Marin Pioneer Timothy Murphy Embraces Fun and Faith
by Robert L. Harrison
The Irish are well known for grand celebrations and for their long history of observant Roman Catholics. One of Marin’s first Irish settlers, Timothy Murphy (1800–1853), followed this tradition with great gusto and inspired generosity. Throughout his life he held boisterous enjoyable celebrations and on his death bed he confirmed his belief in the “Holy Catholic Faith.” As described by Jack Mason is his book, Early Marin, “Of all our Marin pioneers Murphy stands tallest in legend.”
Murphy was born in County Wexford, Ireland, and later as a young lad he found commercial work in Dublin. In the 1820s, still young and unattached, he left Ireland to take a position at an English firm in Lima, Peru. He learned there to speak Spanish and by 1828 was on his way to California to work for a meat packing company in Monterey. The company soon closed and Murphy turned to hunting wild animals, an area where he had great skill. Murphy trapped sea otters and sold their valuable pelts for up to $60 apiece (About $2,000 in 2021 dollars). By 1831 he had amassed considerable wealth trapping otters in the waters surrounding the Marin Peninsula.
For several years he found hospitality at both the Presidio of San Francisco and the Mission San Rafael where he spent many days and nights. Twelve years following its 1821 independence from Spain the Mexican government secularized the Missions and, had the law had been strictly followed, considerable land and livestock would have been allotted to their Native residents. Instead, the appointed civilian administrators who oversaw the Mission holdings transferred them mostly to Mexican and European settlers. In 1837 California Governor Alvarado appointed Murphy as the third administrator of Mission San Rafael. He was said to have done the most for the Native population including filing a land claim in 1852 on their behalf with the United States Land Commission. The claim failed in 1856, three years after his death.
In the 1830s and 1840s the Mexican government offered large tracts of land known as ranchos to citizens with notable service records and/or influential connections in California. To be a recipient of one of these ranchos a grantee must be a Mexican citizen, a baptized Roman Catholic and must use a Spanish forename. Timothy Murphy, baptized in Ireland, became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1839 and adopted the name Don Timoteo Murphy.
In 1844 Governor Micheltorena granted Murphy a 21,679 acre land holding consisting of three adjacent Ranchos: San Pedro, Santa Margarita and Las Gallinas. Just two years later he sold 680 acres of Rancho Las Gallinas to James Miller, a fellow County Wexford native.
By 1846 Murphy had built a two story, tiled roof hacienda in today’s San Rafael at 4th and C Streets and with it he became Marin’s third European born settler. His home was sufficiently ample that, following his death in 1853, it was used as the Marin County courthouse until a new building was opened in 1873. While living in San Rafael Murphy held the responsible position of Juez de Paz (Justice of the Peace) and later was elected Alcalde (Mayor).
In September 1847 the first “San Rafael Day” was celebrated at the Murphy hacienda. On October 24th of each subsequent year the festival was observed with typical Irish enthusiasm. He was known to give rollicking parties sometimes lasting three days or longer. For Christmas 1849 Murphy staged a barbecue at the Presidio that lasted two days and three nights. The event cost $1,500 (About $50,000 in 2021 dollars). He was well known for his generosity, wit and character in both San Francisco to Marin.
In the July 9, 1850 Daily Alta California “The Fourth in Marin” was described this way:
The Fourth of July was celebrated with considerable zeal in the county of Marin. The men and women of the county gathered upon Mr. Timothy Murphy’s ranch….Bullocks and sheep were roasted and ate, toasts were drunk and songs sung, and altogether a very good time was had.
Murphy helped organize the beef cattle industry in Marin and supplied much of the cattle. The beef was shipped to San Francisco on the sloop “Boston” four days a week. Estimates show that as many as 100 head passed weekly through San Rafael. The price in the late 1840s was $25 per head (About $800 in 2021 dollars) making for a very lucrative business.
In 1849 Murphy suffered a reversal of fortune. He was swindled out of proceeds generated by the sale of beef from his ranch. By March of the next year he advertised the sale of his “farm.” The advertisement in the Daily Alta California of March 5, 1850 read:
FOR SALE. — Wishing to retire from this country, I offer my farm known as San Rafael consisting of four leagues of land [17,700 acres], together with 1500 head of cattle and 200 horses, with a good house, garden and other improvements…. For further particulars apply to me at San Rafael. TIMOTHY MURPHY. Also for sale, one half of a fifty vara lot in Happy Valley, San Francisco…
In the end Murphy did not abandon the country nor was the sale of his Rancho realized. This outcome was especially fortunate for poor children in both Marin and San Francisco where he contributed lands for schools and orphanages. Herbert Howe Bancroft in his book History of California writes of Murphy: “He was a liberal giver to several Catholic institutions.”
In San Francisco, along with his friend Jasper O’Farrell, Murphy offered a lot in Happy Valley for the construction of an asylum to house children left homeless by the 1850 cholera epidemic. The Sisters of Charity operated the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum and Free School Association. By 1852 the small cottage housing the Asylum had grown to serve 26 children and a new home was needed. A new larger three-story brick building was built and by 1855 the orphanage had expanded to 112 children. The building remained an orphanage until 1919.
Murphy was suddenly taken ill in January 1853, apparently from a burst appendix. As he lingered in pain for three days he dictated his will. Again the Catholic Church was a major beneficiary of his bequests, one totaling about 680 acres of land north of San Rafael donated to Archbishop Joseph S. Alemany of San Francisco. The Archbishop appointed the Sisters of Charity to manage the building of St. Vincent’s Seminary in accord with the terms of Murphy’s will. The Sisters reported that they and four children were in the building on January 7, 1855 and by the end of year there were 28 orphan boys housed and 40 additional pupils were attending school there. The Archdiocese was also the recipient of the Palace Hotel site in San Francisco plus land in the village of San Rafael.
Murphy left most of the remainder of his real property to his nephew, John Lucas, and his dying brother Matthew. His will also listed several smaller bequests including $200 (About $6,000 in 2021 dollars) to his Native servant Candelario.
According to Thomas F. Prendergast in his book Forgotten Pioneers, Murphy expressed his religious feelings as he was lying on his death bed: “As a true believer in the Holy Catholic Faith, commending my immortal spirit to Him who gave it, and resigning my body to the earth to be decently interred under the direction of my executors, hereinafter named, I dispose of all my estate….” He died shortly after signing his will.
In the end Timothy Murphy of County Wexford and later Don Timoteo Murphy, the man who made fun a major pursuit for most of his life, died expressing his deep belief in charity and religious faith.
