Samuel McMurdie

Samuel McMurdie/McMurdy, his personal and family background, and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Samuel McMurdie/McMurdy

1830-1922

Biographical Sketch

Early Life Around London, England

The McMurdie family name is of Scottish origin but Samuel McMurdie was born in 1830 in the London borough of Lambeth in England, not far from the River Thames. He was born to Robert McMurdie (1798-1890) and Mary Ann Bill McMurdie (1801-1861). He is among the relative handful of early southern Utah settlers born and raised in or adjacent to an urban area.

Samuel McMurdie was baptized into the LDS Church in late 1851. Little is known of his early life before then.

Immigration to America and onto Utah

Early in 1853, McMurdie and his parents embarked from England for the United States. Arriving in New Orleans, they steamed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis and beyond to the trailhead for the journey via wagon train across the Great Plains. They joined the Cyrus H. Wheelock Company. On the journey, Samuel, 22, accompanied his parents, Robert McMurdie, 55, and Mary Ann Bill McMurdie, 52. The company began the trek from the outfitting post at Keokuk, Iowa. They crossed the Missouri River on July 11.

The Mormon Trail

They passed the usual milestones on the trail: Fort Kearney, the South Fork of the Platte River, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, the Sweetwater River, Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, Green River, Fort Bridger, Bear River, and Weber River. After suffering the usual hardships of overland trail, they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in early October.

To Cedar City and the Ironworks

The Early Ironworks in Cedar City

Soon the McMurdie family moved to southern Utah. In the spring of 1857, the twenty-six-year-old McMurdie married fifteen-year-old Sarah Ann Kay of Lancashire, England. Theirs was one of many marriages in the era of the Mormon Reformation.

The Deseret Iron Company

In moving to Cedar City, Samuel McMurdie was settling in an area dominated by the Deseret Iron Company, known more familiarly as the Ironworks. See Summary of Deseret Iron Company for a brief summary of its early development.

The Ironworks in 1857

In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to breathe new life for the Ironworks. Working from April to June they installed the steam engine and completed the new engine house. In the first week of July, they were ready to begin smelting. They “put on the blast” and had a modicum of success. But they continued to be plagued with problems ranging from poor quality raw materials to smelting equipment that lacked technical sophistication. When in late July the steam engine seized with sand from the dirty creek water, they speedily dug a reservoir to store a supply of clean water for the boiler. They continued making smelting runs through August. All the while crews at the ironworks manned all the necessary functions there, while other crews, mainly miners and teamsters, gathered the raw materials – iron ore, coal, limestone, and wood – necessary to sustain smelting.

The smelting continued until September 13. In other words, around September 3, when a dispute arose between some settlers and several men in the passing Arkansas company, the blast furnace was running nonstop. And when Cedar City militiamen, many of them ironworkers, mustered to Mountain Meadows where they were involved in the massacre on September 11, other ironworkers in Cedar City continued the smelting runs night and day. For additional details, see Smelting at the Ironworks in 1857.

From late April to September, those working up the canyon in mining or hauling wood, coal, limestone, rock, sand or “adobies” to the ironworks were Isaac C. Haight, James Williamson, George Hunter, Joseph H. Smith, Ira Allen, Ellott Wilden, Swen Jacobs, Alex Loveridge, Joel White, Ezra Curtis, Samuel McMurdie, Samuel Pollock, John Jacobs, John M. Higbee, John M. Macfarlane, Samuel Jewkes, Nephi Johnson, Thomas Cartwright, William Bateman, Elias Morris, Benjamin Arthur, Joseph H. Smith, Robert Wiley, and Philip Klingensmith. Those working at the ironworks on the furnace, engine, coke ovens or blacksmith shop included Elias Morris, John Humphries, Ira Allen, John Urie, Benjamin Arthur, James Williamson, Joseph H. Smith, Samuel Jewkes, Joseph Clews, Richard Harrison, William C. Stewart, William Bateman, John M Macfarlane, John M. Higbee, John Jacobs, George Hunter, Samuel Pollock, William S. Riggs, Alex Loveridge, Ellott Wilden, Ezra Curtis, Eliezar Edwards, Swen Jacobs, Joel White, and Thomas Cartwright. (The two lists overlap because some worked both in the canyon and at the Ironworks.) Other prominent figures at the ironworks who were not later involved at Mountain Meadows were Samuel Leigh, George Horton, James H. Haslem, Laban Morrell, John Chatterley, Thomas Gower, Thomas Crowther and others.

McMurdie's Role in the Ironworks in 1857

During this period in 1857, Samuel McMurdie was an occasional teamster for the ironworks. In April, he was one of the teamsters who hauled the steam engine and associated machinery from Great Salt Lake City to Cedar City. His account was credited with the value of 512 hours for his part in transporting the engine. In late May, he spent a day hauling sand while others constructed the engine house. In mid-July, he hauled lumber while others worked on the engine. Late in July, he hauled more than five tons of coal and another ton the following week. In mid-August, he again hauled a ton and half of coal and another load at the end of the month.

On September 10, McMurdie's and many other accounts were debited a small amount to pay county taxes, a periodic charge. Then the records are silent until September 29, a lacunae of two and one-half weeks in the records. The ironworks and all activities associated with it had come to a complete halt. Since there is no other similar gap in the records of the Deseret Iron Company for this period, that is some indication, albeit indirect, of the disruption to the sense of normalcy in Cedar City caused by the massacre and its reverberations.

In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Samuel McMurdie, Company E, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander Col. William H. Dame. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.

During 1857, 26-year-old Samule McMurdie was a sergeant in a platoon in Company E in Cedar City. Anthony Stratton was 2nd Lt. of that platoon and Samuel Jewkes was a private in the same platoon. Captain Elias Morris was at the head of Company E which was attached to Major Isaac C. Haight's 2nd Battalion. John Macfarlane was Haight's adjutant. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

Sometime between the first attack on September 7th and final massacre on the 11th, Samuel McMurdie was among a contingent ordered from Cedar City to the Mountain Meadows.

On Thursday evening, September 10, according to John D. Lee, McMurdie and many others from Cedar City attended the war council on the grounds of Mountain Meadows.

On the morning of the massacre, McMurdie and Samuel Knight drive their respective wagons to the emigrant wagon circle. Hours later, they transported young children and wounded away from the wagon circle. Leading their wagons was John D. Lee.

Although many participants from Cedar City were named in the 1859 arrest warrant, neither Bishop Philip Klingensmith nor his counselor McMurdie were listed, leading some to conjecture that one of them may have been among Judge John Cradlebaugh's anonymous sources in his 1859 investigation.

Abandoning Cedar City for Northern Utah

In May and June 1858, McMurdie was again hauling coal to the foundry. At the time there was much activity at the ironworks as they made their last attempts to produce a reliable and profitable iron operation. The last mention of McMurdie in these records was on October 18, 1858.

In 1859, the McMurdie family and many others abandoned Cedar City. The principal reasons were the failure of the ironworks, the general pall cast over the community by the disastrous massacre, and Judge John Cradlebaugh's criminal investigation of the massacre resulting in an arrest warrant naming many Cedar City militiamen.

The McMurdies moved to Cache Valley in the far north of Utah Territory. Between 1859 and 1862, McMurdie briefly had a polygamous wife, Mary Jane Jenkins (1845-1919), but there were no children from this marriage and they later divorced.

Testifying in John D. Lee's Second Trial

John D. Lee at trial.

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In September 1876, during the second trial of John D. Lee, the prosecution called former Iron County militiamen Joel White, Samuel Knight, Samuel McMurdie, Nephi Johnson, Laban Morrill and Jacob Hamblin to testify. McMurdie testified concerning the actions of John D. Lee during the events leading to the massacre. When cross-examined about whether he had shot any of the emigrants himself, McMurdie exercised his privilege against self-incrimination.

McMurdie's extant statements about the massacre are limited to those during the 1876 Lee trial.

In Lee's autobiography, Mormonism Unveiled: The Confessions of John D. Lee, Lee provided an alternate account of what happened at the two wagons containing the small children and wounded adults. Lee claims that McMurdie dismounted from his wagon with his shotgun and went to the second wagon. Raising his firearm to his shoulder, Lee claimed that McMurdie exclaimed, "O Lord, my God, receive their spirits, it is for thy Kingdom that I do this." Then, Lee said, McMurdie fired on the injured adults in the wagon. (See image, right.)

Based on Lee's account, William Bishop, Lee's principal attorney in the second trial, listed McMurdie as "[a]ssisted in killing wounded" in Bishop's "List of Assassins" appended to Mormonism Unveiled.

Life in Cache Valley

McMurdie, his wife Sarah and their children spent five years in Wellsville before settling on twelve acres near Paradise. One source states that McMurdie brought wagons, tools and bolts of cloth he obtained at Mountain Meadows to Cache Valley. One acquaintance reported the McMurdie had his hired man burn the wagons because they still bore the holes from gunfire during the first attack and siege. He carried a lingering concern that he might be prosecuted for his role in the massacre.

However, McMurdie was also extremely ambitious. He expanded his land holdings and established a creamery and sawmill. Around 1885, he mortgaged his property to invest in imported purebred stock, a practice familiar to him from his British homeland. By the mid-1890s, his Diamond M Creamery was among the largest and most advanced in Cache Valley. For years McMurdie was prosperous.

But by 1905, McMurdie was seriously overextended during times of economic decline. He sold off most of the property and he and his wife were left with their home and original twelve acres.

Final Years

McMurdie's wife, Sarah, died in 1917 and McMurdie died five years later at the age of 93. They had spent nearly sixty years in Cache Valley. They had thirteen children, ten of whom survived to maturity.

The McMurdie-White Farmstead

Much of the McMurdie farm operation, now called the McMurdie-White Farmstead, still stands. In 2005, it was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

References

Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 146, 149, 151, 154, 173, 304; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 347-48, 394, 396; Bitton, ed., Guide to Mormon Diaries, 236; Brooks, ed., Journal of the Southern Indian Mission, 106; Compton, A Frontier Life, 433; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports on the Trial of John D. Lee, 216, 219; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 238, 241, 242, 243, 252, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; Moorman and Sessions, Camp Floyd and the Mormons, 136; New.FamilySearch.org; Novak, House of Mourning, 168; Ricks and Cooley, ed., The History of a Valley: Cache Valley, Utah-Idaho, 38n, 275; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 484, 495; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadow Massacre: The Jenson and Morris Collection, 97, 115, 202, 220, 223, 236, 248, 254, 265; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 193, 195-98, 203-4, 214, Appendix C, 260; Willie, "History of Dairying in Cache Valley," in Alder, ed. Cache Valley: Essays on Her Past and People, 54.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Samuel McMurdie, see:

• http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
• Deseret Iron Company Account Book, 1854-1867: http://www.footnote.com/document/241905844/
• http://www.leavesonatree.org/getperson.php?personID=I16446&tree=Tree1
• http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/05001106.pdf (application to list McMurdie-White Farmstead on National Registry of Historic Places, with description of historic grounds)

Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.