Colusa Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
S.R. MURDOCK.
Samuel Robinson Murdock was born in Knox County, Ohio, November 22, 1832, where he resided for five years, his father dying in the interim. On his mother removing to Marion County, young Murdock lived with her till he had reached his eleventh year, when he was sent to live with his uncle on a farm. After spending three years here, attending the public schools during the winter, he returned to Marion County and was apprenticed to the trade of a printer. Having acquired a fair knowledge of the "art preservative," he, completing his apprenticeship, worked for a year at the case in Columbus, of the same State. The year 1853 was an almost unprecedented one for emigration to California from the Eastern States. Young Murdock catching the infection of travel and fortune-seeking, he started for this State in February of that year, accompanied by his mother. Arriving at Council Bluffs, the latter's mine rapidly underwent a change of purpose. Missing the company they intended going with, she abandoned her trip to California and returned to her former home, while young Murdock continued the journey, driving cattle across the plains. On September 5 following, he arrived at Park's Bar, Yuba County, and, finding ready work in the mines, he continued there during the winter. In the spring he went to Forest City and engaged in selling goods at that place for one year and a half. In the summer of 1856, his mother, concluding to rejoin him, met him at Marysville, and, accompanied by her, he engaged in farming on the Sacramento River on the opposite side of Eddy's Landing. Bent on a more active and business-like pursuit, Mr. Murdock, after four years of a farmer's life, came to Colusa County, near Sulphur Springs, raised cattle and drove them into the mining camps and towns of Nevada. He at one time took up his residence in that State, remaining there from 1864 till 1867, following various pursuits, such as mining, farming and teaming. He longed, however, for a home in Colusa County, whose soil and climate and possibilities he had seen nowhere approached, and hence he returned and purchased the old Lane place, in Antelope Valley, where he conducted a hotel for some time. He arrived here just as the oil excitement was subsiding, and the copper discoveries were beginning to attract swarms of prospectors. In 1869 Mr. Murdock was engaged as a store clerk in Colusa, at the same time paying much attention to a sheep ranch he had purchased on Stony Creek. In 1871, seeing an opportunity for a bargain, he disposed of his sheep ranch and started with his sheep for Nevada, where he sold them. Since this time Mr. Murdock has resided continuously in Colusa County, with the exception of a pleasure-trip back to his old Buckeye home, made in 1888. He resides at the county seat and is largely engaged in the stock-purchasing business. In 1870 he took the census of Colusa County, doing all the work of enumeration by himself, and for this purpose visiting personally every house in the county. He has likewise served as city trustee of Colusa two terms.
Mr. Murdock was married, in 1872, to Miss Carrie Sedgwick, of Ohio, and is the father of two children, one of whom is dead, the surviving one, Bessie, being thirteen years of age.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 6/29/2009
Colusa County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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