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Submitted by Cheryl Van Wormer.



					EDWIN A. MURPHY.

EDWIN A. MURPHY, the subject of this brief sketch, is one of Ionia County's brightest and most 
highly respected young citizens.  His birth was celebrated at the village of Lyons, Mich., as the
second son of Edward and Mary Murphy, when the guns of Ft. Sumner were rousing the nation to war.
Born of hones and hard-working parents, who early moved with their sons to a forest home, young 
Murphy was surrounded by all the influences that pave the way to a thoughtful and successful life. 
At the age of eight years, he with ax in hand assisted his father in clearing away the forest of 
a one hundred and twenty-acre farm.  During the winter months he attended the district school
until 1877, when he entered the State Normal School to prepare himself for teaching, and in 1878 
began a course in the Agricultural College, from which institution he was graduated with honors 
in 1882, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science.  Since that time he has been actively 
engaged in school work, and has become one of the leading educators in the county.  He now holds
the position of Superintendent of the Muir public schools, and Chairman of the County Board of 
School Examiners, to which position he has once been appointed and three times elected, and has 
recently been elected as the County Superintendent of Schools.  His work in the school room is of
the highest order, and his active and genial disposition inspires teachers and pupils where-ever 
he goes.  He is pleasant and sociable to his fellow-citizens without distinction, and is always 
free to further their best interests.  As a speaker he is fluent and forcible, and has shown 
himself to be a talented writer.  He is a prominent member of the Masonic and Knights of Pythias 
fraternities.
	Mr. Murphy is much interested in agricultural pursuits, and is an admirer of fine live 
stock, and during the summer vacation finds recreation from his school labors upon his
picturesque Riverside stock farm.
 


This biography is taken from "PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, 
MICH."  Chapman Brothers.  Chicago, Illinois.  1891.  Pages 830-831.