This is a Message Board Post. Reply to the message or author by clicking on the link below. *************************************************************************** MESSAGE: (#99052) Hon. Samuel Murdock 1817-1897 <http://iagenweb.org/boards/clayton/obituaries/index.cgi?rev=99052> AUTHOR: Dan McDougall DATE: 2/19/2006 at 03:20:42 Surnames: MURDOCK AT REST. Honorable Samuel Murdock Is No More. Passes Away at His Home at 5:10 p.m. Tuesday. Was an Iowa Pioneer and an Able Lawyer. Samuel Murdock died at Elkader, Iowa, on the 26th day of January 1897, at 5:10 o’clock p.m., after an illness of nearly three months, from the effects of a paralytic stroke. He was aged 79 years 10 months and 13 days at the time of his death. His father and mother were of Scotch parentage and were born and raised in the county of Armaugh, Ireland; emigrated to America in 1812 and settled near Pittsburg, Pa., where the deceased was born on March 13, 1817. In 1827 the family removed to Cleveland, Ohio, and settled text obscured farm near that city in the (text obscured) Rockport. Here Samuel Murdock grew to manhood and received such education as the common schools afforded. He taught school in several places in Ohio and studied law with Hon. Reuben Wood one of the supreme judges and afterwards governor of that state. In the fall of 1841 he left Ohio and came to Iowa; arriving at Davenport to which point he walked most of the way from Chicago. Remaining for a few days rest, he shouldered a heavy pack and again started on foot across the country on an Indian trail for Iowa City which place he reached after two days of weary travel. He remained there for over a year and was admitted to the bar of Johnson county. Coming to Dubuque on a tour of inspection of the country he heard of the beautiful prairies of Clayton county and starting out arrived at Jacksonville – now Garnavillo – on August 9, 1843; here he staked out a claim one and a half miles south of Garnavillo which he made his home, and which was known far and near as “Judge Murdock’s Evergreen Farm” – noted for its beautiful evergreens and large orchard – a rare treat for the eye to behold in northeastern Iowa. He was the first lawyer who permanently settled north of Dubuque. In the year 1845 he was elected a member of the territorial legislature from the counties of Dubuque, Delaware and Clayton. In 1848 he was elected school fund commissioner, an office which he held for four years. During this time he sold most of the school lands of Clayton county. In 1855 he was elected the first judge of the tenth judicial district which included ten counties. In 1869 he was elected a member of the thirteenth general assembly. Judge Murdock was a lawyer of great ability and as lawyer and detective has taken a prominent part in many of the most important cases in Clayton county. In the summer of 1869 he unearthed the “Hagerty Massacre” and lodged the murderer in the penitentiary for life. As a prosecutor and trial lawyer he was alert, faithful, courageous and left nothing undone; he was a tireless worker and so far as could be observed had no fear of man. In the field of literature Judge Murdock was known as a writer of ability; he was familiar with and wrote learnedly on the important topics of his time; but over and above all this the crowning virtue of his life, - known and read of all who knew him – was his gladness of heart that always responded to the call of distress from the poor and needy. As a lawyer, citizen, neighbor or friend no one applying to Judge Murdock for help was ever turned away. He leaves surviving him his wife and two daughters, Marion and Amelia, to mourn the loss of a kind husband and father. The whole community sympathise with the bereaved family and with numerous friends throughout the County and State regret the departure of their friend Judge Murdock. (source not given)