John Murdock (Mormon)
John Murdock was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement and was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mentioned twice in the Doctrine and Covenants, he devoted most of his life to full-time missionary service for the LDS Church. He was the first mission president for the LDS Church in Australia where he oversaw the official organization of the church in the country and its early growth. A compatriot of Joseph Smith, Murdock attended School of the Prophets and participated in Zion's Camp. After the death of his first wife in childbirth, Joseph and Emma Smith adopted his infant twins. Julia Murdock Smith, who survived to adulthood, was the eldest child and only daughter of the Smiths.
Biography
Early life and religious conversion
John Murdock was born on July 15, 1792 in Kortright, New York, to John Murdock and Eleanor Riggs. His mother died when he was four years old. His father remarried, but Murdock and his brothers experienced substandard treatment compared to their step-sibings and therefore disliked their step-mother. After living at various relatives' and neighbors' homes for many years, Murdock married Julia Clapp in 1823 at the age of thirty-one and settled in Orange, Ohio.Prior to joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Murdock had belonged to many churches. First, he affiliated with the Dutch Lutheran Church. He next became a Methodist. He was also briefly part of a Baptist congregation, which he left because he did not agree with their support of Calvinist doctrines. In 1827, Murdock joined the Campbellites. His falling out with the Campbellites was largely due to Alexander Campbell rejecting the gift of the Holy Ghost. Murdock was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Parley P. Pratt on November 5, 1830 in Geauga County, Ohio. Murdock was one of the first converts to the Church and one of the first full-time missionaries. Within a week of his baptism, Murdock was ordained an elder by Oliver Cowdery. Murdock began proselyting in Orange, baptizing seventy of his neighbors in four months.
Church service
On April 30, 1831, Julia Clapp died giving birth to twins. At the request of Murdock, Joseph Smith and his wife Emma adopted the children, Joseph and Julia. While Murdock could have left his infants in the care of his in-laws, he chose not to due to their recent estrangement over differing religious beliefs. He did not remarry, fearing his second wife would become like his own stepmother, who tyrannized him as a child.After the death of his wife, John Murdock sold his property to become a full-time missionary. Murdock depended on the charity of hosts and people he visited to survive, leaving his children with neighbors and family members. Joseph Smith called Murdock on a mission to the Eastern states in Doctrine and Covenants 99:1. First, Murdock accompanied Hyrum Smith and John Corrill on a mission to Pontiac, Michigan. This particular mission which included Murdock and Smith was mentioned in Doctrine and Covenants 52:8. From April 1831 until he went with Zion's Camp in April 1834, Murdock spent almost all his time as a traveling missionary for the Church. In 1833, Murdock attended the School of the Prophets. During winter 1832 to 1833, he lived with Joseph Smith and his family, where he had daily contact with his daughter. Murdock served several missions for the Church in the early years.
In April 1834, Murdock joined Zion's Camp. On March 17, 1834, he was at a conference at Avon, New York, attempting to convince the local members of the church to join the Zion's Camp effort. After Zion's Camp, Murdock also served on the high councils in Missouri. He also served as a bishop in Nauvoo. In 1846, Murdock traveled to the Salt Lake Valley with the Abraham O. Smoot company accompanied by his fourth wife Sarah and her son, seven-year-old Gideon; Murdock's surviving son with his third wife Electra; and a two-year-old foster child named Mary. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1847.
Missionary in Australia
In 1851, Murdock went to Australia as the first Latter-day Saint missionary sent to Australia since William Barratt in 1840 and became Australia's first mission president. Murdock and Charles W. Wandell established the mission in Sydney on 31 October 1851. They printed 2,000 copies of Proclamation to the People of the Coasts and Islands of the Pacific, which they successfully sold. They exerted their time and resources to proselyte using pamphlets and printed many others. It was calculated that Wandell and Murdock had distributed 24,000 tracts. Their initial proselyting strategy was preaching in public meetings, but they soon acquired a meeting hall. The earliest converts at the official opening of the mission were in December 1851. They included Emily and Joseph Popplewells, Bridget Gallimore, and nine others. The Sydney Branch, a small organised congregation of Latter-day Saints, was organised on 4 January 1852 with twelve members. By March, there were 36 members. Murdock and Wandell directed three church meetings each Sunday as well as five public proselyting meetings per week. After Murdock returned to the United States in June 1852, Wandell replaced him as mission president.Later life
Murdock was ordained as a patriarch in Lehi, Utah, and fulfilled his duties until March 1867 when his illness, which is postulated by historians to be Parkinson's disease, prevented it. Murdock avoided participating in the LDS practice of plural marriage for over thirty years. In January 1857, he succumbed to ecclesiastical pressure and married widow Majory McEwan as a plural wife. After they were married in Salt Lake City, McEwan returned home to her children rather than sleeping in the house with her new husband. She continued to sleep at her own home, only traveling to the Murdock household to help her sister wife with the housework. Although the Murdocks invited her and her children to stay with them, she continually refused. Tensions rose between the two wives. By the summer of 1847, McEwan stopped visiting the Murdock home. On December 6, 1857, David Evans, Murdock's local ecclesiastical leader, had a disciplinary meeting with Murdock and McEwan and charged Murdock with "failure to consummate the marriage". Murdock responded that this was due to his advanced age and illness. Eventually, McEwan and Murdock were granted a divorce on January 27, 1857.In April 1858, bishop David Evans and Murdock had a disagreement which led Murdock to solicit help from the president of the LDS Church Brigham Young. During a sermon, Evans encouraged the congregation to lie about practicing polygamy to protect themselves from the United States government which Murdock publicly disagreed with. This embarrassed Evans who, in retaliation, removed Murdock's name from the list of high priests in the congregation. Murdock refused to attend church for several months. Murdock brought the issue to the attention of Brigham Young who commanded that Murdock's name be restored on the records of the high priests.
In 1867, Murdock and his wife Sarah separated. She remained in Lehi with her son George. In October, Murdock traveled to Beaver, Utah to be with his sons Orric and John Riggs who would care for him in his illness. In his last years, Murdock wrote his daughter Julia, urging her to come visit him, but the visit never occurred. He died on December 23, 1871, in Beaver.