Dr. James Brickell Murfree

DR. JAMES BRICKELL MURFREE. One of the most prominent physicians of Middle Tennessee, who died at Murfreesboro Wednesday night, April 24th, 1912. Dr. Murfree was born in Murfreesboro Sept. 16, 1835. His father was Mathias B. Murfree, a farmer and a son of Col. Hardy Murfree, for whom Murfreesboro was named. Col. Hardy Murfree was a native of North Carolina and a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Mary Ann (Roberts) Murfree, mother of Dr. Murfree, was a native of North Carolina.

James B. Murfree was educated in Union University, at Murfreesboro, from which institution he received the degree of A. M. He attended one course of lectures in the medical department of the University of Nashville and went to Philadelphia and entered the Jefferson Medical College. There he received his degree as M. D., in March, 1859. He practiced in Murfreesboro until the breaking out of the Civil War, in 1861, when he enlisted in Company I, First Tennessee regiment, from which company he was detailed as medical officer to care for the sick. He was appointed assistant surgeon by the State of Tennessee. On June 9, [1861], he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Confederate Army, which position he continued to hold until July 6, 1862, when he was appointed surgeon, and was retained in that position to the close of the war.

After the war he returned to Murfreesboro, where he practiced alone for two years, was in partnership with Dr. L. W. Knight during 1868, then associated with Dr. H. H. Clayton, from 1869 to 1878, and since then had practiced alone. In 1898 he took a post-graduate course in general surgery in the New York Polyclinic Institute. He was a member of the Rutherford County Medical Society, ex-President of the Middle Tennessee Medical Association, ex-President of the Tennessee Medical Society, and ex-President of the Tri-State Medical Society, the last named embracing Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee; was a member of the Southern Surgical Gynecological Association; a member of the American Medical Association, a contributor to the medical journals, was professor of surgery in the medical department of the University of the South, at Sewanee, which position he held from 1895 until shortly before his last illness began.

He was local surgeon for the N. C. & St. L. Railway, medical examiner for the New York, the Aetna, the Washington, the Mutual Life of New York, and several other old line life insurance companies. He was a member of the Democratic party. He was a member of and an elder in the Presbyterian Church; belonged to Mt. Moriah Lodge of Masons, Pythagoras Chapter No. 150, Murfreesboro Commandery No. 10, Knights Templar, thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Consistory at Nashville.

He was married Jan. 14, 1862, to Ada Juliet Talley, of Readyville, Tenn., who survives him with the following children: Hardy, Jane Ready, wife of W. J. Nance; Ada Morrow, wife of C. B. Huggins; Fannie Hancock, wife of T. V. Ordway; Libbie Morrow and Mary Robert Murfree and Dr. M. B. Murfree.

In honor of his capable and faithful services for over half a century in the town in which he was born, lived and died, all the business houses closed their doors on the day of his burial. Universally loved and esteemed by his family, the community in which he lived, and by the whole medical profession in the State, he justly earned a most enviable reputation by the faithful discharge of every duty.

SOURCE: Deering J. Roberts, Southern Practitioner, Volume 34, p. 253-5