![]() ![]() At its March meeting, Murphy voted with the majority in refraining from taking any immediate action. In February 1861, Murphy was elected on a Unionist platform to a state convention called to consider the issue of secession. His wife died at their Huntsville home in 1860. In 1854, he moved to Huntsville, the county seat of Madison County, and in 1856 was elected state senator, representing Madison and Benton counties in the Eleventh General Assembly. Murphy returned later that year, having failed to strike it rich. While he was gone, in 1851, one of his notes was called in, and he lost his 120-acre farm. Astronomy was one of his main interests, and he made his own telescope using a horse collar.Īrkansas was hit hard by the failure of its banks, and Murphy (whose family, as enumerated in the 1850 census, consisted of Malilla, Romea, Louiza, Laura, Lockhart, and Geraldine) tried to repair his fortune by joining the exodus to the California gold fields apparently in 1849. A Democrat staunchly opposed to the Arkansas political dynasty known as “ The Family,” he introduced a bill to create a state-financed common school system, but it never made it out of committee. In 1846, he was elected to the lower house of the Sixth General Assembly. Murphy’s political career began in 1836 with his election as Washington County treasurer. Democrats rejoiced when fire and hard times led to the project’s abandonment. The Arkansas Gazette noted: “as they wish to keep their party in ascendancy, it is a principle with them never to encourage institutions of learning.” Despite a strong statement probably written by Murphy on the non-sectarian nature of the school, religious prejudice against Presbyterians figured in the fight as well. Area Democrats fought the creation of the seminary, with six of the region’s Democrats voting in the legislature against granting the school a charter. Doubtless one reason for assigning Murphy this role was that he supported education, in spite of being a Democrat. He became chairman of the board of visitors to the Far West Seminary, a visionary educational institution located three miles northwest of Fayetteville promoted by former missionary and teacher to Native Americans, Cephas Washburn. In 1834, shortly after the birth of their first daughter, the Murphys moved west to Fayetteville (Washington County), where Murphy surveyed land, occasionally practiced law, and taught school. Her father, a slaveholder, disowned her because of Murphy’s opposition to slavery. ![]() Murphy was her senior by fourteen years, and she was sixteen years old at the time of the marriage. Murphy became primarily a schoolteacher, and moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, where he married Angelina Lockert on July 31, 1830. Berry, Murphy graduated from Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar on April 29, 1825. According to Murphy’s son-in-law, James R. The executor saw to Murphy’s education but squandered the estate before committing suicide. ![]() His father was a paper manufacturer who died during Isaac’s childhood. His Murphy ancestors came to the United States from the Dublin, Ireland, area between about 17. Isaac Murphy was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 16, 1799, to Hugh Murphy and Jane Williams Murphy. In 1864, he became the first elected governor of Union-controlled Arkansas. After years of relative obscurity, he became nationally famous when, at the Arkansas Secession Convention on May 6, 1861, he not only voted against secession but also resolutely refused to change his vote despite enormous crowd pressure. Isaac Murphy was a teacher, attorney, and eighth governor of Arkansas. ![]()
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