Murphy-Taylor Family Papers

The following is a record of the Murphy-Taylor genealogicial line in brief. Please note that not every member and relation is mentioned here. What follows are all of the major relations to H. Janabelle Murphy-Taylor, as she was the Program Director at Hallie Q. Brown Community Center for many decades, and a visitor and volunteer at Hallie Q. for many years prior to that. Anyone with the desire to research the family should peruse this finding aid in depth, in addition to conducting their own outside research.

The earliest known relation of the Murphy-Taylor family begins with Nancy and Reuben Wallace. They were both born around 1790, with Reuben originating from Guinea and Nancy being a Native American woman. Nancy and Reuben met in the state of Virginia and married eachother soon thereafter. One of their many children, Harriet Wallace, was born around 1835.

Richard Murphy was born in 1812 and freed himself from bondage in the 1840s. Richard's enslaver, a minister named Joseph Murphy, gave him 1000 dollars upon his liberation in Kentucky during the 1840s. He would later meet Harriet Wallace and they would have 13 children together. One of those children was a young man named James Edgar Murphy.

After Richard Murphy's death in 1888, Harriet Wallace Murphy moved to St. Paul, Minnesota with James Edgar and a few of their siblings in 1901. Harriet Wallace died in 1924.

James Edgar Murphy would go on to work at the United States Post Office for the majority of his life. He also spent time as a Sunday School Worker and was a member of the Union Hall Association. He met a woman named Ida Mae in 1910. In 1917, James Edgar and Ida Mae were married. She was his second wife. Ida Mae, born 1888, was the daughter of Ida Gilchrist, and John B. Johnson, both born around 1860. John B. Johnson is known to have been a cook on a private railroad car and was also a United States Postal worker for some portion of his life.

James Edgar and Ida Mae Murphy would then go on to have three children together; Harriet Janabelle, John E. "Buddy" (b.1922), and Richard Murphy. In 1937, James E. Murphy and Earl C. Walker, both of the Union Hall Association, would notarize the warranty deed for Hallie Q. Brown House, Co..

Harriet Janabelle, known simply as Janabelle or Jane, was born in December of 1920. She was educated in St. Paul Public Schools and received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota in Physcial Education. She began at Hallie Q. as a participant and, later on, was hired as a Girls Worker, and finally retired as the program director of HQB in August of 1982. She has received many community service awards from her church, the Inner City Youth League, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the St. Paul Urban League, the American Camping Association and Minneapolis Public Schools.

She was also an organizer of the United Negro College Fund and a member of the Federation of St. Paul Community Centers. She served on the St. Paul Planning Commission and was a member of serveral social service organizations including the NAACP and National Council of Negro Women. Additionally, she was a teacher at Pilgrim Baptist Church school, she worked with youth groups and was treasurer of the church for over 20 years.

Mr. James Taylor Jr. was born in Alabama around 1920. He graduated from Jefferson County Public Schools in 1938. Eventually, he moved to Minnesota and married Janabelle Murphy in the 1940s. Together they raised three sons in the Rondo Neighborhood; James Lanier Taylor II (b. 1950), Glenn Taylor(b.1951), and Garry Taylor(b.1956).

Many of members of the family go by multiple nick-names with varied spellings.