Kemp Murphey, the most extensive merchant of this county, was born here July 21, 1841, and is the son of Abraham and Mary Murphy. The former was born in Orange County, N. C., May 18, 1796, and the latter in Caswall County, N.C. Abraham Murphey was the son of John Murphy, a native of Orange County, N. C., who immigrated to Claiborne County, Tenn., in the year 1798, and died in his eighty-second year. He was married three times; first to Sarah Purvine in the year 1813, who bore him two sons and one daughter; secondly to Mary Walker, who bore him three sons; and thirdly to Catherine Wills, September 13,1857. He removed from Claiborne County, Tenn., to New Market, Jefferson Co., Teon., about the year 1833. Thence he removed to Eiizabethton, Carter Co., Teon., and engaged in the mercantile business; thence to Dugger’s Ferry In the laet named county; thence into this (Johnson County), where he engaged in the manufacture of iron; and in merchandising, which two callings he pursued until the beginning of the war in 1861. After the war he settled at Mountain City, then called Taylorsville, and engaged in the mercantile business in partnership with two of his sons, Kemp and Elbert, under the firm name of Murphey & Sons. He retired from thefirm in the year 1875, after which the two brothers continued the business uritil July 27, 1884, when Elbert one of the brothers died, and since then Kemp, the surviving partner, has continued the business in his own name, and has carried a stock of $8,000, doing an annual business of $20,000. He also owns and operates a large tannery at Mountain City. He was educated at Holston College, New Market, Jefferson Co., Tenn. In the late war he espoused the Union cause, and enlisted in Company B, Fourth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, and was captured at McMinnville, Tenn., in October, 1862, but was paroled and joined his command at Lexington, Ky. Re was mustered out at Knoxville, Tenn., in 1865. In 1869 he married Susan C. Wills, a daughter of James H. Wills, horn in April, 1853, in this county. They have seven children living. Ha and his wife are Methodists. His father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from about the year 1822, continuously, up to his death, which occurred February 6, 1882.

Transcribed from Godspeed’s History of TN (1896)