Joseph and Sally emigrated from Nauvoo to Utah in 1847 as part of the Ira Eldridge Company. Their son Joseph Stacey emigrated with his wife Eunice in the same company. In 1860, Joseph Stacey with his wives moved to the Heber City vicinity where Joseph was appointed Bishop. Between 1867 and 1870 Joseph Stacey served a mission in the South to study cotton cultivation. In 1889 Joseph Stacey was sentenced to one month in the Utah State Penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation under the Edmunds Law. Eunice, the first wife, was already dead but Joseph Stacey refused to marry again one of his other wives and repudiate the others. When Joseph Stacey died in 1899 he had fathered 32 children, 7 of which preceded him in death.
John Heber Murdock married Mary Gallagher in 1873 and she and their children accompanied him on his first mission in 1884 to St. John's, Arizona. Mary died in childbirth shortly before the family left Arizona in 1890. John Heber returned to Heber City and lived in his mothers' house. He married a second time in 1895 to Emily Ann Bond. He had thirteen children by the two wives. After completing a second mission to Virginia in 1907-1908 he returned to Heber City. In 1920 he moved his family to Pleasant View on the east bench of Provo and then in 1930 moved into Provo. He moved once more in 1933 to Orem where he died in 1941.
Further biographical information on the family can be found in the collection.
The Murdock family papers (1850s-1970s) contain information on four generations of the Murdock family. The first generation is of Joseph and Sally Stacey Murdock. Their eldest son, Joseph Stacey Murdock (1822-1899) and his five wives [Eunice Sweet (m. 1842), Eliza Clark (1830-1898; m. 1852), Jane Sharp (m. 1854), Elizabeth Hunter (m. 1854), and Pernetta (m. 1859; d.1877) Murdock] are the second generation represented. John Heber Murdock (1854-1941), eldest son of Joseph Stacey and Eliza Clark Murdock, and his two wives [Mary Gallagher (m. 1873; d. 1890) and Emily Ann Bond (m. 1895)] represent the third generation. Finally, Paul B. Murdock (b. 1900), the son of John Heber and Emily Ann Bond, represents the fourth generation. Information is usually in the form of histories, many written by Paul Murdock. Some letters, diaries, and other records are also included.
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Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Gift of Kege D. Murdock in 1991.
Processed by Janet Smoak in 1991.
Also contains information on Joseph Stacey Murdock's family.