lawyer, businessman, politician, Congressman, b. Platteville. He graduated from Platteville State Normal School (1873), studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1879. In 1880 he received his LL.B., from the Univ. of Michigan and set up a law practice in Platteville. A Democrat, he was city attorney of Platteville (1884), district attorney for Grant County (1887-1891), and mayor of Platteville (1904-1906). In 1906 he was elected to Congress, and served one term (Mar. 1907-Mar. 1909). Defeated for re-election in 1908, he returned to his law practice in Platteville. Murphy was also active in Platteville mining enterprises, and in 1898 was an organizer of the Platteville Lead and Zinc Co., which operated the Enterprise Mine, one of the first zinc mines in the Platteville area. He was again an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1920, and withdrew from politics. Biog. Dir. Amer. Cong. (1928); J. G. Gregory, ed., S.W. Wis. (4 vols., Chicago, 1932); E. B. Usher, Wis. (8 vols., Chicago, 1914).

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]