Alexander Howison Murray Jr. (1907–1993), known as Sandy Murray, was a two-time mayor of

Placerville, California Placerville (, ; formerly Old Dry Diggings, Dry Diggings, and Hangtown) is a city in and the county seat of El Dorado County, California. The population was 10,747 as of the 2020 census, up from 10,389 as of the 2010 census. It is part of the Sa ...

and three-time president of the county's chamber of commerce, who championed regional development, including the building of U.S. Route 50 in California (US 50) and was a regular page-one name in the ''

Placerville Mountain Democrat The ''Placerville Mountain Democrat'' (known locally as the ''Mountain Democrat'' or simply ''Democrat'') is the newspaper of El Dorado County, California, based in Placerville and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the State of Ca ...

''.

Background

Alexander Howison Murray Jr. was born on April 18, 1907, in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. His parents were Scottish-American Alexander Howison Murray, Sr., and Spanish-Irish-American Katharine da la Ossa Kevane. He was also a fifth-generation "

Californio Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

" descended from

Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné (1766? – June 11, 1878) was a Californio who was '' mayordoma'' of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and grantee of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual in the San Rafael Hills, in present-day Los Angeles County, Cal ...

(1766–1878). In 1924, Murray graduated Long Beach High School. He studied economics the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(which he reached by boat or train from Long Beach). He graduated a year late in 1930 due to financial pressures brought on by the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

(which started in 1929).

Career

In 1930, Murray took a trip with college friends to Placerville, where he met his future wife, Isadeen Raffetto. He returned to live there (1934–1991).

Business

In 1929, Murray got a job with

Union Oil Company Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...

Barstow, California Barstow is a city in San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Located in the Inland Empire region of California, the population was 25,415 at the 2020 census. Barstow is an important crossroads for the I ...

. In 1934, he moved to his wife's hometown of Placerville, where they bought and ran Murray's

stationery Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...

store (a landmark business founded by J.C. O'Donnell as a tobacco shop in 1888) at 311 Main Street until 1949. In 1944 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he joined in the US Navy through 1945; his wife ran the store in his absence. In June 1949, they sold the stationery store to Edward H. Durbin, following Murray's purchase of the El Dorado Distributing company from George Yeager. From 1949 until retirement, he operated El Dorado Distributing, a beverage wholesaling business that introduced into northeastern California and western Nevada the wines of

Charles Krug Charles Krug (1825–1892) was among the pioneers of winemaking in the Napa Valley, California, and was the founder of the Charles Krug Winery. Biography Charles Krug visited the United States from Prussia in 1847, and became a citizen in 1852. ...

Robert Mondavi Robert Gerald Mondavi (June 18, 1913 – May 16, 2008) was an American winemaker. His technical and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi promoted label ...

Paul Masson Paul Masson (1859 – October 22, 1940) was an early pioneer of California viticulture known for his brand of Californian sparkling wine. Biography Masson emigrated from the Burgundy region of France in 1878 (at the age of 19) to Californi ...

, and

Ernest Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic languages, Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman ...

and

Julio Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) *Julio (surname) *Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...

Gallo. By 1975, Murray had retired from business.

Politics

In 1942, Murray became mayor of Placerville for the first time. In April 1946, Murray ran un-opposed for Placerville City Council. In April 1948, he was re-elected to city council. From 1950 to 1952, he served a second term as mayor of Placerville. In 1976, he ran and won a council seat again. Later that year, Murray and fellow councilmen Andy Anderson and Mark Tetrault came under fire from the mayor and other councilmen for leading a 3–2 vote in an amendment to reduce appointive powers of the city manager. Murray was among several councilors recalled in March 1977. In the late 1940s, Murray led town officials in a successfully campaign to have US 50 constructed through Placerville, which the State of California completed in 1953. "To help draw attention to the highway and promote businesses along it, he helped organize the first ' Forty-Niner' Festival and Wagon Train (or Wagon Caravan) event in 1949," which he supported annually as late as 1962 when he served as "chairman for the annual Highway 50 Snow Ball." He continued to support the highway by serving on the board of the National Highway 50 federation with California Senator Swift Berry as chairman. In 1975, Murray took out papers to run again for city council. In the late 1980s, Murray was still weighing in on town affairs. In a letter to the editor of the ''Mountain Democrat'' dated May 19, 1986, he praised El Dorado County Supervisor Bob Dorr as well as the ''Mountain Democrat'' itself over the issue of "toxic polluters." In another letter dated June 8, 1987, he called on fellow citizens to rally support for a

South Fork American River The South Fork American River is a major tributary of the American River in El Dorado County, California, draining a watershed on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento. The river begins in pristine Desolation Wilderness and fl ...

(SOFAR) project. (The South Fork American River is a major tributary of the

American River , name_etymology = , image = American River CA.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = The American River at Folsom , map = Americanrivermap.png , map_size = 300 , map_caption ...

El Dorado County El Dorado County (), officially the County of El Dorado, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 191,185. The county seat is Placerville. The County is part of the Sacramento- Roseville-A ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, that drains a watershed on the western slope of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

east of

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

. The river begins in pristine

Desolation Wilderness The Desolation Wilderness is a federally protected wilderness area in the Eldorado National Forest and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, in El Dorado County, California. The crest of the Sierra Nevada runs through it, just west of Lake Tahoe. H ...

and flows through the Sierra Nevada foothills. The river at Coloma was the site of James Marshall's discovery of gold at

Sutter's Mill Sutter's Mill was a water-powered sawmill on the bank of the South Fork American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California. It was named after its owner John Sutter. A worker constructing the mill, James W. Marshall, found gold t ...

on January 24, 1848, which started the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

Community

Murray served many years also on the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce and served as a director, committee chair, and president (elected 1935, 1937 1954). Murray helped organize local support for the

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Vall ...

at Squaw Valley. He was also active in the

Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight. ...

, the Placerville

Lions Club The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , ...

, and the

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

Post 119.

Personal life and death

Murray married third-generation Italian-American Isadeen Adela Raffetto (1910-1998), daughter of

John Augustus Raffetto John Augustus Raffetto, Sr. (March 1, 1864 October 11, 1954) was an Italian-American businessman who founded the First National Bank of Placerville and ran the Ivy House and Cary House hotels. Background John Augustus Raffetto Sr. was born ...

of Placerville, California; they had two daughters. Murray was bilingual in Spanish and English. "He was a member of the

Native Sons of the Golden West The Native Sons of the Golden West is a fraternal service organization founded in the U.S. state of California in 1875, dedicated to historic preservation, documentation of historic structures and places in the state, the placement of historic p ...

and all his life remained interested in American history, particularly that of California's and its transformation with the discovery of oil and the influx of new residents during and after World War II." By 1949, Murray was a member of

E Clampus Vitus The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization dedicated to the preservation of the heritage of Western United States, the American West, especially the history of the Mother Lode#California Mother Lode, Mother ...

of Old Hangtown, of which his father-in-law John Augustus Raffetto was head. In 1955, E Clampus Vitus elected him Noble Grand Humbug. He was also a board member of the local Rod and Gun Club, of which his brother-in-law Lloyd A. Raffetto was a director. Murray converted from

Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

and spent his last active years as an elder in St. Patrick's Catholic parish of Placerville. In 1991, Murray and his wife moved East to live near their daughters. "With them goes a wealth of knowledge about the El Dorado County area in the earlv 1900s," noted the ''Mountain Democrat''. Murray died age 86 on October 26, 1993, in

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

renal failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

Legacy

Murray made several notable and long-term contributions to California by championing: * 1940s: US 50, which, connects

West Sacramento West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River, which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. It is a fast-growing community; the p ...

from

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

to the

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

state line at

South Lake Tahoe South Lake Tahoe is the most populous city in El Dorado County, California, United States, in the Sierra Nevada. The city's population was 21,330 at the 2020 census, down from 21,403 at the 2010 census. The city, along the southern edge of Lake ...

, still remembered in Placerville with "Wagon Train" celebrations. * 1950s: Local support for the

at Squaw Valley * 1980s: Preservation of the

– today "the most popular recreation stream in the West" for whitewater rafting in North America, e.g., 80,000 visitors in 2011.

References

External links

Calisphere: Murray, Alexander Howison Jr

Recording Part 1

Recording Part 2

Photo of Sandy Murray 1977
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Alexander Howison, Jr. 1907 births 1993 deaths Mayors of places in California Californios American people of Spanish descent American people of Scottish descent American people of Irish descent People from El Dorado County, California People from Long Beach, California 20th-century American politicians Catholics from California University of California, Berkeley alumni