Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

as secretary of the Danbury Hat Manufacturers' Association, and his native capacity for leadership was seen in his relations with the hat manufactur- ers of the United States, at the time of the organi- zation of their permanent association, he being the one who made the motion to that effect. He was secretary of the Committee of Seventeen who drafted the constitution and by-laws, and was the first secretary of the association, the first president being Ivobert Dunlap, the maker of the celebrated Dunlap hat. After disposing of his factory and business Mr. Murphy served two years as assist- ant superintendent of the Danbury water works, and collector of water rents, the city having just been incorporated. Later he was appointed by the common council as superintendent of the water works to fill a vacancy, but did not qualify for the office. By this time he had found his true sphere of action, and resuming the study of law was admitted in 1892. He began to practice with Arthur H. Averill (a son of Lieut. -Gov. Averill), then prosecuting attorney for the city of Danbury, but since his death in 1894 Mr. Murphy has carried on an independent practice, his office being located at No. 248 Main street, over the Danbury National Bank office. A number of important cases have been intrusted to him, and so far he has never lost one brought for the plaintiff by him before the common pleas or su- perior courts. In association with Mr. McMahon, of New Milford, he represented the plaintiff Mor- gan, in the sewer suits against the city of Dan- bury, in which they secured the broadest injunc- tion of its kind ever granted in the United States. The city was represented by seven lawyers — Brewster & Davis, Tweedy, Scott & Whittlesey, J. T. Cuff and State's Attorney Samuel Fessen- den, ex-speaker of the House of Representatives. The witnesses for the city were also men of note, including Rudolph Herring, sanitary engineer of New York City; Prof. Herbert E. Smith, chemist of Yale College; Dr. Cyrus W. Edson, of the New York State Board of Health; Dr. Martin, of the New York City Board of Health, and A. B. Hill, city engineer of New Haven, Conn. The decis- ion won at such odds was sustained by the su- preme court, and ^fr. Murphy is now conducting a similar case against the city of Waterbury. Another important suit which he carried to a suc- cessful conclusion was that of the Cigar Makers Union, by which they secured an injunction against certain local dealers to prevent their use of counterfeit union labels; Mr. Murphy also men- tions the libel suit of Dougherty vs. Swift, pro- prietor of the Waterbury Herald, in which his client, the plaintiff, recovered a large sum in dam- ages. Mr. Murphy is a Democrat in political 208 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. faith, and during Cleveland's first campaign he was secretary of the town committee. He was a candidate for the Legislature in 1886, but was de- feated by twenty-five votes. Several local offices have been filled most acceptably by him, and for several years he served as school committee and justice of the peace. In affairs of a non-political nature he is also active, and at the present time he is secretary of the Wooster Hose Company. Socially, he is a member of the Ivoyal Arcauurn, having been one of the organizers of his lodge, of which he served as the first secretary. Mr. Murphy was married to Miss Bina Hod- kins, daughter of John and Sarah (Austin) Hod- kins, and they reside in a pleasant home at No. 66 Town Hill avenue, Danbury. They attend the Second Congregational Church, of wfiich Mrs. Murphy is a member. She is highly accom- plished, possessing unusual musical gifts, and has been chorister of the Congregational Sunday- school. Mr. Murphy's father, William J. Murphy, married Miss Eugenia E. Shelton, a native of Providence, R. I., born February 20, 1829, and our subject was the eldest of their three children; Mary Josephine died in childhood, and Imogene is now the wife of Arthur Wildman, of Danbury. The Shelton family has been identi- fied with Rhode Island from an early period, and is connected with others of note. Through one line Mrs. Murphy's mother is descended from the Rutenberg family, her ancestors of that name emigrating from Germany about the close of the seventeenth century. In 1723 the name was written Ruttenburg; in 1754, Ruttinbourg; in 1767, Ruttenbourg; 1787, Ruttinber; in 1800, Rutenbor, and since then has been usually spelled Rutenbur or Ruttenber. The first of the line of whom we have a definite account is David Rut- enberg, who was born at Providence in 16 — , and died there May 16, 1754. Hischildren were: Ruth, born 1723; David, born 1725; Anna, born 17 — ; Amy, born 17 — ; Daniel Rutenberg, born in Providence, R. I., May, 1730, died May, 1776, aged forty-six years (he married Innocent Healy, of Dighton, Mass., who was born of French par- entage in August, 1737, and died May, 1810, leaving seven children — Betsey, born May 12, 1757, married John Shaw, and died June 15, 1830, in her seventy-fourth year; Sarah, born February 14, 1760, probably died unmarried; David, born December 24, 1763, married Polly Tripe, of Providence, R. I. (he was the captain and owner of a vessel engaged in the slave trade, a very popular business in the New England States in those days, and conducted under the authority of the Federal flag. On his last voyage he left the Coast of Africa with a cargo of seven' hundred negroes, and was never heard from afterward; he had no children. His widow mar- ried William P. R. Benson, of Providence, R. I.);Zilpha, born March 22, 1765, died about 1831 (she was the second wife of Benjamin Whipple, for many years a justice of the peace in Johnson, R. I.); Jencks, born August 25, 1767, died in 1S53 (he married Betsey Carpenter, of Providence, R. I.); Rhoda, born August 11, 176-, married (first) General Walbridge, of Bennington, Vt., and (second) Randal James, also of Bennington; Daniel, born September 19, 1772, died in Provi- dence, R. I., June 18, 1850, in his seventy-sixth year. He was a hatter by trade and always re- sided in Providence; he married Polly, daughter of John Richmond, of Dighton, Mass. (she was born February 9, 1770, and died July 30, 1847, '" her seventy-first year; their children were — Mary, born February 3, 1800, died in South Coventry, Conn., December 28, 1852. She married Charles P. Shelton, born in Boston, Mass., September 10, 1801, died in South Coventry, March 3, 1855. They had four children — Polly, who died young; Eugenia E. , our subject's mother; Anna Joseph- ine, born December 29, 1832; Daniel 1-iuten- bur, born September 5, 1839); Eliza A., born April 7, 1806, married Sterry Kelley, and resided in Providence, R. I. ; Margaret Lee, born Novem- ber 8, 1809, died in 18^. The Richmond family of which Polly Richmond, the wife of Daniel Rutenberg, was a member traced their descent from England at an early date, and in 1638 were among the first purchasers of the town of Taun- ton, Mass. Rev. J. B. Walker, of Holyoke, Mass., who was engaged in preparing a history of this family, expressed the conviction that the lineage of John can be satisfactorily traced to the Duke of Richmond, but of this there are no data. WILLIAM O. SEYMOUR was born in the village of Ridgefield, Fairfield Co., Conn., where he passed the greater part of his life. He is a son of William Welles and Harriet (Betts) Seymour, the former of whom was born in 1803. Our subject received his elementary education at the district school, after which he attended, in 1854-55, Amenia (N. Y.) Seminary, taking an elective course, one of his schoolmates being the present Bishop Cyrenus D. Foss. His school days ended, Mr. Seymour took up the profes- sion of teacher, first for a time in the district schools in the vicinityof Ridgefield, then for twelve years, or until the spring of 1869, conducted, as proprietor and principal, a private boarding o COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 209 and day school for boys, in Ridgefield, which had an average attendance of some thirty-five or forty pupils, and proved highly successful. In closing this school in 1869, Mr. Seymour com- menced the profession of civil engineer, which he has followed with eminent success ever since. He had previously taught the theory of civil en- gineering in school, and it was on account of im- paired health that he decided to make it his future life work. He began the practice of en- gineering in the position of rodman, and ad- vanced rapidly from one position to another un- til four years thereafter he became chief engineer of the New York, New Haven & Hartford rail- road, at that time the principal railroad corpo- ration in New England, the date of his appoint- ment being July 22, 1873, and his service ter- minating November 28, I 88 I. At that time he was chosen chief engineer of the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel & Western railroad, with which road he remained for one year, and then for four and one-half years thereafter he was chief engineer of the location and construction work of the Wis- consin Central railroad. During his connec- tion with this company he located and con- structed 104 miles of railroad from Chippewa Falls, Wis., to St. Paul, Minn., crossing the St. Croi.x river with an iron bridge, consisting of ten spans, each 160 feet in length, which was built under his direction. After this line was completed and ready for operation, he located and constructed 124 miles of railroad from Schleisingerville, Wis., to Chicago, Illinois.