Eli Houston Murray (10 February 1843 – 18 November 1896) was the Republican Governor of the Utah Territory from 1880 to 1886, succeeding George W. Emery and preceding Caleb Walton West.
Biography[]
Eli Houston Murray was born in Cloverport, Kentucky in 1843, and he served as a brigadier-general in the Union Army's 3rd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment during the American Civil War before serving as US Marshal for Kentucky on the war's end and staying in that post until 1875. He went on to serve as Governor of thet Utah Territory from 1880 to 1886, openly backing the Liberal Party of Utah. He failed to prevent Mormon leader George Q. Cannon from being elected delegate to the US House of Representatives by arguing that he was an un-naturalized alien (as he was from Liverpool); he initially issued certification to the Liberal Allen G. Campbell, but the state house entered Cannon's name on its roll. In 1882, the US Congress rejected both candidates, bringing the question of polygamy to national attention. Murray died in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1896.