Mary Susan Noailles Murfree (1850 - 1922)

Born 24 Jan 1850 in Murfreesboro, Rutherford, Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Died 31 Jul 1922 at age 72 in Murfreesboro, Rutherford, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Mary Murfree is Notable.

Mary was born in 1850. She was the daughter of William Murfree. and Fanny Priscilla Dickinson. ^[1]

The Murfree family is well known in the annals of Tennessee history. The town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is named after Murfree's great-grandfather Colonel Hardy Murfree, who fought in the Revolutionary War.

The family lineage is published in the DAR Lineage book. ^[2]

Mary Noailles Murfree made her own claim to fame through writing. She wrote several novels and short stories under the pen name of Charles Egbert Craddock.

Mary Murfree book

Mary was lame from childhood, due to an illness. Because of her disability, Mary began her education at home, but upon moving to Nashville , she was enrolled in the Nashville Female Academy . After graduating, she was admitted to Chegary Institute, a finishing school for girls. Although limited in her outdoor pursuits, her interior life became rich with the words and ideas of great writers and poets. Mary particularly loved the novels of Walter Scott and George Eliot.

Photo of Beersheba Springs used "Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library & Archives."

Her family supported her greatly, both in her education and pursuits, and in finding ways to relieve her pain from her disability. The hot springs at Beersheba in the Cumberland mountains gave her some relief from pain, and so for fifteen summers the Murfree family stayed in the resort at Beersheba Springs.

The Inn at Beersheba Springs.

This gave Mary the opportunity to study the mountains and the people who lived there--what they called 'the mountaineers'--more closely. She first began contributing articles of regional interest in the 1870s; first for Appleton's Journal under the pen name of "Charles Egbert Craddock", and, then, by 1878 she was contributing to the Atlantic Monthly. It wasn't until 1885--after she had acquired a large and enthusiastic following of readers--that she revealed her identity as a woman.

According to sources:

• 'Although she became known for the realism of her accounts, in fact she was from a wealthy family and would have had little contact with the local people while staying at the resorts.' wikipedia

Her work is considered old fashioned now. Still, Mary Noailles Murfree wrote some beautiful passages that lyrically describe the scenic vistas of the country she so loved. Her ear was as finely tuned as a musician's when it came to capturing the nuances of dialogue and quaintness of phrase of rural Tennessee. Mary might have written from the distant perspective of wealth and a cultured upbringing, yet there is still a tone of respect in her treatment of these Tennessee 'mountaineers'.

• 'The autumn was waning; cold rains set in, and veined the rocky chasms with alien torrents; the birds had all flown, when suddenly the Indian summer, with its golden haze and its great red sun, its purple distances and languorous joy, its balsamic perfumes and vagrant day-dreams, slipped down upon the gorgeous crimson woods, and filled them with its glamour and poetry.'

Smoky Mountains

For a full bibliography of her work, visit her wikipedia page.

Mary never married. She passed away in 1922.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Source Information Ancestry.com. Tennessee, U.S., Deaths and Burials Index, 1874-1955 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: "Tennessee Deaths and Burials, 1874–1955." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records.
2. ↑ Source Citation Book Title: Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR Source Information Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
3. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 14 April 2021), memorial page for Mary Murfree (24 Jan 1850–31 Jul 1922), Find A Grave: Memorial #7994948, citing Evergreen Cemetery, Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .

Census Records

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC6M-XJP : 23 December 2020), May S Murfree in household of William L Murfree, Murfreesboro, Rutherford, Tennessee, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8T1-7X4 : 18 February 2021), Mary Murphey in entry for William Murphey, 10 District, Davidson, Tennessee, United States.

• "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD8P-J3H : 29 May 2021), Mary Murfree in entry for U B Murfree, Nashville, ward 10, Davidson, Tennessee, United States.

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSZ9-F31 : accessed 18 August 2021), Mary N Murfree in household of Fannie P Murfree, Civil District 13 (excl. Murfreesboro city), Rutherford, Tennessee, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 112, sheet 2A, family 31, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,594.

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGNM-3S3 : accessed 18 August 2021), Mary N Murfree in household of Fannie N Murfree, Murfreesboro Ward 3, Rutherford, Tennessee, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 125, sheet 6A, family 124, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1517; FHL microfilm 1,375,530.

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNRQ-JL2 : 3 February 2021), Mary N Murfree in entry for Fannie N Murfree, Murfreesboro Ward 3, ED 127, Rutherford, Tennessee, United States.

Death & Burial

• "Tennessee Deaths, 1914-1966," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NSSF-MQS : 1 March 2021), Mary N. Murfee, 31 Jul 1922; Death, Murfreesboro, Rutherford, Tennessee, United States, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.

• Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 14 April 2021), memorial page for Mary Murfree (24 Jan 1850–31 Jul 1922), Find A Grave: Memorial #7994948, citing Evergreen Cemetery, Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .

See Also:

• Wikipedia:Mary_Noailles_Murfree
• Wikidata: Item Q6780420, en:Wikipedia