Missouri City

Missouri City is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County, with a small portion in Harris County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 67,358, up from 52,913 in 2000. The population was estimated at 74,139 in 2015.HistoryThe area in which Missouri City is now located holds a significant part in the history of Texas that dates back to its early days as part of the United States. In August 1853, the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway (BBB&C), began operating its first of rail line that stretched from Harrisburg (now Houston) to Stafford's Point (now Stafford). It was the first railroad to begin operating in Texas, and the first standard gauge railroad west of the Mississippi River.The railway continued its extension westward until, in 1883, it linked with its eastward counterpart, completing the Sunset Route from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Today, the route of the BBB&C (now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad) is still an important and heavily operated railroad line.In 1890, two real estate investors from Houston (R.M. Cash and L.E. Luckle) purchased of land directly on the route of the BBB&C, only a mile and a half from its first stop at Stafford's Point. They advertised the property as "a land of genial sunshine and eternal summer" in St. Louis, Missouri, and its surrounding areas. Three years later, W.R. McElroy purchased 80acre in the same vicinity, and in an effort to promote the area jointly with Cash and Luckle in St. Louis, he named it "Missouri City". Its first settlers were, however, from Arlington, Texas, near Dallas and Fort Worth.