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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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Men Who Led 139 always the first to offer his assistance. After the cowardly firing of Turner's buildings in 1853, Murray wrote offering to send him " a pair of good nags 11 to use until spring. He adds that while he has no money on hand he expects to have $500 or $1000 at any time as the resultj of a land sale and he courteously makes it clear that it will be a joy to Mm to lend it to Turner.15 While a modest man he was too intelligent to underrate himself. When Turner spoke to him in high terms of his ability, he replied: "What you say of my ability is flattering to me. I know I have never been stalled and that I have braved experience from the silken chambers whence I emanated to savage wilderness of Arkansas ruffians and woody swamps. That experience trains a man to know his capacity for1 action tho it may not to judge how others view him. , n e There is often in his letters a serene practical philosophy that recalls Marcus Aurelius, as when he says of the discouragements that first met the Morrill bill: "Perhaps Morrill's Bill is too good to make much progress yet. It must first be 'despised and rejected of men' if it be salvation in any respect for the human race or any part of them.'* 7 Such a well poised spirit was invaluable in the discouragements and bafflements that met the new movement. In regard to his early life it is possible fortunately to quote his own words: " I n the year 1817," wrote Mr. Murray, " i n the city of New York, my paternal grandfather, John Boyles Murray, was the owner of two four-story basement houses, Nos. 43 and 45 Barclay street, which he had built on two lots leased from Columbia College. Mrs. Okill kept a ladies boarding school at No. 43, leased from my grandfather who occupied with his family, No. 45. Here I was born on the 15th of April of that year, my parents then temporarily residing there." 18 "Murray to Turner, October 29, 1853, Turner manuscripts. "Letter of October 29,1853. "Murray to Turner, March 11, 1858, Turner manuscripts. ""Autobiography of Bronson Murray" down to about 1840, loaned by his son, James B. Murray of Yonkers, New York, to whose courtesy the author is indebted also for a sketch of Mr. Murray's later life. Words of Bronson Murray that are quoted are from the Autobiography.
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