Oakes Murphy

Who was Oakes Murphy?

Nathan Oakes Murphy was the fourteenth Governor of Arizona Territory.

Born in Jefferson, Maine, Murphy attended the public schools. He taught school in Wisconsin. He went to the western frontier and finally settled in Prescott, Arizona, in April 1883 where he engaged in mining and the real estate business. Secretary to the Governor of Arizona Territory in 1885. He was appointed secretary of Arizona Territory March 21, 1889. He served as delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1892. Governor of Arizona Territory 1892-1894.

Murphy was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1896. Again Governor of Arizona Territory and served from 1898 to 1902, when he resigned. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1900 to the Fifty-seventh Congress. He died in Coronado, California, August 22, 1908. He was interred in the Masonic Cemetery, San Diego, California but reinterred at Rock Creek Cemetery in December 1909.