Joseph Samuel Murrow (1835-1929) was a founder, first trustee, and benefactor of Indian University,
later Bacone College. Born in Georgia, Murrow was baptized and born again as a young man, which
resulted in a deep commitment to follow the Great Commission, Christ’s commandment to spread the
Gospel; Murrow journeyed west to proselytize to the American Indians and settlers in Indian Territory.

He first ministered to the Creeks, then the Seminoles during the Civil War, when Murrow sided with
the Confederacy; after the war he founded the town of Atoka in the Choctaw Nation; there he
ministered to the Five Civilized Tribes, Western Plains Indians, and white settlers for sixty years.
Murrow, along with Almon Bacone and Daniel Rogers, worked to found and organize Indian
University, and in 1882 selected the site for the college northeast of Muskogee on a rising hill.
Thereafter Murrow was a constant presence on campus, meeting with Bacone, ministering to students,
forging a path for the college on the Jesus Road. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the people of
Oklahoma called him “Father Murrow.”

On one occasion (in 1913) Murrow described a dream he had about the work of missionaries
directing American Indians down the path toward Christ. He dreamed that a man came from Georgia to
Indian Territory, and there, in response to an Indian who bemoaned “the condition of his people and his
country; his country being laid waste . . . , and his people homeless,” apologized on behalf of whites for
their crimes against the Indians. At the same time as the white man asked for forgiveness, he requested
that the Indian allow the whites to live among them, to bring the Word of Christ to the American
Indians. The Indian responded that “all the tribes would become Christians if they had an opportunity.”
Yet hitherto whites had treated Indians “almost like dogs,” and Indians were wary of their promises.
Other whites soon arrived, and made similar promises to the Indian. Murrow, being an observer of
these proceedings in his dream, was so delighted that he yelled out, “Hallelujah,” by which he awoke,
and realized it was all a dream. He said to himself, “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are
these, ‘It might have been’.”

Murrow, at least, did his part during the course of his long life to bring Christianity to the
American Indians, to fulfill the Great Commission, to right the wrongs committed against the American
Indians.