Moffat

Moffat is west of State Highway 36 and eight miles northwest of Temple in northern Bell County. The community was founded by Amelia Vancil and Chauncey Warren Moffet in February 1857. A store, built by William Elisha Pruett in the late 1860s, served as main social focus for area residents for several years. The community has been referred to by several names-Moffattown, Moffatsville, Mount Green, and Gandertown-but Moffat was chosen as the official name when a post office opened there in 1872. By the mid-1880s Moffat had a district school and three churches as well as a steam gristmill and cotton gin and a variety of other businesses to serve its 200 residents. Cotton, cottonseed, and pecans were the area's principal shipments. The Moffat community reached a peak population in 1890, when it reported 350 residents. By 1900 its population had fallen to 147. The post office at Moffat was discontinued in 1918, and mail for the community was sent to Bland; the office opened again from February 1925 to December 1926, after which local mail was sent to Belton. From the late 1940s through the mid-1980s the population of Moffat was reported at seventy-five to 100 residents. The school at Moffat closed in 1974, and local students began attending classes within the Belton Independent School District. Moffat had 150 residents in 1990 and 2000. A Texas historical marker has been placed on State Highway 36 ten miles west of Temple to commemorate the community.