Family History Writing Challenge Day 8

St. Louis circa 1870, Murdoch & Dickson offices at #9 on map

The financial status of St. Louis was certainly impacted by the Civil War. The war years brought a cessation of river traffic, resulting in St. Louis being cut off from its traditional and most lucrative markets in the south. This in turn harmed the local businesses. The decrease in steamboat traffic particularly caused the downtown levy to decline in importance at St. Louis. After forty years of nearly uninterrupted growth, this was traumatic for the city.

Additionally, there were allegations of impropriety within the U.S. Army Quartermaster's office under the command of Justus McKinstry. His administration was accused of fraud and abuse, with local businessmen bearing the brunt of the corruption. As the firm of Murdoch & Dickson was engaged in supplying everything from clothes to shoes and boots to dry goods, it is highly possible that the firm was a victim of this deception. Their real estate investments would also be a problem due to the fact that the war brought a virtual halt to construction in St. Louis.

1867 Deed

The first inkling of trouble for the firm came in the form of a deed that was entered on May 29, 1867. Charles and Mary Dickson along with John and Julia Murdoch were the parties of the first part, and James Eads and Charles Stevens were parties of the second part. Party of the third part was Barton Bates. Murdoch and Dickson owed Bates $25,000, and they did not have the resources to pay him back. A lot in Block 89 of the City of St. Louis was conveyed to Eads and Stevens to be held in Trust on behalf of Murdoch and Dickson. If the $25,000 was paid to Bates in five, $5,000 notes plus 8% interest, then the land would convert back to Murdoch and Dickson. If the payments were not made, then the land would be sold by Eads and Stevens at auction to satisfy the debt.

James Eads was an important businessman in St. Louis, having arrived in the city was he was just thirteen years old. A self-taught engineer, he began his business life by rescuing wrecked boats and cargo from the Mississippi River. This proved to be lucrative as insurance companies would pay him a percentage of any recovered goods. He then put these skills to work constructing ironclad gunboats for the War Department during the Civil War. In 1867, he formed an organization dedicated to building a bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis. Charles Dickson was very instrumental in the organization, which is probably the reason that Eads got involved in this Deed.

But it is this quote from the 1991 book Yankee Merchants and the Making of the Urban West by Jeffrey Adler that offers the best explanation of why a firm with the successful record of Murdoch & Dickson discovered its foundation crumbling around it.

Would the firm be able to recover from the disaster encountered by the east coast investor?

Family History Writing Challenge Day 7

In looking at the Edwards St. Louis Directories in 1863, 1864, and 1865, John J. Murdoch is listed as residing at Laclede Station, Pacific Railroad. (Because he lived on a farm, there is no specific address given for him.) This information alone does not disprove his service in the military. However, an exhaustive search of online resources including ancestry.com, fold3.com, familysearch.org, other websites dedicated to the Civil War as well as print books revealed no records for a John J. Murdoch from St. Louis, Missouri. An expert in St. Louis and Missouri Civil War history also searched through local records and books with the same result. He advised that officers of the Civil War, particularly generals, are very well-documented. It is possible that a man would have been given an honorary title, but that would have most likely been colonel - never general.

The conclusion, then, is that Murdoch did not serve in the Civil War or in any military capacity, for that matter. The closest he would have come to military action is when a group of four Confederate soldiers raided the Cheltenham Post Office on September 29, 1864. Postmaster Augustus Muegge was able to escape, thanks to the quick thinking of his wife, and seek help from a military camp on Olive Street. This brought a detachment of the Missouri Militia to Laclede Station, where they camped out for several days to protect the Missouri Pacific railroad bridge. Laclede Station was approximately a mile from Murdoch's home.

Cheltenham Post Office

Perhaps the most definitive proof that Murdoch was not actively engaged in Civil War activities is the fact that none of his obituaries or death notices mentions military service. In fact, an 1880 newspaper accounting of John Murdoch's death states the following:

"When the war broke out he was living on a large farm at Laclede Station, eight miles west of the city, and was the owner of a considerable number of slaves. Foreseeing that slavery was doomed, although the President's emancipation proclamation had not as yet been issued, he brought all of his negroes to the city, and, conducting them to a crossroads at Sixteenth and Market streets, he told them that they were free to take whichever of the four roads they might choose, as he had no further claim upon them. All the negroes but one burst into tears, and begged to be taken back home, and the one who accepted the offer of freedom returned to the farm in less than a week. He then gave them lands and the means of cultivating them, and instructed them on how to take care of themselves."

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863.

How did this myth of "General Murdoch" come to pass? It is unclear, but oddly enough it would have made sense for him to be called Colonel Murdoch. Auctioneers are sometimes referred to as Colonel. Some presume that this has its roots from the Civil War era when the spoils of war and surplus were auctioned off. Only officers with the rank of Colonel could conduct the auctions thus leading to all auctioneers having the honorary title of Colonel.

He might not have participated in the Civil War, but Murdoch and his partner Dickson would soon be fighting a different kind of war - one that would threaten their entire way of life.

Family History Writing Challenge Day 6

Since Missouri was initially settled by southerners coming up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, it entered the Union in 1821 as a slave state. However, by 1860 the state population had become much more diverse. German and Irish immigrants as well as transplants from northern states were staunchly opposed to slavery. With the Civil War looming, the state hoped to remain in the Union but stay neutral. The neutrality was tested early on in a skirmish at the federal arsenal in St. Louis in April of 1861. Missouri would ultimately see over 1,200 clashes within its borders. Only Virginia and Tennessee had more engagements in their states.

St. Louis Arsenal

St. Louis remained under Union control during the war, in no small part because of the military base at Jefferson Barracks. The largest percentage of volunteers served in the Union army. No major battles were fought in or near the city despite the fact that the Mississippi River was a vital highway during the war. The lack of military action does not mean that St. Louis wasn't impacted by the war, however. The cessation of river traffic from the south had a severe effect on local businesses as this interrupted the supply chain and also sales of goods to consumers in the south. Additionally the platting of new subdivisions came to a near halt, which in turn affected the construction trade.

The war was taking a financial toll on the federal government as well, and so it enacted the first Federal Income Tax to help pay for the Union war effort. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill that imposed a 3% tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000, and a 5% tax on incomes above $10,000. The bill was amended in 1864, increasing the tax to 5% on incomes between $600 and $5,000, 7.5% on incomes between $5,000 and $10,000, and a 10% tax on incomes above $10,000. The tax would have placed an additional burden on citizens who had already had their livelihood impacted by the war. For Murdoch, it meant an additional $2,300 in taxes not counting what he already paid on his personal property.

What, exactly, was John Murdock doing during the war? Minding his business? Taking care of the farm? Fighting? And if so, for the Union or for the Confederates? Numerous sources claim that John Murdoch was a military general.

Here is the actual text from the City of Shrewsbury's website, which Wikipedia repeats on its Shrewsbury, Missouri page:

Shrewsbury, Missouri was officially platted in 1889. The land which became Shrewsbury originally belonged to Gregorie Sarpy and Charles Gratiot; by 1890, it was divided into farms and sold to families. The area now known as Shrewsbury was a 278 acre farm owned by General John Murdoch. The Murdoch farm was called Shrewsbury Park, named after a village in England.

The St. Louis Public Library's website has a St. Louis Street Index. This is the listing for Murdoch Avenue:

MURDOCH AVENUE (E-W). Named in honor of John J. Murdoch, a Civil War general who owned a large tract in the present Shrewsbury area after the war. Known as Murdoch's farm, it was subdivided in 1890.

The non-fiction book Shrewsbury of All Places by Helen G. McMahon, published in 1978, tells a similar story. Here is page 4 from the book:

That all sounds pretty compelling. Was auctioneer, merchant, farmer, and family man John Murdoch also serving as a general in the civil war?