W. L. MURPHY

 The following bio was taken from page 324 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission. 

Transcribed by Shirley Koym 

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas 

William Pinckney Murphy was married to Martha Suttles at the time he went from Hickory, Mississippi to battle for the Confederacy.  He was wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg.  His oldest son, Isaac Barber, had to be the “man of the house” during his absence.  After his father’s return, Ike was denied a formal education and left for Texas when he was twenty-one.  He met and married Kiziah Johnson Lawson, a widow with three children – John, Irwin, and Jessie.  Three children were born to them – William Leland, Bob, and a baby girl.  The baby died soon after she was born, and Kiziah died from complications of childbirth.  Ike, Kiziah, and the baby daughter are buried in Caledonia Cemetery.

 James K. Polk Maxwell, whose parents were Berry James K. Polk Maxwell and Lucy A. Estes, came to Texas from Meriwether County, Georgia, as a young boy.  He met and married Iula Wyche Thrash in 1892.  She, too, had come from Meriwether County, Georgia.  Six children were born to them.  The second child, Bettie Ollie, helped her father run his sawmill when she wasn’t in school.  She finished all the grades that London had and was prepared to take the Teachers’ Examination.  

Instead of taking the test, she married Willie Murphy, who had come to London on business from Shelby County. They returned to Shelby County, where Evelyn Ollie, Nina Willie, and William Leland, Jr. were born.  Since Ollie was unable to visit with her family much because of the long wagon ride, the family returned to London where Willie bought a farm.   Eva Jewel, Clarine, James Isaac, Virgil Rudolph, Dorothy Dolle, and Ethel Marie were born at the home in London.  In 1931, the family stayed near Henderson for a time because of an oil well fire near their London home.  While at her mother’s home near Henderson, Ollie gave birth to Kizzie Lula.  As soon as the well fire was put out, the family returned to London.  Bettie Sue was the last child born at London. 

Willie wanted his family out of the oil field area; he bought a farm one and one-half miles from Henderson and moved his family there in January 1933.  The last child, Jackie Vera, was delivered by Dr. H. A. Suehs at the Henderson home. 

From both parents, the children learned the value of work and the value of one’s word.  Education was foremost in the minds of both parents.  Papa, because his father signed his name with “X”; Mama, because she never lost her desire to learn or to teach. 

Of the twelve children, eleven graduated from high school.  (Susie died when she was in the eighth grade.)  Evelyn was a member of the first graduating class from New London High School.  The last ten graduated from Henderson High School.  Seven of the children attended college.  All surviving children are now gainfully employed.  Five are certified to teach.

 The values given us Murphy’s by our parents will live on through generations.

 Submitted by Jackie Murphy Wesson