Editing Murray County, Minnesota (section)

==History==
In 1853 the [[Minnesota Territory]] legislature created [[Blue Earth County, Minnesota|Blue Earth County]] from unorganized Dakota Territory lands. In 1855 the legislature partitioned a portion of western Blue Earth to create [[Brown County, Minnesota|Brown County]]. Then on May 23, 1857, a portion of Brown was partitioned off to create Murray County, although it was not organized at that time. On June 17, 1872, the county government was effected, with [[Currie, Minnesota|Currie]], which had been founded that same year, as county seat. The county was named for [[William Pitt Murray]] (1825-1910), a prominent civic and political figure in Minnesota during its nascent era.

Also in 1872 the township of [[Slayton Township, Murray County, Minnesota|Center]] was platted (so named for its central position in the county). This settlement grew rapidly, and its residents soon began agitating to have the county seat moved there.<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mn/murray/history/076-077.htm Early W. Murray Co. MN Hist., pp. 76-77], retrieved August 3, 2007</ref> In 1882 the town was renamed as Slayton, and a county vote changed the county seat to Slayton effective June 1, 1889.<ref name="Upham">[https://books.google.com/books?id=ShcLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA326 Upham, Warren. Minnesota Geographic Names (1920), pp. 364-370 (accessed April 19, 2019)]</ref>

In the history of record keeping, Minnesota has been struck by two F-5 tornadoes, and both occurred in Murray County: the [[Buffalo Ridge#Chandler–Lake Wilson, Minnesota F5 tornado of 1992|Chandler-Lake Wilson Tornado]] (June 16, 1992) and the [[1968 Tracy tornado|Tracy Tornado]] (June 13, 1968) that began in Murray County before crossing north into [[Lyon County, Minnesota|Lyon County]].