The earth has tilted in favor of summer sun and heat for the Upper Peninsula, and a great many folks are headed to Murray Bay in Lake Superior.
It’s a favored, sheltered spot for boaters to raft up for a few days of relaxation — or for day and overnight visitors to enjoy the pine-scented, sandy shores of Grand Island.
Looking back in time, two men who shared the surname Murray found their way into texts and articles associated with Grand Island. Their given names were similar enough to make it easy to confuse them: John and James.
So which of these men can we credit with the naming of the large bay that today attracts so many to its clear, deep waters, its sunken ship and the rocky arm of protection known as Muskrat Point?
The answer is John Murray. John came to Grand Island in 1845. This writer has no idea how or why he ended up on the island from Ireland — and, to be fair, that date deserves a disclaimer. “The Centennial History of Alger County” says he arrived in 1847. Two years’ difference is hardly worth quibbling over 178 years later, so let’s move on to the man himself — his known history and the legends that linger, some of which would make fine fodder for a romantic novel.
It is said that John Murray was born into a titled family and educated in Ireland for the priesthood, but he fell in love with a beautiful girl. Having jeopardized his ordination, he was free to marry her — except life got complicated. Folklore claims John’s cousin was also pursuing the same woman. And as often played out in novels and old tales, love triangles back then were sometimes settled by duel. John accepted the challenge and won. Still, the weight of remorse, or perhaps the fallout from it all, overshadowed the promised marriage and inheritance. John left Ireland for New York City.
After working there as a bookkeeper and clerk, he joined a party of surveyors headed to the Upper Peninsula.
By 1867, Munising Township was organized, and we find John Murray — a reclusive soul living in a cabin on his namesake bay — named the first township supervisor. At that time, Munising Township encompassed all of Grand Island Township and what is now Schoolcraft County. It would be reorganized into Alger County in 1905. The first township board meeting took place at the home of Abraham Williams in June 1847.
Williams had brought his family to Grand Island in 1840 and re-established a fur trading post. When he discovered Murray was highly educated, he hired him to teach his children. Murray, evidently gifted at keeping school, spent time among the island’s families educating the younger generation.
Despite what appears to be a humbled existence, Murray’s pride hadn’t disappeared entirely. An old-timer once recalled sitting on a log with him when a steamboat pulled up to replenish its wood supply. A man and two elegantly dressed women came ashore and asked Murray and the old-timer what they were doing there and how they lived. Murray’s Irish temper flared, and he unleashed a sharp rebuke — in Greek, Latin and plain English. The visitors turned and fled back to the boat. The old-timer later remarked, “A man’s dress does not tell what he may have stored away in his dome of thought.” John Murray died in 1876.
Now, James Murray. James arrived in Munising in 1895, working as a bridge builder for the Munising Railroad Co., later acquired by the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. He was not related to John Murray, but his name became just as tied to Grand Island.
James is best remembered as the island’s gamekeeper when CCI took it over in 1900, converting it into a private resort for executives. He served at William Mather’s lodge on the island’s west shore. Mather, CCI president from 1890 to 1940, was an avid sportsman who had the island fenced and stocked with elk, moose, antelope, mountain goats and caribou — turning Grand Island into a private game preserve.
One local story claims that James once rescued Mather in a boating accident. In return, Mather gave him housing, a livelihood and, as the tale goes, a steady monthly ration of whiskey — which James was said to have taken good care of.
Like John, James Murray stayed on the island year-round. Born in Boston in 1835, he was a Civil War veteran who eventually settled in the Midwest. He took out a homestead near Rainy Lake, Minnesota, but became dissatisfied and left — trekking to Duluth in the dead of winter by crossing the 35-mile-long Lake Vermilion in a single day. He later described the experience as “strenuous in the deep snow.”
Known as a gifted storyteller, James could hold court with tales that were, according to those who listened, “as absorbing as the most imaginative fiction.”
James Murray died in 1935 at the age of 100. His funeral at Bowerman’s Funeral Home in Munising was well attended. Pallbearers were chosen from the Alger County Pioneer Association, where he had once served as president. They included Frank Runsat, Robert H. Wright, Dave Fuller, Alf Evanson, Art LaFlam and Octave Perry.
His eulogy described him as “a very fine type of American citizen, loyal to his friends, generous to a fault, faithful to his employment and possessed of that rare type of honesty that commanded the respect of all.”
So if you find yourself anchored in the deep blue waters of Murray Bay this summer, remember both of these pioneers — and the stories that linger just beneath the surface.
