Francis Murphy

Background

Francis Murphy was born on April 24, 1836, at Tagoat, County Wexford, Ireland. He was the younger of two sons of a poor tenant farmer, who died three months before Francis' birth.

Education

His schooling, not over four years in all, was received in a parish school conducted by a priest who apparently treated him unkindly, so that the boy was glad to be put to service at an early age in the household of his mother's landlord. For some years Murphy contributed to the support of his widowed mother, who was a devout Catholic.

Career

At the age of sixteen he emigrated to the United States. Landing in New York, he fell in with a group of convivial companions and lost all his money in a week of dissipation. Without a trade, he drifted from job to job and eventually into the country, where he worked on an upstate farm.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Murphy enlisted as a private in the 92nd Regiment, New York Infantry, and served a three-year term in the army.

In 1865, with the financial assistance of his brother James, who had also come to America, he became proprietor of the Bradley Hotel, Portland, Me. The habit of drinking formed in his youth fastened itself upon him here, and he sank rapidly in the social scale.

In 1870 Murphy was sentenced to jail for a drunken assault in his tavern. While in prison he was visited by Cyrus Sturdevant, a pious sea captain, whose appeals led, April 3, 1870, to his conversion and the signing of a total-abstinence pledge. After his release he was induced by friends to testify in meetings and found, to his surprise, that his endeavors provoked an enthusiastic response. He became president of a state reform club, and his evangelistic work soon extended to adjoining states and the Middle West. He adopted the blue ribbon as the badge of his crusade for "gospel temperance, " and framed the Murphy pledge.

In 1876 he was invited to conduct meetings in Pittsburgh and for a decade he made his headquarters there. During his first campaign of ten weeks he induced 40, 000 men to sign his pledge, some $15, 000 was raised by business men to support his work for sobriety among their employees, and 500 saloons in Allegheny and adjoining counties are said to have closed for lack of trade. During the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia he held meetings promoted by John Wanamaker. Assisted by his sons, he made a memorable tour through England, Scotland, and Ireland, during which he was received by Queen Victoria. He later conducted campaigns in Canada, Hawaii, and Australia. During his entire career he is said to have secured over 12, 000, 000 signatures to his pledge, and to have addressed more than 25, 000 meetings. He served in the Spanish-American War as chaplain of the 5th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

In 1901, Murphy moved from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles to spend his declining years, though he continued active until his last illness. Francis Murphy died on June 30, 1907, in Los Angeles, California.

Achievements

• The evangelist, Francis Murphy was a major campaigner against alcohol; he preached on both sides of the Atlantic of the evils of alcohol as well as preaching support for the Ten Commandments. At one point, his campaigning led to the ban of alcohol in the state of Kansas.

Works

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• book

  • Sketches of the Life and Work of Capt. Cyrus Sturdivant, the Prisoner's Friend ...

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Religion

Religiously, Francis Murphy was orthodox and evangelical, having become a Protestant after his conversion, but he never accepted ordination, though it was offered him in the Methodist Church.

Personality

Murphy's power lay almost entirely in the charm of his personality. Francis Murphy was a man of fine physique and bearing, with heavy mustache, bushy eyebrows, and a shock of white hair. His manner was simple, earnest, and transparently honest, his smile constant, and his handclasp magnetic.

Connections

On April 10, 1856, Francis Murphy married Elizabeth Jane Ginn. They had seven children.

His first wife died in 1870, and in 1890 he married Mrs. Rebecca Johnstone Fisher, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, who had been prominent in the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and who became his faithful co-worker in temperance activities.

Wife:

Elizabeth Jane Murphy (Ginn)

Wife:

Rebecca Johnstone Murphy (Fisher)

Daughter:

Mary M. Trask

Brother:

James Murphy