> SNIPPET: William Lawrence MURPHY was born in Stockton, CA in 1876, and > while > living in a cramped one-room apartment in San Francisco with his wife, he > began tinkering with a folding bed. In 1900, MURPHY perfected his folding > bed and applied for a patent. The Murphy Door Bed Company was born that > year > and soon became the leading manufacturer of folding beds. In the 1920s, as > the popularity of the bed soared, the company moved to NYC. Its fortunes > rose with the invention of the compact kitchen, which was named the Murphy > Cabrinette. WW-II produced a housing shortage that further benefited the > company. MURPHY's son took over the business in the 1950s and guided it > through a period of slack sales due to the postwar suburban housing boom. > In > the 1970s sales began to rise again and continued to do so. The Murphy > Bed > Co., as the family business came to be know, was run by William MURPHY's > grandson, Clark MURPHY. William L. MURPHY died in 1959. > That is very interesting, and yes we all know, at least of our generation what a Murphy bed is. Our Gr-Grandfather and Gr-Mother are from Indiana, Sullivan and Clay Counties. r > > ====Irish American Mailing List===== > Add/check your surname to the Irish-American mailing list Surname Registry > at: http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrishAmerican/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >