Owen Murphy

by William Cochrane

Owen Murphy, Ex-Mayor of Quebec City, was born in Stoneham, Province of Quebec December 9th, 1829. His father was a member of the highly esteemed family of Murphys, of Ballainoulart House, County Wexford , Ireland, and was a man of peculiarly high attainments and cultivated mind. Mr. Murphy was educated under the tuition of the famous Robt. H. Scot, of Edinburgh, Scotland. In his early commercial life he was associated with two of the then largest and most important lumber, ship owning, produce and milling firms of this country. His unflagging perseverance and invincible integrity have obtained for him the honorable, responsible and distinguished positions which he has so frequently held. He was for years a member of the Quebec City Council, and in 1874 was elected to the mayoralty, and at the expiration of his term was re-elected for a further term of two years. Independent of the many municipal offices which Mr. Murphy has filled, he is director of the Quebec Central Railroad, past president of the St. Patrick’s Society, the St. Patrick’s Literary Institute, the Quebec Turfs Club, and the Quebec Board of Trade. He is in religion a Roman Catholic, and has always taken an independent course in politics, but believes that protection is necessary to the welfare of this country. Mr. Murphy was an unsuccessful candidate for Quebec West in 1881, was elected for the same district in 1886 by the largest majority ever given in that constituency, and was again re-elected in 1890. He was an important factor in the action which led to the dismissal of the Mercier Government, and the carrying of the province by the DeBoucherville administration. However, he declined to be a candidate for his old constituency, and voluntarily withdrew from active political life.  Murphy was married, in 1857, to Miss Loughry, who died in June, 1888, after which he sold his beautiful residence, and has since lived in social retirement. Mr. Murphy has no family.