Multnomah-Marion-Lane County OR Archives Biographies.....Murphy, Chester Griffin February 3, 1876 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 23, 2006, 12:16 am

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Volume II, 
Pages 112-114

	CHESTER GRIFFIN MURPHY.  Upon the broad foundation of intensive study 
and exceptionally thorough training for his chosen field of endeavor Chester 
Griffin Murphy has reared the superstructure of his professional success and 
is accorded a position of prominence in legal circles of Portland.  He has 
also won success in other walks of life and has important business and 
agricultural interests.  A native of Salem, Oregon, he was born February 3, 
1876, and represents one of the old and prominent families of the state.  His 
father, John Joseph Murphy, was long a well known figure at the Oregon bar and 
served for sixteen years as clerk of the supreme court of the state, acting in 
that capacity until his death on June 17, 1907.
	The mother, Elizabeth Catherine Murphy, was a daughter of Dr. William 
and Catherine (Murray) Lister, the former a native of London, England, while 
the latter was born in Ireland.  Dr. Lister’s father, who was a man of wealth, 
sailed for America, promising to return to London after finding a suitable 
location for the family, but disappeared in New York city after purchasing a 
ticket for Lexington, Kentucky, and his fate remained a mystery that was never 
solved.  Dr. Lister came to this country in search of his father and decided 
to remain here, sending for the members of his family.  While crossing the 
Atlantic they were shipwrecked near the Bermudas but were rescued and taken to 
New York city, where they were reunited.  They settled in Versailles, 
Kentucky, where his daughters, Maria, Catherine and Elizabeth Catherine and 
his son, William, were born.  Thomas, the first child, was a native of London, 
and Joseph, the second son, was born while Mrs. Lister was en route to the 
United States.  The father prospered in the south and became the owner of many 
slaves.
	Elizabeth C. Murphy, the youngest child, was twelve years old when the 
family left the Blue Grass state, owing to the mother’s failing health, and 
went by boat down the Kentucky river to the Ohio and thence up the Mississippi 
to the Missouri landing at St. Joseph.  There the father purchased wagons, 
oxen and supplies and hired a driver and a cook for the overland trip to 
Oregon.  The mother remained in St. Joseph with her son Joseph and his wife, 
who was one of Kentucky’s most beautiful women, and promised to join the 
family in the Pacific northwest in the following year.  In 1852 thousands of 
emigrants had died of cholera and had been buried by the side of the Oregon 
trail.  The Indians dug up the bodies in order to secure the clothes and 
blankets in which they were buried.  Many of the savages contacted the disease 
and consequently they gave the emigrants of 1853 a wide berth.  After several 
weeks of hard driving Dr. Lister managed to catch up with the main body of 
emigrants, who were told of a short cut across the mountains by what is now 
known as the McKenzie pass.  They lost the trail by not following the trees 
that had been blazed in the foothills and after reaching the tules of the 
Klamath Lake country they had to retrace their way to the eastern slope of the 
Three Sister.  For seven weeks the Listers were without bread, having divided 
their supplies with those who had none.  Two young men volunteered to go on 
horseback across the mountains to the settlements and secure help.  They were 
lost in the head waters of the McKenzie but finally reached Eugene.  Meanwhile 
the emigrants were crossing and recrossing the McKenzie in an attempt to find 
their way and one of the wagons tipped over, precipitating into the stream a 
woman and her baby, who were drowned.  At last help arrived and they gained 
the valley.
	On arriving at the forks of the Willamette the Lister family pitched 
their camp and the next day met Presley Scott, who had entered a section of 
land in the Mohawk valley, offering one of the Doctor’s sons a half-interest 
in the claim.  The next year Dr. Lister went back to Missouri and brought his 
wife to the home which he had established ten miles from Eugene.  Their 
daughter, Elizabeth C. Lister, was married when a young girl of sixteen to 
Stephen F. Church, who was engaged in mining on Althouse creek, in southern 
Oregon, where, with a partner, he also conducted a small store.  Later they 
removed to Harrisburg, situated in a wheat-raising district, and at that time 
the grain had to be hauled by ox teams to Corvallis.  In association with 
David and Asa McCully and others, Mr. Church organized the People’s 
Transportation Company, which operated a line of steamers up the river as far 
as Harrisburg.  Subsequently the family settled in Salem and some years after 
the death of Mr. Church his widow became the wife of John Joseph Murphy.  To 
Mr. and Mrs. Church were born three children:  Samuel W., who is survived by a 
widow and two daughters, all residents of Portland; Harriet Ida, who became 
the wife of Dr. A. J. Giesy; and Elizabeth who married L. G. Clarke, of the 
well known Portland firm of Woodward, Clarke & Company.
	About a year and a half after her second marriage Mrs. Murphy became 
the mother of a son, who was christened Chester Griffin Murphy.  For eight 
years he was a pupil in the public schools of Salem and in 1893 entered 
Willamette University, which he attended for three years.  One of his 
classmates was Fred Lockley, who is now a member of the editorial staff of the 
Oregon Journal and well known in newspaper circles throughout the state.  Mr. 
Murphy next matriculated in Stanford University, from which he won the A. B. 
degree in 1900, and also began his law studies in that institution, which he 
attended for five years.  His course was completed in Harvard University and 
in 1903 he received the degree of LL.B.  He was a brilliant student and also 
excelled in athletic sports.  While at Willamette University he was made 
captain of the football and baseball teams and was a member and captain of the 
Stanford football and baseball teams for four years, while his connection with 
the track team of that university covered two years.  At Harvard he played on 
the football and baseball teams of the Harvard Law School and after returning 
to Oregon played several games with the football and baseball teams of the 
Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club of which he is a life member.  A year was 
devoted to travel in Europe, and in 1903 he entered upon the work of his 
profession in Portland, becoming associated with the late Judge William D. 
Fenton, a relationship that existed until 1906.   At that time Mr. Murphy 
became an independent practitioner and was also called to public office, 
becoming referee in bankruptcy for Oregon through appointment of the United 
States district court.  He acted in that capacity from 1906 until 1914, 
discharging his duties in a manner that won for him high commendation and also 
continued his practice.  Mr. Murphy specializes in the law governing 
corporations and real property and has successfully handled much important 
litigation, having a large and lucrative clientele.  From time to time he has 
made profitable investments in Portland and Salem realty and also owns two 
ranches, one being located in Marion county and the other in Polk county.  On 
the land near West Salem he grows fine hops, and his stock farm in the 
vicinity of Woodburn he devotes in part to the raising of thoroughbred 
horses.  At Salem he constructed the Bligh Hotel and as one of the builders of 
the Trinity Place apartments and Murlark Hall he has also contributed toward 
the development and improvement of Portland.  Expanding his business 
connections, he organized and became secretary, treasurer and general 
counselor of the Oregon-Washington-Idaho Airplane Company, organized for the 
purpose of promoting commercial aviation in the northwest, and which company 
was the pioneer in the aviation field in the northwest.
	Mr. Murphy was married June 4, 1912, in Portland to Miss Angela 
Kinney, a daughter of Timothy Kinney, a well known Wyoming capitalist, and 
they now have two children:  Marion Margaret, who was born November 21, 1913; 
and Catherine Elizabeth, born February 21, 1915.
	During the World war Mr. Murphy served on the exemption board at 
Portland and was active in the Liberty bond and Red Cross drives.  In July, 
1918, he was sent abroad by the Young Men’s Christian Association and for 
eight months was director of recreation and athletics with headquarters at Aix-
les-Bains, in the district of the Savoie in southeastern France, where five 
thousand soldiers were sent on leave each week.  He is affiliated with the 
Congregational church and casts his ballot for the candidates of the 
republican party.  In 1920 he was made state chairman of the Hoover Republican 
Club of Oregon, which supported the pre-campaign efforts to turn the 
nomination for president of the United States to his boyhood and Stanford 
friend, Herbert Hoover, whose work in behalf of starving Europe brought him 
prominently before the American public.  Since his return from overseas Mr. 
Murphy has been instructor in bankruptcy in the night law school of the 
Northwest College of Law.  For recreation Mr. Murphy turns to horseback 
riding, golf and other outdoor sports, thus promoting his mental alertness and 
physical well being.  He is a life member of the Multnomah Athletic and Golf 
Clubs and also belongs to the Waverly and Portland Country Clubs, the Portland 
Hunt Club and the University Club.  His name likewise appears on the 
membership rolls of the Chamber of Commerce, the Zeta Psi and Phi Delta Phi 
college fraternities, and the Multnomah County, Oregon State and American Bar 
Associations.  The elements have been happily blended in the rounding out of 
his nature, and his has been a symmetrical, well balanced life, crowned with 
success and characterized by the accomplishment of much good.


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Volume II, 
Chicago, The S. J Clarke Publishing Company, 1928

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