Bio. of Joseph Alberic Murphy ~ son of Daniel and Catherine (Roach) Murphy
IOWA
ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION
VOLUME III
1804-1926
J. ALBERIC MURPHY
Joseph A. Murphy, a member of one of the well known law firms of Ida Grove,
is also a successful business man, at the head of a large corporation, and
has likewise devoted much time to public affairs. He was born March 13, 1876, in Vernon township, Dubuque county, Iowa, and his parents, Daniel and Catherine (Roach) Murphy, were both of Irish ancestry. His father was born June 3,
1835, in Seneca county, New York, and the mother's birth occurred in 1845 in the city of Dubuque, Iowa.
Joseph A. Murphy was a pupil in the common schools of his native county
until he reached the age of thirteen, when the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa,
and there he attended the public high school and the Cathedral high school.
He came to Ida Grove September 13, 1894, and for several years taught in
country schools of this district, devoting his leisure hours to private study. On
September 13, 1901, he was appointed deputy county recorder and in 1902 was
elected to that office, which he filled for six terms, or until 1914, his long
retention therein proving conclusively the quality of his service. In the
meantime he had purchased the abstract and loan business of Koppenhaver &
Fredendoll and in 1905 organized the Ida County Abstract Company. He controls
the business and his executive force and broad experience have enabled him to
develop one of the largest and most reliable corporations of the kind in this
section of the state. He also mastered the principles of jurisprudence and
in 1916 was admitted to the bar. He is now a member of the firm of Murphy &
Murphy, specialists in title matters. They are regarded as experts in this
branch of the law and enjoy an extensive and remunerative practice.
On September 28, 1909, Joseph A. Murphy was married, at Springfield,
Missouri, to Miss Marie C. Emig, music supervisor of the Ida Grove public schools. She was born in 1885 at Westphalia, Iowa, and her parents were natives of
Alsace-Lorraine. She belongs to the Ida Grove Golf and Country Club and is also a member of the Delphians and the local Bridge Club. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have a family of four children: Kathleen, J. Emmett, Donald and Billy, aged respectively fourteen, thirteen, eleven and five years.
Mr. Murphy was a member of the Iowa National Guard from 1902 until 1910 and
during the World war was government appeal agent. He is in thorough sympathy
with every movement for civic growth and betterment and from 1912 until 1914
was a member of the school board. He has been a director of the Ida Grove
Hotel Company, the Ida Grove Armory Company, the Golf and Country Club and the local Tennis Club, and has also served as secretary of all of these organizations. He is likewise a Kiwanian and a Knight of Columbus. He is affiliated with the Catholic church and casts his ballot for the candidates of the democratic party. He has a predilection for politics and for several years was chairman of the county executive committee. Mr. Murphy is a broad-gauged man who fills an important place in the life of his community, and his success is the merited reward of hard work, perseverance and the wise utilization of his innate powers and talents.
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