Murphy Community

Murphy wore several names before it kept one. The city's history says the McMillens and Lydia's Maxwell brothers settled on a branch of Muddy Creek, later Maxwell Creek, and the settlement was called Maxwell. The cluster near C. A. McMillen's land was Old Decatur, and when the Maxwell brothers sold lots it became Decatur. A post office application failed because Texas already had a Decatur, so the office opened as Maxwell's Branch. In 1888 the town took the name of William Murphy, who donated land for the depot.

What the plaque says

Murphy Community Murphy was primarily an agricultural community from 1880-1970. Murphy thrived in farming and ranching because of its location in the Blackland Prairie which was covered with tall grasses, black fertile soil and abundant rainfall. The first settlers to Murphy in the early 1840s originated from Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, North and South Carolina and Virginia. They were looking for cheap land and a better way of life. The community was named Murphy in 1888 when William Murphy gave right of way to the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad, but the City of Murphy was not officially established until 1958. The founding pioneer families of Murphy were the Maxwell, McMillen and Murphy families. A community of agriculture was established by these pioneering families. Before the Civil War several merchandising families arrived in Murphy and would remain in the community well into the 1980s. Because of the growing community, general stores were built, and the last Old Murphy Grocery survived until the late 1980s. Schools were also erected in the growing community. In 1938, the Old Murphy School was established but once consolidated into the Plano Independent School District in 1950, it was revitalized into a community and recreation center. By 1970, the population dwindled dramatically as the agrarian lifestyle changed with the development of urban areas. As cities expanded, people migrated to communities with small lots to purchase. Murphy's population again rose in the 1980s as it became a suburb of the Dallas Metroplex. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 9.7 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 11 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Fair Park — 19 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 19 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Murphy — 0.8 mi
• McMillen Cemetery — 0.9 mi
• Wylie Methodist Church — 2.6 mi
• Corinth Presbyterian Church — 2.7 mi