Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biographies: John Edwin Murdock and William Stephen Murdock
At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we will be featuring servicemen in a number of short biographies throughout the year. At the culmination of the project, we hope to produce an online exhibit that highlights these men and their service to our country.
Our next biography features: John Edwin Murdock and William Stephen Murdock.
Written by Camille Arbogast.
In the illustration, John is on the left.
Brothers John Edwin and William Stephen Murdock were born at 15 Bearse Avenue in the Lower Mills neighborhood of Dorchester. John Edwin was born on December 29, 1893, and William Stephen was born on November 9, 1895. The brothers were both known by either their first or middle names at different times in their lives. Their father, John P. Murdock, was born in Canton, Massachusetts, to Irish parents; their mother, Ellen A. (Looby), was born in Dualla, Tipperary, Ireland, and immigrated to the United States in the 1870s. John P. and Ellen married in 1886 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End of Boston and settled in Dorchester. Their other children were Alice Margaret born in 1888, Francis born in 1890, Mary born in 1893, Helen born 1898 and Anna born in 1902.
In the 1890s, John P. was a teamster; Boston directories sometimes show him working at 1141 Washington Street. In 1910, the census listed his profession as a plumber, though he still appeared in the Boston directory as a teamster. He and his brother Thomas, a carpenter, owned 15 Bearse Avenue. (Though the 1900 census lists them as renting the property, the 1894 Bromley atlas shows T.C. and J.P. Murdock as owners of the property. They are recorded as owners on the 1910 census.) John P.’s large family lived in one unit of the house, and Thomas, along with their mother, and unmarried siblings, lived in the other. By 1916, Thomas had moved to Milton.
John Edwin took up his uncle’s profession, first appearing in the 1915 directory as a carpenter. This was the profession he gave when he registered for the draft in 1917, stating that he worked for T.S. Murdock (his uncle). John Edwin was drafted and inducted into the Army on June 15, 1918, and was sent to Wentworth Institute as part of a Training Detachment. On August 10, 1918, he was transferred to the Washington Barracks September Auto Replacement Draft Engineers (SARD), Company 3. On September 25, they left for France, departing from Brooklyn on the troopship Plassy. On his notecard for John Edwin Murdock, Dr. Perkins noted that John Edwin was stationed in Liverpool; the SARD Engineers built the American Rest Camp at Knotty Ash in Liverpool, England. John Edwin was promoted to Corporal in December, and Sergeant in January 1919. On May 16, 1919, he returned to the United States, sailing from Brest, France, on the USS North Carolina, one of the last transport ships to dock in Boston. He arrived on May 27 and was discharged at Camp Devens in Ayer on May 31, 1919.
William Stephen graduated from the Dorchester Evening Commercial High School in 1916 and began working as a clerk. On August 5, 1918, he was drafted and inducted into the Army. That morning, he was sent to Syracuse, New York, for military training. On his notecard for William Stephen Murdock, Dr. Perkins noted that William Stephen was later sent to Newport News, Virginia. He served in Guard and Fire Company 322, making Private First Class on September 4, and Sergeant on October 5. He did not serve overseas. On December 14, 1918, he was discharged.
John Edwin and William Stephen both returned to 15 Bearse Avenue after the war and resumed their prior careers, carpenter and clerk respectively. By this time, only their parents and siblings were living at 15 Bearse. On October 5, 1921, John Edwin married Alice Gertrude McManus of Woburn at Woburn’s Saint Charles Church. The couple moved into the other unit at 15 Bearse Ave. In 1922 and 1923 they lived at 52 Fuller Street in Dorchester, but returned to 15 Bearse Ave by 1925 and remained there for over thirty-five years. Their son William Richard was born in 1922, followed by Kenneth in 1933, and Jean in 1937. They also had a son John Edwin who was born and died in 1928.
William Stephen married Mary Eugenia Burke of Buffalo, New York, on August 23, 1927, at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Buffalo. In the late 1920s, they lived in Buffalo. By 1930, they resided in Tonawanda, New York, in a home they owned at 2829 Guide Board Road. Later they lived at 2829 Eggert Road, possibly the same road, renamed. They had five children: Mary, Patricia, William, Thomas, and Sue Ellen. William Stephen was an Insurance Adjuster in Buffalo; on his 1942 World War II draft registration his employer is the (Am) Lumbermen’s Mutual Casualty Insurance Co, 586 Ellicott Square Building, Buffalo, New York.
John Edwin changed careers in 1938, and began working as a janitor at Boston City Hall. In 1950, he came to the aid of a fellow janitor who fell into an elevator well in the City Hall Annex. The Boston Globe reported that the janitor’s “calls for aid were heard by night custodian John E. Murdock, who, with the assistance of patrolman John J. Banks, removed the injured man from the pit with a ladder.” John Edwin retired in 1964. By then he had moved to 10 Granger Street in Wollaston, Quincy. It is possible he was the J. Edwin Murdock, employee of Mary Bowditch Forbes of Churchill Lane in Milton, who, in 1962, was recognized in her will with a $2,000 bequest.
The brothers died in the same month in 1972. William Stephen died on June 8 and was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Kenmore, New York. John Edwin died on June 19. His funeral mass was held at St. Ann’s Church in Wollaston. He was a member of American Legion ODP #65, which also honored him with a Post ritual.
Sources
Birth record, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
Family Trees, Ancestry.com
“Mr. & Mrs. Murdock Observe Golden Wedding in Dorchester,” Boston Globe, 8 June 1936, 7; Newspapers.com
1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 Federal Census; Ancestry.com
Boston, Quincy directory; various years; Ancestry.com
Bromley, George Washington and Walter Scott Bromley. Atlas of the city of Boston : Dorchester, Mass.: plate 34. Philadelphia : G.W. Bromley & Co. 1894, Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:m900r878k
World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, National Archive and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com
Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com
“New England Soldiers on The North Carolina,” Boston Globe, 27 May 1919, 8; Newspapers.com
“Diplomas Awarded to Evening High Classes,” Boston Globe, 31 March 1916, 2; Newspapers.com
“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 5 August 1918, 4; Newspapers.com
Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
“City Hall Janitor Falls Into Elevator Well,” Boston Globe, 26 April 1950, 19; Newspapers.com
City Record: Official Chronicle of Boston Municipal Affairs, Vol 65, No 3, Saturday, January 19, 1964, 48; Archive.org
“Left in Forbes Estate Famed ‘Lincoln Cabin’ to Become Public Shrine,” Boston Globe, 23 January 1962, 4; Newpapers.com
Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Ancestry.com
Stephen Murdock, Findagrave.com
“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 20 June 1972; 40; Newspapers.com