Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1892-02-22
ARCHIBALD D. B. MURPHEY
THE FATHER OF NORTH CAR.
OI.INA PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The Second of the University stu
dents Biographical Sketches
1t 10 Well Written and by an
AsheviIle Boy,
| The portrait of sad faced man hangs
from the walls of the Dialectic Society at
the university. The picture is that of
Archibald DeBow Murphy, Of Orange,
whose devotion to his native state has
made his name, uttered within the
bounds of North Carolina, a synonym
for patriotism. He was born in Cas-
we'll county in 1777. His preparation
for college was received under Rev. DR..
David Caldwell, Of Guilford. Books
and libraries were scarce articles in those
pioneer days of our histot., and when
young Murphey entered the State Uni
versity in his twenty-frst year, and the
second of the University q existence, his Ii.
brary consisted of three works, Voltaire' s
history of Charles XII. of Sweden, a soil
tary volume of Roderick Random, and
Don Quixote. In spite of his inability to
cultivate his literary tastes in his earlier
days, he graduated at the head of his
class in three years, and Immediately
thereafter became professor of modern
languages in the young university
which had just granted him his
diploma.
MIR. Murphey, however made the law
his profession, and only retained his
chair at Chapel Hill for three years. As
a lawyer he was brilliant. witty and
shire wd in his management Of witnesses.
successful and much sought after
pleader, he held his own easily, we are
told, among such eminent legal lights as
Archibald Henderson, Cameron, Nor
wood, Nash, Seawell, Yancey, Rufin,
Badger, Hawks, Mangum and More
head.
In 1918 Mr.. Murphey was elected a
Judge of the superior court by the gen
eral assembly, and held this position for
two years, when he returned to the prac-
tice of his profession. The then existing
law regarding the judiciary provided
that if a supreme court Judge had any
interest in cause coming before that
body, (whether from having been EN-
ployed in the said cause in lower tribu
nails or for any other reason) the gov
ernor had power to appoint a specla
commission whose duty it should be tt
detail asuperior court judge to sit in the
: stead Of such supreme court justice. Under
this law Judge Murphey presided for on,
term in place of Leonard Henderson, tht
distinguished jurist, afterwards chief jus
tice. The mention of this fact is greater
tribune to the estimation in which hi:
legal requirements were held, than {
g whole pyramid of climactic adjectiyes
Judge Murphey prepared the reports o
C the proceedings of the supreme court o
the state from 1904 to 1918 inclusive
IL. and was the first reporter of the sam
body under it's present organization. be
ginning with 1919. He was the frs
who held the office of the clerk of tn
supreme court, the position which i
now 90 ably filled by Hon, Thomas S
kenan.
Il Jndge Murphey was state senate
from Orange county for six years ate
1912, and in the political arena, as
statesman and bold, fearless, energeti
lawmaker, he achieved his greatest tame
He had an intense desire to better the In
ternal improvements of the state. Fl
cherished plan for making North Cai
olina one of the formemost states in tn
union, by establishing after the old Re
LAl <Nk t,,r, Ia n
macadamized road, all concentering a
two or three important points for trade
believing that they would become popt
lOus cities. Some of these trade center
were to be on the coast, and Judge Mul
phey urged the enlarging and deepenin
the inlets from the ocean, and openin
the coast rivers for navigation. FINAL
he favored a powerful system of educs
ton by the state. "hrst, primary schools
second, academies for instruction /
& higher branches; third. by fostering tt
university and greatly enlarging its a
IL eommodations and course of instruction
Z fourth. by an asylum for the deaf an
dumb" His boldness in proposing and h
energy in maintaing this scheme for publ
Improvement show determined natu
Of the man. His ideas of internal il
provement were highly praised in an a
tice in the North American Review
1922, then edited by Edward Everett.
At Judge Murphey's instigation,
Scotch engineer, Hamilton Fulton, er
ployed at salary of Sc 900 yearly, 70,
times that OF the governor, made su
veys and plots on land and sea. "Il
| 40 Of he ,,l,,, >f NJ MI,
phey," says Hon. William A. Grahal
who studied law under him, in an artic
in the University magazine tor 1906
land to which he obtained the approb
tion Of Mr.. Fulten, after the impr",
ments of inlets. at Nag's head Inf pract
. able), Ocracokc, Beaufort, Swansbc
rE ough and Wilmington, consisted in spe
d ing for batteau navigation the rive
Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear, va
10 kin, Catawba, Broad and sundry trit
taries, and by canals to join the Roa
In oke and Tar or Pamlico, and Neuse
g ng as to ship productions from the count
on on watered by each of them from Beauto
,ur and to unite by similar means the Ca
Fear with the Lumber river, and at
Of. more northerly point with the Yadk
and the Yadkin with the Catawba,
as to bring to the mouth of the Ca
. Fear the commerce of our whole wat
, shed trending from the Blue Ridge, exec
;E, that of Broad river, (which was to
opened into South Carolina) and til
ton making commercial marts of Fayet
vile and Wilmington. Places and 8
. items more remote from these wat,
= were to be supplied by roads,"
OF course the unforeseen usefulness
railroads would dhaveeventually render
- useless the greater part of the work r
commended by Judge Murphey. yet
cannot but admire the patriotic des