MURDOCH, EDWARD S. (1862-1925)

MURDOCH, EDWARD S., Catholic parish priest, Renous, 1889-1925; b. Lower Napan, 21 Feb 1862, s/o Alexander Murdoch and Susanna Bergin; brother of Robert A. Murdoch; ordained 1888; d. Renous, 1 Aug 1925.

Edward S. Murdoch was trained for the priesthood in Quebec, and after his ordination in 1888 he was assigned to Campbellton as a curate. A year later he was appointed parish priest at Renous, as successor to Father Michael M. O'Brien, a young priest who had been supplying in the parish since Father Thomas J. Fitzgerald's departure in 1887.

Murdoch stated that when he arrived at Renous, on 1 October 1889, he found "an empty house [and] a poor little Church, but a kind and generous people." For the next thirty-six years he ministered to the spiritual needs of the members of the parish and mingled with them as a friend. At the start, besides having pastoral responsibility for St Bridget's Church at Renous, he had missions at Blackville, The Forks, and Boiestown. After Blackville became a separate parish in 1896 the upriver missions fell to the Blackville priest, but he was then given a new mission at Chelmsford, to which was added a mission at Millerton in 1908.

Murdoch was a major figure in the material development of the Catholic church on the Southwest Miramichi. He took the initiative in the reconstruction of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at The Forks, which he described as a "poor, dilapidated, ramshackle structure" erected sixty years previously. "A new roof, new windows, new tower and spire, a new stone foundation, a new outside coating, new pews and a new altar were supplied to this church." Other buildings for which he took credit were the churches at Blackville (1892) and Blissfield (1894), the Blackville rectory (1895), the church at Chelmsford (1897), the Renous parish hall (1902), the Chelmsford rectory (1905), the church at Millerton (1909), the Renous rectory (1910), and St Bridget's stone church at Renous. St Bridget's, the construction of which was begun in 1913, replaced the original church of wood which fell victim to a fire caused by a lightning strike in August 1912.

In 1910 Murdoch was among the appointees to the first board of governors of St Thomas College. In the same year, he was one of the incorporators and shareholders of the Newcastle Steamboat Co., of which Patrick Hennessy was president. His involvement in this and other commercial ventures greatly perturbed Bishop Thomas F. Barry, as did his absences from the parish, which were suspected to be for business purposes, and his "refusal or inability" to pay debts which he had incurred. The bishop issued an "ultimatum" in 1918, giving him six months to extricate himself from the business world. This could have dissuaded him from taking new initiatives, but he never succeeded in freeing himself from debt. After his death fifteen years later his creditors descended upon his nephew, Father Benedict J. Murdoch, seeking their share of his estate.

Murdoch is known in Miramichi folklore as the priest who was called into the lumber woods to silence the ghost of the "Dungarvon Whooper," which was said to be uttering mournful cries and shrieks near a woods camp where a man had been murdered. Some versions of the legend tell that he went up to Whooper Spring and read the church service of exorcism. Others state that he had the remains of the murder victim unearthed and taken out to Renous for reburial.