The founder of Living History Farms was born in 1903 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 1924 he received his B.A. in economics from Coe College, his M.A. from Harvard University in 1925 and his PhD in 1932 from Minnesota University in agricultural economics. For a brief period of time in the mid 1920s Murray served as a graduate assistant in the agricultural economics department at Iowa State. For a brief period after this he served as the Assistant Agricultural Economist with the United States Department of Agriculture then returned to Iowa State as an assistant professor.
In 1958 and 1966 Murray ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Iowa. The Farms takes visitors on a tour of 300 years of history of farming. But he was passionate about giving back to Iowa and had a dream of creating a museum where visitors didn’t just look at static items under glass, but were able to participate in a “living history” museum. In 1970, he founded Living History Farms. The Farms recreated 300 years of agricultural history. A 1700 Ioway Indian Farm, an 1875 faming town, and a 1900 horse-powered farm. Each farm has authentically- grown crops and historic varieties of livestock. Although Dr. Murray died 1991, his dream lives on today at Living History Farms.
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