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348 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

in June, 1866, and established the firm of Murchison & Com-

pany, the members of the firm being himself, his brother,
David RK. Murchison, George W. Williams, of Wilmington,
and John D. Williams, of Fayetteville. This firm did a very
large and profitable business for some years, the New York
house being managed by Colonel Murchison, under the name
of Murchison & Company. The Wilmington house was known

as Williams & Murchison, and the Fayetteville connection was
known as John D. Williams & Company.

Colonel Murchison lived in New York after the war, but
generally spent the winter in North Carolina. In the year 1880
he bought the old historic plantation called “Orton,” the family
seat of “King” Roger Moore, situated about sixteen miles be-
low Wilmington, on the west side of the Cape Fear, and the
southernmost of all the old rice plantations on that river, and
he expended a large amount of money in restoring it to its
former condition and improving it in various ways to satisfy
his taste. Within its boundary was the colonial parish church
and churchyard of St. Philip’s, and this interesting ruin with

its consecrated grounds was conveyed in fee simple by Colonel
Murchison and his brother, David R. Murchison, to the diocese
of North Carolina. It is now carefully preserved by the North
Carolina Society of Colonial Dames of America. Orton has

always been a paradise of sportsmen, and the colonel was very
fond of hunting. It was his custom to bring some of his friends
down from the North every winter, and give them the oppor-

tunity to enjoy the old-time hospitality, which he dispensed
with a lavish hand. It was here that those who loved him best
and who were loved by him spent their happiest days. ‘The rest-
ful seclusion of this grandest of all colonial homes, with its broad
acres and primeval forests, was most grateful to him and to his
intimate associates after the storm and stress of war and the
subsequent struggles of business life. It was here that the
austerity of worldly contact was relaxed and the manifold hu-
manities of a gentle, kindly life unfolded. He never spoke of
his own exploits, nor did he willingly recall the horrors of the
four years’ war. He loved to roam the woods with his faithful
dogs, to linger for hours in the secluded sanctuary of the game
he sought so eagerly, and the sight of his triumphant return
from an exciting chase, with Reynard at the saddlebow, sur-
rounded by his yelping pack of English hounds, would rouse the
dullest of his guests to exclamations of delight.

The War Between the States 349

Colonel Murchison was also the joint owner with his brother
David of the celebrated Caney River hunting preserve, in the
wildest part of the mountains of North Carolina, where they
spent the summers of several happy years along the fourteen
miles of ‘trout streams of icy waters. Within this splendid do-
main is some of the most picturesque of American mountain
scenery, including Mount Mitchell and the neighboring peaks.
It is the scene of big Tom Wilson’s hunting and trapping ex-
ploits, and Wilson still survives as the custodian of the magnifi-
cent forest and stream, to tell the curious stranger in his own
peculiar way how he found the body of the great naturalist
whose name Mount Mitchell bears.

Colonel Murchison’s striking personality was likened by those
who knew him to that of the great German chancellor, Prince

Bismarck, in his younger years. The commanding figure and
uncompromising expression, which characterized his outward

life, suggested a military training beyond that of his war
experience, and this was in strange contrast to his inner life, a
knowledge of which disclosed a sympathetic tenderness for all
suffering or afflicted humanity. He preferred and practiced the
simple life; his wants were few and easily supplied. A notable
characteristic was his exceeding devotion to his five surviving
children; he was proud of them and of their loyal love to him,
and he made them his constant companions. He gave to worthy
charities with a liberal and unostentatious hand. His patriotic
spirit responded quickly to every public emergency, and his local

pride was manifested in the building and equipment, at a great
expense, of “The Orton,” when a good hotel was needed in

Wilmington, and when no one else would venture the invest-
ment.

During the last fifteen years of his honored life, Colonel
Murchison gradually withdrew from the activities of strenuous
business cares, and with the first frosts of autumn resumed
control at Orton Plantation. He left it in June of 1904 in the
vigor and spirits of abounding health, to meet, a few days later,
the sudden call of the Messenger of Death, whom he had never
feared. So lived and died a man of whom it may be said, “We
ne’er shall see his like again.” He was an example of splendid
physical manhood, of broad experience, of unyielding integrity,
pure in heart and in speech, with the native modesty of a woman

and the courage of a lion. He was especially sympathetic and
generous to his negro servitors, who regarded him with loving

veneration.