BIOGRAPHY: Murdock, Samuel
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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     Honorable SAMUEL MURDOCK was born March 17, 1817, in Alleghany 
County, Pennsylvania.  In 1828 his father moved into the State of Ohio, 
and settled on a farm near Cleveland.  Here he was raised, working on 
the farm in the Summer and going to school in the Winter.  He attended 
several terms at the old Brick Academy in Cleveland, and this, and such 
advantages as the common schools of Ohio then afforded, comprised all 
the education he ever received.
     He taught school in several places in that state, and in 1838 
emigrated to Kalamazoo County, Michigan, where he  remained one summer; 
but ill-health caused him to leave that state, and he returned to Ohio.  
Here he remained till 1841, when he started for the West, and arrived 
in Johnson County, Iowa, in the Fall of that year, and entered the law 
office of Gilman Folsome, Esq., under whose tuition he was admitted to 
the bar of that county.
     In 1843, he removed to Clayton County, and settled at the pleasant 
town of Garnaville, where he commenced the practice of law, and in 
connection therewith has made a most beautiful farm, on which he now 
resides.  He was the first lawyer who settled in the county, and the 
first who settled in the whole country north of Dubuque, including what 
is now the State of Minnesota.  
     He was married in 1845 to Miss Louisa Patch, daughter of Luther 
and Elizabeth Patch, whose family are among the oldest settlers west of 
the Mississippi River.
     In 1845 he was elected from Dubuque, Delaware and Clayton Counties 
to the Territorial Legislature, and served during two sessions.   While 
a member of that body he was instrumental I securing for Iowa her 
present northern boundary.  Iowa provided that her portion of the 
500,000 acres distribution of lands should be set apart for school 
purposes, and a large proportion  of these lands fell within the limits 
of Clayton County.
     In 1848 Mr. Murdock was elected School Fund Commissioner for the 
county, and held the office for nearly four years, during which time he 
sold the greater part of these lands.  Having a large discretionary 
power in their sale, he managed to dispose of them all to actual 
settlers, and thus prevented them from falling into the hands of 
speculators.
     During his term in this office many angry and violent disputes 
arose between persons claiming the right to purchase these lands; but 
all these disputes he adjusted and settled to the satisfaction of all 
parties, and he quit the office after a four years' service without 
leaving behind him a single enemy.  During the time he held this office 
he would often have five or six thousand dollars in gold or silver in 
his house at a time, and these large sums he would hide in the potato 
bin in the Winter or cover up with earth in the cellar in Summer, and 
not a dollar of it was ever lost to the School Fund.
     In 1845 Mr. Murdock was elected the first District Judge of the 
Tenth Judical District of Iowa, composed of the ten northeastern 
counties of the state.  This office he held till the new constitution 
of the state took effect, when he returned again to the practice of 
law.  During his term of office he organized several counties in his 
district, holding the first courts in them, and leaving behind  him in 
all of them records that are models of neatness and style.
     For several years he traveled twice in each year through all these 
ten counties, attended by the principal members of the bar of his 
district, generally on horseback, encountering all kinds of weather, 
wading sloughs and swimming rivers, and many an anecdote is still told 
among the members of the bar and the old settlers in regard to the 
judge and his trips through the district.
     In 1869 he was elected a member of the Thirteenth General Assembly 
of the State.
     Judge Murdock is now, and has been for several years, President of 
the Pioneers and Old Settlers' Association of his county.  His 
acquaintance with the men and the history of Iowa is intimate and 
extensive.  His name is inseparably associated with the history of the 
state, as well as with that of Clayton and other northern counties, and 
in this relation he will ever be remembered.
     Although lacking the advantages of a liberal education, he has 
made up, in a great measure, by his eminent natural abilities and 
laborious and careful study, his deficiencies of learning.  Few men are 
better informed than he in his profession and on general subjects; and 
he has an instinct for literary and scientific pursuits, in which he 
has made considerable proficiency, especially in the geology of the 
northern part of Iowa.   He has devoted more attention, perhaps, than 
any man in the state to the investigation of the pre-historic race 
known as the Mount Builders, and has delivered some very able and 
carefully prepared lectures on that subject.