Daniel G. Murley. One of the substantial agriculturists and stock growers of Alfalfa County and former representative of this county in the State Legislature, Mr. Murley is known for his public spirit, his unbounded civic loyalty and his progressiveness and energy in connection with the industrial activities to which he is giving his attention.

On a farm in Macon County, Missouri, Daniel Griffin Murley was born on the 25th of October, 1803, and he is a son of Daniel and Martha A. (Waddle) Murley, whose marriage was solemnized in 1859. Daniel Murley was born in Monroe County, Kentucky, on the 23d of June, 1823, and he was thus about twelve years old when, in 1835, he accompanied his parents on their immigration to Macon County, Missouri, where his father and mother passed the residue of their lives and where he himself was reared to maturity and received the advantages of the common schools of the period. He became one of the prominent and influential citizens of Macon County, where he served for a time as county surveyor and later as county judge–preferments which indicate that he was a man of marked ability and one who had secure place in popular esteem. In 1872 he became one of the pioneer settlers in Sumner County, Kansas, where he entered claim to a tract of government land and where he continued his operations as an agriculturist until 1883, when, at the age of sixty years, be retired from active labors, the residue of his long and worthy life having been passed at Kansas City, Missouri, where he died in 1904, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. His political allegiance was given to the democratic party, and he was for many years affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1859, as previously noted, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Martha A. Waddle, who was born in Macon County, Missouri, in 1835, her father, Edley Waddle, having been a native of Kentucky and a pioneer of Macon County, Missouri. Mrs. Murley was summoned to the life eternal on the 12th of May, 1866, and was survived by three children, the eldest of whom is William P., who was born October 24, 1861, who came to Oklahoma at the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, and who is now one of the prosperous farmers of Alfalfa County; he wedded, in 1882, Miss Rhea M. Davis, and they have five children, Zula, Neva, Ruby, Alta and Ruth. Daniel G. Murley of this review was the second of the three children. Martha A., who was born May 11, 1866, is the wife ot Jacob Frank, an electrician, and they reside at Rosedale, Kansas, their three children being Carl, Jacob, Jr., and Julia.

Daniel G. Murley acquired his rudimentary education in the schools of his native county and was a lad of about nine years at the time of the family removal to Sumner County, Kansas, where he was reared to adult age on the pioneer farm of his father and where he continued to attend school as opportunity afforded. At the age of fifteen years, vigorous and self-reliant, he initiated his career as a cowboy in Indian Territory, and later he drifted into Texas, where he gained wide and varied experience in connection with life on the great cattle ranges and at farm work, to which lines of enterprise he gave his attention for a quarter of a century. Within these years he made many trips with herds of cattle which he assisted in driving along the olden trails from the Lone Star State to Dodge City and other shipping points on the Kansas border. He has an interesting fund of personal reminiscences concerning the pioneer days of the great open ranges, when buffalo were still much in evidence on the plains and when hostile Indians were frequently encountered. He had numerous thrilling adventures and narrow escapes, but reverts with satisfaction to experiences which progress and opulent prosperity have made impossible of repetition in our great national domain.

Mr. Murley has the distinction of being one of the true pioneers of the present State of Oklahoma, since he “made the run” into the territory at the time when it was thrown open for settlement, in 1889. He did not, however, enter claim to any land, as he shared at the time the common opinion of the cattlemen that the land was fit only for grazing purposes. He retained his cattle and ranch interests in Comanche County, Kansas, where he continued his operations in the cattle business until 1898, when he established his residence in what is now Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. In 1900 he located in the old town of Augusta and later established his headquarters at Carmen, in which locality in Alfalfa County he was actively engaged in farming and the raising of live stock for ten years, having been also a successful buyer and shipper of live stock. He is still identified with these lines of enterprise and is the owner of valuable farm property in Alfalfa County, though he maintains his residence at Cherokee, the county seat.

Mr. Murley is a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies of the democratic party and as a candidate on its ticket he had the distinction of being elected the first representative of Alfalfa County in the Oklahoma Legislature after the admission of the state to the Union, in 1907. He was assigned to various important committees and was zealous and loyal in his work as a legislator during the formative period of the state government, his services being now an integral part of the history of this favored commonwealth. Mr. Murley is a well known and popular citizen of Alfalfa County, a prominent buyer and shipper of live stock and a public-spirited man who takes deep interest in the vigorous commonwealth in which he is a veritable pioneer and of the wonderful progress of which he has been a witness. Mr. Murley is a bachelor, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and its adjunct organization, the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan, and also with the Modern Woodmen of America.