In 1854, a townsite was set up on high ground and named Milford.
William R. Hudson, the town's developer had read about a thriving town in Massachusetts and named the community after it. Hudson's combined residence and general store, was built; Hudson built a store/residence/post office.
In 1892 Milford's population reached 800. It was home to a community-financed school called the Milford Academy and the other with the seemingly fictitious name of Mollie Poe's Private Lone Star Institute.
A two-story building serving multiple community functions was burned during the Civil War. The Dallas and Waco Railway reached Milford when they had a population of just 150 and in the 20th Century, Milford became a stop on the Waco - Dallas Interurban (1926).
In 1902 a Presbyterian College for women opened although it closed in 1929 - an early victim to the Great Depression.
The population peaked at 1,200 in 1929 - falling to just 717 in 1931. It reached rock-bottom in 1968 when only 490 Milfordians called the town home.
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