McMurtry, a native of Wales, who came to the United States
and settled in Philadelphia in 1734. One
of his descendants went to Kentucky with Daniel Boone in 1778, was captured by
the Indians and held prisoner several months.
John McMurtry, the father of William McMurtry, M. D., settled in Mercer county,
Ky., and it was there that his son William was born. Having graduated as a physician, he practiced
medicine for several years, amassing what was then considered quite a
fortune. Later he gave up his practice
and purchased a farm ten miles from Elizabethtown, Ky., and there built a sawmill and a race track, besides raising fine
horses. The venture, however, did not
prove successful and he gave it up to resume the practice of his profession
near Louisville. Misfortune still
followed him, for his health became impaired by malaria, and the people among
whom he had settled were poor and unable to pay their bills, so in 1849 he
determined to try his fortune in the gold fields of California, to which people
were flocking from all over America.
Purchasing an ox team in Kentucky,
Dr. McMurtry and his son John went to St. Joseph,
Mo., from which place they took the Lawson route to California. At Lawson’s ranch the oxen mired in the mud,
due to the heavy rains, and the weather and roads were in such bad condition
that they determined to remain at Lawson’s ranch for the winter. They erected a cabin about ten miles below
the mouth of Deer creek, a dozen miles from any white settlement, but the
Indians were very numerous there at the time.
Dr. McMurtry occupied his time during the
winter months by making clapboards, and in the spring built a log raft on which
he started to Sacramento, but the raft was wrecked and
lost. Finally reaching Long’s Bar he
worked for a time in a restaurant, and while there purchased cattle from poor
emigrants coming west across the plains, and after fattening them sold them at
good prices. Having accumulated a little
money he returned to Kentucky for his family, and upon coming to California
with them located in Sutter county, near where the
little village of Pennington now stands, north of the Buttes, and there in
addition to the practice of his profession he also raised sheep. He owned about two thousand acres of land,
some of which he rented to others for farming purposes. Dr. McMurtry’s
marriage united him with Sarah M. Van Anglen, a
native of New Jersey, and five children came to bless their union. In 1889 Dr. McMurtry
removed with his family to Oakland, where he lived retired from the cares and
worries of business until his death, passing away March 6, 1892.
Transcribed by
Doralisa Palomares.
Source:
“History of the State of California and
Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California” by J.
M. Guinn. Pages
599. Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.
© 2017 Doralisa Palomares.
Golden Nugget Library's Sutter County
Biographies