The Murphy Building

[grancan]

Yep, that's the old guy, alright. I'll have to check the census records I have to see where he was in the later surveys. He had an office in Port Huron [[where the company freighters were docked) and spent time there as well as a large retreat [[which today is called Manresa) on the northwest corner of Big Beaver and Woodward. Back in those days, that was way out in the country. He also owned a fine fruit farm in California and had a very nice house there which he would visit in the winter. He also owned Palco [[Pacific Lumber Company) in northern California which became the largest family-owned harvester of redwood lumber in the nation for some seventy years.

Simon Jones Jr. did follow his dad into lumber and eventually moved to Wisconsin in 1886 to start up a new logging operation there with his brother when Michigan's forests were beginning to become depleted. Poor health later on forced him to retire to California.

[buildingsofdetroit]

Here's an old photo of the Murphy Building from around 1945:
http://173.12.230.44/6janA21.jpg