Summering in Saratoga

#onthisday in 1923 it was reported* Mrs. Ian Murray of Peterboro, Canada is spending the summer months as the guest of her parents Surrogate and Mrs. Ostrander at their home on Prospect Hill. * Reported in the Hudson Valley Times on 9 June 1923.* Gretchen Pond Ostrander (17 March 1897 – 13 April 1973) was the daughter of William Ostrander (28 Jun 1958 – 22 Jun 1924) and Cora Eliza Laing (21 Sept 1859 – 1 Feb 1935). Mr. Ostrander was well known in the community serving as the town historian, supervisor, and Surrogate of Saratoga County. Gretchen Pond Ostrander was a teacher in Manhattan. She shows up in the 1930 and 1940 census as head of her family (just her and her two children) living in East Harlem. In 1973, Ostrander passes away in St. Jose, California. * In 1922, Ian McDonald Murray (1897 – 1983) and Gretchen Pond Ostrander were married at the Historic Trinity Chapel in Manhattan. Ian McDonald Murray was born in New Brunswick, Canada and grew up in Schuylerville. He moved to Schuylerville, when his father, Alexander Murray took the appointment as the Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (A. Murray was Rector from 1912 to 1924). Ian Murray was a good athlete at Schuylerville High School in 1915. He went to Cornwall, Ontario and joined the company C of the 42nd Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada – the Black Watch on 1 May 1916. (His brother, Alex joined the same battalion a month later in Quebec. His brother, Hugh became a gunner in the Canadian Corps of Heavy Artillery on 17 May 1917 in Quebec.). He was wounded twice in 1918 on 26 February and the 26 August. His first injury was in training near Villers au Bois in north west France. His second injury during the general attack on Monchy-le-Preux and Orange Hill, Battle of the Scarpe. His unit was in conflict all day with some specific work on clearing a maze of heavily wired trenches. Ian Murray ends up at general hospital No. 14 at Wimereux. His battalion was disbanded in Montreal on 11 March 1919. On 31 March 1919, Murray had returned home to Schuylerville after two years in the Canadian forces. The history of Ian Murray becomes difficult to follow. It looks like he receives a divorce. Then he married Margaret Alexander in 1939. He is listed as a farmer in New Brunswick, Canada. There is a gravestone that says he was a Major but we could not find his additional service record.* Ian and Gretchen Murray had two children, David (1924 – 17 Dec 1944) and Mary (1928 – 7 Dec 2012). Tragically, David Murray was killed in action serving with the US Army during the Battle of the Bulge in World War 2. Murray was a victim of the Malmedy massacre, which was a war crime committed by members of a German Waffen-SS unit led by Joachim Peiper, at Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, Belgium, on December 17, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. * Saratoga has been defined by the people who by choice or by chance make up this community. The Murray family served our community, county, and country in various ways. It is the determination of our forefathers, including Ian Murray in surmounting odds that help define the American and our allies the Canadian spirit – the will and ability to shape a better future. It is the people it is that define this community by choice or by chance have changed this country and even the world political development. That is why studying the people of Saratoga is integral to a good understanding of the condition of being human