Re: Murphy's Hotel in Richmond VA
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In reply to:
Murphy's Hotel in Richmond VA
Dorothy Christian 8/16/11
Hi, My gr. grandfather is supposedly a cousin of John Murphy so I started researching his family.
Here are 2 good sources.One is an excellent link about his timeline, cut and paste this into google search:
REAL ESTATE ASSESSMENT & DEVELOPMENT PLAN FORTHE PROPERTY BOUNDEDB Y8TH , 9TH , GRACE AND BROAD STREETS IN THECITY OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
The other below is known as a "vanity publication", a bio that he helped compose:
Murphy, John
The eventful career of John Murphy, of Richmond, Virginia, began when he landed on these shores, but undoubtedly he inherited the elements of character which have contributed to his marked success from his antecedents, and the early environment of his native land. He was born February 15, 1842, in county Cork, Ireland, and his parents, Peter and Margaret Murphy, were descended from the native inhabitants of that locality.
County Cork is generally considered to have been instituted by King John; it was but sparsely settled before the sixteenth century, when among others to whom the crown granted lands within the county were Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, the poet, who received forty thousand acres and thirty thousand and twenty-eight acres of land respectively. After 1602 these lands, together with other large estates, were colonized by English settlers, hence the later population of county Cork became a more or less hybrid race, consisting of the English element engrafted upon the native Irish stock. It was from these elements that the family of Murphy sprang, and the dominant influence of this antecedent history gave the elements of character to John Murphy, which enabled him to succeed under the averse conditions of life during the early years of his career in this country.
He was at Richmond, Virginia, when the civil war began, and the cause of the Confederacy appealed to him. In April, 1861, he enlisted for one year in Company F, Fifteenth Regiment of Virginia Volunteers, and was sent to the front under General MacGruder in the eastern part of Virginia. In the following year he re-enlisted in Letcher's battery, Pegram's battalion of artillery; was in the seven days fighting around Richmond, and was slightly wounded in the battle of Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862. He participated in Lee's first invasion of Maryland, and was seriously wounded at Warrenton Springs on August 21, 1862; but in 1864, after his recovery, he joined Morgan's cavalry, at Wytheville, in southwestern Virginia, where Morgan's troop was being re-organized. Soon afterward he was captured at the battle of Floyds Mountain, near Dublin, Virginia, and sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, where he was held a prisoner until the close of the war.
When he was discharged from prison, he learned that his parental home and all that was dear to him had been destroyed in the famine and flame swept city of Richmond during the last days of the war, so with the lure of promise in the great west before him, and the devastation of war behind him, he joined the westward bound tide of emigration to that Mecca, and sought to rebuild his broken fortune there, like many other soldiers of the Confederacy. He gladly accepted the first offer of employment made to him, which was to drive a stage coach for Holiday & Carlisle, who owned and operated a line of stage coaches that formed part of the "Overland Express" from Missouri to California. After a few months' service, his employers offered him the position of general manager of their supply train at a salary considered large for those days; however, a love for his adopted home city of Richmond still lingered in his heart, and in 1866, something over a year after the war closed, he returned there. He found the city, figuratively speaking, arising phoenix-like from the ashes of her ruins. He did whatever came to hand in the effort to rehabilitate the family's lost fortune, and by 1872 he had earned and saved enough money to establish himself in a small mercantile business. It was on the site of the present Murphy Hotel, and in a few years more he was able to purchase the property, and in 1886 built the first hotel structure which bears his name, consisting of some thirty rooms. From time to time the structure has been enlarged, until at the present time (1914), it is the largest hotel and most widely known hostelry in the state of Virginia. This magnificent hotel consists of three buildings, containing five hundred guest rooms, fronting on Broad, Eighth and Grace streets. The buildings are connected by magnificent bridges arranged as sun parlors, thereby combining convenience, health and comfort.
Mr. Murphy's business success, particularly in hotel management, has been phenomenal; he has been a liberal patron of every movement, in recent years, that had for its object the business and commercial advancement of Richmond, and he is widely known for his genial hospitality, charities and patriotism. Himself a Confederate veteran, who has ever allied with the memorial organizations of the "Lost Cause," he is nevertheless fraternally, on the best of terms with the Grand Army of the Republic organizations, and has several times been guest of honor in celebrations north of Mason and Dixon's line. In 1896 he was chosen commander of R. E. Lee Camp of United Confederate Veterans, which is the most prominent Confederate veteran organization in the state, and served for eighteen years as a member of the board of directors of Lee Camp, Soldier's Home. He is a consistent member of the Roman Catholic church. During the years of his prosperity he has dispensed charity with a free hand to many worthy young men whom he has assisted to secure an education and to financial success, and also he has ever had an enthusiastic interest in the welfare of child-life round about him.
In politics Mr. Murphy is a stanch Democrat, and he takes an active interest in local politics. He was made a director of the Virginia State Agricultural Society in 1890, and for two years served as its vice-president; in 1898 Governor J. Hoge Tyler appointed him a member of the board of directors of the Virginia Penitentiary; he has been a director of the Broad Street Bank, of Richmond, since it was founded in 1902; likewise of the Old Dominion Trust Company; and despite great demands upon his time by his own business interests, he is actively identified with numerous business and social organizations. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, of the Catholic Knights of America, the Independent Order of Heptasophs, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His remarkable success often elicits inquiries from persons who seek his advice; to such he recommends, in general, that they eschew all intoxicating liquors and vicious company, and that they first own their own homes, and avoid all financial speculations, policies, doubtless, that have contributed to his own remarkable success.
Mr. Murphy married (first) Jane McCabe, of Richmond, Virginia, in 1868; and married (second) in 1903, Louisa O'Connor, of Charleston, South Carolina. Issue of first marriage: Nellie J., Edward F., Madeline McCabe, Alice E., John Jr., George D., Robert E. No children by second marriage.
(Source: Encyclopedia of Virginia Biographies - Vol. IV. Transcriber: Chris Davis)
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Re: Murphy's Hotel in Richmond VA
jenny dunn 4/05/13