Butte County
Biographies
DENNIS JOHN MURPHY
DENNIS JOHN MURPHY.--A native son of the Golden State, who has made good as superintendent of the Phelan Ranch, which comprises seventy-eight hundred sixty acres owned by the heirs of the late James Phelan, is found in the person of Dennis John Murphy, who was born April 10, 1864, in San Francisco, on the present site of the Palace Hotel.
His father was Daniel Murphy, a native of Ireland, who came to California in 1854, and was engaged in mining in various parts of Butte County and other parts of Northern California. He was one of the first men to begin operations at Ophir, where Oroville now stands, and also developed property at Thompson’s Flat, near Oroville. At the beginning of the Fraser River gold excitement he went to British Columbia. Upon his return from there he entered the employ of the late John Sullivan, on his Mira Monte Ranch at Mountain View, Santa Clara County, and in time he became superintendent, and under his management the ranch was put on a paying basis. He married Mary (Farley) Sullivan, a widow, whose first husband died in New Jersey and left one son, Thomas Sullivan, a rancher of Santa Clara County, who died in San Francisco in 1897. Daniel Murphy died when in his seventy-eighth year, while Mrs. Murphy reached the age of eighty-seven ere she answered the final summons. The children of this worthy couple now living are: Daniel C., an attorney in San Francisco, who served two terms on the board of supervisors of that city and county; Jeremiah, a mining man; Mary, the wife of Anthony O’Connell, who is in the employ of Frank Sullivan, an attorney in San Francisco; and Dennis John, of this review.
While yet a child, D. J. Murphy was taken to Santa Clara County by his parents, and he was educated in the public school at Mountain View, and later became a student in Santa Clara College. After his school days were over he went to work in Daniel Whelan’s blacksmith shop at Mountain View, where he thoroughly learned the trade during the three and one-half years he remained there. For eighteen months he was in charge of the blacksmith shop on the Bay View Ranch, at Mountain View, owned by Bernard Murphy of San Jose. Then for the next three years he was in charge of the Mira Monte Ranch of five hundred acres. In all these responsible positions he proved his ability and worth, and was recommended to James D Phelan by Frank Sullivan as a man who could properly manage the Phelan Ranch in Butte County. On February 15, 1893, he settled on the property and has managed it very successfully ever since. This ranch is a part of the original Farwell Grant of twenty-two thousand acres and is one of the most noted ranches in the Sacramento Valley. Under the careful supervision of Mr. Murphy, the land, which was formerly a horse and cattle ranch, has been diverted to mixed farming, with a large acreage devoted to growing rice. In 1917 the crop yielded fifty sacks to the acre on an average. Wheat, barley and hay are raised in large quantities, while the raising of high-grade Rambouillet and Shropshire sheep (crossed) is given a prominent place in the productions of the Phelan Ranch. Mr. Murphy also looked after the extensive cattle interests of the Phelans until they were closed out.
In October, 1893, D. J. Murphy and Miss Marguerita G. Kell, a native daughter, were united in marriage. She was born in San Jose, on October 17, 1867, and was descended from one of the prominent families of pioneer days. Her grandfather was a member of the ill-fated Donner party. She and Mr. Murphy had grown up together from childhood. Of this marriage four children were born, of whom the only survivor is Raymond F. Murphy. The others—Gerald, Eugene and Mary Estella—all died in early childhood. Mrs. Murphy died in Chico, on February 7, 1905, after a lingering illness.
Raymond F. Murphy was born on the Phelan ranch on September 29, 1894, graduated from St. Joseph’s Academy at Berkeley, and then enlisted for service in the United States Navy and served three years. At the end of his term of service he reenlisted, on April 29, 1918, for service during the war, with the United States Marines. He took the officers’ examination and received his commission, and is now in the service in France, as a First Lieutenant of a machine-gun squad, with the Thirteenth Regiment of Marines.
Mr. Murphy is a Democrat, and is chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee of Butte County, and takes an active part in legislative affairs. He fought the notorious reclamation schemes proposed by the state legislature at their last session; and in the fall of 1917 he was selected to go to Washington, D.C., to urge upon Congress measures designed to give a greater use of the Western Forest Reserve ranges to the sheep-raisers of the Pacific Coast, but on account of pressing business affairs was unable to go.
D. J. Murphy is a nephew of the late John Sullivan, who was a member of the Donner party that left Missouri in 1845. He escaped being massacred by going with the party which branched off and took what is now the Lassen Trail, thereby arriving safely in California, in 1846. His party was met by General Bidwell and his party of surveyors upon their arrival at Sutter’s Fort. John Sullivan and Martin Murphy—for whom Murphy’s Camp was named—were friends in the pioneer days and came with the Donner party to California; Sullivan’s Creek was named for Mr. Sullivan, to commemorate the finding of $22,000 in coarse gold in one pocket, when he was doing intermittent mining along the stream. Mr. Sullivan mined and had a rich pioneer experience. He was one of the founders of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. The Sullivans, Farleys, Murphys and Phelans are all related and the present members of those pioneer families are worthy representatives of that element that had much to do with the settlement and development of this commonwealth.
Cordial, warm-hearted, frank, able and honest, Mr. Murphy makes and retains friends wherever he goes. He is a good business man, successful farmer and stockman, whose counsel is eagerly sought by the people of Butte and adjoining counties.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 555-556, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies