John and Sarah A Murphy
(c1770 - 1844 and c1772 - 1860-66)
Descendant List and Notes
1820 Election Return showing John Murphy as freeholder
Research Papers by Charles F Murphey
Since the Butler County courthouse burned in 1853, there is no absolute proof that John Murphy is father to Wilson Murphy and Eleanor Murphy Seale, but the "preponderance of evidence" indicates that he is:
- 1. Wilson's obituary stated that he came to Butler County with his father when Wilson was only 14;
- 2. John and Wilson were the only Murphys on the 1830 census;
- 3. John had 50 slaves in 1840 and Wilson had 9, but in 1850 after John's death, Wilson had 45 slaves.
- 4. Estate Book 16 pg 220: Wilson's 480-acre home place at Pine Flat included half of the SE 1/4 of Section 21 T10N R12E, for which John Murphy had received a patent in 1835 (BLM doc #16672);
- 5. An 1856 deed from Sarah Murphy to her grandson Josiah Mullins stated that, aside from her life interest in the property, "the remaining interest in said property belongs to Wilson Murphy, Ellen Seales and the heirs of Sarah Rhodes, deceased."
According to the History of Butler County, Alabama 1815 - 1885, by John Buckner Little, originally published in 1885, John Murphy had settled near Butler Springs in 1817, coming from Georgia prior to the fall and winter of 1817 (pg 23 and 139). He and Ransom Seale owned the land surrounding the springs, which were on public land owned by the government.
On page 136, Little states that he did not know who discovered the springs but he had been "informed that Susan Murphy, afterward married to John Clark, and Ellen Murphy, afterward married to Ransom Seale," were among the girls credited with having discovered the springs. He says that in the 1840s, ailing people seeking the medicinal properties of the springs boarded with Wilson Murphy during their stay (pg 137).
He does not say when the springs were discovered, but refers to "a general belief among the old residents...that the Springs were discovered by hunters as early as 1830." Then "the medicinal properties of the water were not entirely established until about 1842..." Say it was about 1835-40 when the "girls" discovered the springs. According to the 1850 census, Ellen was born about 1807 and her daughter Susan, about 1827. Ellen also had sons Allen and John Wilson by 1835, so she had not been a Murphy, but Ransom Seale's wife, for a long time, assuming she was not a later wife. The Susan who married John Clark was Susan Seale, Ransom's daughter.
On page 139: "John Murphy reared a large family, and his descendants are still to be found in different parts of the county. He removed from his old place near the Springs in 1827, and started the mill now known as the old Murphy Mill. He died in 1844." Now, the three offspring we know of, Wilson, Eleanor Seale and Sarah Rhodes, do not constitute a "large family" even now, much less in the 1800s when families of 8, 10 or 12 children were not uncommon. Were there more?
On page 167: "L H Gibbs built a house in 1828, about one mile northeast from where Smith's mill now stands, and put up a mill on Pine Barren for John Murphy. This was one of the first mills started on this creek." Incidentally, this mill ended up in Wilson Murphy's possession and he sold it in March of 1877.
