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Victor Murdock

Victor Murdock, pictured at right with William Allen White at leftPolitician. Republican. Born: March 18, 1871, Burlingame, Kansas. Died: July 8, 1945, Wichita, Kansas. Served in U.S. House of Representatives, 7th and 8th Districts: November 9, 1903, to March 3, 1915.

Victor Murdock was born March 18, 1871, in Burlingame, Kansas, where his father, Marshall Murdock, edited the Osage County Chronicle; his mother was Victoria Mayberry Murdock. The following year, the family moved to Wichita, where Victor Murdock received his common school education, began learning the printing trade, and at age 15 became a reporter. He married Mary Pearl Allen in 1890, spent some time in Chicago where he worked on the Inter-Ocean, and then in 1894 became managing editor of the Wichita Eagle (1894-1903). Murdock was covering the Kansas legislature for the paper when he decided to run for a vacancy in the U. S. Congress and was elected to follow Chester I. Long on May 26, 1903 (Long had resigned to take seat in the U. S. Senate), taking office on November 9, 1903. An early and active member of the "Insurgents," Murdock served in Congress until March 3, 1915. In 1916, when Theodore Roosevelt refused to run, the Progressive Party nominated Murdock for president-apparently, he did not appear on the ballot, however. Murdock worked as a war correspondent in 1916, was a member of the Federal Trade Commission from 1917-1924, and then edited the Eagle until his death in Wichita on July 8,1945.

Entry: Murdock, Victor

Author: Kansas Historical Society

Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.

Date Created: June 2011

Date Modified: January 2016

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