• John traveled to Utah as a returning Mormon Battalion veteran in the Levi W. Hancock/Jefferson Hunt/James Pace/Andrew Lytle Company in 1847.

  He also participated as one of the rescuers that were sent out in the winter of 1856 to assist the members of the Church stranded in Wyoming.

  According to his obituary, he crossed went twice to Independence, Missouri during the "Echo Canyon War" (also known as the Utah War). The obituary of Isabella Neill King supports these travels because it is reported that she road his horse across two rivers in 1857 during her journey to Utah. 

  In 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1868, John served as Captain of various down-and-back companies.

Levi W. Hancock/Jefferson Hunt/James Pace/Andrew Lytle Company (1847)

• Age at Departure: 20

Rescue Companies (1856)

• Age at Departure: 30

John Riggs Murdock Company (1861)

• Age at Departure: 34
• Company Captain

John Riggs Murdock Company (1862)

• Age at Departure: 35
• Company Captain

John Riggs Murdock Company (1863)

• Age at Departure: 36
• Company Captain

John Riggs Murdock Company (1864)

• Age at Departure: 37
• Company Captain

John Riggs Murdock Company (1868)

• Age at Departure: 41
• Company Captain

Company Unknown (1857)

• Age at Departure: 30

Company Unknown (1858)

• Age at Departure: 31

Sources

• 1850 Utah Census.
• 1900 Utah Census.
• Adams, Charles, Autobiography, Cache Valley Historical Material [ca. 1955], reel 3, item 20, 2.
• "Aged Pioneer Called," Millard County Progress Review, 4 February 1927.
• Amasa Potter reminiscences and journal, 1857 January-1910 January.
• Archibald, Robert, Autobiography and journal, 1856-1862, 8.
• Bradfield, William Henry, History of William Henry Bradfield, 1.  Trail excerpt transcribed from "Pioneer History Collection" available at Pioneer Memorial Museum [Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum], Salt Lake City, Utah. Some restrictions apply.
• Bulloch, David Dunn, [Reminiscences], 46-49. (Trail excerpt transcribed from "Pioneer History Collection" available at Pioneer Memorial Museum [Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum], Salt Lake City, Utah. Some restrictions apply.)
• Christensen, Hans, Autobiography, 1890.
• Clark, John Haslem, Reminiscences, 11-12.  Trail excerpt transcribed from "Pioneer History Collection" available at Pioneer Memorial Museum [Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum], Salt Lake City, Utah. Some restrictions apply.
• Gardner, Hamilton. History of Lehi: Including a Biographical Section (Salt Lake City: The Lehi Pioneer Committee, 1913), 110-111.
• Hampton, Benjamin, Autobiographical sketch 1905, 1.
• "Honored Pioneer's Life Work Ends," Beaver/Weekly Press, 14 November 1913, [1].
• "Immigration of 1868," Semi-Weekly Telegraph, 28 September 1868, 3.
• J. M. Tanner, A Biographical Sketch of John Riggs Murdock (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1909), 162-65.
• Jacobs, Henry Peter, Brief history of Henry Peter Jacobs [by Pearl Jacobs Green], in Nora Crystal Hall Lund, Biographies Collection, [ca. 1950-1983], reel 2, 4-6.
• "John R. Murdock, Pioneer, is Dead," Deseret Evening News, 13 November 1913, 5.
• John Riggs Murdock, Biographical sketches, 1891-2013.
• Knight, Celestial Roberts, [Interview], in "Utah Pioneer Biographies," 44 vols., 17:132-33.
• Knight, Celestial Roberts, [Interview], in Library of Congress, Collection of Mormon diaries [1935-1938], reel 12, item 27, 1-2.
• Lofgreen, Anders Persson, Autobiography, 41-42.
• Lofgren, Anders Persson, A Simple Faith Anders Persson Lofgren, Swedish son—Mormon immigrant 1996, 40-42.
• "Mary Ann Chapple Warner, " The Work Progress Administration (Utah Section) Biographical Sketches, ca. 1930-1940.
• Memmott, Thomas, Thomas Memmott Journal , ed. H. Kirk Memmott, 2 vols. [1976], 1:81-91.
• Murdock, John Riggs, [Reminiscences], in Joseph M. Tanner, A Biographical Sketch of John Riggs Murdock [1909], 150-51.
• Murdock, John Riggs, [Reminiscences], in Tanner, J. M., A Biographical Sketch of John Riggs Murdock [1909], 136-40.
• Norma Baldwin Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1848 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1996), 23.
• Owens, William Thomas, Reminiscences, in Melda Beck, comp., Life History of William Thomas Owens, Sr. (1962), 2-3.
• Pedersen, H.J. to Lars Pedersen, 19 Oct. 1862, in Hans Jorgen Peterson, Autobiography, 14
• Potter, Amasa, Reminiscences and journal 1857 Jan.-1910 Jan., 113-14.
• Redington, John, Journal, 1859-1905, 352-54.
• Reid, William, "Captain Murdock's Company," Deseret News [Weekly], 1 Oct. 1862, 109.
• Soffe, Mary Charlotte Jacobs, The Story of My Life, [1933], 11-20.
• "The Companies for the Missouri River," Deseret News [Weekly], 4 June 1862, 388.
• "The Immigration," Deseret News [Weekly], 23 July 1862, 28.
• "The Immigration," Semi-Weekly Telegraph, 17 August 1868, 3.
• Thompson, John, "An English Convert Encounters Martin Harris," in Campus Education Week Program, comp., Voices from the Past: Diaries, Journals, and Autobiographies , ed. Leonard J. Arrington, and others [1980], 85.
• Thompson, John, Autobiography, 1922, 1.
• Thuesen, Hermina Petrine Ambrosen, [Biographical sketches of Herman Conrad and Johanna Clausen Ambrosen, and Daniel Peter Thuesen, n.d.], 1.
• Utah, Veterans with Federal Service Buried in Utah, Territorial to 1966.
• Winterton, [John Marriott], Autobiographical sketch, 188, in Histories and biographies written by members of Camp Sunflower, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Center Utah County, Provo, Utah, vol. 4.
• Young, John R., Memoirs of John R. Young: Utah Pioneer, 1847 [1920], 286-96.