Martin Murphy Jr.

Martin Murphy Jr. (November 9, 1807 – October 20, 1884) was an Irish-born American farmer, and settler who founded Sunnyvale, California. He owned Murphy's Ranch in Elk Grove, California, which was the location of the start of the Bear Flag Revolt, and is now a historical site. His former residence is the Martin Murphy House, which was replicated and is now used as the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum.

He is from the Murphy family who were on the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada, they were early settlers in California, and the founders of early Santa Clara Valley.

Early life Martin Murphy Jr. was born on November 9, 1807, in County Wexford, Ireland, to parents Mary Foley and Martin Murphy Sr.. He was the eldest of nine children. The family was Catholic and were persecuted by the Protestant ruling class.

Migration In 1820, the Murphy family migrated to Quebec Province, Lower Canada (now Canada), and settled in an Irish community in Frampton for the next twenty years.

He married Mary Bulger in 1831. There were no sawmills in California at the time, so the house was re-assembled using straps and wood pegs.

The Murphy family helped found two schools in Santa Clara County: the Santa Clara College for Boys (later known as Santa Clara University) and Notre Dame College for Girls (later known as Notre Dame de Namur). His house in Sunnyvale remained in the Murphy family until 1953, but parcels of their land were sold starting in 1900 to real estate developer Walter Crossman.

The site of his former house in Sunnyvale was listed a California Historical Landmark in 1960; and it contains a historical marker erected by California State Park Commission, the City of Sunnyvale and the Sunnyvale Historical Society.

The Murphy family were the subject of Marjorie Pierce's book, The Martin Murphy Family Saga (2000); and the PBS documentary film, The Forgotten Journey (2021), produced by John Krizek.