Murphy, Richard (of Lake Co., IL)

Born: 1806-XX-XX Ireland, United Kingdom

Died: 1869-03-02 Lake County, Illinois

Flourished: Lake County, Illinois

Murphy first migrated from Ireland to Canada before moving to Illinois. In 1836, he settled with his sister Mary and brother-in-law William Dwyer in an area that became known as the Dwyer settlement. It was a part of McHenry County until 1839, when the General Assembly created Lake County. Murphy was a justice of the peace and a physician, and he never married. Murphy, a Democrat, served alongside Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1838 to 1840 and 1840 to 1842, representing Cook, Will, and McHenry counties. From 1842 to 1844 he represented Lake County in the same body. He was the first representative elected both for McHenry County and for Lake County. In 1840, he had responsibility for taking the federal census of Lake County. In 1843, he campaigned for a seat in Congress against John Wentworth, but lost. In 1860, he lived with his widowed sister in Lake County. Murphy was a Catholic and gave public lectures in favor of abolition.

U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Lake County, IL, 220; John J. Halsey, ed., A History of Lake County, Illinois (Chicago: Roy S. Bates, 1912), 37, 60, 131, 461, 463, 468-69, 675; The Past and Present of Lake County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, 1877), 230, 301-2; History of McHenry County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1885), 229; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 207, 209, 211; Gravestone, Saint Mary's Cemetery, Waukegan, IL; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Lake County, ed. by Charles A. Partridge, (Chicago: Munsell, 1902), 656.