James J. Murphy

Who was James J. Murphy?

James J. Murphy was a United States Representative from New York. He was born in Brooklyn. He was educated in the public schools of Staten Island and served as a noncommissioned officer with the First New York Cavalry on the Mexican border in 1916. During the First World War he served as a sergeant with the One Hundred and Fourth Machine Gun Battalion, Twenty-seventh Division, with service in France and Belgium, from 1918 to 1920. He engaged in the import and export shipping business in New York City since 1920, and was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses, holding office from January 3, 1949 to January 3, 1953. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1952 to the Eighty-third Congress and was a member of the New York City Council for the Borough of Staten Island from 1954 to 1958. He was a freight and shipping broker and resided at Grymes Hill, Staten Island until his death in 1962. His interment was in St. Peter's Cemetery.