J.K. MURCHISON is one of the thrifty Scotchmen who left his native land and sought a home in the United States. He was born at Lochcarron, Rosshire, in the Highlands of Scotland, in August 1846, son of Kenneth and Christy (McLeod) Murchison, both natives of that place. The father died in Scotland, at the age of fifty-six years, and the mother is still living there, aged sixty-five. Of their three sons and two daughters the subject of his sketch is the oldest. He was reared on a farm and educated in his native land. At the age of twenty-one he bade goodbye to home and friends and set sail from Glasgow for New York. After traveling over Ohio and Kentucky he went to Stark County, Illinois where he worked by the month for two years. Then he went to Henry County, same state, where he rented land near Kewanee for five years.

In August 1869, while in Stark County, Mr. Murchison married Ann McKinzie, also a native of Rosshire, Scotland, the daughter of Scottish parents, John and Eliza McKinzie. Mr. Murchison then made his home in Elmira, Stark County, until 1883 when he came to Iowa and settled in Pottawattamie County. He bought 120 acres of improved land in Section 17, Waveland Township. In 1887 he purchased eighty acres more, now owning 200 acres in one body. He has a comfortable frame house, grove and orchard, stable, feed yards, granary, cribs, etc. The farm is well improved and everything about the premises has a look of prosperity.

Mr. and Mrs. Murchison have five children: Mary, Kenneth, Willina, John Alexander and Christena. Two of their children, Lizzie and a babe, are deceased. In politics Mr. Murchison is a Republican. He is a Presbyterian, in which faith he was reared. His intelligence combined with his honesty and industry has brought prosperity to him and won for him the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens.