Biohazard Cleanup Near West Murray Murray, NE

Murray is a village in eastern Cass County, Nebraska, lying on Nebraska Highway 1 about 25 miles south of Omaha.

Settlement around Murray began in the 1870s, a few miles west of Rock Bluffs, then a steamboat landing on the Missouri River.

In 1878, the Presbyterian congregation at Rock Bluffs hauled its church building by wagon to an inland crossroads, placing it on land donated by James Walker — the seed of the future village.

The settlement was first called Fairview, but that name was dropped because it was easily confused with other Nebraska towns, and the place was renamed for the Rev. George Reed Murray, the church's first resident pastor.

Murray's post office opened on September 22, 1884, inside William Loughridge's blacksmith shop.

Murray was platted in 1891, the same year the Missouri Pacific Railroad was extended to it, linking the village with Union, Plattsmouth, and Omaha.

A fire on June 9, 1927, destroyed about half of Murray's businesses, including the hardware store, the meat market, the community hall, and the post office; the village incorporated in 1935 and organized a volunteer fire department soon afterward.

The 2020 census counted 480 people in 186 households in Murray, and its median age of 36.1 years — with 28.5 percent of residents under 18 — made it young by Nebraska village standards.

Murray first appeared in the federal census in 1940 with 209 residents and grew to a peak of 481 in 2000.

Murray is served by Conestoga Public Schools, whose district office is in the village; local schooling dates back to District 56, organized in 1872.