The Cox-Murray family is best described when relationships are drawn to Maggie Cox, the donor of the collection, and former librarian at the University of Texas at Austin. Her father, Ben Cox, attended White Point High School in Concho County, Texas, and worked in livestock, including sheep and cattle trading. Additionally, he was a member of the Agricultural Conservation Program, 1936-1939. Maggie’s maternal grandparents, Annie and Zack M. Murray, saved letters from their World War II soldier sons and nephews, 1942-1945. Dan Malloy is Maggie Cox’s nephew, her sister’s son.
The most frequent writer was Maggie’s uncle John Carol Murray (brother of Evelyn
Murray), nicknamed Pete, who was a waist gunner on a B-29 bomber and survived many
bombing missions over Japan with
An ancestor of John Carroll Murray, Baptist missionary and minister Zachariah Martin Wells (1829–1896) was born in Maury County, Tennessee. In 1857, he moved to a farm in Burleson County, Texas, with his wife and son. After the death of his first wife and two sons from illness in 1861, he married Nancy Autry of Caldwell, and moved to San Saba County in 1875. Affiliated with the San Saba Baptist Association, Wells was a pastor to numerous Baptist churches in Edwards, Lampasas, Mills, San Saba, and Menard Counties throughout the 1870s and 1880s. In 1889, Wells settled on a tract of land between present-day Moore and Norman, Oklahoma, and established Baptist churches in both towns. A tornado in 1893 destroyed Wells’ farm, but spared his life.
Source: Flores, Vetal. “Wells, Zachariah Martin.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed
on April 7, 2011.
The Cox-Murray Family Papers, 1920-1961, include letters, military documents, school records, ranch records, military records, photographs, memorabilia, scrapbook pages, printed materials, and financial and legal records. The letters, from John Caroll Murray and others to Zack M. and Annie Murray, concern World War II war experiences and family matters. Letters from Carroll Henry Hall (1895-1976) to his family describe his experiences during World War I. Also included are school records and ranch records, Concho County, Texas, of Ben Cox. The papers contain Dan Malloy’s military records and Evelyn Murray’s school and person records. The collection also includes two letters, one written by Wells and the other by his daughter, Georgia, describing Wells’ survival during through a tornado in 1893. Furthermore, the collection includes photographs of the Murray and Cox family members.
The collection is open for research use.
Cox-Murray Family Papers, 1920-1961, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s