George Murray Young

As printed in 1909

GEORGE MURRAY YOUNG.

George Murray Young was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, April 1, 1802, and was of Scotch-Irish descent and parentage, his father, Dr. Hugh Murray Young, who was born in 1742 and died in 1815, having been an early Irish emigrant to America, whose participation in the Emmett rebellion caused him to leave Ireland and seek a refuge in the New World. George Murray Young obtained his education at Exeter and Poughkeepsie Academies. He was fond of study, but, being thrown upon his own resources at an early age by the death of his father, he left school and learned the printer’s trade, becoming both a practical printer and publisher before reaching his majority.

While residing at Lyme, New Hampshire, in the year 1826 he married Sibel Green, a daughter of Benjamin Green of that place, and a granddaughter of Colonel Ebenezer Green, a Revolutionary soldier, whose grave may still be seen in the old Lyme burying ground. Colonel Green had married a daughter of Benjamin Grant, also of Lyme, New Hampshire, who was the great-great-grandfather of Alice and Phoebe Carey and whose parents were also the ancestors of General U. S. Grant.

In 1835 Mr. and Mrs. Young came west with their children and located at Newark, Ohio, where for ten years Mr. Young was extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, being the owner, among other business properties, of a line of boats on the Miami & Erie canal. In the year 1840, having attained prominence in his new home, he became the whig candidate of Licking county for the state senate, and despite that county’s usual strong democratic majority, ran far ahead of his ticket and came within forty votes of an election.

In 1845 Mr Young removed to Cincinnati, where he conducted a large produce and commission business until 1851, when he took up his residence at Dayton, Montgomery county. After coming to Dayton, he retired from mercantile pursuits and served for some years as a justice of the peace, after which, in the year 1854, he was elected mayor of the city and subsequently reelected in 1855. Some years later he was appointed United States commissioner, an office which he filled with credit and ability until his death. His wife died at Dayton in the year 1865.

Mr. Young was pronounced in his opinions and was an earnest friend and supporter of all moral and religious movements, being especially prominent in his labors for the cause of temperance. While residing at Cincinnati, he was grand worthy patriarch of the Sons of Temperance, when that society numbered thirty thousand in Ohio, and he was one of the editors of its official paper, The Organ and Messenger.

He was, from early manhood, a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, by which organization he was elected to many prominent and ret sponsible offices, and in whose charitable and beneficial work he at all times took a warm and active interest. In politics he was first a whig and later a republican, and he was always a bitter and outspoken opponent of negro slavery.

While he resided in New Hampshire and for years after coming to Ohio he was prominently identified with the Congregational church, and when, subsequently, about the year 1869, the local church of that denomination at Dayton passed out of existence he was one of its deacons, and being especially appointed for that purpose, closed its financial affairs and disposed of its property. He, thereafter, at once allied himself with the Third Street Presbyterian church at Dayton, of which he continued a leading member until his death.

Mr. Young’s natural abilities were of a high order. He early made up for his lack of collegiate education by wide and diligent reading, and he was well informed in politics, history and general literature, having at the same time a mind well stored with that diversified practical information which comes from daily intercourse with men and extensive business experience.

While he was never admitted to the bar, he had published law books in his younger years, had read law attentively and had acted to such an extent as notary public, conveyancer, master commissioner and receiver and in other ways closely related to the law and the courts, that his legal knowledge and ability were well recognized and highly respected.

He was a great admirer of the Puritan race and character and was himself the possessor of many pronounced traits which gave marked evidence of his New England birth and education. While naturally modest and retiring in manner, he had the full courage of his strong convictions, and, when aroused, he was outspoken in their advocacy and fearless and uncompromising in their defense. Faultless in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in reputation, he passed away at Dayton, Ohio, August 30, 1878, having always enjoyed in whatever community he lived the unqualified confidence and respect of all with whom he was associated.

As printed in History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio (1909). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.