Conecuh County AlArchives Biographies.....Murdock, William I. July 4 1847 - living in 1893 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 17, 2004, 9:49 am Author: Brant & Fuller (1893) WILLIAM I. MURDOCK, one of the large and successful farmers and stock raisers of southern Alabama, of which state he is a native, was born in the county of Calhoun on the 4th day of July, 1847. He is the eldest of a family of eight children, born to James W. and Nancy Murdock, and like many other substantial men of the country, the mental and moral fiber of his nature was hardened and invigorated by early con-tact with the rugged duties of the farm. At the age of twenty-five, on the 23d of February, 1872, in Dale county, he was wedded to Anna Laura, daughter of John H. and Sarah (Powell) Fussell, and immediately thereafter purchased a farm near the old homestead in Calhoun county, and engaged in agricultural pursuits, which he carried on in that neighborhood with fair success for five years, then removed to Wayne county, Miss., where he was similarly engaged for a period of two years. Owing to ill health he left Mississippi and returned to Alabama, locating, in 1879, on his present beautiful plantation in the western part of Conecuh county, where he has since resided. His farm, one of the largest and best improved in the county, consists of 840 acres of fine land, about 500 acres of which are under a high state of cultivation, and the buildings are large and commodious and of the latest style of architecture. Mr. Murdock is a thoroughly practical man, careful and judicious in all his business operations, and his success in his chosen calling has, indeed, been most flattering. He stands high in the community and is recognized as a man of superior judgment, and one of the representative citizens of Conecuh. Mr. and Mrs. Murdock have a family of four children: Fannie A., wife of J. J. Carr; Rozilla C., teacher in the schools of Brooklyn; Hattie E., engaged in educational work near home, and William B. Mrs. Murdock's parents were natives of North Carolina. They were married in Georgia, thence moved to Florida, and in 1865 came to Alabama. Mrs. Murdock was the fifth child of a family of nine children and was born in Georgia, February 23, 1852. Mr. Murdock's father, James W. Murdock, was born in Montgomery county, Alabama, in the year 1817. Married in Calhoun county, in 1846, Nancy H. Young, and six years later moved to the county of Dale, where Mrs. Murdock died in 1889. James Murdock is a farmer and one of the well informed men of his county, where for a number of years he held the office of justice of the peace. At the close of the war he was elected member of the general assembly of Alabama, but becoming disgusted with the methods of reconstruction, he refused to take his seat in that body. He is living at this time in Dales county, where he is widely and favorably known. The following are the names of the children born to James W., and Nancy Murdock: William I., La Fayette, Washington, Jane, wife of Daniel McSwean, John Jackson, Amariah S., Edward and Savannah, wife of Allen Swean. William Murdock, grandfather of the subject of this mention, was a native of North Carolina, moved to Alabama in the early part of the present century, and died in Dale county about the year 1862. Mr. Murdock's maternal grandfather, was Isaac Young, who moved in an early day from the state of Tennessee, and settled in Calhoun county, Ala. Additional Comments: from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 716-717 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 3.9 Kb