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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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J. W. Murphy Everybody
in Jasper County knew J. W. Murphy. Tall
and rugged as an oak, with kindly face and great booming voice, Mr. Murphy was
as unique a specimen of sturdy American manhood as the great state of Iowa
affords.
Probably
no other man in Jasper County took the part in public affairs that Mr. Murphy
did. He served as Township clerk, trustee, justice of the peace, road
supervisor, and was a member of the board of school directors for eighteen years
consecutively. In April 1858, when
he was elected secretary of the school board, the Township was without a
schoolhouse and there were no sub-districts.
John C. Scott and Mr. Murphy together evolved the plan of placing a
school house in the center of every four adjoining sections where practical, the
first one in the County being the Slagel school house in Hixon's Grove.
This plan was afterward followed throughout the County.
The Past and Present
of Jasper County, Iowa, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-in-Chief, 1912, B. F.
Bowden & Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. John W. Murphy John
W. Murphy is recognized as one of the prominent and influential citizens of
Jasper County. He is proprietor of the Elmwood Stock Farm, and is a leading citizen
of Buena Vista Township. He is also engaged in merchandizing in the village of
Murphy, and is serving as postmaster of that place. His name is inseparably
connected with the history of locality, and therefore we take pleasure in
presenting this record of his life to our readers. Mr.
Murphy was born in Highland County, Ohio, May 12, 1825, unto Daniel and Cynthia
(Wildman) Murphy. The father was a
native of Frederick County, VA, born October 3, 1798. The mother was born in
Fayette County, PA, July 24, 1796, and was of English descent.
Her family belonged to the Society of Friends, and her ancestors settled
near Philadelphia shortly after William Penn located in the Keystone State.
The Murphy family is of Irish lineage. The
subject of this sketch was reared in his native county, of which his parents
were very early settlers. His
father had there located in 1818, and his mother located in that community in
1815. John Murphy acquired the greater part of his education in the public
schools eh-Highland County, and subsequently engaged in teaching f or a number
of terms in the Buckeye State. He embarked upon his business career as a
merchant in 1852 at Russell Station, Ohio, where he carried on operations along
that line until 1855. That year he resumed farming, and
also became Postmaster of Russell. In 1856 he exchanged his Ohio farm for the
Elmwood Stock Farm, which he now owns. He has two hundred and thirty acres of
good land under a high state of cultivation, and the improvements upon it make
it one of the desirable and valuable places of the neighborhood. He located thereon in 1857, and has since there resided. Mr. Murphy was
married September 19, 1847, to Miss Ann E. Russell, a sister of S. G. Russell,
whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Eight children were born unto them,
of whom five are yet living: Laura A., wife of John Y. Swigart, of Lincoln, NE;
John W., who is now in Utah; Cynthia P., wife of A. F. Woods, who is living in
Buena Vista Township; Hamer E. and Bower T. Those deceased are Zilla J., Roswell
T. and Seymour C. Mr. Murphy has
been honored with the office of Trustee of the township, and has served as
Justice of the Peace. In politics
he is a supporter of the Prohibition Party and is a member of the Methodist
Protestant Church, having served as Secretary in its annual conference for many
years. Socially, he was
connected with Newton Grange No.1, the first grand lodge organized in this
state, and is a charter member of Buena Vista Grange No. 594, P. of H. He has
been a member of the Iowa State Grange since 1876, and has served for six
consecutive years as its Secretary. He is at present serving as Master of the
home lodge, which convenes in a hall over his store in Murphy. Our subject is a
warm advocate of the temperance cause, and does all in his power for its
promotion. He is always found on
the side of right, and his influence and support are ever given to those
enterprises, which are calculated to promote the best interests of the
community. In his business dealings
he has been very successful, his good management, enterprise, and fair and
upright course winning him a handsome competence, which numbers him among the
substantial citizens of the community. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, 1894, p. 193. |
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