Captain John Murphy
Captain John Murphy is one of the oldest tug men in Buffalo harbor. He is certainly fully as well known as any of them, and his mind is replete with reminiscenses respecting the early navigation of the Buffalo creek and Niagara river. He is the son of Patrick and Mary (Donlon) Murphy, the former of whom was a carpenter by trade, coming from County Clare, Ireland, to America in 1848, and locating in Buffalo.
Captain Murphy was born in County Clare, Ireland, June 29, 1847. He was educated in the public schools of Buffalo, and graduating from there he went to a farm in Allegany county, N. Y., where he remained about two years. His first enterprise in connection with lake traffic was the purchase of the ferry scow, with which he made a living for himself and parents, part of a season ferrying on Buffalo creek. During the season of 1861, he was fireman on the tug J. W. Peabody, following that employment by working the necessary number of years in the Bell and the Buffalo Iron Works, learning the trade. For twenty one years he has been either engineer or master of harbor and other tugs at Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Baltimore, his last service being in 1884 upon the tug Dave and Mose, of which he was master and part owner. He has had pilot's license six years and engineer's papers ten years. He has been a member of the Local Harbor No. 41. Buffalo Harbor Master & Pilots Association since its inception.
Captain Murphy married Margaret Higgins at Buffalo in April, 1883, and they have the following named children: Charles, George, Grace, Joseph, Alice and Gertrude. The family reside at No. 499 Fargo avenue, Buffalo, New York.
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Volume I
This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.
Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.
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