Murphy family members were among the early pioneer settlers who migrated from Duplin and Sampson Counties, North Carolina, to this area between the 1790s and early 1800s, where Lower Creek Indian tribes lived with campgrounds along the nearby Ochlocknee River. The land appears to have been explored only on a limited basis by early settlers, and early maps indicate that DeSoto’s expedition may also have visited nearby areas. The Murphys, along with the Carltons, Laniers, Sloans, Aldermans, and other families, apparently made several trips between here and North Carolina using the old Thigpen Trail in an effort to establish a permanent settlement, enduring many hardships and dangers to build a farming and trading community. After the 1814 Creek and Seminole Indian war, these lands were ceded to the United States by the Treaties of 1814 and 1818 and became part of three counties chartered under the State of Georgia, with the local area first in Irwin County, then Thomas County, and now present-day Colquitt County. The Murphys and other families acquired land divided into 490-acre lots through the State Land Lotteries of 1818 and 1820, and as pioneer settlers they brought prosperity to the region through large sheep and cattle operations and crops including corn, tobacco, and cotton. At one time the Murphy family’s landholdings reportedly extended from just below present-day Meigs Road near Moultrie south to areas near the current Thomas County line. These settlers also operated commercial enterprises including a gristmill, timber and sawmill, narrow gauge rail, retail stores, and turpentine stills, and they worked to establish a post office and school for the growing Murphy community. Land for the Murphy School was purchased by L.T. Dunlap, George Murphy, J.T. Kennedy, and T.A. Redding and donated to the School Board in 1906; after the school was combined with Sunset School, the land was deeded back to the Murphy Cemetery. Among the original settlers was Henry Murphy, whose son James Murphy became a community leader during Reconstruction and a candidate for the Georgia House of Representatives in 1876; he was defeated in a controversial election and is buried at the Shade Murphy Cemetery, where several of the original families are also interred. The Murphy Cemetery stands on land donated to the community as a burial site by Gibson Lanier, whose parents Murphy and Temperance Carlton Lanier are buried at the Shade Murphy Cemetery; Gibson Lanier and his family, eight of James and Elisabeth Ann Murphy’s children, and many descendants of these early families are buried there.