Mooreville

Mooreville is on Farm Road 107 four miles northwest of Chilton in northwestern Falls County. It was named for Robert Moore, who opened the first store in the area in the 1850s. In the 1860s Ed McCullough gave land for a church, a school, and a cemetery. A post office called Mooresville was established in 1878; the name was changed to Mooreville in 1892. The population of the town grew from twenty-five in the mid-1880s to 180 by the early 1890s; local businesses included a general store, a gristmill and gin, and a grocery. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway built a section of track from Waco to Lott in 1889, passing four miles east of Mooreville, but nevertheless giving area residents easier access to markets. In 1900 Mooreville had 182 residents. After the post office at Mooreville was discontinued in 1906, the community received its mail through Bruceville and, later, through Chilton. The Mooreville school district had ninety-seven students in 1933; the district was consolidated with the Chilton Independent School District in 1950. The school building was converted to a community center. The community population rose to 230 by 1931 but in 1933 fell to 150, where it remained through the early 1960s. It was reported at seventy-four in 1964, at 101 in 1970, and at ninety-one from 1972 through 1990. In 2000 the population was ninety-five.