HISTORY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY, IL
MURDOCK TOWNSHIP.
F.A. BATTEY & CO., PUBLISHERS, 1884.
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES
BY H.C. NILES
REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINALS AND CONTRIBUTED TO Illinois Genealogy Trails
BY
LARRY M. BURMEISTER,
©MAY, 2004
“Liberty and labor have given us all.”
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ERECTION, ETC.
IN years, area and population, compared with the other political subdivisions of Douglas County, Murdock Township
ranks number nine and last, having been created at the December meeting of the Board of Supervisors in 1882.
The petition for the new township was closely followed by a counterpetition in the shape of a remonstrance leading
to a warm discussion of the “pros and cons,” it being held and strenuously maintained that the board held jurisdiction
only of the inhabitants of the proposed new territory, and not of those out of whose area the new township was
to be made. This nice distinctin evolved from the ingenuity of the attorneys, did not, however, prevail; the matter
was taken to the Circuit Court on appeal, and at the October term, 1883, the action of the board being confirmed,
Murdock proceeds to take her place among the nations of the earth.
The object of the prime movers in the scheme was primarily the attainment of a more convenient and more accessible
place for voting and transacting business generally; the more especially as the village of Murdock had already
been laid out, and was becoming a trade center, which was rapidly increasing in importance. It is distant about
five miles, on either side, from Camargo and Newman, the former business points, and time was when a few hours
more or less make little difference to the average business farmer; but growing industries, more sudden modes of
perfecting contracts and a general desire to attend to business at once, ever the ruling passion in the heart of
the enlightened Republican (I mean American), called for another organization, and so it was done.
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THE NAME OF THE TOWNSHIP
was given in compliment to John D. Murdock, an old resident and large farmer in the neighborhood.
ITS AREA.
The area is made up from twenty-two square miles of territory, which were generously donated by the township
of Camargo on the west, and about seven from Newman, which lie upon the east side. It includes the west twenty-four
sections of Township 16 north, of Range 10 east, of Third Principal Meridian, and Sections 2, 3, 4 and 5, of Township
15 north, of Range 10 east, comprising twenty-eight regular sections, containing, according to the United States
Government Survey, 30.65 square miles, the same being 19,617.61 acres, being the smallest township in area. While
it is almost altogether prairie, Brushy Fork timber barely touching upon the southeast corner. The central parts
of its area consists of much beautiful rolling prairie. The general character of the extreme north and south ends
is quite level, easily, however, susceptible of good drainage, the surface being of the character of high table
land, which lies upon an average some sixteen to twenty-four feet above the bottoms of the nearest natural drains.
TWO DRAINAGE DISTRICTS.
Two districts have been established, under the statute, one in each end, and before the township was created,
in each of which a fall of about four feet per mile has been obtained. Murdock, in its north end, is traversed
by artificial drains which, when completed, will be an important affluent of the Embarrass River through the stream
known as the “Jordan” or Longpoint Slough (see Newman Drainage).
RAILROADS.
The St. Louis Branch of the I., B & W. Railroad runs east and west along about the center of the township,
in the south tier of Sections of Township 16 north, of Range 10 east, at a distance of about twelve rods south
of the
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middle of the sections. The original intention of the builders of the road was to keep upon the half-mile line,
and why the plan was abandoned after leaving Camargo Village is not explained.
The railroad debt which formerly belonged to the township of Newman and Camargo is shared pro rata by the property
holders in this township, and is distributed accordingly upon the tax books. A full history of this road in its
relations to the county will be found in its proper place in this volume.
FIRST ENTRIES OF LANDS.
While there were some very early entries, most of the lands, being all prairie, were taken up along about 1852-53,
which years seem to have been at the close of a period in which the Government lands were temporarily withdrawn
from sale pending the location of the Illinois Central Railroad and its selections of lands within the six-mile
limit, which limit was afterward extended to fifteen miles to enable the road to supply the quantity of lands not
found in the first limit. The latter extended limit takes in all of Murdock.
In 1853, William Cline, February 23, entered the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 2, Township 15,
Range 10. This is the extreme southeast eighty acres in the township. The first entry made was by James Brewer
June 18, 1847; he entered Lot No. 2 of the northwest quarter of Section 31, Township 16, Range 10, and Samuel Roderick
took the southeast quarter of Section 30, Township 16, Range 10, in 1849. J.Y. Campbell entered several tracts,
as also John Tenbrook and the Baileys, 1852 to 1855.
THE SCHOOL SECTION
is Section 16, Township 16, Range 10; every sixteenth section was by law devoted to the use of schools, being
presented by the United States to the State of Illinois, the proceeds of the sale which was made by the Township
Trustees of Schools going to the support of the school system, being an average of one section of land out of every
thirty-six.
This section was, according to law, made eight lots, but preserving the original sub-divisions. Lot No. 1 is the
east half of northeast quarter; Lot
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No. 4 is west half of northwest quarter; Lot 5 is west half of the southwest quarter, etc. The entire section was
bought by John Tenbrook in 1855. No regular record evidence of the surveys is extant, the only guide to the lotting
being the various conveyances, which, however, give the number of the lot, as well as the subdivision of the section
as shown by the Government survey.
All of these school sections were sold too soon, at a time when prairie land generally was not considered a very
good investment; some sold as low as $2 per acre.
POPULATION.
An enumeration of the inhabitants has not as yet been taken, except in the matter of a personal tax list furnished
by the Assessor, which comprises 160 names of owners of taxable personal property. Mr. Smith, the first elected
Supervisor, received 100 votes, and 50 more were polled which he did not get. It may be fair to state that there
are 200 votes, which would give a population of 800 to 1,000 at the present writing, at which one-fourth may have
been acquired from Newman; the balance of course from Camargo.
THE POLITICAL COMPLEXION
is not indicated by the first election, a Union ticket having very properly been nominated. The Republicans
claim a majority of about ten, which is probably correct, the present Supervisor is a pronounced Republican, and
was elected over a prominent Democrat by about eighteen majority.
THE VILLAGE OF MURDOCK,
established and named before the township was made, is situated generally on the north side of the railroad,
and between it and the east and west halfmile line of Section 33, Township 16 north, Range 10 east. It consists
of about ten lots and blocks, having been laid off by the Murdocks in September, 1881. It was shortly afterward
followed by an addition made by R.F. Helm on the north side of the east and west public road. The railroad has
a reserve on the north side of its track, about eighty rods long and 125 feet wide, and a right-of-way on the south
side of fifty feet; a roomy side track is
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established which gives ample facilities to shippers in the vicinity, of whom many are of the heaviest cattle dealers
in the county. The railroad company has erected a neat and substantial station house and passenger waiting-room.
Mr. S. Baxter purchased a few acres directly east of the village, where he erected several neat tenant houses which
assist in giving Murdock the air of quite a busy place; this is further assisted by the elevator erected by the
Murdocks in 1878, having a capacity of about 4,000 bushels.
THE METHODISTS,
with their proverbial zeal, erected a substantial church here, and finished it in October, 1882, about as soon
as the town was laid out. It has a steeple and a $90 bell, the cost of the structure being in all about $1,850.
THE FIRST OFFICERS
were: Supervisor, David Smith; Assessor, W.C. Whallen; Collector, R.F. Helm; Justice, S. Baxter. And in the
distribution of county officers Murdock has had a share. Among those who live within the present bounds, Mr. John
D. Murdock, from whom the township was named, was elected in 1859 one of the first two Associate Justices of the
county, and was re-elected in 1861.
This was of course prior to township organization. The County Board consisted of a Judge and two Associate Judges.
Mr. M. served his first term with James Ewing, of Arcola, as Judge, the other Associate being Robert Hopkins, of
Newman. In his second term, he was with F.C. Mullen, of Garrett, as Judge, and Caleb Bales, of Arcola, as the other
associate. It was under the care and management of the last-named board that the court house was contracted for
and begun. A large part of the business of this day, the early days of the county, was the location of new public
roads. The board would appoint three Commissioners, one always the surveyor, to view the road, and report at next
term. There was quite an epidemic of roads these times.
James H. Shawhan, now of the new township, formerly of Sargent, was elected Sheriff in 1871, and also served several
years with credit as Highway Commissioner.
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VALUATION.
The Assessor’s valuation of the personal property of the township for 1883 is $68,833; lands are valued at
$196,480.
SOME SURVEYING.
The southwest corner of this township was the scene of one of the most important “commission surveys” which
ever obtained here under the law authorizing the Circuit Court to appoint three surveyors to adjust lines and report
their conclusions to the court at next term. The survey in these cases was not final, but subject to trial and
review by the courts. Every surveyor in the country had more or less of a whack at it, and, to their credit, generally
agreed as to the main facts, notwithstanding that one old resident appeared on the ground and said, “I can take
a gray wine and a swy glass and beat all their surwain.”
The surveyors appointed by the court in October, 1871, were Edmund Fish, of Arcola, H.C. Niles, of Tuscola, and
A.H. Guy of Vermillion County. They worked a week at it, and reported to court. The case was tried three times
for various reasons, and finally settled down to the lines made by the Commissioners. Mr. Issacha Davis, surveyor
in the neighborhood, gave the board valuable and willing assistance. The confusion mostly arose originally from
a proven mistake of the original Government Surveyors, they having left two corners on the range line, which they
recorded as twentytwo rods apart, while, identified, they proved to be only six rods apart. The writer has seen
the original figures made by the Government Surveyor, and the proof on the ground. The controversy arose from the
situation of a thirty-five-acre piece belonging to John Brown, which the surveyors in their report dubbed the “John
Brown tract.” This whole controversy was conducted by the interested parties with a manly and fair spirit, much
superior to the temper usually manifested on such occasions; though Shiloh Gill says that he and Brown had worn
out a certain fence four times in trying to conform to the various opinions of its true place. Each moved the fence
every time the other fellow get a new wrinkle from anybody, and the surveying business in the close neighborhood
was good till them fool commission surveyors came along and spoiled the job.
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NATURAL RESOURCES.
The productiveness of the soil, and the easy tillage, from the absence of timber and rock, with the comparative
remunerative value of all farm products, have made agriculture the leading interest here, to the exclusion of manufacturing
enterprise. At the same time, the facilities for manufacturing are not great, from the absence of home coal and
water-power. These remarks apply equally to all parts of the county, however. Railroads, railraods alone, made
possible the cultivated fields, the villages and the civilizing influences of churches and schools in Grand Prairie,
and if Douglas County ever merits the distinguished consideration of the world at large for large manufacturing
cities and their corresponding wealth, it must be brought about by the further agency of the iron highway, which
is emphatically the exponent and the institution of our modern civilization.
CONCLUSION.
From the institution of the county in 1859, up to this 30th day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1884, at
precisely 24 o’clock, when these papers are finished, these changes, which we have been trying to keep the run
of, have come to pass. Many a one of us has tried his “prentice hand,” on one or more of a thousand schemes for
honorably winning bread, with no other capital than a brave and willing heart. Some are rich, some have failed,
and some have gone away, mayhap voluntarily, to a more promising field of labor, or, we have tenderly gathered
what we could find of him and quietly and reverently laid him down to “sleep the sleep that knows no waking.” He
may have been rich in worldly goods and a failure; he may have been poor, and a grand success.
In the struggle for bread, the poor fellow is often wounded and sometimes thrown; then he goes home disheartened
and discouraged, and after a fitful fever sleep, arises in the morning and thanks God that he lives to try it once
again. Let us “call no man a failure till he is dead,” for a few final years of success may well atone for half
a lifetime of baffled hopes; his work, his children are with us and of us, his name is on our records, and we may
not wash it out.
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“No further seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose),
The bosom of his Father and his God.”
Perhaps heaven was as kind to him as he was to himself. If he had not all he wanted, he gave perhaps all he could.
Why is it that men and women who have been blessed (?) with a liberal education find themselves distanced in the
race for wealth by those who have learned to write their names, only through the necessity of signing bank checks?
Why, so often, the man whose knowledge of social ethics and political economy is only equaled by his familiarity
with the eternal fitness of things, is intrusted with the accumulation and distribution of the Nation’s wealth?
“Why do some have to walk despondently through the deep valley of poverty, while others fare sumptuously every
day, and why are some of the most talented deprived of the pleasures waiting on those who toil, while children
and babies sow and reap?”
Why is the golden calf set up in all public places for the worship of independent American citizens, and why is
the homage paid? * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * Yet, in his humble and unobtrusive way the money-maker has moved quietly along and accummulated
the means that improve farms, build houses and establish banks and railroads, part of which he has more or less
cheerfully dispensed in the employment of the muscle and brains of his less fortunate, but not less worthy fellow-workingman.
He has rights which the simple worker is bound to acknowledge, and we may well conclude that when Dame Fortune
began the distribution of her financial favors in this part of the world, she might have done far worse than she
did, when she piled so large a part of them upon the broad shoulders of a majority of the pioneers of Douglas County.