Biohazard Cleanup Near West Murray Murray, IA

Murray is a city in Clarke County in south-central Iowa that began in 1868 as the village of Oakland, laid out on a 120-acre tract by Henry Clay Sigler of Osceola and Smith Henderson Mallory of Chariton after the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad was built through the territory.

Murray's first post office opened in the fall of 1868, and its first postmaster, Albert 'Bert' Straub, appointed November 27, 1868, was a Civil War veteran of the 50th Illinois Infantry.

Murray was incorporated as a city on October 21, 1880, held its first city council meeting on December 7, 1880, and was led by founding mayor Alanson Bowers until March 1882.

The city's motto is 'Murray Matters,' and it sits about ten miles west of Osceola, the Clarke County seat, along U.S. Route 34 and the historic Mormon Trail.

Mormon pioneers passed the future site of Murray on May 18, 1846, and the town now hosts a Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail exhibit with a restored log school, an interpretive panel, and a trail sign.

Murray Cemetery is home to the Clarke County Freedom Rock and Honor Wall, painted by renowned Iowa artist Ray 'Bubba' Sorensen.

Murray had 684 residents in the 2020 census living in 297 households, making it the second most populous community in Clarke County after Osceola.

Murray's population peaked at 949 back in 1900, in the town's railroad-era heyday, and has declined gradually over the past century.

Murray is the birthplace of Meridel Le Sueur, the writer associated with the proletarian literature movement of the 1930s and 1940s, and of Glenn Parker, who became a justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Children in Murray are served by the Murray Community School District, and the whole city covers only about 0.8 square miles of land.