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Show Hie Father Of Our Town By Shirley Chatwin One of the most .outstanding names in the pioneering of the Uintah Basin is that of A. M Murdock. Mr. Murdock came to the - reservation before the settlers set-tlers and set up a large circus tent. This served as a trading post. It was stocked , with hay, grain and food supplies. Later in the fall of 1905 he built a store. It "was the first business place in Duchesne. The first winter that the homesteaders homestead-ers moved into Duchesne, the store served the purpose of an amusement center. Meetings, parties, religious affairs and even dances were held betweei the counters. Mr. Murdock helped finance the xii st ie:cp.ione project in Duchesne. It was installed in his noma. In 1930, the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company purchased the line from tiie Uintah Telephone Company. Com-pany. When the argument arose to move the county seat to one of the neighboring towns, A. M. Murdock, Laird Dean, Paul Billings and Rock Pope carried on a campaign that won Du-; Du-; chesne the county seat. The first post office was in the Murdock store, with Dora j Murdock as the first post mispress. mis-press. Mindful of the need of education educa-tion for. their children, the set-! set-! tiers in the Uintah Basin lost ' no time in getting one started. Most all of the small commun-I commun-I ities had a school organized by i 1907. The Murdock home was ' used for Duchesne's first school hou?e until better arrangements could be made. I A stage line from Colton to Duchesne was established ..n 1 1909 by Mr. Murdock. He also brought the mail in by stage , at that time. Mr. Murdock has freely loan-! loan-! ed money to many worthwhile i proiec'.s. one of them being the I Rocky Point Ditch Co. In' the ! t-nrinf? of 1907 they borrowed $5,000 to help speed up tha j work. It was 1909 before the ! ditch was used to any great extent. ex-tent. A great deal of credit goes to A. M.' Murdock for helping colonize Duchesne. He held many public offices and was Duchesne's Du-chesne's first bishop. Such pioneers pi-oneers will not easily be forgotten. for-gotten. It is easy, to see why the people of Duchesne referred to him as the Father of Our Town. |