Julia Murdock Smith Dixon Middleton:   
(May 1, 1831-September 10, 1880)

            Twins, Julia and Joseph Murdock were born to John and Julia Clapp Murdock, May 1, 1831.  The mother died shortly after the babies were born, leaving John Murdock with no one to take care of the tiny babies.  Emma had lost her twins, Thaddeus and Louisa, who were born and died on April 30^th. She was terribly sad about losing her babies and gladly took the Murdock babies to nurse and care for. It was agreed that she and Joseph would raise them as their own. The babies were given the names Julia Murdock Smith and Joseph Murdock Smith. Emma wrote their names in her bible. (See photo)

            Emma, Joseph and the twins were living in the home of John Johnson, at Hiram, Ohio, when in March, 1832, a mob broke into the home, dragging Joseph out into the cold night. They beat him, tarred and feathered him, even threatening his very life. The act of dragging him out exposed ten month old baby, Joseph to the cold night air. He had been sick with the measles. His death, a few days later left Julia, the lone twin, to be raised as the only daughter of Emma and Joseph Smith.

            The babies were about ten months old, when this tragedy occurred. Joseph was unable to stay and care for Emma and Julia, as his life was in danger. He soon left for Missouri. Emma took little Julia and went to Kirtland. This was the first of many distressing experiences young Julia was subjected to.

            As a young girl, Julia endured the hardships of pioneer life in Ohio and Missouri. She was 7 years old when she traveled across the frozen winter prairie from Far West, Missouri, to Quincy, Illinois, crossing the ice covered Mississippi River holding onto the skirts of her mother, in February 1839.  Emma also had 6 year old Joseph III, Frederick (2) and Alexander Hale Smith, (8 months old) with her. They were welcomed at Quincy by Judge John Cleveland and his wife Sarah Ann, who made a place for them in a house on their farm near Quincy.  It must have been very crowded; the Rigdon family was also housed there with their large family.

            One story related by Joseph III, in his old age, provides a glimpse of the interaction between these children and their mother. Apparently, the Rigdon’s young daughter, Lacy (Joseph III called her Lucy) who was about the same age as Julia, had managed to get her way by throwing temper tantrums. Seeing that it worked for her, Julia decided to try it. She threw herself down, kicking her heels and screaming. Emma’s reaction was swift and thorough. She grabbed young Julia by the arms, stood her up, gave her a little shake and said, “Don’t you come Lacy Rigdon on me! If you want something, you ask for it properly.”  She firmly taught the girl, if she didn’t get what she wanted, she was to wait patiently until it was given. Thereafter, Julia did not try temper tantrums to obtain her wishes.

             After nearly six months absence from his family, Joseph was able to join them at Quincy on April 22, 1839.  In May they moved north to Commerce, where arrangements had been made to purchase land for the Latter-day Saints. 

            Julia and her family moved into a rudely built two story block house (squared off logs), with one room down stairs and one up stairs. The building had once been the location of an agency for the Sac Indian tribe. It became known as ‘the Homestead’. This tiny space not only served as home for the family, but as the office where Joseph conducted Church business. 

            There was a summer kitchen at the back corner of the house which served as lodging that first winter for Joseph’s parents, Joseph Smith Sr., and Lucy Mack Smith.  Within the next year a substantial addition was built onto the front of the homestead, providing more living space for the family and a nice area for entertaining.  Across the street a house was built for Father and Mother Smith.

            The new town was eventually renamed, Nauvoo and became one of the most beautiful and progressive towns on the Mississippi, rivaling Chicago, for size and culture.

            In 1843, the family moved into the newly built Mansion House, which was also established as a hotel. In that home, Julia grew to young womanhood.  It was there she lived at the time her adopted father, Joseph the Prophet was killed by a mob, June 27, 1844. 

            This tragedy brought great suffering upon the prophet’s family. The children were broken hearted, as was their mother. Persecution by political enemies would soon force The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to leave for the west. 

            Emma determined not to go west.  The children soon said goodbye to many of their Aunts, Uncles and cousins, who determined to go west with the Church.  Julia went with Emma and the other children on the riverboat Toby, in September 1846. They returned in January, 1847, to a deserted city.

            When Emma remarried, in 1847, her husband, Louis C. Bidamon brought two teen aged daughters into the household. They were a little older than Julia.  We have no information as to how Julia viewed these girls. They were apparently a great disruption to peace for Emma, and may have been difficult for Julia to deal with.  The oldest soon got married, and her sister went to live with her.

            As a young woman, Julia enjoyed few of the social pleasures allotted to girls her age. Her education was meager; she was intelligent and quick, but not particularly ambitious as a student.

            Julia had just turned seventeen when she became enamored with an older man, Elisha Dixon, who stayed at the hotel. While her step-father was gone out west to try the gold fields, Julia and Elisha eloped to St. Louis, in 1848. The couple came back to Nauvoo and attempted to manage the Mansion House for a time. They did not stay long. In 1851, Elisha, determined to move to a warmer climate, took Julia along to Galveston, Texas. Elisha was employed on a steamship. He was injured in an explosion which took place onboard. He suffered for a time and passed away, probably in 1853. Julia went back to Nauvoo to live with Emma. 

            As a young widow, Julia enjoyed a time of enthusiastic social activity with her friends in Nauvoo.  Then on November 19, 1856, she married, in Hancock County, John J. Middleton.  The couple bought a small farm in the vicinity of Nauvoo, where they resided quite happily.

            Julia’s second husband was a devout Catholic. On November 9, 1857, Julia was baptized, at St. Louis, in the Church of St. Francis Xavior. She was confirmed on November 11^th, in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. While some have implied this was a decision she made in order to placate her husband, it appears, from her letters, that she herself found solace and comfort in the Catholic religion.

            By late 1859, it became apparent that John could not make it in farming. He and Julia moved to St. Louis where he worked for a time as bookkeeper in a store. When the store closed, sometime in 1862, John found work as a clerk with the Pilot Knob Iron Company.

            In May 1864, Julia and John Murdock bought a home in the 1500 block of Chestnut Street. It was a spacious two story brick home. “Julia could walk down the steps of her home and see nearby the taller buildings of the business district a few blocks east, near the banks of the Mississippi. John could easily stroll to his employment in the business district. Things looked bright for the Middletons. They were comfortably situated in a beautiful city.”

            (Reed Murdock, Julia, p. 130)

            This pleasant situation did not last. John Murdock became ill. He suffered from a serious condition called elephantitis, which caused his leg to swell enormously.  He eventually lost his job because of it.This, and alcoholism, brought great difficulty upon them.  For three years, John was unable to work, and by 1870, they were forced to sell their home and belongings in order to just survive. In May, 1870, Julia had moved home to the Mansion House in Nauvoo. Julia returned to St. Louis some time in 1871. John’s health had improved, but not entirely healed. He finally lost his job, again, due undoubtedly to a depression hitting the entire country. The Middletons lost all they had been able to reacquire.

            In 1876 Julia moved back to Nauvoo.  She left John taking nothing with her but a featherbed, some clothing and a few personal effects.  Her place of residence was the Riverside Mansion, the new brick home Major Bidamon had built for Emma on the old foundation once started at the river’s edge. Emma’s health failed early in 1879, and Julia was with her, as well as Joseph III and Alexander, when she died 30 April 1879.

            After Emma’s death, Julia went home with Alexander, to Andover, Missouri, not far from Davis city and Lamoni, Iowa.  Although she was very ill with breast cancer, Julia is recalled by a young niece, Vida Smith, who wrote of her:

            “She was a source of great delight to the older children of our home, for she was a delightful talker and had led a most romantic and unusual life that she picked stories from here and there and told to us in the shut-in weeks on the farm. Stories from a life as brilliant and wonderful and proud as the glowing pages of a fairy tale, and at last as sad and unlovely and poor as the most prosaic of life stories. It was indeed a strange story that began in that little Ohio town among a hunted and persecuted people.” (Reed Murdock, Julia, p. 157)

            After a time, Julia decided to visit her friends at Nauvoo for a time, then she planned to go back to Alexander’s, but she became too weak to make the trip. Her friends, Semantha and James Moffitt invited her to stay with them.  During her stay at the Moffitt’s, she had a visit from her brother, John R. Murdock, who stayed a month with them.  He was very much impressed how the Moffitts tended his sister “with a sisterly tenderness.” (Reed Murdock, Julia, p. 163)

            Before he left, he gave the Moffitts money to help take care of her needs. She died on September 10, 1889. Her obituary was published in the Nauvoo Independent:

            “Many phases of her life from almost the day of her birth have borne as near the semblance of romance as facts could well admit of.       [She] was a woman of the most exemplary character—an advocate of all the graces and all the virtues and had a strong loving disposition for her friends which firmly endeared them to her. She was considerably above the medium of intelligence and of a[an] indomitable spirit which manifested itself in the trying ordeal of sickness through which she passed. . . .She leaves many friends who deeply regret her death.” (Reed Murdock, Julia, p. 164)

            On August 9, 2003, a marker was placed by the Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation at the foot of Julia’s headstone which is located in the Catholic Cemetery in Nauvoo, Illinois

The inscription on this marker reads:

.

            “Julia Murdock Smith Dixon Middleton

            Beloved daughter of Joseph and Emma Smith

Born to John and Julia Clapp Murdock, May 1, 1831. Lost her mother due to complications in childbirth. Adopted, with her twin brother Joseph, by Joseph and Emma Smith, who had suffered the loss of twins.

Lived with Joseph and Emma at Kirtland, Ohio; Far West, Missouri, and

                        Nauvoo, Illinois. Married Elishia Dixon in 1848. Married

John JM in 1856 and joined the Catholic church. Lived with Emma Smith Bidamon during the last part of Emma’s life. Was cared for during her last days by her friends, James and Semantha Moffitt.

Died  September 10, 1880 near Nauvoo, Illinois.

            Gone but not forgotten.

MMFF 2003

(An excellent source for information on Julia is a wonderful biography, “Joseph and Emma’s Julia, the Other Twin,” written by S. Reed Murdock, published by Eborn Books, Valley Fair Mall, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2004.) This book contains photos, letters, documents, and insightful commentary on Julia and her life.