Her father, Judge Samuel Murdoch, was the last living member of the Territorial legislature of Iowa.
Murdoch was educated at Northwestern Ladies' College, Evanston, Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin.
[1]After graduation from Boston University School of Oratory, she spent several years teaching in Dubuque, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska.
On deciding to take up the ministry, she entered the School of Liberal Theology in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1882.
After completing her theological course, she was called to Unity Church, Humboldt, Iowa, and remained there five years.
[2] Murdoch and her partner, Florence Buck, were co-pastors at Unity Church in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1894 to 1899.