On the 17th day of July, 1850, Mr. Murphy, Luke West, Matt. Peel and James Norris formed an organization known as the “Original Campbell Minstrels;” subsequently Mr. Norris retiring, the company flourished for several seasons as Murphy, West and Peel’s Minstrels.
About 1860 Mr. Murphy retired from minstrelsy and assumed various executive positions, notably as business manager at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where he remained for fifteen years.
Mr. Murphy was a half brother of Jno. F. Donnelly.
Jos. D. Murphy was born in Philadelphia, January 11, 1823; he died there January 1, 1884.
C. L. Huntley, a member of Thayer’s Boston Sable Harmonists about 1850, was a fine guitar player, and very proficient in the manipulation of the bones.
He died in Boston, Mass., April 13, 1883; aged about 60 years.
Tom Vaughn was one of the earliest banjoists of minstrelsy. When sixteen years of age he made his professional debut with Holt and Nichols Circus; later he joined Turner and Rockwell’s, and Welch and Mann’s Circuses. After this he went to Buffalo, and met E. P. Christy, and when the latter formed the minstrel company that bore his name, Mr. Vaughn was one of the four original members. He continued with Mr. Christy until the dissolution of the company in July, 1854, and a few months later went with Christy’s Minstrels to California.
Mr. Vaughn returned to New York in 1855, and opened Vaughn’s Minstrels there that same year. Subsequently he was with Wood and Christy’s and George Christy’s Minstrels for several years, mostly in the Metropolis.
Tom Vaughn was born in New York, September 5, 1823; he died in Zanesville, Ohio, September 3, 1875.
J. T. Huntley was one of the early wench dancers of minstrelsy.