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W. R. Murphy, who died at Athens, Tex., on September 13, 1919, at the age of eighty-five years, was born in Adams County, Ohio, September 3, 1834. He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 at Vicksburg, Miss., as a member of Company G, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery, Featherston's Brigade, Loring's Division, Polk's Corps, Army of Tennessee. His first captain was James J. Cowan and W. T. Withers was his first colonel. He was captured at Vicksburg, exchanged and sent to Resaca, Ga., to Johnston's army, and was under fire for ninety-six days. He went with Hood to Franklin and Nashville and was under Cheatham in covering the retreat to Columbus, Miss.; was then sent to Mobile, Ala. He was in the battles of Snyder's Bluff, Chickasaw Bayou, Champion Hill, Seige of Vicksburg, Resaca, Franklin, Alltoona, Chattahoochie River, Peachtree Creek, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Lost Mountain, and Decatur. He walked from Tennessee to Mississippi barefooted.

At the close of the war he recieved his honorable discharge. He went to Texas about the year 1867 and there married Miss Nannie L. Richardson in 1873. Three children were born to them and with the faithful wife, survive him.