John Murtaugh
| Date and Place of Birth: | February 6, 1874 Elmira, NY |
| Date and Place of Death: | December 1, 1918 Ansonia Hotel, New York, NY |
| Baseball Experience: | College |
| Position: | First Base |
| Rank: | Major |
| Military Unit: | Office of the Judge Advocate General US Army |
| Area Served: | United States |
John Murtaugh was one of the greatest baseball players who
ever donned a Cornell uniform
Syracuse Herald, December 9, 1918
John F. Murtaugh was born on February 6, 1874 in Elmira, New York. The
son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Murtaugh, his father operated a grocery
store in Elmira. John Murtaugh graduated from Elmira’s School No. 3
before entering St. Bonaventure College (now St. Bonaventure University)
at Allegany, New York in 1890.
Coaching the baseball team at St. Bonaventure was future Hall of Famer
John McGraw, and Murtaugh learned his baseball skills from “Little
Napolean”. Aged 22, he graduated from St. Bonaventure in 1896 and
entered Cornell University the same year. He graduated from Cornell in
1899, and during that time he played football and on the baseball team
as a first baseman, being unanimously elected team captain his senior
year.
“He was the best college first baseman that I ever had the pleasure of
meeting,” said future Hall of Famer and former Cornell coach, Hughie
Jennings. “I urged John to make baseball a profession, he would have
been one of the biggest men in the game today. I do not mean as a player
alone for he was fitted as a leader and director and would have made one
of the greatest baseball kings that the nation has ever known.”
But baseball was not to be Murtaugh’s chosen path. He was admitted to
the bar in 1899, elected to the board of supervisors of Chemung County
in 1900, and appointed corporation counsel of Elmira under Mayor Z.R.
Brockway. Then, for four years, he served as a distinguished member of
the senate of the state of New York and for a year its majority leader.
Upon completion of his senatorial term in 1915, Senator Murtaugh
returned to Elmira and resumed his duties in the legal profession.
In May 1918, Attorney Murtaugh voluntarily enlisted in the army and was
given a commission as a major on September 10, serving in the judge
advocate's department and based at Governor's Island. It was the
intention of the government to send Murtaugh overseas, first to France,
then to Constantinople, Turkey, but on December 1, 1918, Murtaugh was
the victim of a tragic and fatal accident.
Staying at the Ansonia Hotel on Broadway, New York, where he occupied a
suite of rooms with Major Jed Adams, Murtaugh was feeling unwell and
sent the bell boy for Rochelle salt, a form of potassium sodium
tartrate, which was popular as a mild laxative. However, the bell boy
returned with Roach salt, an insecticide made of sodium fluoride, which
Murtaugh consumed with deadly consequence.
It took three agonizing hours for the poison to kill John Murtaugh.
There was nothing doctors could do to help him. He was 44 years old.
Following a requiem high mass at St. Patrick’s Church in Elmira, John
Murtaugh was buried at St. Peter and Paul’s Cemetery on December 4.
Sources
Elmira Daily Gazette, April 4, 1898
Bolivar Breeze, June 23, 1898
Elmira Morning Telegram, December 8, 1918
Syracuse Herald, December 9, 1918
Elmira Morning Telegram, January 12, 1919
Date Added September 8, 2013
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