Julia Murdock Dixon

According to Emma Hale Smith's handwritten account, in the Smith family Bible, her adopted daughter, Julia Murdock Smith was born May 1, 1831, in Warrensville, Ohio, to John Murdock and Julia Clapp Murdock. Her twin brother, Joseph, was also born the same day. The exact date of the birth comes into dispute but other contemporary information we have used the Smith family bible date in our data base, since that is the earliest recorded date.

The Murdock twins were brought to Emma, who had lost her own twins, who were born and died on 30 April.

SOURCE: http://www.josephsmithjr.org/history/children

grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=128079977

Wikipedia Biographical Summary

"...Julia Murdock Smith Dixon Middleton (May 1, 1831 - September 12, 1880) was an early member of the Latter Day Saint movement and the eldest surviving child and only daughter (adopted) of Joseph Smith, Jr. and Emma Hale Smith.

Her birth mother died giving birth to Julia and her twin brother Joseph, so their birth father John Murdock offered them to Smith and his wife, who themselves had lost prematurely born twins the same day. After Joseph and Emma Smith had taken custody of the children, in late March 1832, the infant Joseph became ill. Consequently Emma decided to have the babies sleep separately to prevent a spread of the disease. Joseph Smith had taken baby Joseph to bed with him and Emma was in the other room with Julia. That night a mob came and stormed the Smith home. In the midst of the panic, baby Joseph was exposed to the cold air and died several days later.

After the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., Julia and her surviving four brothers remained in Nauvoo, Illinois with their mother Emma. In 1848, at seventeen, Julia eloped with an older man Elisha Dixon, and the couple married in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1851, Dixon was injured while employed on a steamboat. He died, probably in 1853, as a result of these injuries. Julia returned to Nauvoo and lived with her mother until November 19, 1856, when she married John J. Middleton..."

Julia Murdock Smith

Julia and her twin brother Joseph were adopted by Joseph and Emma when they were nine days old, after their mother died giving birth to them and their father could not care for them. Though her brother did not survive his first year of life, Julia lived to be 49. She was 13 when her adopted father, the Prophet Joseph, was killed in Carthage Jail and she was left with her mother, grandmother (Lucy Mack Smith), and siblings in deserted Nauvoo.

She married Elisha Dixon somewhere between the age of 17 and 18, against the wishes of her family. She soon after moved with him to Texas, where he died a few years later in a steamer ship accident. After his death, she returned to live with her mother, Emma, in Nauvoo. It was there she met and married John J. Middleton in 1856. During her marriage to Middleton, she joined the Catholic Church, of which her new husband was a devout member. They eventually moved to St. Louis, Missouri. After 20 years, in what came to be a very difficult marriage, Julia officially separated from Middleton and moved back to Nauvoo to live with and take care of her ailing mother.
After her mother’s death in 1879, Julia went to live with her brother, Alexander, for a time and later with some of her friends, the Moffitt family. While living with the Moffitts, she died of breast cancer in September 1880, leaving no posterity.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Murdock_Smith

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twin to Joseph

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jul 24 2017, 10:32:13 UTC