We are all a little bit guilty. When we look at the pictures in the Lemp Studio Collection or even the photos in our family album, our focus is on the people in the picture. We rarely think about the photographer who took the shot. These are the people who recorded our history and gave us such grand memories.

Tavistock had a photo gallery, perhaps better known as a photo studio, as early as 1878. The early photographers were a transient group, often operating out of several small towns on different days of the week. We know the names of the early photographers … McEwen, Davidson, Elliot and so on. What do we know about them as people, out from under the cloth hood and away from the camera?

Let’s take a look at one of those early photographers. We know him as A.O. Murray. To his family and many friends, he was Addie.

Adrian Osmond Murray was born on August 27, 1878 to Alexander and Margaret (Gould) Murray. Father Alexander was a millwright. The family lived in East Zorra. Little Addie was the fifth child and the fifth boy.

We don’t know much about his childhood or how his interest in photography began other than a possible family connection to J.C. Sutherland, another photographer that operated for awhile in our village.

By 1896, A.O. (as will call him here) had hung out his shingle in Tavistock. His studio was on the second floor of a wooden building on the south side of Woodstock Street where Quehl’s is located today. His good friend, F.H. Leslie, publisher of the Tavistock Gazette, operated out of a room just across the hall.

A.O. lived with his eldest brother William and his family in a rented house on the north side of Hope Street East. From all accounts, he wasn’t home much. A.O. had a busy life with many activities and events recorded in the Gazette.

Lawn tennis tournaments frequently mentioned A.O. as a key player. Sometimes the writeup was comical, as in “The Fat and Thin Tournament”. A.O. and his partner, Fred Krug, won the event and earned the commendation “good for the thinnies”. His debating skills were noteworthy as evidenced by frequent wins at the Tavistock Debating and Literary Society meetings. It wasn’t uncommon for A.O. to be part of poetry readings. In season A.O. played right wing for the Tavistock Marlboros WFA team and served on the Grounds Committee. During the winter he participated in the ice carnivals, once winning first prize for his highland piper costume. When the Tavistock Lodge No. 461 met twice each month in the Society Hall, A.O. was in attendance.

A busy life, indeed. But it didn’t stop there. His good friend, F.H. Leslie, joked (we think) in the newspaper that “We do not believe there is a man in town more sought after by the fair sex than our neighbour. A.O. Murray”. That same good friend also laid claim that A.O.’s banjo-strumming ability was perhaps not his strong suit.

While all of his many interests were enjoyable, it was photography that paid the bills. A.O. was a prolific photographer. We can thank him for many of the photos in the Lemp Studio Collection. Advertisements for his business appeared in the Gazette on a weekly basis, sometimes twice in the same paper. A favourite ad stated “Lady or gent, you are the cruelest alive if you will lead your beauty to the grave and leave the world no perfect copy”.

Business wasn’t quite good enough to keep A.O. in Tavistock. In 1903 he pulled up stakes and moved to Bridgeburg (near Fort Erie) to work for the Grand Trunk Railroad in the Superintendent’s Office and then on to a real estate position in Detroit. Subsequently he became Executive Secretary of the Elizabeth, New Jersey, Chamber of Commerce, a position he held for 50 years. His retirement dinner in 1964 was attended by over 400 people and the gifts included a trip to Europe for A.O. and his wife.

A.O. had married Mabel Beck (also shown as Mabelle Bech) in Manhattan in 1910. His wife at the time of his retirement was Ottillie McCahan who he had married in 1952.

Adrian Osmond Murray died in Roselle Park, Union, New Jersey on July 27, 1980. His name and his work live on in Tavistock in our Lemp Studio Collection photos.

Notes:

(1) The group photo shown with this story is part of the Lemp Studio Collection and featured in “Crossroads In Time”. The inscription reads “This group of photographers and assistants must have worked in Tavistock as the backdrop is the same one used in many of The Lemp Studio negatives. Their names are unknown but are forever etched in glass”.
(2) The young man with the banjo in the single shot is, we believe but are not 100% certain, A.O. Murray during his days in Tavistock.