MORGAN, TEXAS (Bosque County). Morgan, formerly called Steele's Creek or Steel Creek because of its proximity to the stream of that name, is at the junction of State Highway 174 and Farm Road 927, seven miles northeast of Meridian and forty miles northwest of Waco in northern Bosque County. Though the first recorded community activity in the vicinity occurred in 1876, when Louis Cole gathered a few of his rural neighbors under a live oak tree for a religious meeting, the town actually started as a result of the approach of the Texas Central Railroad. The population was sufficient in 1879 for a post office to be established in Steele's Creek. The intersection of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway with the Texas Central at the town made it a leading trade center, and the community changed its name to Morgan in honor of a Santa Fe stockholder and official, Thomas Morgan. By 1884 the population had grown to 600; estimates reached 850 by the end of the 1800s. During this period the town supported a variety of retail and service businesses, two doctors, several churches, a district school, and a weekly newspaper. Morgan declined after 1900. Its population was 831 by 1910, 672 by 1925, 503 by 1941, and 200 by 1970. The recorded population in 1982, when only four businesses were reported there, was 485. In 1990 it was 451. The population was again reported as 485 in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bosque County History Book Committee, Bosque County, Texas, Land and People: History of Bosque County, Texas (Dallas: Curtis Media, 1985). William C. Pool, A History of Bosque County (San Marcos, Texas: San Marcos Record Press, 1954).

Karen Yancy