A History That Goes Back to the Late 1800s
Murphy is located on Farm Road 544, 5 miles east of Plano in South Central Collin County. The first settlers of the community arrived in the area in 1846 for a land grant offer from the Peters Colony. The original city of McMillen on land belonging to C.A. was first called Old Decatur and later Maxwell’s Branch after McMillen’s hometown. When the St. Louis South Western Railroad arrived in the area in 1888, people renamed it Murphy after William Murphy, who provided land for the construction of roads and warehouses.
The post office was opened here in 1891. From the 1880s to the 1950s, Murphy served as a starting point for local farmers and livestock. The Great Depression, agricultural mechanization, and employment opportunities in the Dallas metropolitan area have contributed to the declining Murphy population.