Charles W. Murphy
Charles W. Murphy, senior member of the firm of Murphy & Darst, editors of the Democratic Daily and Weekly Herald, at Circleville, was born in Bellbrook, Greene County, Ohio, August 20, 1846. His father, .John C,. Murphy, was also a native of that county, while his grandfather, John C. Murphy, hailed from Kentucky, and early in life located near Bellbrook. He later went to Cincinnati, where he was engaged in pork-packing from 1830 to 1840, at the end of which time he returned to Greene County and became an agriculturist. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died in 1872, after having been successfully engaged for a number of years in cultivating the soil.
The father of our subject was engaged in the drug business in Xenia from 1857 to 1866, when he disposed of his business and removed to Mankato, Minn., and became a banker and real-estate dealer. He was the resident manager and member of the Board erecting the State Normal School Building of Mankato, being one of the earliest settlers in that place, locating there before the railroad was built, and was active in all public improvements. In 1872, he returned to his native State, and departed this life at Xenia. His good wife, who was known in her maidenhood as Miss Rebecca Clark, was born in New York State, and was the daughter of Harry Clark, who later removed to Mansfield in the northern part of this State, where he was engaged as a wheelwright and surveyor. Mrs. Muiphy is still living and makes her home in the city of Chicago.
Charles W. Murphy was the eldest of three children born to his parents, and received his education in the public schools at Xenia and the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. In 1870, he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which institution he was graduated two years later with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He then removed to Iowa, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession at Hamburg. After being thus engaged for two years, he became publisher of the Sidney (Iowa) Union, a weekly paper which he conducted very successfully for six years, during three years of that time being Postmaster in that city.
In 1881, on account of ill-health, the original of this sketch spent eighteen months in Colorado and New Mexico, then in the fall of 1882 returned to Circleville, formed a partnership with Mr. Darst, and published the weekly Herald. A year later, they started the daily, which now has one of the largest circulations in the county. In 1863, Mr. Murphy enlisted in the Fifth Independent Battallion Ohio Cavalry, and later became a member of the One Hundred and Eighty-sixth Ohio Infantry, serving his country for a period of eighteen months and being mustered out as Corporal.
Miss Margaret B. Darst became the wife of our subject June 8, 1876. She was born in Circleville, and by her union with Mr. Murphy has become the mother of two children, viz: Clark D. and Kenneth. In their clnu'ch relations, they are Episcopalians.
From PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF FAYETTE, PICKAWAY AND MADISON COUNTIES, OHIO - Chapman Bros. [Chicago, 1892]