McMillen Cemetery

Murphy, TX

In 1872, on the death of his sister Susan Emberton, William A. Murphy set aside a corner of his North Texas land as a private family burial ground, laying it out with sons' families to the north and daughters' to the south. As the Murphys drifted west in the late 1800s, the plot opened to the wider Murphy community, taking its last burial in 1988. Today it rests among cedars first planted by William and Dorothy Murphy's daughters.

Murphy, TX

Settled in the early 1840s by pioneers from a dozen states drawn to the fertile Blackland Prairie, this community farmed and ranched the tall-grass, black-soil country for well over a century. It took the name Murphy in 1888 when William Murphy granted right-of-way to the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad, though the city itself wasn't formally established until 1958. Founding Maxwell, McMillen, and Murphy families built the stores and schools of an agrarian town that faded by 1970—only to revive in the 1980s as a Dallas suburb.

Wylie, TX

One of Collin County's oldest communities, St. Paul took its name from a Catholic church established in 1856 and was once known simply as 'Dump.' By the late 1800s it had two schools, two churches, a cemetery, a grist mill, a gin, and a post office, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians—an Irish Catholic society—met above one of its schoolhouses. As nearby Wylie grew, the schools and congregations consolidated there, and St. Paul finally incorporated in 1971.

Plano, TX

This medallion marks Bowman Cemetery, established in 1868 and later designated a Historic Texas Cemetery. Founded just after the Civil War, it served the farming families settling the Blackland Prairie of what is now the Plano area of Collin County.