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LTC Thomas Benton “Bent” Murdock

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LTC Thomas Benton “Bent” Murdock

Birth	:	5 Feb 1841 Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia, USA
Death	:	4 Nov 1909 Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, USA
Burial	:	Mount Tabor Cemetery, Sigel, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate	:	41.2655983, -79.1231003
Plot	:	Section SS, Lot 206, Space 3
Description	:	The Emporia [KS] Gazette, 10 Oct 1901, Thursday Kansas City "Star:" Thomas Benton Murdock, editor of the Eldorado (sic), Kan., "Republican," who was in Kansas City Tuesday through Thursday, who is what Charles Dickens would call a "fine figure of a man." The natural inference would be, in looking at him, that he was a statesman in active service. He has a strong face, a fine head well set on his shoulders and is quite an adept at wearing clothes. He is a ready talker, and what he says in interesting and instructive. He knows everything about Kansas, from the days... Read More	The Emporia [KS] Gazette, 10 Oct 1901, Thursday Kansas City "Star:" Thomas Benton Murdock, editor of the Eldorado (sic), Kan., "Republican," who was in Kansas City Tuesday through Thursday, who is what Charles Dickens would call a "fine figure of a man." The natural inference would be, in looking at him, that he was a statesman in active service. He has a strong face, a fine head well set on his shoulders and is quite an adept at wearing clothes. He is a ready talker, and what he says in interesting and instructive. He knows everything about Kansas, from the days of the "troubles" up to the present moment. Mr. Murdock announces himself as a candidate for congress from the Fourth district, and expresses himself as hopeful of obtaining the nomination, which means an election. There is no man in Kansas better qualified to represent the state in such a capacity or more worthy of the support of the public. The Kansas press, especially, owes it to Mr. Murdock to do all that it can to promote his political aspirations. ************************************* Son of Catherine Pierrepont and Thomas Benton Murdock. In 1849, his parents freed their slaves and then moved to Ironton, OH. In the panic of 1855, the family lost everything and moved to Mount Pleasant, IA, where they spent the winter. The following year, the family moved to Topeka, KS. In 1860 the family homesteaded at Forest Hill, near Emporia, and the father and mother spent the remainder of their lives there. When the Civil war broke out Thomas Benton Murdock enlisted with his father and brother Roland in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry and served until the end of the war. He served in the Rocky Mountains in 1863. Returning from the army where he had gone "snow blind" on the plains–a calamity that hung over him all his later days–young Murdock, who had been a hod carrier and general workman as a youth around Topeka, learned the printing trade. He worked in the office of the Emporia News. Here he founded the Walnut Valley Times, with J. S. Danford. This paper was printed on an old Washington hand press, which was successively supplanted by a Potter cylinder, a Goss Comet, a Duplex and the present three-deck rotary press, with a speed of 30,000 papers printed and folded her hour. Young Benton went back to Ironton, Ohio, married the sweetheart of his boyhood, Frances Crawford, and came to El Dorado March 4, 1870. They had two children. Mrs. Murdock committed suicide after killing their son. Their daughter, Mary Alice, became the editor of the El Dorado Republican. 2m to Antoinette Culbreth. He died in a Kansas City hospital. He occupied his old home at 1000 Walnut Hill for twenty-eight years. Mr. Murdock was a home man clear to the core. He was best known there and best beloved, for there he showed always his best side. He kept the finest part of his heart and mind and soul for those who met him in his home. There he was in his kindest, his gentlest, his most human aspect. Home was his Heaven. There he brought all his joys. There he left the world behind. When blindness threatened him, as it did for a quarter of a century, off and on, it was in his home that he found his only solace. As an editor he was equipped as few men are equipped–with an individual style. He expressed something more than an idea. He reflected an ideal plus a strong unique personality. He therefore in a way dramatized whatever he wrote–made it the spoken word of a combatant in the conflict, the defiance of a partisan in the contest. So thousands of people knew him as a voice who did not know him as a man. From the first Mr. Murdock became a leader of politics in Kansas. He stood for the Walnut Valley and the Kingdom of Butler. In 1876 he was elected a member of the State Senate. In 1880 he ran for the Senate again, but was defeated, unfairly he thought. He sold the Times and moved to Topeka and became connected with the Topeka Daily Commonwealth, then controlled by the Baker family. But his heart was in El Dorado, and he returned in 1883 and founded the El Dorado Weekly Republican. A daily followed the weekly in 1884, and the paper at once took a prominent place in the affairs of Kansas. In 1888 Mr. Murdock was again elected to the State Senate. He served until 1892. He was defeated for re-election by the populist wave, and until appointed game warden by Governor Stubbs, held no other public office. However, he was a public man all the time. Gradually he grew in strength with the people of Kansas, and after 1902–-his last alignment with the old political machine–-he was easily the leader of the forward movement in Kansas republicanism. His influence on the state has been more rather than less because of the fact that he was not in office. In every republican state convention for forty years Mr. Murdock was a power of the first class. Yet he sacrificed that power and worked for the primaries which put convention politicians out of power. He was never selfish, never little, never mean, and so it happened that he was large enough to retain his influence in the state and multiply it through the primary. The Murdock memorial fountain in the courthouse grounds was erected to his memory by friends from Maine to California, a committee of El Dorado men fostering it. Dr. R. S. Miller initiated the movement to erect the Murdock Memorial Fountain on the court house square. This work was done by popular subscription at a cost of $600 and Dr. Miller not only carried out the project, but was the largest contributor. Many contributions were made up in small amounts of $1 or more. The town and township of Benton, as well as the township of Murdock, all in Butler Co, KS were named after him. T. B. Murdock in writing of the death of his brother, Marsh, January 3, 1908, said: "There is no death. There are no dead. No waiting for the resurrection, in that it releases the spirit from the body. If there was a Christ, and there was, and if he said something while on earth, and he did, he said it to Martha at the grave of Lazarus: ‘Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' The immortal spirit of husband and father has passed through the shadow of the borderland of the shoreless river, ‘and his voice is drowned in the rushing tide.' "He has Crost the Bar. His dying eyes had read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and passing soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning." Funeral Service Funeral services over the late T. B. Murdock were held from the family home on Walnut Hill, Sunday afternoon, November 7, 1909. Reverend Dean Kay of Trinity Episcopal church, Topeka, conducted the service and very beautifully expressed, sincere and true were his thoughts on immortal life, his tribute on the personality of Mr. Murdock. He was assisted by Reverend I. Newton Roberts of the El Dorado Trinity Episcopal church. The rooms were banked with exquisite flowers, tributes from friends in this city and from over the entire state. The house and lawns were filled with people. Brief interment were held in the west cemetery and "in the shadow of the evening," were closed with "the soul stirring simple sound—the trumpeting of "taps." The relatives of the family who were here to attend the funeral were: Mr. and Mrs. Paul Eaton, Victoria Eaton, Mrs. R. P. Murdock, Marcellus Murdock, E. T. Allen, Victor Murdock, of Wichita; Mrs. Jacob Stotler,; Miss Leverah Stotler, Mr. and Mrs. A. Pemberton, Irene Pemberton, Murdock Pemberton, Emporia, Mrs. Emma Brady, Chicago. Those from out of town attending were: George Plumb, J. S. Watson, P. B. McCabe, W. Thornton and J. S. Gibson of Emporia, comrades of Mr. Murdock in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry. J. S. Watson was Mr. Murdock's "bunkie." Other distinguished attendants: Governor W. R. Stubbs, Senator J. L. Bristow of Salina; Frank MacLenan, editor of Topeka State Journal; John Dawson, attorney for State Board of Railroad Commissioners; Henry Allen, editor of the Wichita Beacon; Mayor Davison, Postmaster W. C. Edwards, Tom Biodget, editor Kansas Magazine, E. B. Jewett, J. R. Meade, Lock Davidson and John McGinis, of Wichita; William Allen White and wife of Emporia; J. W. Moore of Marion; Victor Hodgin, superintendent of the fish hatchery at Pratt; Dan McGowan, of Emporia; E. C. Newby of the Cottonwood Falls Leader, his wife and daughter, Pauline El Dorado; W. W. Bugbee, of New York and Augusta Kuster of Los Angeles, California. Some info from BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS, Kansas Skyways ************************************* Lyon County, Kansas Civil War Record: Murdock, Thomas Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company B, Private Mustered in October 12, 1861 Promoted sergeant November 20, 1861 Reduced at his own request, March 31, 1862 Discharged for disability, April 10, 1863 at Fort Halleck, Idaho territory

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is LTC Thomas Benton “Bent” Murdock's memorial?
LTC Thomas Benton “Bent” Murdock's memorial is located at: Mount Tabor Cemetery, Sigel, Jefferson County, USA.
When did LTC Thomas Benton “Bent” Murdock death?
LTC Thomas Benton “Bent” Murdock death on 4 Nov 1909 in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, USA
Where are the coordinates of the LTC Thomas Benton “Bent” Murdock's memorial?
Latitude: 41.2655983
Longitude: -79.1231003

Family Members:

Parent

Spouse

Francina “Frank” Crawford Murdock

(1840 - 1871)

Marie Antoinette Culbreth Murdock

(1841 - 1925)

Siblings

Children

(unknow - 1877)

(unknow - unknow)

(unknow - unknow)

(1870 - 1871)

Mary Alice Murdock Pattison

(1870 - 1932)

Ellina Culbreth Murdock Starke

(1875 - 1952)

Catherine Murdock

(1880 - 1882)

Mary Murdock

(1880 - 1882)

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Mount Tabor Cemetery
Sigel, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2655983, -79.1231003

2. Saint Dominics Cemetery
Sigel, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2619019, -79.1318970

3. Donehey Cemetery
Sigel, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2744950, -79.1093610

4. Kahletown Cemetery
Kahletown, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2720000, -79.1588000

5. Daniels Cemetery
Port Barnett, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3183817, -79.1300323

6. Haight - Wing Family Cemetery
Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3184000, -79.1440000

7. Hominy Ridge Cemetery
Sigel, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3128014, -79.1808014

8. Pine Grove Cemetery
Corsica, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2182999, -79.1830978

9. Clarington Methodist Cemetery
Clarington, Forest County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3353000, -79.1197000

10. Zion Sigel Road Cemetery
Howe, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1967302, -79.1075377

11. Cooksburg Cemetery
Forest County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3293991, -79.1980972

12. Moorhead Cemetery
Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2397200, -79.0116400

13. Richardsville Baptist Cemetery
Richardsville, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2365000, -79.0122000

14. Fisher Presbyterian Cemetery
Fisher, Clarion County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2648000, -79.2413000

15. Edeburn Hill Cemetery
Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3369000, -79.0498000

16. Roseville Bethel Cemetery
Roseville, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1752000, -79.1318000

17. Greene Cemetery
Pine Creek Township, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1751830, -79.1095210

18. Fisher Methodist Cemetery
Fisher, Clarion County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2587000, -79.2445000

19. Maze Cemetery
Hottelville, Forest County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3470947, -79.1846251

20. Bethel Geer Cemetery
Pinecreek, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1894000, -79.0489000

21. Blue Ridge Cemetery
Forest County, USA
Coordinate: 41.3594017, -79.1025009

22. West Warsaw-Riggs Cemetery
Richardsville, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2268982, -79.0064011

23. Brookville Cemetery
Brookville, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1716995, -79.0792007

24. Saint Anns Catholic Cemetery
Corsica, Jefferson County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1789000, -79.2033000