The Murphy Families of Greene County, Missouri

JOHN H. MURPHY.

This gentleman is the son of William and Isabella (Rider) Murphy, and was born in Pittsylvania county% Virginia, December 11, 1807. His parents moved to Edgar county. 111., in 1819, and at the age of twenty John went to Danville, Ill., and entered the law office of John J. Brown, a prominent attorney of that place. He was admitted to the bar in 1838, and practiced there until 1853. In 1836 he was elected, upon the Whig ticket, to the Illinois Legislature, from Vermillion county, and served until 1840. In 1853 he moved to Alton, Ill., where he lived twelve years, and in 1865 went to Topeka, Kansas, and was appointed district judge for one term. While at Alton he was a member of the city council for seven years. He was receiver of the land office at Danville, Ill., appointed by President Taylor. He has been U. S. commissioner both in Illinois and at Springfield, Mo. He came here in August, 1867, and practiced law for about five years, and has held the office of city treasurer and recorder. He was married in December, 1829, in Danville, Ill., to Miss Cynthiana Alexander. Their union was best with four children, but one of whom is now living, William, at Alton, Ill. His first wife died March 24, 1840, and upon the 8th of December following, he was married to Miss Ada Pinsoii. Mr. Murphy's father died June 16. 1840, and his mother, at the age of eighty-eight, upon the 16th of December, 1870, in Edgar county, Ill. Thev had seven children, three sons and four daughters. Mrs. McCowan, of Edgar county, ill., and John H., are the only children living.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

LAAVRENCE J. MURPHY.

There is a great deal of satisfaction to the biographer in contemplating a life like that of Lawrence J. Murphy, former superintendent of the Springfield Wagon Company, the prestige of which he has done much to augment, having been connected with the same for over a quarter of a century or ever since he cast his lot with the people of Greene county. He seems to have inherited many of the traits that win in the battle of life from his sterling Irish ancestors and there is added interest in his career in view of the fact that he is one of our honored veterans of the Civil war,, having fought gallantly for the Union during its great crisis a half century ago. Having lived a wholesome life, kept a clear conscience and thought rightly as well as kept busy, he is still hale and active although well past his allotted three score and ten years, which limit was set by the great Psalmist on man’s mortal life.

(Mr. Murphy was born, March 25, 1837, in Seneca county in the state of New York, and he is a son of Timothy and (Margaret (Desmond) Murph\', I)oth parents born in Ireland, where they" grew to maturity and were educated and married in the city of Cork. They remained in the Emerald Isle until 1827 when they emigrated to the United States and settled in the state of New York. The father devoted his life to farming and became well established in the New AA’orld through his industry. Politically, he was a Democrat. His family consisted of seven children, only two of whom erenow living, namely: AAilliam died in 1900: John is deceased; Mary died in 1850: Daniel is deceased: Lawrence J., of this review; Abby is deceased t Timotb.y is the youngest and lives in Dubuque, Iowa, and is secretary of the school board.

Lawrence J. Murphy was reared partly in the Empire state and there assisted his father with the general work on the farm when he was a boy, and he received his education in the common schools. However, he was only eleven years old when he removed with the family to Illinois in 1850, and on to Iowa in a short time, and in that year the father died.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

MICHAEL J. MURPHY.

It is indeed hard to find among our cosmopolitan civilization, people of better habits of life, taking it all in all, than those who originally came from the fair Emerald Isle or their immediate descendants. They are distinguished for their thrift, wit, consecutive industry, patriotism and loyalty, and these qualities in the inhabitants of any country will in the end alone make that country great. One of the well-known engineers of the Frisco is Michael J. Murphy, who has long resided in Springfield, a man of Celtic blood and of the second generation of Irish in America. He hails originally from the Crescent City of the far South.

Mr. Murphy was born on January 1, 1861, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is a son of Michael 1). and Dorothy Ann (O'Dwyre) Murphy, both born, reared and married in Ireland and there resided until 1854, when they emigrated to the United States, first locating in New York state, then, in 1859, went to New Orleans, and in 1861, when the Civil war began, they came north to Rolla. Missouri, when our subject was an infant. In 1847 Michael D. Murphy took part in the Smith-O'Brien rebellion. He escaped and went to Australia, and after a separation of seven years rejoined his wife, and they came to America. He was a railroad levee contractor. His death occurred in September, 1872, at Rolla, this state. His widow subsequently removed to Springfield, where her death occurred in 1892. To these parents four children were born, namely: Jeremiah, Charles E., Mary, are all deceased, and Michael J., of this sketch.

Mr. Murphy, our subject, had little chance to receive an extensive education. However, he is a self-made man. On April 1. 1879. he went to work for the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company in a stone quarry at Rolla, later coming with an extra gang to Springfield and helped put in the foundation for a turntable and roundhouse at the North Side shops. In 1880 he was given a position as fireman out of Springfield and was promoted to freight engineer in 1889, and to regular passenger engineer in 1901. and has retained this responsible position ever since, being regarded by the company as one of its most efficient and trustworthy engineers. His present run is between Springfield and Xewburg.

For three years he traveled as special representative of the Frisco in fourteen different states, and did his work most acceptably. Since August 15, 1914, Mr. Murphy has been devoting his time on the "Safety First" movement in accident prevention for the conservation of human life and limb of the employees and patrons of the Frisco system, and because of the increased cost of materials used and consumed by the railroads and the increased cost in taxes, interest and wages and the decrease of 33 1-3 per cent, in passenger revenue and decrease of 21 per cent, in freight revenue, due to the two-cent passenger fare and the maximum freight rate in Missouri, resulting in placing the Frisco and other Missouri railroads in a position where their earnings are not sufficient to meet cost of operation and maintenance, interest and taxes, the roads are forced to retrench and cut down expenses. This could only be done by the laying off of men in shops, in the office and in the bridge and building departments and the purchase of less material, such as ties, ballast, steel rails, bridges, and building materials. This retrenchment on the part of the railroads placed over forty thousand wage-earners, skilled and unskilled, idle, leaving them unable to purchase the necessaries of life, which in turn affected the retail and wholesale merchants and producing classes of the state. To overcome those conditions and to start the wheels of progress moving, to find employment for the idle men. Air..Murphy on February 3, 1915, organized the Railway Employees' Protective Association, and by and through this organization in the state of Missouri secured the signatures of bankers, farmers, merchants, manufacturers, and members of organized labor to petitions aggregating in the whole the signatures of over 750,000 of the above citizens of Missouri and mailed those petitions and signatures to the members of the Forty-eighth General Assembly of Missouri asking for a repeal of the maximum 2-cent passenger fare, restoration of the 3-cent passenger rate, and that the public service commission of Missouri to adjust and grant a fair equitable equalization of rates Missouri, and for the future Mr. Murphy will be engaged making this movement nation-wide in its scope, so that capital will be encourage to invest in railroad securities, so that the credit of the railroads will be restored, so that capital and labor will be in a position under wise and just laws, state and national, to furnish the transportation facilities so essential to the future development of the internal resources of Missouri and of the nation as a whole.

Mr. Murphy was married on September 27. 1887, in Rolla. Missouri, to Mary A. Powers, a native of that city. She is a daughter of James and

Winifred C. (Condron) Powers, both natives of Ireland. They spent their early days in their native land and finally emigrated to the United States. Mr. Powers was in the employ of the Frisco Railroad for a number of years. His death occurred on July 10, 1878, in Rolla. Mrs. Murphy's mother died in Springfield on May 19, 1900. The wife of our subject was reared and educated in Rolla, attending the public and Catholic schools.

To Mr. and Mrs. Murphy two children have been born, namely: Charles Edward, born on August jo, 1888, in Springfield, was educated in the public and high schools here; he is a machinist by trade and is living at home. Blanche May, born on January 11, 1890, in Springfield, attended the local public and high schools and later business college; she married C. N. King, who is with the International Harvester Company, and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. King were married on May 10, 19 10, and one child has been born to them, Jack Weldon, whose birth occurred on January 19, 191 1.

Politically Mr. Murphy is a Democrat. He is a member of Ozark Division, No. 83, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. The Murphy family are members of the Roman Catholic church. They own a fine and neatly furnished home on North Main street, Springfield.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

WILLIAM C. MURPHY.

There was a valuable acquisition to the Greene county bar when William C. Murphy began the practice of his profession in Springfield. Although young in years, he has had the proper preliminary training for a lawyer and also possesses the required natural characteristics. He is deserving of the highest degree of success in his chosen vocation, for his ambition i-> a laudable one and he has fought his way upward from an early environment that was none too auspicious.

Mr. Murphy was born at Lestus. Jefferson county. Missouri. July 11. 1879. He is the son of John J. and Delia Iola (Bradfield) Murphy. The father was born in Xew Albany, Indiana, of Irish parents. He grew to manhood at Xew Albany and there received his education in the public schools and learned the glass workers' trade. In 187(1. when twenty-one years of age. he went to Crystal City, Missouri, where he met and married the mother of the subject of this sketch. She is a daughter of Charles R. Bradfield and wife, whose family consisted of five children. To John

. Murphy and wife ten children were born, namely: William C, of this sketch, and John Patrick, twins; Elizabeth married Albert Welch, a merchant, tanner and stockman of De Soto, Missouri, and they have one child, Lynn; James C, who lives in Festus, this state, married a woman from Tennessee and they have three children; Daniel L. is a stenographer and lives at Festus; Nellie died in infancy; Thomas Lee was accidentally killed at the age of seventeen; Francis H. is farming on the old homestead in Jefferson county; Dennis, born on February ->_>, 1899, lives at Festus and is by nature an artist of ability; Edgar W. was born in 1905.

William C..Murphy was reared on the home farm and there did his share of the work when of proper age, and in the winter he attended the public schools at Festus, Missouri, and was graduated from the high school there, also was graduated from the high school at Crystal City, this state,, after which he entered the State Normal at Kirksville, borrowing money in order to do so, and graduated from that institution in 1905. Me subsequently entered the law department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, also took other studies, such as political economy, and was graduated from that institution in 1907 with the degree of Doctor of Laws. Returning home he took the state bar examination in 1907, which he successfully passed. But instead of beginning at once the practice of his profession he taught school two years with success. In 1909 he went to Malvern, Arkansas, where he became superintendent of city schools, after which he went to Stuttgart, that state, and taught a year. In 1910 he came to Springfield, Missouri, opened an office in the Woodruff building in partnership with his twin brother, J. Patrick Murphy, and here they have been engaged in the practice of their profession with ever-increasing success, and are regarded as among our most promising young lawyers.

William C. Murphy was married on May 23, 1908, to Elizabeth lleddell, a native of Festus. Missouri, where her family has long been well known and highly respected, and there she grew to womanhood and received a good education. To this union three children have been born, namely: [name withheld], born on March 1, 1909; [name withheld], born on December 9, 1910, and Major Wilson, born on November 4. [913, was named after the governor of Missouri and the President of the Lmited States.

Politically Mr. Murphy is an ardent Democrat and is active in political affairs. He was appointed city tax attorney of Springfield in 1912 and he made such a commendable record that he was re-appointed to the same office in 191 4, and is now serving his second term in a manner that reflects much credit upon himself and to the satisfaction of all concerned. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Religiously he is a member of the Presbyterian church.

Mr. Murphy and his twin brother have been very closely associated with each other all their lives, and doubtless the friendly rivalry that has always existed between them has been in no small manner instrumental in their success. They are deserving of a great deal of credit for what they have made of themselves, possessing the characteristic thrift, wit, keen discernment, broad-mindedness and high sense of honor of the Celtic race, from which they descended.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.