Victor Murdock

Victor Murdock

Victor Murdock (March 18, 1871 – July 8, 1945) was a U.S. Republican politician and newspaper editor.

Life

Victor Murdock was born March 18, 1871, in Burlingame, Kansas. His father, Marshall Murdock, edited the Osage County Chronicle. His mother was Victoria Mayberry Murdock. In 1872, 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. In 1890, he married Mary Pearl Allen, 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 when he decided to run for a vacancy in the United States House of Representatives 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 Progressive "Insurgents," Murdock served in Congress until March 3, 1915.

In 1916, when Theodore Roosevelt refused to run, the Progressive Party nominated Murdock for president, but he did not appear on the ballot. Murdock worked as a war correspondent in 1916, was a member of the Federal Trade Commission from 1917-1924, and then edited the Wichita Eagle until his death in Wichita on July 8, 1945.

References

• Victor Murdock at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Victor Murdock at Find a Grave

External links

• Works by or about Victor Murdock at Internet Archive
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• 1936 photo of Victor Murdock making a speech in Wichita, Kansas