San Luis Obispo County Biographies

P. W. MURPHY

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


P. W. MURPHY, of San Luis Obispo, was born in Missouri, September 11, 1840, the 
son of Martin and Mary (Bulger) Murphy, who were both natives of County Wexford, 
L-eland. When Patrick was a mere child, the family removed to California, settling in 
the beautiful Santa Clara Valley. Here he grew to manhood, attending school and 
graduating at Santa Clara College. He then moved to San Luis Obispo to look after 
the large estates of his father, which amounted to 70,000 acres, and including the 
beautiful and far famed Santa Margarita Rancho. Later Mr. Murphy came into 
possession of this vast property, and on the ranch mentioned, twelve miles distant 
from San Luis Obispo, he makes his residence. Politically he is a Democrat, and is 
prominent in both political and business enterprises of any magnitude. He has three 
times been State Senator, and once an Assemblyman. Mr. Murphy was one of the 
originators of the San Luis Obispo Water Company, and also one of the incorporators 
of the San Luis Obispo Bank. He bears the title of General, having been appointed by 
Governor Irwin Brigadier General of the Second Brigade of the National Guard of 
California. The home of General Murphy, Santa Margarita Rancho, is pretty enough to 
be one huge park; no tourist to San Luis Obispo ever fails to visit this lovely spot. Its 
owner devotes most of the land to cattle-grazing, in which business he has been 
eminently successful. 

He was married February 23, 1870, to Miss Mary Kate O'Brien, daughter of Dr. 
P. M. O'Brien, of San Francisco, who died in Santa Clara Valley in 1875. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.