D.J. Murphy
D.J. Murphy
One of the most able lawyers and business men of Waukon is D.
J. Murphy who during the twenty years of his residence here has
actively identified himself with the city’s professional,
financial and public life, winning each year increasing
prominence in each field. He is today a leader at the bar and
well known as an organizer and a force in local democratic
politics, his name standing as a synonym for progress, growth and
advancement.
Mr. Murphy has been a resident of Iowa since 1889. He was born in
New Diggings, Wisconsin, November 1, 1867, and grew to manhood in
that state and was there educated, graduating from the State
Normal School at Platteville with the class of 1886. He afterward
engaged in teaching, winning prominence in his profession, rising
to be principal of the Highland high school, a position which he
held for three years. In 1889 he came to Iowa and joined his
brother, D. D. Murphy, at Elkader, where he read law until 1891,
when he was admitted to the bar. He formed a partnership with his
brother and they practiced in Elkader for two years, Mr. Murphy
of this review coming in 1893 to Waukon, where he has since been
in active practice before the district and supreme courts. His
ability and worth have become widely recognized during the twenty
years and his success in handling important and difficult
litigation has placed him in a leading position at the Allamakee
county bar.
It is not alone along professional lines, however, that Mr.
Murphy has achieved success and prominence, for he is an able and
far-sighted business man connected through investment or official
service with various important enterprises in the city. He built
one of the finest business blocks in Waukon, the lower floors of
which are occupied by a large department store, while the upper
story is fitted up into fine offices. Mr. Murphy has his own
suite of three rooms here, tastefully furnished and equipped with
one of the finest law libraries in this section of the state. He
was one of the organizers of the Peoples National Bank and is now
a large stockholder and member of the board of directors. He is a
stockholder and director in the Citizens State Bank and aided in
forming the company which opened up and developed the iron mines
in this vicinity. He was elected president of the concern and
still holds the office. All of his business affairs are conducted
in an able and discriminating way and the success to which he has
attained is entirely the result of his own talents and powers
which have been intelligently and worthily used.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on November 8, 1894, Mr. Murphy was
united in marriage to Miss Agnes Hay, who was born at Mineral
Point, that state, and who acquired her education in Platteville.
For a time she was a teacher in the public schools of Milwaukee.
Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have three children; Lorna, who is a student
at Mount St. Joseph’s College of Dubuque; Robert H., also a
student in St. Joseph’s College in the same city; and James
P.
Mr. Murphy has been affiliated with the democratic party since
casting his first vote and is prominent in the party’s
councils. In 1912 he was a candidate for the office of district
judge and, although not elected, was proud of the vote which he
polled, carrying his home county by a majority of six hundred and
eighteen, in the very center of a republican stronghold. Mr.
Murphy is a member of the Roman Catholic church and his upright
life and sterling qualities of character have gained him the
respect and esteem of all who are in any was associated with him.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich
Return to 1913 biographies index