JOHN BARLEYCORN IS VERY BUSY MAN

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Summary

Butte Daily Post (evening paper) account of the **7 January 1908 commission hearing in Judge Donlan's court**, published the same evening — the longest of the three accounts (the Butte Miner and Anaconda Standard followed on 8 January) and the richest single source for Pat Murphy's biography in the archive. Sub-heads: "HE SENDS MURPHY TO THE POOR FARM, AN INVALID. / BOYLE GOES TO THE ASYLUM / Two Strong Men Brought to Sad Ends by Drink." **OUTCOME**: Patrick Murphy found NOT insane but committed to the Silver Bow County Poor Farm on account of his sickness. Barney Boyle (Kildare) found insane and sent to Warm Springs. Pat's second commission on 23 March 1908 sent him to Warm Springs, where he died in April 1912. ## PAT MURPHY (as reported) - Answered questions "in a rational manner" - Has had **two strokes of paralysis** - Injured **about the head in a mine accident** - Weak and sickly; unable to provide for himself or his wife - Gave his age as **50** (b. c. 1858; the asylum form says 52, the 1912 death notice 53) - **Invalid for eleven years** (since c. 1897) - **Formerly a bartender** - **Came to Montana twenty years ago** (c. 1888) ## MRS. MURPHY (Ellen, per the next-day Butte Miner) "Mrs. Murphy said that her husband had been a hard drinker and that since he had a paralytic stroke he has been helpless and whenever he gets drunk he is subject to fits and once had three in a single day, but has not had any now for over a year." "The children teased him and he has threatened to set fire to the house." ## OTHER WITNESSES > "Maggie Murphy, a niece, and Mary Sullivan, a sister of > Patrick Murphy, testified to the same facts" - **Maggie Murphy — "a niece"** here; the next-day Butte Miner calls her "a sister", and the 1912 death notice names "Miss Margaret Murphy of Butte" as a surviving sister. Two of three sources say sister, and the 1896 city directory has her boarding with Pat. Held as Pat's sister Margaret; the "niece" here may be wrong. - **Mary Sullivan — "a sister of Patrick Murphy"**: Pat's sister, married to a Sullivan, in Butte in 1908. Sullivan is a Beara surname. The Butte Miner names her without a relationship. ## MEDICAL COMMISSION - Drs. Schwartz and Renick examined Pat: not insane, but better at the poor farm. - Drs. McIntyre and Heine examined Boyle: insane. Boyle had just finished a thirty-day vagrancy sentence; gave his age as 46, "probably nearer 60." Dr. Tremblay testified. ## SIGNIFICANCE Establishes the two-stage commitment: 7 Jan 1908 "sick, not insane" → poor farm; 23 Mar 1908 "insane" → Warm Springs. Pat was at the poor farm about two and a half months. Also fills in his pre-1908 decline: two strokes, a mine-accident head injury, drink, eleven years an invalid.

In its time

• Copper boom1882–1917

People

• Patrick "Pat" J. Murphy (Cork-born bartender / shoemaker; d. 1912 Warm Springs MT)(as printed: Patrick Murphy)
  role: subject · family confidence: 100 certain
• Ellen (Lyne) Murphy (b. Ardgroom; m. Patrick Murphy 1881; d. Butte 1935)(as printed: Mrs. Murphy)
  role: complainant wife · family confidence: 100 certain
• Miss Margaret Murphy (b. ~1867-70 Eyeries Co. Cork; emigrated 1892; never married; sister of Pat the bartender)(as printed: Maggie Murphy)
  role: testifying sister or niece · family confidence: 95 certain

  Printed here as "a niece". The next-day Butte Miner and the 1912 death notice both call her Pat's sister, and the 1896 city directory has her boarding at his house. Held as his sister Margaret.

• Mary (Murphy) Sullivan (PJM's sister; m. a Sullivan; Butte 1908; possibly Yellowstone-county Mary A. Sullivan 1909 probate)(as printed: Mary Sullivan)
  role: testifying sister · family confidence: 95 certain

  "Mary Sullivan, a sister of Patrick Murphy" — named and dated here; the Butte Miner of 8 Jan names her at the same hearing without a relationship.

• Barney Boyle (Kildare, 1908)(as printed: Barney Boyle)
  role: subject secondary · family confidence: 0 not family
• Judge Michael Donlan (Butte; heard the 1908 insanity complaints against Patrick J. Murphy)(as printed: Judge Donlan)
  role: presiding judge · family confidence: 0 not family

Also mentioned

• Dr. Schwartz · examining_physician_murphy
• Dr. Renick · examining_physician_murphy
• Dr. McIntyre · examining_physician_boyle
• Dr. Heine · examining_physician_boyle
• Dr. Tremblay · character_witness_boyle

  Had known Boyle for about seven weeks.

Places

• Butte, Montana (primary)
• Silver Bow County, Montana (primary)
• Montana (primary)
• Warm Springs, Montana (secondary)
• County Cork (context)

Themes

• Illness
• Court proceedings
• Temperance movement
• Irish American community
• Mining west
• Public health

Story threads

• Famine to emigration
• Berehaven Murphys
• The Pat-and-Ellen Murphy household — Butte 1887 to LA 1980

Tags

• #Candidate family
• #Heavy
• #Evidence primary
• #Source primary family
• #Direct family
• #Evidence corroborating
• #Book chapter material

Source type

news_item, court_report

Related sources

• 1908-01-08 — The Butte Miner, p.12 — PAT MURPHY FOUND TO BE SICK AND NOT INSANE
• 1908-01-08 — The Anaconda Standard, p.9 — TWO MENTAL UNFORTUNATES
• 1908-03-23 — The Daily Inter Mountain, p.10 — PATRICK J. MURPHY IS FOUND INSANE
• 1908-03-23 — Montana State Hospital admission records — Patient P. J. Murphy — Patrick J. Murphy asylum admission record — Warm Springs MT, 23 March 1908, age 52, bartender, 8 children only 3 living
• 1908-03-24 — The Anaconda Standard, p.9 — IS SENT TO THE ASYLUM
• 1908-03-24 — The Butte Miner, p.6 — PATRICK J. MURPHY IS SENT TO STATE ASYLUM
• 1912-04-23 — Montana Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death — Patrick J. Murphy death certificate — d. 23 April 1912, 4:30 PM, Warm Springs MT State Hospital, age 56
• 1912-04-24 — The Butte Miner, p.6 — PATRICK MURPHY DEAD.
• 1909-04-07 — The Butte Daily Post, p.5 — MARY A. SULLIVAN IS NAMED AS GUARDIAN FOR MARGARET MURPHY

Open questions

• Maggie Murphy — NIECE (this paper) or SISTER (Butte Miner 8 Jan, 1912 death notice)? Held as sister; the "niece" here may be wrong. The alternative is a different Maggie who was a niece (Mary Sullivan's daughter?).
• Is Mary Sullivan, Pat's sister, the Mary A. Sullivan of Yellowstone county appointed guardian of a Margaret Murphy in the April 1909 probate? That record currently treats her as a different person (two-records rule); if they are the same, the probate is a family event.
• Pat "came to Montana twenty years ago" — c. 1888. Worth a targeted look at 1888-89 Butte arrival / saloon-licence / early-bartender material.
• The mine accident injuring his head — when, which mine? Worth tracing through 1888-1896 Butte mining-accident coverage.
• "Invalid for eleven years" = since c. 1897. Was the first stroke triggered by drink or by the head injury? Sequence unclear.
• Mary Sullivan = Pat's sister tightens the Beara connection. Worth a cross-check against Beara parish registers for a Murphy daughter married to a Sullivan in the 1870s-80s.