"Alfalfa" Bill Murray in Bolivia

 

                                                                           

                                                    Marion Unger Thede

When I was in the fifth grade and had been playing the violin for about a year, I had the good fortune to have as a teacher at our gradeschool, a wonderful lady named Marion Unger. I remember one day she remarked that I would make a good second violin. At this stage of immaturity I became highly offended that I would become anything but a first violin. Mrs. Unger patiently explained to me that it took a lot of talent to listen and fit in with the other parts of the orchestra, and that playing second fiddle was a very important role. As I found out later, Mrs. Unger  played in the Oklahoma City Symphony, and was the principal of the second violin section. 

While I was making a fool of myself acting offended by Mrs. Unger's compliments, my mother, who almost everyone found it easy to talk to, was getting acquainted with her. As it turned out, her name hadn't always been Unger. Her first husband had been Johnson Murray, the son of "Alfalfa" Bill Murray, and they had gotten married just before "Alfalfa" Bill decided to go down to Bolivia. She was 20 at the time. The conditions in Bolivia were primitive. She had to work hard cooking on an open fire and cleaning by hand, while her husband Johnston worked to build living quarters and prepare the fields for planting. Soon she became pregnant. When the baby came, Johnston Jr., "Alfalfa" Bill said with characteristic confidence, "I'll deliver it. How hard could it be?"

Lucky for everyone, Marion's delivery was easy and little Johnston Jr. was strong and healthy. She got out of there as quick as she could though, returning to Oklahoma, where her mother could help with the baby. 

Meanwhile back in Bolivia, the cotton Murray had planted was eaten by locusts, and the brave souls he had taken with him gave up and returned to Oklahoma. He and his son Johnston were still struggling  to bring in a good crop using local workers, to convince the Bolivian government the project was still viable, and to recruit  more pioneers to join him, when war broke out between Bolivia and Paraguay. That was the last straw for Murray's brainchild, and it was all the remaining settlers could do to get out before they were caught in the conflict. "Alfalfa" Bill had sunk all the money he had raised, around $84,000, into the Bolivian project. He and his son Johnston returned home penniless. Johnson worked for a while for Standard Oil in Bolivia and then went to law school. His father, "Alfalfa" Bill, borrowed $42 from the Bank of Tishomingo and ran for governor of Oklahoma. 

Marion got a job teaching to support herself and her son, and she and Johnson Murray never got back together. She continued to teach English, Spanish and violin, and to perform. Over the years she developed an interest in folk music and travelled throughout the state and the country, visiting fiddle players and  collected their tunes. She developed her own notation system for transcribing their styles and in 1969 published a collection of 150 fiddle tunes, The Fiddle Book, under her final name, Marion Thede. The book is still a stand by for would be fiddlers. It's one of my prized possessions. 

Alfalfa Bill Murray and the Chickasaws

 

 

                                                     

                                                             "Alfalfa" Bill Murray

 

I mentioned Bill Murray, 9^th governor of Oklahoma, in my last post, and it reminded me that I know a few more tidbits about him than I included in my brief characterization.

 First of all, Murray owed his prominent place in Oklahoma history to the Chickasaw Indian Tribe, my tribe. He was born in Texas, in 1869 – he was actually older than my grandparents, who was born in 1876 and 77. He was an enterprising young man, and by the time he came to Indian Territory in 1898, he had already earned a college degree in education, passed the Texas state bar, and run for the Texas state senate. In Indian Territory he began farming, started a law practice handling Indian land claims, got acquainted with Douglas Johnson, the Chickasaw Governor, and married his niece, Mary Alice Hearell.  

 At that time the Indian nations’ land had been divided into allotments and distributed to tribal members. Many of the Indians had no concept of the value of their allotments since their tradition was for tribal land to be held in common, so they were easy targets for unscrupulous men who would have them sign over their land for a pittance. Indian children were assigned guardians who would sell their land and squander the proceeds - that happened to my grandfather and his brother - and there were many marriages that lasted only long enough for the husband to obtain an allotment by claiming to be an intermarried tribal citizen[1]. The Chickasaws needed plenty of legal advice to protect their interests.

  

State of Sequoyah

 

When the issue of Oklahoma statehood arose, the tribes petitioned Congress to be admitted to the Union as a separate state, the state of Sequoyah, in honor of the creator of the Cherokee alphabet. I have a map of the proposed state of Sequoyah hanging in my study. The Indians held a constitutional convention. Bill Murray was a delegate, as was my grandfather, William H. Paul[2]. Murray was a vice-president of the convention, and my grandfather was assistant secretary. The constitution was ratified by Indian Territory in a landslide vote of 86%, but the Indians’ quest for statehood failed, partly because the Republican controlled Congress was unwilling to admit two Democratic states, and partly because of racial prejudice against Indians, but when the Oklahoma constitutional convention was held, Bill Murray was elected president, and the Sequoyah constitution was used as a model.

 

                                                                    William H Paul

 

A lot has been made of Bill Murray’s gruff, uncouth manners, and personality, but he was a brilliant lawyer and politician. He was Speaker of Oklahoma’s first legislature, and then served two terms in Congress. After an unsuccessful run a third term, he returned to his farm and his law practice, but, always restless, Murray soon cooked up a scheme to start an agricultural colony in Bolivia. In 1924, he packed up his family and headed for South America.

 

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[1] Angie Debo. And Still the Waters Run, Princeton, NJ,  Princeton University Press, 1940

[2] "Convention of Mock Heroes,” Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, 22 Aug. 1905