Gov. Murray and the Red River Bridge

"The Worst Hard Time" page 109: "When Texas backed a toll bridge across the Red River on the border with Oklahoma, Murray sent the guard to the bridge, nearly provoking a shooting war between the two states. In the midst of the standoff he showed up with an antique revolver, waving it in the faces of Texas Rangers."

from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation

Oklahoma bridges attracted national and even international notoriety in the 1930s not because of their number or size but for a seriocomic episode that occurred on the Red River. Since the Red forms the border with Texas, meaning that both states had to agree on bridge policy--always administratively difficult--the river became a favorite location for private toll bridge operators who wanted a share of the expanding traffic between the two states. Investor-owned suspension bridges, several of them built and promoted by the Austin Bridge Company of Dallas, stood along the river near such towns as Waurika, Courtney, Grady, and Idabel. However, toll bridges became a subject of political reform in Oklahoma and elsewhere during the late 1920s, giving rise to efforts aimed at spending public funds to buy out their owners and "free" the bridges.53
A legal battle erupted in 1931 when Benjamin Colbert's old Red River Bridge Company contended that Texas had failed to buy out its rights to the location and obtained a federal injunction to prevent the opening of a new public bridge nearby on U. S. 69 and 75 that ran between Durant, Oklahoma, and Denison, Texas. The dispute soon enveloped both state governors. In a series of moves and countermoves Oklahoma's Alfalfa Bill Murray called out the National Guard to open the public bridge while Texas Governor Ross Sterling dispatched Texas Rangers to the site to uphold the court order. Although the conflict peacefully ended in a few weeks with a Houston judge dismissing the injunction against the free bridge, the tense moments had made national news and supposedly led Adolf Hitler to believe that domestic discord was eating away at America just as events in Europe began to take shape leading to the Second World War.

Source: Corbett,"Oklahoma Highways," 246-47; Oklahoma State Highway Department, Biennial Report of the State Highway Commission for the Period Ending June 30, 1942 (Oklahoma City: n. p., 1942), 91-92.

The statement about the Red River bridge incident is a little confusing....talking about a "toll bridge"...

The new bridge at the center of the dispute was a toll-free bridge.... Texas had delayed the opening of the free bridge and Murray wanted it open..... Murray did not want the people to have to pay a toll on the toll bridges...so maybe the toll bridges is what Egan is saying that 'Texas backed'.... but the toll-free bridge was finally opened. No war needed.

Handbook of Texas article

Dallas Morning News article

Tulsa World article

Governor Murray's Family

"The Worst Hard Time" page 108: "Alfalfa Bill said anything could grow in Oklahoma. His daddy, David, had made wine not long after grabbing a piece of dirt in the 1889 Sooner land rush; his Murray Mosel was so well-known that President Teddy Roosevelt had declared it "the bulliest wine of the land." Alfalfa Bill was himself a bully, but these times needed such a man, he said."

Okay.... wait...I don't know where this information came from.

"His daddy, David".... ???? David who? Is David a nickname? I'd think step-dad or something, but his mother died back when Murray was two....so I don't think there is a step-dad.

His dad's name was Uriah Dow Thomas Murray... at the age of 91, he administered the oath of office to his son....just as William Murray would do thirty years later when his son, Johnston Murray, was sworn in as Oklahoma's 14th governor.

Archives Source Oversized Materials Box B

The archives do shorten his name to U.D.T. Murray...but I don't see a "David" anywhere when referencing William Murray's father.

Bethany Public Schools mentions the father/son relationship as well.

Handbook of Texas has the same name reference.

One of many genealogy posts that mentions "Uriah Dow Thomas Murray" as his father.

Anyway....long way of explaining my original question? Why the 'David' reference? Was that a name used by intimates? If not, what is the connection?

Sooooo...of course this leads to the next question?

What is all this about Murray's father making wine, his famous Murray Mosel, and Teddy Roosevelt lovin' it???

I'm surprised at this revelation...for a number of reasons.

A) I'd never heard of it. ha... okay that's not shocking.

B) His father was a winemaker? When? For a long period of time? As an occupation? Or was this wine a 'one-hit wonder' while he did other things?

I've seen a reference to his father doing work in saw mills and grist mills....with the title "Reverand"...with his 2nd wife being an evangelist

...not as a winemaker.

C) famous Murray Mosel?? I can find no reference to it yet.

D) When did Teddy Roosevelt make this proclamation? As president? ... so far I've found him claiming an 'occasional' appreciation for mint julep....

E) For all the imagery of a cigar-smoking Murray, I've yet to find something that tied him to being the son of a winemaker... surprising being as its the time of Prohibition and all.

....side note...the noting of TR calling it the "bulliest wine' and then describing W.H. Murray as a 'bully' is kind of funny. Of course, 'bully' this and 'bully' that was a favorite saying of TR... slang for "worthy, jolly, admirable"...obviously not the insinuation when describing W.H. Murray

...a curious tidbit though about his father...must be more.... still searching...

"Alfalfa Bill" Nickname of Governor Murray

"Worst Hard Time" page 108: "He was known as "Alfalfa Bill" for his ceaseless advocacy of agricultures as the cornerstorne of society. Alfalfa Bill said anything could grow in Oklahoma."

Nicknames galore....according to Political Graveyard, Murray had a variety to choose from.... "also known as William H. Murray; "Alfalfa Bill"; "Cocklebur Bill"; "Bolivia Bill"; "The Sage of Tishomingo""

...Cocklebur...who knows why that reminds me of the Kookaburra song. ha

Photo Source

Governor Murray's 1930 Campaign Slogan

"The Worst Hard Time" page 108: "With a campaign slogan that railed against what he called "The Three C's - Corporations, Carpetbaggers, and Coons." Murray won by a huge margin, 301,921 votes to 208,575."

The election of 1930 saw Murray facing the Republican candidate, Ira A. Hill. Murray did win decisively indeed.

However, I'm curious about the 'campaign slogan' quoted. I've been trying to locate some contemporary mention of that slogan or campaign material, but haven't had any luck. His hitchhiking campaign across the state was mentioned, but the slogan was "The Poor Man's Friend."

The only place I find those 'three c's' mentioned was in a Lewis L. Gould review of Progressive Oklahoma: The Making of a New Kind of State by Danney Goble in The Journal of American History Vol. 67, No. 3 (Dec., 1980), p. 714....where Gould writes, "If he does not always develop fully the less attractive side of this movement for social change, expressed in Alfalfa Bills' denunciation of "Corporations, Carpetbaggers, and Coons" as opponents of the Constitution, Goble lays out the relevant information for the reader with admirable fairness."

Now...that seems to indicate that the 'campaign slogan' was not a slogan of 1930, but rather was relevant during the time of the Oklahoma State Constitutional Convention in 1906/07.

The book reviewed is not at an area library, so I've done an 'inter-library loan' request. Hopefully I will be able to read a copy of the book to see the context and its sources.

While speaking about the Constitution....Murray did make his segregationist beliefs clear however saying....

"We should adopt a provision prohibiting the mixed marriages of negroes with other races in this State, and provide for separate schools and give the Legislature power to separate them in waiting rooms and on passenger coaches, and all other institutions in the State … As a rule they are failures as lawyers, doctors and in other professions. He must be taught in the line of his own sphere, as porters, bootblacks and barbers and many lines of agriculture, horticulture and mechanics in which he is an adept, but it is an entirely false notion that the negro can rise to the equal of a white man in the professions or become an equal citizen to grapple with public questions. The more they are taught in the line of industry the less will be the number of dope fiends, crap shooters and irresponsible hordes of worthless negroes around our cities and towns … I appreciate the old-time ex-slave, the old darky -- and they are the salt of their race -- who comes to me talking softly in that humble spirit which should characterize their actions and dealings with the white man, and when they thus come they can get any favor from me. (Applause.) When a negro says to me: "Set 'em up," or taps me on the shoulder as would an equal friend I would want to land on his shins; but when he comes to me with his hat under his arm humbly saying, "Cap'n" or "Boss" give me a cigar, I would give it to him if it required the last cent that I had with which to purchase it, and this class of darkies can get all the favors I can possibly give … I doubt the propriety of teaching him in the public schools to run for office or train him for professions, but his training should be equal so far as the appropriations of funds are concerned to that of any other race, but he should be taught agriculture, mechanics and industries that would make of him a being serviceable to society …"

His segregationist stance isn't in question...just curious about the slogan. Perhaps it worked so well, he recycled it.

Another quote credited to Murrary.... (yes, I know...times were different) According to a Time article in 1932, "Now the Negroes, the Indians and the poor white trash of Oklahoma have a Governor," exclaimed "Alfalfa Bill" upon his election, and the 172,198 Negroes and 92,725 Indians of Oklahoma knew he meant it."