Owen Murphy was a hard-working Irish immigrant, who settled in the rapidly growing industrial city of Cleveland, Ohio. He was a brave man, loving father, devout husband, and honest contributor to his local community. Sadly, he was also the victim of a senseless murder, which remains unsolved to this day. Journey along as we explore the life, adventures, and ultimate demise of Owen Murphy.
History
Owen was born in 1836 or 1837 in Connacht, Ireland. Not a lot is known about Owen’s early years in Ireland, but one can speculate that it was a difficult upbringing. In the spring of 1857, 19-year-old Owen embarked on the ship Coosawather in Liverpool, England, and began his journey to America (he landed in Boston, Massachusetts).
Once in the United States, Owen married a Canadian-born woman named Margaret McDonald. The two eventually settled in Cleveland, where Owen was able to find steady employment amongst the throngs of European immigrants in the bustling lakeside city. It was here that the two started their family and spent the rest of their lives.
Owen owned this lot from at least 1866 – 1871
William (4), Alexander (2), and Mary Elizabeth (3 months) Murphy are listed
top left corner – the red star is at 57 Ann Street, where the Murphy family lived
Over the years, Owen and Margaret had a number of children. By the early 1870s, they moved to Cleveland’s far east side closer to the lake, which was the neighborhood they remained in for the next few decades. Throughout the 1890s, the Murphy family lived at 57 Armitage Street in east Cleveland’s 9th Ward, which served as the family home since at least 1874. Armitage Street was near the lakefront and in a neighborhood where many Irish immigrants settled. This neighborhood was centered around the main-thoroughfare, St. Clair Street, and had a large number of grocery stores, bars, dance halls, and businesses to support the area’s growing population.
Sometime in 1896, the aging Owen lessened his work as a millwright and took up a less physically-demanding job as a night watchman (also known as a “special policeman”). As a night watchman, Owen received a commission as a special policeman and was generally responsible for patrolling the streets of his neighborhood and the 9th Ward. He performed services of public safety, fire watch, crime prevention, and crime detection, to include watching over and protecting private businesses and factories.
Standing: Alexander, Eugene, Ellen (Nellie), & William
Seated: Margaret, Mary (Mamie), and Owen
The late 1890s were wrought with unrest and riots throughout major American cities and Cleveland was no exception. Workers went on strike and protested horrible working hours and conditions, low wages, and the ever-increasing social and economic divide between laborers and the wealthy business owners and corrupt politicians. Massive mobs of angry protestors filled the streets outside of their place of work, heckled, and attacked any “non-union” workers who attempted to enter that business. Because these factories and companies still needed to operate, they hired anyone who was willing to work, which were usually men who didn’t belong to a labor union.
These non-union workers were called “scabs,” a derision that originated in the 1500s to denounce workers who didn’t join a strike or participate in organized labor (this ties in with a scab as a physical lesion- meaning those non-union workers were a “scab” to the social body of labor and society). Riots often became so unruly and even deadly that many cities called up the militia to maintain order and protect the non-union workers, who took on the thousands of jobs left vacant by the protestors. Additionally, cities and businesses hired out hundreds of additional special policemen and night watchmen to patrol the streets and protect properties from rowdy and destructive mobs.
Unrest and violent riots gripped Cleveland’s east side throughout the late 1890s, which was exactly where the Murphy family lived. Owen was a proud immigrant and American citizen, who experienced enough social unrest and destitution during his early years in Ireland. He likely did not want to see his city and neighborhood fall victim to endless violence and disorder. He was also a tough and resilient man who possessed a firm sense of honor and strong moral principles- what else was he to do? Owen joined the special police force as a night watchman to make a living, but also to help bring order and peace to the streets of Cleveland.
Riot & A Close Call
The summer of 1896 in Cleveland erupted in violence as labor disputes afflicted the lakeside city. One of the biggest strikes that summer was at the Brown Hoisting & Conveying Machine Company, which was a business founded in 1880 and was the world’s largest manufacturer dealing exclusively in cranes, hoists, and other types of material handling machinery (the “Brown hoist” revolutionized the Great Lakes shipping industry). The union strike, which began in the winter of 1895 and dragged into 1896, was met by a lockout from the Brown Company, which meant the workers on strike were excluded from work until terms could be agreed upon to end the labor dispute. In order to continue operating, the Brown Company hired non-union workers to fill the positions of all the men who went on strike (and who were now locked out of their jobs). This only served to make the union workers angrier and more violent.
The Brown Hoisting & Conveying Machine Company was located near St. Clair Street in east Cleveland, at the modern-day intersection of 45th Street and Hamilton Avenue just off St. Clair. During the strike, the area in vicinity of the factory and surrounding blocks were often filled with infuriated protestors, who threatened the lives of the non-union workers. Eventually, additional police and military companies were called in to protect the non-union workers and escort them to and from the Brown Company. All of this activity took place not far from the Murphy family’s neighborhood, so it was only a matter of time before it affected them.
As a night watchman, Owen worked both day and night shifts and patrolled and protected waterfront businesses along St. Clair Street (often at the intersection with Willson Avenue). He may have been one of the special policemen who was called in to help during the Brown riots. Because the Murphy house at 57 Armitage Street was only a few blocks down St. Clair Street from the Brown Company, Owen could either walk to the properties he was watching or take a short streetcar ride.
The Brown riots came to a head on July 17, 1896, when the anger and actions of the rioters grew to a fever pitch. After the workday on July 17th, soldiers escorted the non-union workers away from the Brown Company property when they were met by the usual rioters on St. Clair Street. The furious crowd hurled insults at the “scabs” and soldiers, while some turned to physical violence. Owen didn’t know it when he woke up that morning, but he would end up at the center of that day’s activity. The events of July 27, 1896, are best described in a newspaper article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, published on July 18, 1896. The following is a transcript of that article:
A few more days like yesterday in the Brown Hoisting & Conveying Machine Co. lockout and the authorities will find it absolutely necessary to place the east end of the city under martial law.
That is the opinion expressed by a number of the officials last evening after a most formidable riot at the corner of St. Clair and Willson avenue.
This occurred about 7:15 p. m. and but for the prompt appearance on the scene of Co. F, in command of Capt. Zimmerman, at least one and possibly many lives may have been lost. As it was, two men were badly stabbed with bayonets during the charge of the company, and it is thought one is so seriously injured that he may die. Many others were injured more or less in the affray, but they made no report.
For an hour after the men were taken from the Brown works under the usual heavy escort of soldiers and police, and amid the same ugly yelling crowd, with the usual number of curses and volleys of abuse, there was a calm. The police had returned to the station and the soldiers were inside the works enjoying an informal musical entertainment after supper. A squad of three men had been detailed to take one of the non-union men to his home in the vicinity of East Madison avenue and they were returning when the riot started.
The neighborhood at the corner of East Madison and St. Clair is one of the worst in the city at this time for a soldier or a policeman, as it is the hot bed of the sympathizers of the locked-out men. It seems that two of the militiamen took the street car to return to the works and for some reason their companion did not accompany them. He started to walk to the works, several blocks distant. He had not been separated from his companions but a few minutes when he noticed a crowd of several hundred men gathering back of him, and he quickened his pace. Then someone started the war cry, “kill the scab,” and men seemed to spring out of the pavement. The hundreds grew into thousands and his walk grew into a run, as it meant life or death to the militiaman. The crowd gained on him and he drew his revolver and flourished it and for a minute the mob fell back. But this was only temporary, and in another moment, they were after the soldier like a pack of hounds.
West on St. Clair street he fled, pursued by a mob of at least 5,000 people, all yelling, cursing and demanding the boy’s life. At the corner of Lyon and St. Clair streets the soldier saw the crowd was almost upon him and he dashed into Jaites’ grocery store. The crowd gathered out in front and there were loud cries to the proprietor to deliver over the soldier or his plate glass windows would be wrecked.
At this moment, Special Policeman Owen Murphy bravely pushed into the crowd to assist the soldier. He managed to get him out of the store safely and together they managed to get to the corner of St. Clair street and Willson avenue, where Officer Murphy made an effort to call the patrol wagon.
By this time the crowd had grown to at least 10,000, and its temper was almost fiendish. The soldier saw a chance to get out of the crowd and he left Murphy and made a dash for a car, lending all right and getting away. Officer Murphy was not so fortunate. He looked around for some avenue of escape, and then someone hurled a brick at him, knocking him down. He attempted to get up and half a dozen men rushed upon him and their heavy boots were smashed against his face. By this time someone had telephoned to the Brown works for the militia, and Capt. Zimmerman and his men wheeled out of the works and came tearing down St. Clair street double quick, with fixed bayonets.
The crowd melted away like a lot of frightened sheep, and the soldiers were soon at the side of the prostrate officer. In a few minutes, more [than] half a dozen patrol wagons and ambulances were on the scene, and Officer Murphy was placed in one of the latter and driven to his home at No. 57 Armitage street.
The militia then charged the mob and it fell back for a block, but as soon as the soldiers returned back came the mob. A charge was then made that gave the crowd to understand that the soldiers were not playing. A number of persons were stabbed with bayonets, and Tom McGreevy of No. 1371 St. Clair street, while standing near the drug store at the corner of St. Clair and Willson, was seriously wounded by two stabs in the thigh.
A portion of the mob ran around to the corner of Marquette and Willson and this was charged. Tom Garrity, assistant foreman at the United salt works, happened in the wat of the approaching column and he was given a serious wound in the back. The bayonet penetrated just above the region of the kidneys and made a very dangerous wound. Both of the injured men were taken into the office of Dr. J. A. Heath, nearby, and the wounds dressed. The men were then taken home in ambulances. Dr. Heath said he didn’t not know how serious Garrity’s wound is liable to be, but he thinks it very bad.
The repeated charges of the soldiers took all the fight out of the mob and almost as quickly as it gathered it again dispersed. Capt. Zimmerman placed guards about the corners and everybody was compelled to move on. A number of the leaders of the mob were placed under arrest by Lieut. Wright, assisted by the police. An hour after the arrival of the soldiers the neighborhood had resumed its normal condition.
Officer Murphy’s son was seen shortly after his father was taken home and he said the injuries inflicted on his parent were not as bad as at first supposed. He said he will be able to attend to his duties today. Had not the militia arrived when they did it is entirely probably that Murphy would have been lynched. Someone called for a rope and half a dozen men rushed into a grocery to get one. The arrival of the soldiers caused an abandonment of their plans.
When the mob was pursuing the soldier down St. Clair street the women would rush out from their door yards with buckets of water and dash them over him. Others spat upon him and some more daring than the others rushed up to him and gave him blows in the face. The soldier’s name could not be learned, but it is said he is a member of Co. I.
Green star: Jaites’ Grocery Store, where Owen attempted to rescue the lone soldier
Red Star: Corner of St. Clair Street & Willson Avenue where Owen was attacked
This incident greatly affected the Murphy family and undoubtedly, Margaret and their children did not want him involved with the violence any longer; however, Owen did not falter and soon returned to work as a night watchman. Little did the family know that the riots, violence, and anger that gripped Cleveland was just beginning.
An Appeal
A “lynch law” had been passed on April 10, 1896, designed to compensate victims of mob violence and attempted lynching (officially known as “an act for the suppression of mob violence”). In all parts of the United States, lynching and racial violence against the black community remained a very serious and common problem (the American Civil War had ended only 30 years prior). Furthermore, lynching was the preferred killing method used by mobs and rioters- it was quick, effective, graphic, and sent a message. After nearly dying at the hands of mob violence, Owen decided to appeal for compensation based on this law.
Owen’s claim, along with claims by other victims of mob violence from Berea and West View, were considered by the Cuyahoga County Solicitor Kaiser. The Solicitor worried that by compensating these victims based on their injuries in accordance with the “lynch law,” that it would essentially drain the county’s treasury. His thought process was likely that if approved, many more victims would come forward and claim compensation, which could open the floodgates. In March 1897, Solicitor Kaiser argued against these claims in accordance with the “lynch law” in court before Judge Dissette: “the law is invalid because it contains no provision that the county must first have legal notice that a riot exists; because its language is uncertain; because it says nothing about the extent of the injuries sustained and regulating the measure of damages; because it discriminates, and for several other reasons.” Unfortunately for Owen and his fellow victims of the Brown strike, the judge ruled that the “lynch law” was invalid and denied their claims on July 2, 1897.
Though Owen lost his appeal and was never compensated for his suffering at the hands of a mob, he decided to continue work as a night watchman and serve his community. This would prove to be a fateful decision.