Catherine E. Murphy

  General Notes:

Catherine was born in Ireland and emigrated in 1869 (per census records) to America with her parents. She would have been about 16 at this time.
She married a man said to be much older than she and they had two children. Her husband worked for the RR and according to family lore he was killed in his late 20s when a train ran over him and beheaded him. Catherine, left with two small children, placed her children with her parents (census records) and found employment as a housekeeper for an affluent Dutch family named Van Voorihas who owned a large farm on Maple Hill Road in Castleton, NY. She is shown living there in 1880 per census of Schodack, NY but her children are not listed. (Mary and her brother James Louis born 1874 grew up on this farm.) In 1880 the Van Voorihas family consisted of George Van Voorhis, his wife Elizabeth and a son named Edgar and a daughter Sarah. After the death of his parents, Edgar inherited the farm and Catherine remained as a servant. When Edgar passed on he left the farm and house to Catherine.
Catherine is buried in the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Castleton, NY. It is unknown where her husband is buried.
With the death of Catherine and then her son Jimmy in 1947, the farm was sold to a Mr. Rate who added milking machines and made it into a successful dairy farm. In the 1970s structural changes were made and surrounding land was sold off to a developer. For some time the house lay vacant and was vandalized considerably. In the 1980s it was purchased by an architect who refurbished and modernized the farm house and it is now his professional office as well as his dwelling.

1870 census Rye, NY
There is a 16 yr old Catherine Murphey born Ireland working as a servant for the Wm Horton family of Rye, Westchester, NY.

Census 1880 of Schodack, Rensselaer County, NY indicates a Lewis Murphy age 57 born Ireland c1823 who works on RR with a wife Catherine age 59 born Ireland c1821. These are most likely Catherine Murphy Deagan's parents since Catherine named a son James Louis/Lewis? Also the Murphys have two grandchildren living with them...Mary Degan age 8 and James age 7.

1900 Schodack, Rensselaer County, NY
Catherin Deagan born [10/1855 Ireland] is still working for the VVs but George is dead and Caty is working for Edgar & his step-mother, Elizabeth. Caty says she has 2 children (dau Mary is married and living in Albany and James may well be living in Albany or some place else.) It appears that Lewis Murphy is dead as well as the older John Dugan (born c1822). Catherine Hutcherson Murphy at age 72 is living with her grand daughter Mary dagan Foster in Albany, NY

In 1910, Katharine is HOH. Alone

1920 Katherine Deigan, widowed is in Schodack, HOH, widowed, immig 1869 and living with son James, age 44. James says he is married.

Catherine married John Deagan, son of John Deagan and Margaret Ogilvie. (John Deagan was born circa 1844 in Ireland and died between 1874 and 1880 in Schodack, NY.)