Sarah Murphy and the children she made room for

The teacher who made room

In Polk County, Sarah’s work grew from teaching into something much larger. Murphy-Harpst’s account of its founder describes a school for Black children opened in 1931 and a household transformed when Sarah and her husband, Marion “Shug” Murphy, took in six children after their mother died. [2]

More children followed. The institution remembers Sarah’s response in three words: “We’ll make room.” [2]

The institution’s biography also preserves an account from her time at Spelman: Sarah experienced a vision she understood as a summons to return and help her people. This is the later biography’s account of her calling. [2]

The practical demands of her work are easier to picture: teaching children, finding room for them, and providing food and clothing. A growing household required help that could be counted in meals and beds. [2]

A building drawn on paper

One surviving fundraising leaflet brings those needs into sharp focus.

On its cover is an architect’s drawing of a proposed girls’ dormitory and administrative building. Beneath it, the leaflet reproduces a committee’s February 1949 report to the Polk County Grand Jury describing inadequate buildings and “a serious fire hazard.” It says a new board of trustees formed the following month to help provide suitable buildings. The drawing bears the date 1950. [3]

This was an appeal for the means to build something safer.

Georgia Women of Achievement’s biography records a destructive fire in 1950 and says the household moved into the original school building. It describes contributions arriving from near and far to support rebuilding. The earlier warning adds context, but it does not establish the fire’s cause or responsibility for what happened. [4]

The leaflet leaves us with a striking image: a home’s hoped-for future, drawn in ink while its need for help was put before the public.

The children had families too

The family account on Mae Emma Legacies adds a detail that the word “orphanage” can obscure.

The writer says her mother and siblings entered Sarah’s care after their father died, around 1940 or 1941. Following the fire, the younger siblings eventually returned to their biological mother. Their story included separation and reunion, as well as life in the home.

Years later, as her mother’s memory faded, the daughter made preserving that history a personal commitment. [1]

Her account reminds us to leave room for the children’s own experiences when we tell the history of the adults who cared for them.

Two histories in one name

Sarah’s work belongs alongside Ethel Harpst’s while retaining its own identity. Georgia Women of Achievement records that the Methodist Church’s Women’s Division took over Sarah’s home in 1961. In 1984, it merged with the Ethel Harpst Home. The combined name preserves both histories. [4]

For Christian readers, these stories bring us back to John’s instruction: “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18, KJV). In the preceding verse, John asks what it means to possess material resources and shut our compassion against a brother in need. [5]

Care for others does not purchase salvation. Christ alone saves; mercy is fruit that faith should bear. [5]

Sarah’s story gives that reflection a local setting: a school, a crowded household, a building appeal, and children whose names still mattered to someone looking at an old photograph.

Sources and further reading

Sources reviewed October 18, 2026. Bracketed numbers lead to the supporting records below. Dates and measurements describe the historical record.

1. Mae Emma Legacies — Our Stories Have History
   A descendant’s published account. The newspaper issue and photograph described by the family have not yet been independently identified.
2. Murphy-Harpst — Meet the Founders: Sarah Murphy
   Later institutional biography, including its account of Sarah’s reported vision, school and growing household.
3. Caroliniana rare-book catalog — page 15, item 12
   The reproduced leaflet cover was visually inspected. The undated leaflet is cataloged circa 1950; its publication before the fire is not established. The original grand-jury report has not been examined.
4. Georgia Women of Achievement — Sarah McLendon Murphy
   Later biography used for the fire, rebuilding support and institutional succession. Disputed incorporation and rebuilding details are not resolved here.
5. 1 John 3:16–18 and Ephesians 2:8–10, King James Version
   Biblical context for the closing Christian reflection: practical love, and salvation by grace through faith rather than the merit of works.