FRANCIS XAVIER MURPHY

F.X. Murphy, Area Historian, Dies at Age 84
A lifetime of interests ranging from politics to harness racing to Manitowoc
County history was concluded at 12:23 p.m. Thursday when Francis X Murphy, 84,
died at Holy Family Hospital here.
He had been in the hospital about a month. Death came on the 57th anniversary
of his marriage—June 18, 1907—to the former Eva S. Greeley at St. Rose Roman
Catholic Church, Racine.
Born at Manitowoc Jan. 1, 1880, Mr. Murphy was a son of the late Michael and
Charlotte Flynn Murphy who themselves had been born in Manitowoc County.
His maternal grandparents, in fact, settled in the Manitowoc County area in the
early 1800s, having immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland by way of Canada.
Mother Was Artist
His paternal grandparents came to this area also from Ireland following the Irish
“potato famine” around the 1850s by way of Steubenville, Ohio.
Mr. Murphy’s mother was an artist and writer of note, having had her art work
hung in the Chicago Art Institute and publishing privately a book of her writings,
poetry and essays, entitled, “Whispers of the Sea”, the sea being Lake Michigan.
His father was professor of Greek at the University of Dublin before immigrating.
Mr. Murphy’s deep interest in history and his writing skills, therefore, came both
by natural and environmental avenues. He wrote a series of articles on Manitowoc
County history for this newspaper which ran from 1952 until 1959.
A member of the Manitowoc County Historical Society, he was considered an authority
on early Manitowoc history.
Racing His Hobby
Harness racing (trotting and pacing) was a lifetime hobby of his. He loved and lived
it, his many friends said. His father and mother both did as well.
In a former column of this newspaper called “Hobby-ettes,” this observation about
Mr. Murphy appears:
“The curious part” about his harness racing interest is that he “scarcely ever drove
the team of family high steppers which in their day were remembered for beauty, grace
and speed.
“He never sat behind the racer which at one time graced the Murphy stables on North
Fourth Street. He knew just how fast the sire of Dan Patch trotted (or was it paced?)
in the year umpty ump.
“He could tell you off hand the records of all the fast ones from Nancy Hanks down to
the two-minute fellows. But as for driving, he left that to his brother Henry…”
Interested in Politics.
Always interested in politics, he was a Democrat all his life. In 1942, he was named
chairman of the Manitowoc County Democratic Party, in which he was active for many
years.
Following his graduation from the former North Side High School here, he attended
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
the early part of this century.
While at the latter university, he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi, a social
fraternity.
After leaving the UW, he lived at Buffalo, N.Y., where he worked in the branch office
of the former American Seating Co. of Manitowoc, a manufacturer of church furniture,
of which his father was superintendent.
He became associated in 1906 with the Manitowoc Land and Fuel Co. following its
organization, serving as secretary-treasurer and retiring in 1959.
Funeral Services.
A past grand knight of the Knights of Columbus, Mr. Murphy was a member of the Holy
Name Society of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Surviving are his wife of 824 N. Sixth St., a son, Francis X. Murphy Jr., of Roswell,
N.M., a daughter, Miss Margaret Murphy, of Green Bay, four grandchildren and three
great grandchildren. Two brothers predeceased him.
Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Urbanek and Schlei Funeral Home and
at 10:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church, the Rev. Richard Gilsdorf of Sacred Heart
Seminary, Oneida, officiating. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery.
Friends may call at the funeral home where the Rosary will be recited at 7:30 o’clock
this Friday evening.
Manitowoc Herald Times, June 19, 1964 P.12
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(01 Jan 1880/Jun 1964/SSDI)