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Note: [Murphy.FTW]
Patrick Henry Murphy maintained all his life that he was born in St. Louis, MO, and there had never been any reason to doubt his word. Then, in 1978 contact was established between his descendents and those of his brother Michael and it was learned that his birthplace was Kilkenny, Ireland. It should be remembered that he set out to make his way in the world in a time of great anti-Irish discrimination, when the phrase "no Irish need apply" was commonly found in employment offers.
From Patrick Henry Murphy of California, his Antecedents, Siblings and Descendents A Genealogical Study, by Dorothy F. Murphy & William R. Murphy, M.D.:
PATRICK HENRY MURPHY
From: History of Sacramento County with Biographical Sketches. Illustrated. Historic Record Company.
Los Angeles. 1913. p. 1027 - 29.
Not the least conspicuous among the surviving pioneers of Sacramento County is Patrick Henry Murphy,
who first landed in the capital city on October 13, 1854. Born in St. Louis, Mo., in June, 1838, he there
grew up, and in 1854 joined a company of St. Louis men, among them Isaac Lankershim and Mike Wiles,
and crossed the plains with a large expedition with an ox-team train and five hundred cattle. This was a
memorable year, for the Indians at that time were warlike, but by exercising the utmost diplomacy they
evaded several controversies and probable massacre, and after a journey of six months and two days the train dispersed on the Cosumnes river, and Mr. Murphy came on to Sacramento, where he found
employment in a hotel. Later he worked in San Francisco, but soon returned to Sacramento and then
secured a position in the Brighton flour and grist mill on the American river. For two years he worked in the mill at monthly wages. His next venture was the purchase of two hundred acres with a crop on the ground and a small house suitable for a frontier home. In an unexpected manner his identification with that ranch brought him misfortune. While sleeping in his bed one night he was shot by negro robbers, the ball passing through the board wall of his cabin. The two thieves made their escape, but were afterward captured and sent to the penitentiary for fifteen years. He was so seriously wounded in both arms that he was completely disabled for one year and, in fact, was left crippled for life.
Unable to work, the young farmer relinquished his holdings and returned to St. Louis, where he visited at
the old home for a year or more. During 1862, in Fayette County, Ill., he was united in marriage with Miss
Mary A. Gibbs, who was born in Ohio and died in California in 1874. Upon his return to the west Mr.
Murphy pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres in Sacramento County and at once comme~ed the difficult task of clearing the property. Later he purchased eighty acres so situated that it could be brought into the home place as one farm, which gives him two hundred and forty acres in this ranch. The land lies within a mile of Perkins and is improved with a substantial residence and convenient farm buildings. A pumping plant furnishes an abundance of water for irrigation and for domestic use. The value of the place is greatly enhanced by the vineyard and fruit orchard covering fifty acres, with grapes, cherries, prunes, peaches, pears and berries, in fine bearing condition.
Having an opportunity to increase his holdings in 1885, Mr. Murphy bought a partly improved tract of four hundred and fifty acres on the Cosumne river, this county, of which tract he now has over one hundred acres in hops. The balance of the ranch is utilized for pastures, alfalfa meadows and grain. The ranch was occupied and managed by the oldest son, Arthur D. Murphy, who with his family made his home there until it was leased out. On both places a specialty is made of the stock industry and the stock raised and sold includes high-grade Shorthorn cattle and pure-bred Poland-China hogs. Ever since the organization of the California state fair, a period of forty-nine years, Mr. Murphy has been an exhibitor of stock, machinery and fruit, and at the fair of 1911 his exhibits won the same admiration and attention they have received during the entire period of his association with the work. There is not another man in the state who has been such a steady exhibitor for so many years as he, and he has won innumerable prizes and gold medals in different lines. Nor is his interest in horticulture less than his identification with the stock business and for some years he has been a stockholder and director in the Florin Fruit Growers' Association situated at Florin.
Of his first marriage Mr. Murphy has three children living, Arthur D., Clara McDonald and Ralph I. The
daughter is a successful teacher in the Sacramento County schools, Arthur D. is farming his own place and the younger son acts as manager of the Cosumne ranch. October 7, 1875, Mr. Murphy married Miss Carrie R. Jackman, who was born and reared in New Hampshire, removed thence to Iowa, and from there came to California during young womanhood. Five children are living of this union, namely: William C., employed in the Sacramento street-car service; Harry L., who is married and resides at the old homestead; Corda L., who holds a responsible position in the mercantile house of C. C. Perkins at Perkins; Elmer H., an expert chemist employed in the laboratory of the Union Sugar-beet Company; and George A., a farmer near Perkins.
Although Mr. Murphy cast his first Presidential ballot for Stephen A. Douglas, for years he has been
identified with the Republican party. In 1864 he supported Abraham Lincoln and since then he has never
failed to cast a straight Republican ticket at every Presidential election. Frequently he has been selected as delegate to county and state conventions. In local elections he supports the men whom he considers best qualified to serve the people, irrespective of their political views. For four years he served as a justice of the peace and he also has served as school trustee. As early as 1869 he became connected with the subordinate lodge of Odd Fellows and all but one of his sons also joined the order. No citizen surpasses him in loyal devotion to his township and county. St has been his privilege to witness the steady growth of this locality and the awakening appreciation of its soil and climate. Doubtless no one takes greater pride than does he in the constant progress of the district, the increasing returns from the scientific cultivation of its ranches, the growing business of the little towns and the patriotic spirit manifested by the entire citizenship.
PATRICK HENRY MURPHY
From: A History of the New California. Illustrated. Vol. II, p. 1133 - 4. Irvine, Leigh H., editor
Patrick H. Murphy, who though one of the pioneer residents of Sacramento County is still on the safe side of the age of three score and ten, came to this .state in boyhood, but even then an active participant in the industrial activity which has marked his career throughout. His beautiful ranch estate on the Jackson road near Perkins he settled upon in its primitive state as long ago as 1859, and during the long interim of years has brought his land into a high state of cultivation. Most of the one hundred and sixty two acres comprising his ranch is devoted to general farming, but, as a pioneer fruit grower in this part of the state, he has twenty-five acres in grapes and eight acres in other fruits.
Mr. Murphy was born in St. Louis, Missouri, June 15, 1838. Reared during early boyhood in St. Louis,
where he gained a common school education, he was only a lad of sixteen when he crossed the plains to California. In 1854 joining a stock train owned by Lankershin (sic), Wiles and McCoy, a company of St.
Louis men, he drove an ox team in that train and in every way took the part of a regular man of the outfit.
On several occasions they had trouble with the Indians, and their experiences were of the true frontier
variety. On reaching the Humboldt river in Nevada they paid the traders there as much as twenty-five cents a pound for potatoes and one dollar a pound for flour. Six months and two days were consumed in the journey from St. Louis to Sacramento County. After spending several years in various pursuits Mr. Murphy,
in 1859, pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of government land where his present ranch is located,
paying the regular price of one dollar and a quarter an acre, and the patent to the land is signed by Abraham Lincoln. This land had not been hitherto touched in an agricultural way, and the transformation which has been effected in its appearance and productiveness is the result entirely of Mr. Murphy's labors and management. The raising of fine stock, such as shorthorn cattle, Percheron horses and Poland-China and Berkshire hogs, has for a number of years been an important feature of Mr. Murphy's establishment. He was among the first to embark in the business of growing fruit in this part of the state.
When it comes to the matters that concern the civic life of the community Mr. Murphy has taken a very
public-spirited part. He served as justice of the peace of Brighton township; for three terms was constable; was school trustee of Washington District a number of years. In politics he is Republican. He has served several terms as director of the Florin Fruit Growers' Association, being now in his fourth term as such. Fraternally he has membership with Capital Lodge No. 87, I.O.O.F., at Sacramento. Although no longer
connected with grange work, he was a charter member of Sacramento Grange No. 12, and served as
treasurer of the same.
Mr. Murphy married, first, Miss Mary Gibbs, a native of the state of Ohio. There were six children by that
union, and the three now living are Mrs. Clara A. McDonald, who lives at Perkins; Arthur D. and Ralph I.,
of Sacramento County, successful farmers on the Cosumne river. The present Mrs. Murphy before her
marriage was Miss Carrie Jackman. She was born in New Hampshire. Six children have been. born to them, but one is deceased, the others being William C., George A., Corda L., Harry L. and Elmer, all in
Sacramento County.
PATRICK HENRY MURPHY
From: History of Sacramento County with Illustration Descriptive of
its Scenery. Thompson & West, Oakland. 1880. p. 249.
MURPHY, P. H.; Post Office, Brighton; lives six miles from Sacramento, on the Jackson road; was born in Missouri, in 1838, and lived there until 1854; in that year he came to California, across the plains, and
settled at Brighton, where he engaged in farming and selling agricultural implements; he is now engaged in raising small fruits; has twelve acres set out in strawberries; his brand or mark is Brighton Vineyard; owns two hundred and forty acres, worth, with improvements, about $17,000. He made a trip East in 1861, and returned the year following; he was married that same year (1862) to Miss Mary A. Gibbs, a native of Ohio; she died in 1874. He was married again in 1876, to Miss Carrie R. Jackman, a native of New Hampshire; he has living four sons and two daughters. Mr. Murphy was shot in his cabin, by two negroes, in 1858; they were afterwards caught and sent to the Penitentiary for fourteen years. He has held the offices of Constable and Justice of the Peace; came near losing his life while Constable. In 1878 he took some of his fruit to St. Louis, to the State Fair.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON PATRICK HENRY MURPHY
Date of birth June 20, 1838, County Kilkenny, Ireland (not St. Louis, Missouri, as previously believed).
Came to America about 1845 with widowed mother, brothers Michael Millard, Noel, and sisters Maria L.,
Margaret and Ellen M., via New Orleans, Louisiana, up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. (Source info:
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fayette County", Vol. II, p. 789 under Murphy, Michael
M.; Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910) In California the location of the family home originally was
given as Brighton, but later this was changed to Perkins, which then had its own post office in the Perkins store. Good health all his life, some rheumatic aches, serious infection from nail in foot. In St. Louis he had his left forearm crushed by a run-away carriage. In 1858 he was shot while in his cabin near Mills, Calif. (see preceding historical notes), the bullet took off about one-half of left ring finger--and further injured his left forearm, causing partial impairment for remainder of his life. At the time doctors wanted to amputate the arm, but a Mr. Pettit (curator of Sutter's Fort) interceded and prevented the surgery. The robbers took from his cabin a bar of silver about the size of a bar of soap (such a bar was medium of exchange and savings). He had one in his possession at the time of his death, but it was lost when fire destroyed the home of his daughter, Corda, which was located across the road and slightly west of the old homestead. Among souvenirs in the possession of Elmer H. Murphy is a gold medal which Patrick Henry received for the Best Agricultural Exhibit at the California State Fair of 1880. (Source of above info: Elmer H. Murphy, son) At age 75, ht. 517'' or 5'8", wt. 145, medium build, light complexion, dark gray hair, blue or gray eyes. Died March 13, 1913, 9 a.m., Perkins, Calif., diabetic coma, having suffered from diabetes for several years. Buried City Cemetery, Sacramento, Calif., Lot 83 B 117. FUneral conducted by Miller and McMullen of Sacramento (now Miller-Skelton and Herberger). Their records show an I.O.O.F. service at Murphy home, Perkins, 1 p.m. Vocalists--Lulu and Carrie Lothhammer. Procession from home to City Cemetery, Sacramento. Funeral total cost $416, included 6 hacks @@ $10 each. Basic cost $325 plus hacks, etc. (a large funeral for that time). Family assumed to have been Catholic in Ireland, but is believed only Margaret and Ellen M. continued this faith in America.
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