Samuel McMurdie
Samuel McMurdie/McMurdy, his person and family background, and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre
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 arrived in Great Salt Lake City in Utah Territory that October.
To Cedar City and the Ironworks
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.
In moving to Cedar City, Samuel McMurdie was settling in an area dominated by the Deseret Iron Company, known more familiarly as the Ironworks. Here is a brief summary of its development. After iron ore and coal deposits were discovered in the region, Cedar City was founded. In the first years of 1851-52, they investigated whether the region had the necessary raw materials – iron ore, limestone, wood, coal, and waterpower – to support smelting on a large scale. After confirming the presence of the necessary materials and relying heavily on the British Isles immigrants who had worked in iron-related industries in Great Britain, they set to building an iron manufacturing plant. They sited the ironworks at the mouth of Coal Creek near the present location of Cedar City. They mined the coal up canyon and transported it by team and wagon to the furnace located on the stream bank below the mouth of the canyon. The iron ore was transported from nearby Iron Springs by wagon. In 1852, after a small test furnace produced a low quality pig iron, they set about building a full-scale blast furnace.
Progress was impeded, however, in 1853-54 during the Walker War. They shifted their energies from iron making to “forting up” to increase their safety. After a peace treaty was reached with the Ute chief Wakara in 1854, they returned to improving the ironworks. By 1855, they had achieved their greatest success with a sustained run of the furnace producing several tons of pig iron. But most of the runs both before and after failed to achieve a sustained run producing good quality iron. The records of the Deseret Iron Company reflect that in February 1856, McMurdie's account was credited for "herding." In the same month, his account (and many others) was debited a small amount ($.50) for "Indian depredations." McMurdie seems not to have been among the skilled "iron men." But he did perform work that directly benefited the ironworks.
One problem for the ironworks was the fickle nature of Coal Creek, which continued to alternate between flooding and droughts. They determined to develop a more dependable source of power. In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to provide the answer. After its arrival, they built a new room to house the engine, connected its boiler to a steady water supply and modified the furnace to accommodate the engine. In early June they started an iron run using the steam engine. However, the new machinery created its own set of problems. Through the end of July, they experimented with different configurations of furnace, engine and piping, attempting to optimize the blast furnace.
From late April through July, 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.
By the time reports reached them in early August of a threatened “invasion” of U.S. troops into Utah, they had decided on further changes to the ironworks. They determined that a reservoir was necessary so as to provide a steady supply of filtered water to the steam engine. Immediately, they set to work, digging, lining and filling the reservoir. From late August to early September, shortly before the crisis involving the passing Arkansas emigrant company, they began a new furnace run. But it, too, ended in failure, probably around the time that a dispute arose between some community members and several of those in the passing Arkansas wagon train.
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
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 First Trial
During the Lee trials of 1875-76, McMurdie was called to testify in the second trial. He 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.
The extent of McMurdie's extant statements about the massacre are limited to those contained in his testimony preserved in the 1876 trial transcript.
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 rifle 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
Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 347-48, 394, 396; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports on the Trial of John D. Lee; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 238, 241, 242, 243, 252, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Ricks and Cooley, ed., The History of a Valley: Cache Valley, Utah-Idaho, 38n, 275, ; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 484, 495; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C; 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.
