I was editor of Arkansas Business in 1991 when I spent a day with legendary business leader Charles H. Murphy Jr. in El Dorado. The day was everything I hoped it would be. Murphy was 71 at the time and still showing up to work in his role as chairman of his family's oil and gas business.
His father had moved to El Dorado to operate a bank in 1904. Within a few years, the elder Murphy owned 13 banks in Arkansas and Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). He also built a large sawmill in Union County and created a railroad to supply the mill with timber from south Arkansas and north Louisiana.
"Land acquisitions in south Arkansas and north Louisiana led to oil exploration ventures, which provided royalties and operating interests," John Ragsdale wrote for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "Murphy's father had him manumitted by court order at age 16 so he could legally transact business for himself, and Murphy entered the petroleum industry as an independent operator--not affiliated with some of the major companies already operating in the area--while in his teens.
"When his father had a stroke in 1941, Murphy had to take over management of the various...
Source: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2026/jan/25/i-dont-know/
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