Stephens–Townsend–Murphy Party

, 1860 The 51-member Stephens–Townsend–Murphy Party left near present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa, on May 6, 1844. The wagon train was organized by Martin Murphy Sr. and his sons. Elisha Stephens (also spelled Elijah and Elisha Stevens) was hired as the trail guide, The Murphy family had 26 members. As Irish Catholics, The party was guided by mountain men Caleb Greenwood and Isaac Hitchcock. In Wyoming, Hitchcock, who had been "trapping and trading" in California in 1832, led the party west from the Big Sandy River to the Green River on a bypass of Fort Bridger that came to be known as the Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff. This bypass covered a dangerous without water for livestock, but shortened the common route by and seven days. This cutoff, later popularized in a guide book, was used heavily by miners heading to the California Gold Rush. In the Sierra Nevada they encountered snow and on November 14, 1844, the party split. Six of the party, Elizabeth Townsend, her servant Francis, Oliver Magnan, and the siblings, Ellen (or Helen), John, and Daniel Murphy, set off on horseback following the Truckee River southward with the goal of reaching Sutter's Fort quickly and sending back help. They became the first European-Americans to set foot on the shore of Lake Tahoe on November 16 (John C. Frémont had been the first European-American to only view it the previous February). They arrived at the fort on December 10. Upon reaching the lake, Martin showed Schallenberger how to construct proper snowshoes and then the two crossed the Sierra successfully to the Central Valley. ==Afterwards==

Elisha Stephens settled in the San Jose/Cupertino area, where Stevens Creek [sic] is named for him. In 1862, he left the area, heading to Kern County in central California. He was the first non-native settler in what is today the city of Bakersfield. A state historic plaque in that city marks the approximate site of his homestead. Stephens died in Bakersfield in 1887. He was buried in Union Cemetery. His gravesite was discovered in 2009 by members of the Kern County Genealogical Society. On May 1, 2010, the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) California/Nevada Chapter in cooperation with the Kern County Historical Society (KCHS) installed a historical plaque at the gravesite of Elisha Stephens. John Townsend was California's first licensed physician and was, for a short time in 1848, alcalde or mayor of San Francisco; Townsend Street in San Francisco is named for him. He and his wife, Elizabeth, treated the victims of the 1850 cholera epidemic in San Jose until they died of it in December 1850. Elizabeth's younger brother, Moses Schallenberger, settled in Santa Clara county and died in 1909. Schallenberger Elementary School in the San José Unified School District and Schallenberger Ridge just south of Donner Lake are named for him. In 1846, Martin Murphy Sr. purchased the Rancho Ojo del Agua de la Coche. Son Martin Murphy Jr. was the founder of the city of Sunnyvale. Sons John and Daniel Murphy struck gold in the Sierra foothills, then made a fortune selling dry goods; the town they established in still bears the family name of Murphys. Helen Murphy, the youngest daughter of Martin Sr., married Charles Maria Weber, the founder of the city of Stockton. Dennis Martin also struck gold in the Sierra and purchased ranch properties from the grantees of Rancho Cañada de Raymundo and Rancho Corte de Madera which include much of the modern day back lands of Stanford University, including the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, the Ladera subdivision and the Webb Ranch. After financial misfortune and land disputes typical of the era, his lands were bought by Leland Stanford in November, 1882. Dennis Martin died in June 1890 and was buried at the St. Denis Cemetery (Martin had built his own church) on his former property (then Stanford's). Woodside's Dennis Martin Creek is named for him. ==References==