Milford is an incorporated rural community located in North Central Texas, in the southwestern corner of Ellis County, in the United States. The population was 728 at the 2010 census.The town is located northeast of Hillsboro and southwest of Waxahachie. The community received media attention due to a Chevron gas pipeline explosion and resulting town evacuation which occurred in 2013.HistorySettlement and early historyMilford dates back to the 1850s, when several men from Cherokee County came to the Mill Creek valley and bought land at 50 cents an acre from Ellis County landowner Arvin Wright. Milford was named by William R. Hudson after the factory town of Milford, Massachusetts. During 1853 the first house, a combined residence and general store belonging to William R. Hudson, was built, along with a two-story schoolhouse which served as church and community hall until it burned during the Civil War. In 1854 Wright, Hudson, and J.M. Higgins laid out town lots atop a ridge. In 1857, a gristmill began operation at the community. Milford was incorporated in 1888, with W.R. McDaniel serving as the first mayor. In 1890, the tracks of the Dallas and Waco Railway (later acquired by the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad) reached the community, which became an important shipping point for area cotton farmers.
