Bedford County, VA - Obit: Samuel Jennings Murphy, 1897 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ In the Brownstown (Indiana) Bannmer 10 June 1897 page 5 column 4 the following obituary was printed: Mr. Samuel Jennings Murphy for many years a well-known resident of our town died, at his home in Marengo, Iowa, April 6, 1897. He was born in Bedford County, Va. Feb. 1, 1810, and came with his father's family to Salem, Indiana. In 1819, soon thereafter to our town, where the father died in 1823, and where the son continued to reside, either in town or its vicinity, until his removal to Iowa, in Oct. 1850. His brothers Lewis F. Murphy, James L. Murphy, and the late George Murphy, of Seymour, and his sisters, Mrs. R. A . Redman, Mrs. Catharine Vermilya, and Mrs. Polly Woody (this is a mistake because this is the maiden name of James L. Murphy's deceased first wife), were in their day well known and highly respected members of our community. Mr Murphy was twice married--on Feb 13, 1831, to Miss Elizabeth Warner, who died about 1841, leaving four children surviving their marriage, namely, Nancy, first married to the genial and gifted Thomas Robertson, and now the wife of D.r Wilson, of Medora; Elizabeth, whose first husband was Col. T. E. Buchlor (should be Buehler), now the wife of -------James, now living in Nebraska, and Wilbur Fist, who died in our town May 30, 1846. His second Marriage was to Sophia Umbarger, for several years of the family of Rev. Walter Benton. by this marriage several children were bon to them all of whom, if we remember aright were boys, one of whom, the Rev. Samuel Murphy, has risen to distinction as an able and effective minister in the Methodist church, a matter that the father esteemed as the crowning happiness of his life--a son preaching the gospel of Christ. He was a man of marked personality, a most positvie character. What he believed he spoke, and all he did was with his might and hence it was not strange that animosities were provoked. A sterling patriot, he served his country a term in the 37th Iowa Vol., though beyond the age limit at the time; and his love for his country was equaled by his love for his church and the cause it represented; and for either, had the sacrifice been required he would have reckoned the laying down of his life "a reasonable service." A more fearless advocate of what he believed right, or denunciator of what he believed wrong, we have not known anywhere. He was the friend and councelor of our youth and maturer years; and gratefully we offer this obituary as a tribute to his memory. J. H. B. Further, the mother of Samuel Jennings Murphy is Mary "Polly" Leftwich Murphy, daughter of Uriah Leftwich. She is buried beside her son, George Haden Murphy in the Riverside Cemetery of Seymour, Jackson County, Indiana. Orvill Paller, Jr. 2nd great grandson-in-law and 3rd great grandson-in-law