At the End of the Road: In the Western North Carolina Mountains, the Murray Clan Settled

Remarkable people shape a country… a state… a county… a neighborhood… a family… an empire. One group of such notable folks was the Murray Clan, whose early migration into the American Colonies with other Scotch-Irish cast the fate and fortune of the Fletcher area located in Henderson County, North Carolina. Here the Murray legend begins with Samuel Murray, Sr., his family, and his empire. The Murray's history defies the stereotypical perception of Appalachian folks, who the common lore of history tends to lump into planters, poor whites and slaves. The Murrays reveal themselves to be a new class of pioneers, one who wished to establish a better lifestyle for their families, and orchestrated efforts to build churches and schools, and actively participated in the administration of local government. Samuel Murray's migration fits the paradigm in the early thirteen colonies for that flood of Scots, Irish, and German newcomers who relocated into the raw and immature south. In exploring Samuel's story, from his ancestor's arrival in the colonies through the evolution of his family as they journeyed southward, and then into the rugged mountains, we discover early American history itself, and the full array of characters and dynamics that molded this virgin nation, this unsettled wilderness, into the most powerful country in the world. In the Western North Carolina Mountains, the Murray Clan Settled. Come with us now as we explore the history of this remarkable family and examine the contribution that it made to the evolution of God’s most perfect valley: Fletcher, North Carolina.