CHAPTER 3

Liberty

“… that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

United States Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

On September 30th, 1920, in the family home near downtown in the community of Livingston, Texas, the rural county seat of Polk County some seventy miles northeast of Houston, Erma Rose Murphy gave birth to her fifth child—James Thomas Murphy.

Though he was the fifth child by that time born to Erma and her husband, General Houston Murphy, the couple’s second child, David, died in infancy a few months after his birth in 1914. The couple’s pride and joy on this last day of September was abundant, as their new son—who would come to be known as“Tom” instead of James or Jim—joined his older brothers Raymond (born in 1910) and Lloyd (1915), and a sister Naomi (1918) as the newest member of the Murphy family.

His father, who was named after General Sam Houston, a renowned 19th century American soldier, statesman and politician, worked at the local ice plant making ice in Livingston. And although farming was an integral part of the local livelihood of most families in the area at the time, Murphy’s father didn’t really care for farming all that much.

For his part, General Houston Murphy seemed to exude greater, or at least different, ambitions than a lot of the other career farmers in the area, typically seeking out other ways to improve his family’s standard of living and quality of life. As a result, he ended up working at an electrical generating plant in town doing a variety of mechanical and electrical jobs to earn a living to continue supporting the needs of his growing family.

During the early 1920s, the oil industry in southeastern Texas was experiencing a great boom period, and the refineries needed workers in their plants throughout the region. So G.H. Murphy, finding another opportunity to make a better life for his family, was hired by the Gulf Oil Company, and moved his family to Port Arthur, Texas in early 1921, when baby Tom was a mere six months old.

As a toddler, Tom also had two younger sisters born during the family’s time in Port Arthur—Helen (1923) and Johnnie (1924)—and later another brother Glenn, who was born in 1930, but died as an infant within a few days of birth.

Murphy:We lived there in various places in Port Arthur until I was fifteen. At that time my dad was injured in an explosion and fire at the Gulf Oil refinery and could no longer do that kind of work, so we moved back to the Livingston area—Schwab City in Polk County to be exact.

Dad was hospitalized for a long time, several months. He was burned over most of his body and his hands were disabled forever more. Income was slow, and so Mom and Dad ran little places of business around the oil drilling areas in Schwab City, such as a little grocery store, and a couple of restaurants. Usually they managed the businesses and hired the help.

Later on, when it got a little slow there, they put in a small rooming house. We lived in a little place where my mother just served meals. My parents were good managers of money and did well, and were able to keep us all in school in Livingston.

Murphy went on to finish his final three years of high school at Livingston while living in Schwab City, which was about nine miles out of town in a heavily wooded area. He spent a lot of time outdoors, especially in the woods, even if it meant going out by himself. He enjoyed fishing in the local streams and lakes around Livingston, where the catch was mostly perch and catfish, with an occasional trout or bass.

He also spent some time hunting and stalking wildlife in his heavily wooded surroundings, and was an active member of Boy Scout Troop 74, where his father served as a Scout Committeeman.

Murphy also worked part time in a var