07/01/2026
William Cochrane (1867 - 1941)
William Cochrane was born in Warren County, Iowa on February 10. 1867. He grew up in Des Moines and Monroe, Iowa attending schools in both communities. His father died when he was thirteen, and being the eldest son, he shared with his mother the responsibility of rearing and educating the younger children.
When he was 18 he was offered a position with a mercantile firm in Monroe. Seven years later he bought half-interest in the business. In 1895 he married Myrtle Murphy, sister to Thomas D Murphy. The couple had three daughters, Anna, Josephine and Frances.
In 1900, Mr Cochrane joined his brother-in-law, Thomas Murphy in organizing the Thos. D. Murphy Co., for the manufacture of art calendars, moving his family to Red Oak, Iowa. In 1903, Murphy and Cochrane, in an action unbeknownst to most of the public in both Red Oak and elsewhere, exchanged their stock in the Thos. D. Murphy Company for shares in the American Colortype Company, making their firm in effect a subsidiary of a large east coast holding company. Incorporated one year earlier in New Jersey, American Colortype was headed by none other than Murphy's former partner Edmund B. Osbome.
William Cochrane generally took the lead in the hiring and training of the sales force and for the first eighteen years he was sales manager for the Thos. D. Murphy Co. In addition to the calendar company, Cochrane had other business interests. These included his presidency of two Red Oak banks; a vice presidency of the American Colortype Company; and a post as director of the Employers Mutual Casualty Company.
In 1917 - 18 Cochrane built the beautiful two-story Georgian-Revival style brick home (See attached photo), in the East Hill neighborhood of Red Oak. The house photo is from the magazine, "Country Homes", Vol. 4, Jan - Feb. 1922, page 47.
On Mr Murphy's death in 1928, Cochrane became president of the Thos. D. Murphy Co. Within two years of assuming the presidency, the Great Depression was in full swing. Initially, this calamity had relatively little impact on the Murphy Calendar Company and its sales, but by the fall of 1931, the future of the company as a Red Oak institution and mainstay of the local economy faced a serious threat, not so much from a sharp decline in calendar sales but from corporate restructuring. Since 1903 the company had been a subsidiary of the American Colortype Company, but as the Depression deepened, American Colortype launched a program to close older plants and consolidate them in newer buildings in larger cities. Cochrane, in his position as an American Colortype officer and board member, carried on lengthy negotiations which culminated in his purchasing the Murphy Calendar Company outright in even exchange for his American Colortype Company stock.
Cochrane was selected state senator from Mills and Montgomery Counties to the 42nd extra session and re-eleected to the 43rd and 44th sessions. William Cochrane died in March of 1941 in Los Angeles, California.
