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John Riggs Murdock, 18261913 (aged 87 years)

John Riggs Murdock 1826-1913.jpg
Name
John Riggs /Murdock/
Given names
John Riggs
Surname
Murdock
Family with Mary Ellen Woolfenden
himself
wife
Marriage Marriage10 January 1863Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA
23 months
son
23 months
daughter
18661867
Birth: 12 November 1866 40 24 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 27 July 1867Beaver, Utah, USA
18 months
daughter
18681869
Birth: 18 May 1868 41 25 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 17 August 1869Beaver, Utah, USA
2 years
daughter
18701884
Birth: 9 July 1870 43 27 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 25 February 1884Beaver, Utah, USA
3 years
daughter
18731874
Birth: 11 March 1873 46 30 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 27 December 1874Beaver, Utah, USA
3 years
son
18751876
Birth: 6 October 1875 49 32 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 6 June 1876Beaver, Utah, USA
18 months
son
18771877
Birth: 1 April 1877 50 34 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 7 May 1877Beaver, Utah, USA
son
18771877
Birth: 1 April 1877 50 34 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 10 May 1877Beaver, Utah, USA
22 months
daughter
18791954
Birth: 25 January 1879 52 36 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 11 September 1954San Bernadino, California, USA
5 years
son
18831965
Birth: 30 July 1883 56 40 Beaver, Utah, USA
Death: 21 November 1965Milford, Beaver, Utah, USA
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Birth of a daughter
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Birth of a daughter
Death of a daughter
Birth of a daughter
Birth of a daughter
Death of a daughter
Birth of a son
Death of a son
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Birth of a son
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Last change
17 August 201911:14:13
Author of last change: 7mikefh
Note

Pvt John Riggs Murdock

Birth: Aug. 13, 1826
Orange (Cuyahoga County)
Cuyahoga County
Ohio, USA
Death: Nov. 12, 1913
Milford
Beaver County
Utah, USA

Son of John Murdock and Julia Clapp

Married Almira Henrietta Lott, 13 Nov 1849, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Married Polly Emeline Lamb, 27 Jan 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Married Mary Ellen Wolfenden, 10 Jan 1863, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Married Margery May Bain, 10 Jan 1863, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

History - John Riggs Murdock, president of the Beaver Stake of Zion from 1877 to 1891.

His father and mother joined the Church in November, 1830, being among the first converts to "Mormonism" in Ohio; and they became closely associated with the Prophet Joseph. The mother died in 1831, leaving a family of five children, including a pair of twins, a boy and a girl (Joseph and Julia), born at their mother's death. The twins were adopted by the Prophet and his wife and tenderly fostered. When the boy was a year and a half old, he caught the measles, and through exposure took cold and died at the time the Prophet was mobbed at Hiram in 1832. Julia remained in the family until she had grown to womanhood.

After his mother's death John R. was sent with Caleb Baldwin, Sr., to Jackson County, Missouri, where he lived in the family of Morris Phelps. After the Saints were driven out of Jackson county, he was baptized by his father in Clay county in the year 1834; he also passed through the mobbings and persecutions in Caldwell county.

His father, after spending about five years on missions, married again, when John R. left Brother Baldwin and rejoined his father's family, with which he removed from Quincy to Nauvoo. Here he worked on the Prophet Joseph's farm about four years, and was still in the Prophet's employ at the time of the martyrdom; in the exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, John R. came west with Father Cornelius P. Lott.

On his way he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, and as a private in Company B he marched all the way to San Diego in California. After serving his time he made his way, in company with many other Battalion boys, to Great Salt Lake valley, and arrived on the present site of Salt Lake City, Oct. 12, 1847, after a tedious journey of twelve hundred miles with pack animals.

He spent the winter in the "Old Fort" and married Almira H. Lott, daughter of Cornelius P. Lott.

In the spring of 1851 he settled in Lehi, Utah county, being one of the early settlers of that place; and among the several positions filled by him here was that of mayor of the city.

In 1856 he took a most active part in rescuing the hand-cart companies, who were perishing in the snow storms. When he brought in some of the suffering emigrants he found the snow on the Big Mountain fifteen feet deep.

To many of those who crossed the plains before the Union Pacific Railroad was built, the name of John R. Murdock is very familiar. He was sent east five times as a captain of Church trains after the poor, namely in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1868.

He also carried the mails from the Valley to Independence, Mo., as an employee of the B. Y. X. Company, and in that capacity he made two round trips to the States in 1857, in unprecedented short time.

In 1358 he went to Omaha as an escort to Col. Thos. L. Kane, making the round trip of 2,120 miles with the same animals in 42 traveling days. He also brought trains of merchandise for Livingston & Bell in the early days. Altogether "Captain Murdock," as he was familiarly called in early days, made eleven round trips across the plains, and has brought more "Mormon" emigrants to Utah than any other leader. He is credited with making a better record than any other man known in bringing ox and mule trains across the plains and over the mountains.

In the spring of 1864 he was called and ordained to the office of a Bishop by President Brigham Young and sent to preside in Beaver, Beaver county. He occupied that position until 1877, when the Beaver Stake of Zion was organized, and he was chosen and set apart as its president. This responsible position he filled for fourteen years.

He has served eight terms in the Territorial and one in the State legislature. He was also a member of the Constitutional convention, which framed the State constitution in 1895. He has also served as probate judge of Beaver county and as a colonel in the Iron County Military District.

From the first Elder Murdock was one of the representative and leading men in the Church and community at large. He has occupied many positions of honor and trust in the Territory and State, and is now in his old age highly respected and beloved by the people.

Mormon Battalion, Company B

Family links:
Parents:
John Murdock (1792 - 1871)
Julia Clapp Murdock (1790 - 1832)

Spouses:
May Margery Bain Murdock (1833 - 1911)
Mary Ellen Woolfenden Murdock (1842 - 1921)
Almira Henrietta Lott Murdock (1829 - 1878)*

Children:
Julia Permelia Murdock Farnsworth (1852 - 1938)*
Joseph Riggs Murdock (1860 - 1941)*
George Carlos Murdock (1862 - 1931)*
Charles Edward Murdock (1864 - 1931)*
Orrice Abraham Murdock (1866 - 1929)*
Abram Ezra Murdock (1875 - 1876)*
Albert P Murdock (1877 - 1877)*
Arthur W Murdock (1877 - 1877)*

Burial:
Mountain View Cemetery
Beaver
Beaver County
Utah, USA
Plot: B_205_2

Media object
John Riggs Murdock 1826-1913.jpg
John Riggs Murdock 1826-1913.jpg