Matthew Murphy & Catherine Ebert in Nepean, 1863

Matthew Murphy & Catherine Ebert in Nepean, 1863

Nepean 1863

This is an enlarged detail from an 1863 ordinance map of Nepean that shows the actual location of the Matthew Murphy farmhouse (it is circled in green). This map is included in "Ottawa's Britannia" (1983 by Eva Taylor and James Kennedy).

We have located the farm of Matthew Murphy and his family at Lot 25, Concession II, Ottawa Front. The left edge of this map faces north, (you can see the shoreline of the Ottawa River as the irregular thick black line along the left). This area of early Nepean was known as "Baker's Bush" or (some say) "Maple Heights" and is close to modern day "Carlingwood".

Notice the church that was then located directly across the road from the Murphy farm. Also, that the Murphy property features two 1 1/2 story log structures facing the March Road (in modern times "Carling Avenue"). The form of these structures are described in the 1861 Census. Matthew Murphy is listed here in the City Directory information of the pre-Confederation era. Examining the complicated financial transactions involving mortages on the property leads us to believe there may have been a tenant family, possibly providing agricultural labour, in one of the two farmhouses.

Matthew Murphy and Catherine Ebert purchased the land in June 1855. The 1851-52 Census, which locates them in Bytown West, we believe at 9 Vittoria Terrace, on what is known today as Parliament Hill. We know that the family had moved to Aylmer by 1868, after all of their children were born (and their grandchildren had begun to arrive!).

After the property was sold by Matthew Murphy in 1862, this building, a 1 & 1/2 storey log house, was very probably burned in "the Great Fire of 1870". It had definitely been replaced by 1879, with the two log houses shown on the above map fronting on March Road replaced by a single, larger home set back from the road, possibly built (or rebuilt) by the Sparks family. The site was located on the south side of Carling Avenue, just west of the intersection with Woodroffe Avenue South. In the 1860's, the road was known as "March Road", being the overland route to March Township. Note that the southern extension of Woodroffe Avenue remained unopened (except as a footpath) until after World War II.

Back to Murphy Family of Bytown, Nepean Township, Upper Canada Web site.