A U.S. representative and governor of Oklahoma, William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray was born in Toadsuck, Texas, near Collinsville, on November 21, 1869. He was the son of Uriah Dow Thomas Murray, a farmer, and Bertha Elizabeth Jones. He grew up in north-central Texas before running away from home at the age of twelve. For seven years he worked as an agricultural laborer, attending public schools sporadically. After attending College Hill Institute, a secondary school at Springtown, he became a public school teacher in Parker County.