My Genealogy Hound

EDWIN M. MURPHY, farmer, Sec. 6; P. O. Le Roy; born on Sec. 2, Empire Township, McLean Co., May 23, 1836, where he lived with his parents, attended school and followed farming until when he, with his father and brother, emigrated to Oregon, but not being pleased with the country, he returned to McLean Co., and purchased 152 acres of land upon Sec. 6, West Township, upon which he located and where he has since lived. He was the youngest son of Isaac Murphy who emigrated from Ohio and located in Bloomington about the year 1826 or 1827; he was married to Mary Whitney, in Bloomington; she was born in Meigs Co., Ohio, and came to Illinois at a very early day; she died in McLean Co., in 1869; Mr. Murphy entered the land where Mr. Dooly now lives, when the Land Office was at Vandalia; his first team was a yoke of steers; he afterward raised a team of colts, and in this way obtained his first team of horses; he worked at carpentering in Bloomington, and put up some of the first buildings of that town, among which was the first jail, using the fruits of his labor to pay for his land; he then followed farming and stock-raising until he had accumulated 980 acres of land, which he sold out and went to Oregon, where he died April 14, 1872; his oldest son, Charles, was the first white boy born in Bloomington, in December, 1830. Edwin M. Murphy was married to Jane Howell, in September, 1862; she was born in Kentucky, and died in McLean Co., in November, 1870, leaving two children — John, born Nov. 12, 1863, and Isaac L., born June 20, 1866. His marriage with Margaret Oliver was celebrated Oct. 26, 1871; she was born in County Derry, Ireland, Feb. 19, 1838, and emigrated to America with her parents when 15 months old; her father, William Oliver, located in De Witt Co. in 1853, and died May 12, 1875, at the age of 96 years. The children of E. M. Murphy by his second wife are Mary Jane, born Dec. 5, 1872; Laura Bell, Dec. 11, 1876.