Murphree History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The 19th century saw a great wave of Irish families leaving Ireland for the distant shores of North America and Australia. These families often left their homeland hungry, penniless, and destitute due to the policies of England. Those Irish immigrants that survived the long sea passage initially settled on the eastern seaboard of the continent. Some, however, moved north to a then infant Canada as United Empire Loyalists after ironically serving with the English in the American War of Independence. Others that remained in America later joined the westward migration in search of land. The greatest influx of Irish immigrants, though, came to North America during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Thousands left Ireland at this time for North America, and those who arrived were immediately put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. In fact, the foundations of today's powerful nations of the United States and Canada were to a larger degree built by the Irish. Archival documents indicate that members of the Murphree family relocated to North American shores quite early:

Murphree Settlers in United States in the 20th Century

• Ida Murphree, aged 32, who arrived in New York in 1909 aboard the ship "Caledonia" from Glasgow, Scotland 2

• Albert Alexander Murphree (1870-1927), American college professor and university president
• Thomas Alexander Murphree (1883-1945), United States federal jurist, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (1938-1945)
• Eger Vaughan Murphree (1898-1962), American chemist, best known for his co-invention of the process of fluid catalytic cracking, recipient of the Perkin Medal in 1950
• Dennis Herron Murphree (1886-1949), American politician from Mississippi, two-time Lieutenant Governor