They said it was too long to write. Perhaps that was the real reason. Perhaps they felt that the name Murphy, applied also to potatoes, did not fit in with the country, somehow. Typewriters not being in general use, it is said the railway company soon got tired of writing the long name over and over thousands of times in their business. Daniel O. Murphy's dreams and hopes went smash.
Nobody appears to know the who, why or when of it.
It is said authentically that the name was painted neatly on each end of the boxcar railway station. Probably this was done in the latter part of 1882 or early 1883, at about the time the steel was laid for the long and shimmering track, or at the completion of the railroad in January 1883, down near the Pecos River. Jim P. Wilson said the name Osborne was on the station when arrived in town June 20, 1884. But Jim Cotter said recently that when he caught a train in the town in May 1883, the place was spoken of as Murphyville, regardless of what name might have been on the signboards. It is said that old Dan Murphy had worked a gang of Chinese coolies in the building of the railroad and that when the big job was done he was offered a position as section boss and accepted it.