Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - Charles J. Murta

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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Charles J. Murta, general merchant, was born in Ireland in 1855, and 
is a son of John and Catherine (Ward) Murta, natives of Ireland, born 
in 1828 and 1835, respectively. In 1865 they immigrated to the United 
States, and located at St. Louis, Mo. John served an apprenticeship at 
civil engineering in his native country, and afterward worked in 
England, Spain and Germany. After coming to the United States he was 
employed by the Iron Mountain Railway Company, and worked on the 
railroad from De Soto south through Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. 
Afterward he was on the Ft. Smith & Little Rock Railway from 
Clarksville, Ark., to Ft. Smith, and at present is working from Ft. 
Smith to Greenwood, being employed for the past twelve years by 
McCarty & Kerrgan. He is well known as one of the most skillful 
mechanics in his line in the country. Mrs. Murta died in 1865, and had 
three children: John, employed in the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad; 
Bryan, agent at Traskwood on the Iron Mountain Railroad, and Charles 
J. The latter was ten years old when brought to America, and was 
educated at St. Louis. When eighteen he began to engineer on the Iron 
Mountain Railroad, and afterward learned telegraphy, and from 1875 to 
1885 was agent at Alma, Ark. In 1882 he bought 660 acres eight miles 
southeast of Alma, on the Arkansas River, had 550 under cultivation, 
and twenty-two tenement houses. It is one of the finest plantations in 
the county, and is now owned by Robert S. Hynes, to whom he sold it. 
In 1887 Mr. Murta began to merchandise in Van Buren, and in July, 
1888, bought the hardware stock of Reynolds Bros., which he added to 
his former large stock. He is an energetic business man, and has one 
of the largest stocks of general goods in Van Buren. At one time he 
was engaged as book-keeper in the Exchange National Bank of Little 
Rock, and he is now a stockholder in the Van Buren Ice and Coal 
Company, and the Van Buren Canning Factory. In 1882 Mr. Murta married 
Miss Abbie Powe, a native of Alabama, and the mother of two children, 
John and Maggie. In politics Mr. Murta votes a national Democratic 
ticket, but in local affairs is independent.

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