The Leading Man of Harbor Beach

Frank Murphy

Date Visited:  August 3, 2019

Stop:  #31

Our Michigan Wines and Signs Tour, eastern Thumb loop, continued as we got back on M-25 after our Port Hope Chimney stop and headed south the 7.6 miles to Harbor Beach, where our next historical marker awaited.  Harbor Beach is a city set on the shores of Lake Huron with a population of 1,604 people (as of 2017).  It is best known for having the world's largest man-made fresh water harbor, and is also home to the Harbor Beach Light.  Like many villages, towns, and cities in this region, it owes its origin to the booming lumber industry of the early to mid-1800’s.

Two lumbermen, John Allen and Alanson Daggertt, settled in this area in the Spring of 1838 and built a water-powered sawmill.  They named the area, Allen’s Creek.  The settlement was renamed Barnettsville in 1855, and as it continued to grow, it was renamed again, this time to Sand Beach.  Sand Beach became the County Seat in 1859, and in 1860, the first courthouse was built.  When the courthouse burned to the ground during the fire of 1864, the County Seat was moved to Port Austin.  Despite the devastation caused by the fire, Sand Beach rebuilt and thrived and officially became a village in 1882.  There are differing opinions about how the name Harbor Beach came about – one story explains that the Sand Beach name gave people the impression that there was nothing but sand in the area so residents wanted a name that would dispel that belief, while the other story states that the name was changed after the Harbor of Refuge was completed.  They can’t even agree on the year of the name change – version #1 states 1899, while version #2 states 1898.  In any event, a petition was sent to Michigan’s Governor in 1899 requesting that the village be incorporated as a city, and the request was finally granted over 10 years later – April 4, 1910.

Harbor Beach was home to a few notable people – Dick Lange (MLB pitcher for the California Angels), James H. Lincoln (Detroit city councilman, Michigan judge, and author), and Louis J. Sebille (WWII and Korean War pilot, Medal of Honor recipient).  But its most famous personality was Frank Murphy, which just happened to be the topic of the historical marker we had set out to see.  The marker is located on the east side of South Huron Ave. (M-25), about 409 feet south of State St.  It stands just to the south of the J.F. Murphy Attorney at Law building.

The front side of the marker focuses on the political career of Frank Murphy.  Murphy was born in Harbor Beach (April 13, 1890) and was buried there after his death (July 19, 1949).  In between, Murphy held many prestigious political offices, including associate justice of the U.S Supreme Court, a judge in Detroit, the mayor of Detroit, U. S. governor-general in the Philippines, governor of Michigan, and attorney general of the United States.  He had important roles in several legal matters (with focus on civil liberties), and gained national attention for the way he handled a sit-down strike in 1937.  The backside of the historical marker provides a chronology of important dates in Murphy’s life.

There is so much more to learn about Frank Murphy. If the historical marker doesn’t quench your thirst for Frank Murphy trivia, then you can visit the Frank Murphy Memorial Museum, which is located just south of the marker. The museum is located in the home in which Murphy was born and is located at 142 S. Huron St. in Harbor Beach. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 22, 1971. As we walked up to the house, we were invited to join a walking tour, and if not for our aggressive schedule, probably would have jumped in. As it was, we spent a few minutes walking the grounds, and Kathy and Sarah stuck their heads into the little visitors’ center that sits between the museum and the J.F. Murphy Attorney at Law building. The whole area was a sign readers paradise as there were several historical signs scattered about the area. It was killing me to have to leave without reading them, so I made sure to take photos of several of the signs so I could read them at my leisure. Hopefully we can return to Harbor Beach and make a day of it and really soak in the history of this historic lakeside city.

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