John David Murphy (1830 - 1897) - Civil War Soldier

 

Bing AI

John David Murphy was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent.   Records imply that he was known throughout his life as John D, John David, or Jerry. 

In April 1853, John married Sarah C. Jacobus.  It was a ‘runaway marriage’ or elopement, so the young couple married in Essex County, New Jersey, where they were not known.

The Murphys had five children:  Jane, Sarah Elizabeth, Mary, Jerome Franklin, and Loretta.  The federal census of 1860 recorded the Murphys living in Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, where John was working as a carpenter.  The family seems to have been quite poor.

Notwithstanding his age, John D. Murphy volunteered to fight in the Civil War.  He enlisted on May 23, 1861, and was assigned to Company F, 72nd New York Infantry.  His unit fought in the Peninsular Campaign, and Murphy was reported as wounded at the Battle of Williamsburg on February 5, 1862.

After the war, Murphy was unable to work and, by 1880, he was no longer with his family.  Family members say that he had developed a mania for wandering around the country.  He lived for a time at the Old Soldiers Home in Dayton, Ohio, before heading out for Arizona.

Around July 1, 1897, Murphy was living in a boarding house in Phoenix when he fell ill.  His landlord cared for him for four days before sending him to the County Hospital.  Murphy died there on July 10, 1897, and was buried in the Salt River Cemetery.  check out more of his story at the PMMP!

-story by Donna Carr

 

 

John McCarty (1855 - 1901) - Arizona Game and Fish Commissioner

 

PCA Archives - John McCarty

On June 6, 1901 John McCarty set off from his remote camp near Clear Creek on Arizona’s Mogollon Rim to hunt for some rare pigeons and four dozen tassel-eared squirrels. He was never seen alive again. A few months later a body was discovered and identified as McCarty’s, but was it really his?

Little is known about McCarty’s past. Census records suggest that he was born around 1855 in Scott, Virginia, to James and Mary McCarty.  At any rate, he was in Arizona when he began to advertise as a professional hunter around 1890.

For the next ten years, newspapers related his adventures as he roamed the Territory, hunting bears, mountain lions and other livestock predators.  He also collected rare animal specimens for museums and universities.  Because of his extensive knowledge of the territory and its wildlife, he was appointed Fish and Game Commissioner in the fall of 1898.

On April 15, 1900, he married Lillie S. Sparks, then aged sixteen.  McCarty left his young wife, pregnant with their first child, with her grandparents when he set off on his last hunting trip a little over a year later.  Shortly before he departed, he had taken out six separate life insurance policies that totaled $27,000, nearly $750,000 in today’s currency.

 When McCarty did not return from his hunting trip on the Mogollon Rim east of Pine, his partner, J. K. Day, went to search the area.  Week after week, the search turned up nothing. Finally, on August 19, a body was found.  Near it lay McCarty’s shotgun with a burst barrel.  It was surmised that McCarty had been stalking a bear.  Apparently, the barrel of the gun had burst when he fired, likely disabling him and leaving him at the mercy of the angry bear.

The body was taken to Flagstaff, where an inquest ruled McCarty’s death accidental. His associates had his body transported to Phoenix for burial in the Masonic Cemetery.  Find out more at the PMMP!

-story shortened, by Donna Carr