Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/152

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MRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY

federacy appealed to him. In April, 1861, he enlisted for one year in Company F, Fif- teenth 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 Let- cher's battery, Pegram's battalion of artil- lery ; was in the seven days fighting around Richmond, and was slightly wounded in the battle of Malvern Hill, July i, 1862. He participated in Lee's first invasion of Mary- land, and was seriously wounded at War- renton 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 cap- tured 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 emigra- tion to that Mecca, and sought to rebuild his broken fortune there, like many other soldiers of the Confederacy. He gladly ac- cepted the first ofifer of emplayment 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 Mis- souri to California. After a few months' service, his employers offered him the posi- tion 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 phoe- nix-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 mer- cantile business. It was on the site of the l^resent 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. Frcjm time to time the struc- ture has been enlarged, until at the present time (1914), it is the largest hotel and most widely known hostelry in the state of Vir- ginia. This magnificent hotel consists of three buildings, containing five hundred guest rooms, fronting on Broad, Eighth and ( irace streets. The buildings are connected by magnificent l)ridges arranged as sun parlors, thereby combining convenience, health and comfort.

Mr. Murphy's business success, particu- larly in hotel management, has been phe- nomenal ; he has been a liberal patron of every movement, in recent years, that had for its object the bvisiness and commercial advancement of Richmond, and he is widely known for his genial hospitality, charities and patriotism. Himself a Confederate vet- eran, who has ever allied with the memor- ial organizations of the "Lost Cause," he is nevertheless fraternally, on the best of terms with the (jrand Army of the Republic or- ganizations, and has several times been guest of Jionor in celebrations north of ^lason 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 organ- ization 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 con- sistent 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 finan- cial success, and also he has ever had an en- thusiastic interest in the welfare of child- life round about him.

In politics Mr. Murphy is a stanch Demo- crat, and he takes an active interest in local politics. He was made a director of the Vir- ginia 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 direc- tor of the r.road 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 organi- zations. He is a member of the Royal Ar- canum, of the Catholic Knights of America,