The Butte Miner, 1909-04-12, p.5

Summary

Two-sentence event reminder. "Benefit card party for Mrs. Ellen Murphy, Masonic hall, Walkerville, Monday, April 12. Two floors occupied. Remember the time, the place and the party." ARCHIVE SIGNIFICANCE. **Likely a benefit card party for the same Ellen Murphy who in 1908 had her husband Patrick J. Murphy committed to the Warm Springs state asylum** (= `person_ellen_murphy_fox_hotel_1935` / `person_ellen_murphy_wife_of_pat_bartender_1908`). Walkerville is just north of Butte and Pat the bartender's residence in the Jan 1908 hearing coverage. The April 1909 benefit timing fits a family-relief framework after Pat's institutionalization (Jan 1908) and the April 1909 Ellen Murphy estate settlement in the same Butte cluster (cf. `person_ellen_murphy_estate_1909_butte` and 1909-04 guardianship of Margaret Murphy by Mary A. Sullivan). Two-floor Masonic hall capacity suggests a substantial community-support event — large enough to merit a press reminder. The Catholic-Irish bartender's wife receiving a benefit at the Masonic hall is itself a small note about cross-denominational community help in Walkerville-Butte 1909. Caution: there are likely multiple "Mrs. Ellen Murphy"s in Butte-Walkerville 1909. Identification with the bartender's widow / Fox Hotel Ellen is plausible from timing and geography but is NOT direct in the text. Holding without promoting to people.yaml.

Also mentioned

• Mrs. Ellen Murphy · beneficiary_of_card_party

  Likely (timing + geography + cluster context) = person_ellen_murphy_fox_hotel_1935 / person_ellen_murphy_wife_of_pat_bartender_1908 — same Ellen who had her husband committed to Warm Springs in Jan 1908. April 1909 is 15 months after the commitment; family-relief context plausible. Held in mentioned only without promoting the link.

Places

• Walkerville, Montana (primary)
• Butte, Montana (secondary)

Themes

• irish_american_community

Story threads

• The Pat-and-Ellen Murphy household — Butte 1887 to LA 1980

Tags

• candidate_family
• color
• fragment

Source type

news_item, business_notice

Related sources

• 1908-01-07_butte-daily-post_patrick-murphy-found-insane-bartender(unresolved)
• 1908-01-08_butte-miner_pat-murphy-insanity-hearing-sisters-testify(unresolved)
• 1909-04-07_butte-daily-post_mary-a-sullivan-guardian-of-margaret-murphy-heir(unresolved)
• 1935-08-24_montana-standard_ellen-murphy-fox-hotel-death(unresolved)

Open questions

• Confirm Mrs. Ellen Murphy beneficiary is the Pat-bartender widow / Fox Hotel Ellen. Verifying would require cross- checking the Masonic hall Walkerville April 1909 event against any other surviving social-page references.