MURPHY, Franklin, American manufac turer and politican: b. Jersey City, N. J., 3 Jan. 1846. In 1856 the family removed to Newark where his father was born and which had been the home of his ancestors from its original settlement in 1656. He enlisted in the Federal army in 1862 at the age of 16 as a member of Company A, 13th New Jersey Volun teers. This regim..nt was assured to the 12th, afterward the 20th, corps, which constituted a part of the Army of the Potomac and which was afterward transferred to the west, becom ing part of Sherman's army in his march to Atlanta and the sea. At the close of the war he established at Newark a varnish business which has since become widely known. He began his political career in the early '80's, occupying various minor city and State offices until 1901, when he was elected governor of New Jersey for three years. His term as governor was noted for the passage of the first State primary law (not the open primary as invented later), improvement in the child labor laws and general improvement in labor legisla lation, a tenement-house law and a law requir ing banks to pay interest on deposits of State moneys. He was chairman of the Republican
State Committee for 20 years, beginning with 1892, has been a delegate to many Republican national conventions, has been member of the National Committee since 1900. He was com missioner to Paris Exposition of 1900. Mr. Murphy is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, of the Colonial Wars and the Sons of the American Revolution, of which latter he was president-general. He was a member of the board of managers of the National Soldiers' Home, and at one time president of the board. In the National Republican Convention of 1908 he received 158 votes for Vice-President. He has been a member of the Essex County, N. J., Park Commission for 20 years, and continues actively interested in the affairs of his home city of Newark and his State.