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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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William S. Murdock William Murdock, one of Mariposa Township's most enterprising farmers and public-spirited citizens, is a man who has succeeded at his chosen life work through his individual efforts and his persistency despite obstacles and hinderments in general. Like the oak which needs the tempests to battle with in order to grow hardy and resisting, so his nature seems to have been made stronger and better through the hard knocks and obstacles that are the common fate of all mankind at some time or other. Mr. Murdock was born in Iowa County, Iowa, February 2, 1866. He is the son of M. Davis Murdock and Elsie Jane (Jordan) Murdock, the father born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1836, and the mother was born in Keokuk County, Iowa, in 1834. The elder Murdock grew up in Pennsylvania and began life on the farm. When he was a small boy his parents decided that he should prepare for the ministry and they therefore gave him excellent educational advantages, being helped very largely by his father, who was a well-educated man and was at one time a teacher in an academy in Pennsylvania. When a young man M. Davis Murdock came to eastern Iowa and there entered the ministry of the United Brethren Church, and he later preached all over the eastern part of the state, doing incalculable good and winning the esteem of all who know him, for he was not only an earnest advocate of the doctrine as set forth by the lowly Nazarene, but he was a good man in his every day life and always ready to assist those in need. He was married while living in Keokuk County. He proved his loyalty to the Union by enlisting in Company G, Thirtieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, at the commencement of the War Between the States and he served very faithfully for a period of three years, acting first as chaplain. He fell ill and after his recovery he re-enlisted as a private. After the war Mr. Murdock located in Louisa County, Iowa, where he lived for some time, then, in 1880, he moved to Mercer County, Illinois, where he had the pastorate of a church. He then moved to Rock Island County and there the subject was married. M. Davis Murdock has now retired and is living in Millersburg, Illinois, after a successful and praiseworthy career. William S. Murdock moved to Nebraska in 1888 and there became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land. In 1894, after the crop failure there, he moved back to Rock Island County, Illinois, and rented land three years, then in 1897, he moved to Jasper County, Iowa, and rented land in Mariposa Township. In 1898 he moved on the old J. M. Campbell place, which he still operates. In 1906 he purchased eighty acres Just north of where he lives and he tills this in connection with the two hundred acres which he rents, thus carrying on general farming on a large scale and he is meeting with success as a general farmer and stock raiser, making a specialty of Norman horses and shorthorn cattle, feeding annually a large number of hogs. Mr. Murdock is a Democrat and he belongs to the Baptist church, and his children are members of the Union church. Fraternally, he belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Murdock was married on August 18, 1886, to Sarah E. Elliott, who was born in Rock Island County, Illinois, on December 30, 1867. She is the daughter of Nelson G. and Mary Elliott, early settlers of Rock Island County. Mrs. Murdock's paternal grandfather, L. C. Elliott, was one of the very first comers to that County and there the Elliott family has been well known for several generations. Nine children, named in order of birth as follows, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Murdock: Mrs. Edna May Paul, Mrs. Cora Dell Antel, Nelson Davis, Louis Cameron, Mary Ellen, Alfred Earl, Ruth Bessie, Esther and Naomi. Personally, Mr. Murdock is a pleasant gentleman to know, broad-minded, well posted and industrious. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 861. |
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