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John T. Murphy Papers, 1865-1935

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Murphy, John T., 1842-1914
Title
John T. Murphy Papers
Dates
1865-1935 (inclusive)
Quantity
17 linear feet of shelf space
Collection Number
MC 84 (collection)
Summary
John T. Murphy (1842-1914) was a Helena, Montana, merchant, rancher, banker, and mine investor. Collection (1865-1935) includes correspondence, financial records, legal documents and other material of Murphy, the Murphy Estate, and various companies he founded, including the Powder River Land and Cattle Company, Montana Cattle Company (Seventy-Nine Ranch), and the Murphy-Maclay Hardware Company.
Repository
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov
Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

John T. Murphy was born on a farm in Platte County, Missouri, on February 2, 1842, the first of two children of William S. and Amelia Tyler Murphy. John helped his father on the farm and attended a private school until the age of 17 when he set out on his own. Murphy joined the Colorado gold rush, but as a merchant, not a miner. For the first year and a half, he was a clerk in a Denver store. He then moved to Nevada City, Colorado, where he opened his own store. With profits from this operation and with experience gained from a brief employment with Ben Holliday's Express, Murphy bought several teams and wagons, and returned east for goods. He made several trips to Colorado

In 1864 brought a wagon train of supplies to the new Montana Territory mining town of Virginia City. He did so well financially with this first trip that the following spring he brought another wagon train to Montana, this time to Helena by way of steamer to Fort Benton. With these goods, he took on two partners and established the firm of Tutt, Murphy and Neel. This mercantile house, under the later name of Murphy, Neel and Company, established branch stores at Fort Benton and Deer Lodge. Like most of the successful mercantile men of the period, Murphy diversified his holdings. He expanded his interests into mining, banking, stockraising, and Florida citrus crops. It was in stockraising, however, that Murphy had his most marked success. His Montana Cattle Company, with its famous "79" brand, established the Seventynine Ranch in the area between the Yellowstone and Musselshell rivers south of Ryegate. Initially established as an open range operation, the "79" was one of the few to successfully make the transition to fenced ranching. Like many Montana ranchers, Murphy was able to effectively combine cattle and sheep ranching. In the field of banking, Murphy was one of the organizers of the Helena National Bank in 1890 and the Montana Savings Bank the next year. Following the death of C.A. Broadwater, Murphy was chosen president of the Montana National Bank in Helena. Murphy also had mining interests in Lewis and Clark and Jefferson counties, among them the Poorman, the Jay Gould, the Rumley, and the Silver Bell mines.

John T. Murphy married Elizabeth T. Morton in 1871. They had four children: William M., Frances D., Adelize M., and John T., Jr., all born in Helena in the 1870s. Murphy's wife died in 1897, and his son William in 1904. A few years after the death of his first wife, Murphy married Clara Cobb of Providence, Rhode Island. John T. Murphy died May 23, 1914, in Helena.

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Content Description

This collection consists of correspondence, financial records, legal documents, and other material relating to John T. Murphy (1860s-1914), to the John T. Murphy Estate (1914-1935), and to several of the businesses which Murphy established. The correspondence of R.P. Heren, Charles Wiley, and Matt J. Roke contains much detailed information about the day-to-day operations of the Murphy ranches. Considerable correspondence also details Murphy's interests in Florida citrus groves. Another primary correspondent in the collection is Murphy's secretary, John H. Tucker, who conducted much of the business. In addition, correspondence for the estate was conducted by Albert L. Smith, trustee, and by Tucker.

Subgroups in the collection include John T. Murphy; John T. Murphy Estate; John T. Murphy, Jr.; John T. Murphy and Company; Blue Canyon Coal Mining Company/Bellingham Bay and Eastern Railroad Company; Florida Property; Jay Gould Mining Company; Montana Cattle Company; Montana Savings Bank; Montana Wool Growers Commission Company; Murphy-Maclay Hardware Company; Northwestern Cattle Company; Powder River Land and Cattle Company; S.T. Christian and Company; Teton Ranch; and Woolman and Christian.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.

Preferred Citation

Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged by subgroup and series. Some material housed in manuscript volumes. Some material housed in oversize folder in archives map case. See inventory below for more information.

See the Processing Information note below for more information on correspondence found throughout the collection.

Location of Collection

5:4-3

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request

Processing Note

John T. Murphy and his personal secretary, John H. Tucker, maintained one joint incoming correspondence file, and its original order has been retained. No effort was made by them to differentiate among the correspondence of the various enterprises in which they were involved. In addition, within the file, Murphy's private correspondence was interfiled with the business correspondence. This has led to certain peculiarities, among them that correspondence from Murphy to Tucker are filed as incoming correspondence. In the John T. Murphy Estate subgroup, correspondence was handled somewhat differently: John H. Tucker and trustee Albert L. Smith maintained separate files from 1914 to 1917, thus necessitating three separate runs of general correspondence, one each for Smith and Tucker during the years and one for the estate from 1918 to 1935.

Separated Materials

Maps transferred to Library. See inventory below for more information.

Related Materials

More material created by the Powder River Land and Cattle Company can be found in MC 83, Powder River Land and Cattle Company records

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection

Finding aid prepared by Ellie Arguimbau, 1978.
2005

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