After two generations of leadership among the negroes of Baltimore and of Maryland, John H. Murphy, for 26 years publisher of the Afro-American, died yesterday of acute nephritis at his home, 1616 McCulloh street.

 

Although 81 years old, the publisher had been in apparently good health until his son, Daniel H. Murphy, died suddenly on March 6, after being taken by him to Jacksonville, Fla., for his health. Just two weeks before he had addressed an audience of 2,000 persons at Tuskegee Institute.

 

He was an able orator, was prominent in religious, patriotic and fraternal organizations, and had served as president of the National Negro Press Association, as imperial potentate of the Colored Mystic Shriners of the United States and was one of the two past grand commanders of the Grand Army of the Republic at the encampment in Indianapolis. He was educated in a private school for free colored boys. He joined the Thirtieth Maryland Colored Regiment in 1863, served under Grant in the Wilderness and at Petersburg and with Sherman when he invaded North Carolina.

 

Surviving are 8 children, 19 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. The paper will be continued by John H. Murphy, Jr., Arnett and Carl Murphy.

 

The funeral will be held at 11 o'clock Saturday morning from Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Burial will be in Mount Auburn Cemetery.