Thus Master Sullivan appeared to his pastor, who had known him for forty years and more. Thus I deposit in the archives of the New Hampshire Historical Society my pen picture of New Hampshire’s grandest old schoolmaster.
MARTIN MURPHY, SR., AN IRISH PIONEER OF CALIFORNIA.[[13]]
BY MISS MARCELLA A. FITZGERALD.
Pioneer! name that like a Conjurer summons
All the past before our eyes,
Toils, struggles, want and hardships,
Perils, dangers, sacrifice.
—Annie Fitzgerald.
Martin Murphy, Sr., is held in loving reverence as an early pioneer of California. A native of Ireland, nurtured on Wexford’s historic soil, he imbibed a love for his native land which was as the breath of his life. Her joys, her sorrows, her glories, were his.
In his boyhood he witnessed the gallant struggle of “’98,” when kindred and friends perished in the vain effort to cast off the English yoke, and beheld the cruel persecution and bloodshed that followed the suppression of the Rebellion, scenes which left their impression indelibly impressed upon his heart. No distance could alienate him from, no pleasure cause him to forget, the “Niobe of Nations.”