Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1869.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Moberly’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Moberly is more historic than 84% of U.S. towns, #31 of 247 in Missouri. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Moberly’s overall grade.
Missouri towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Missouri town has 2.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Moberly’s 68.8 sits above most of its state (90% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 93 historic buildings outnumber those of 89% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.1 points). Two sources give 1866.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Moberly’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Moberly was founded in 1866, and named after Colonel William E. Moberly, the first president of the Chariton and Randolph County railroads.
Moberly, which gained the nickname the "Magic City" because of its explosive growth in a railroad boom, grew from the town platted by the North Missouri Railroad (later part of the Wabash Railroad) in 1866 to a transportation center with a 6,070 population by 1880. The North Mo. acquired the site when it took over the Chariton and Randolph R.R. after the Civil War. In 1860, the C.& R. had planned a road west to Brunswick from this point on the North Mo. then reaching toward Iowa.
Passages that mention Moberly, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Randolph County, Missouri1920 · page 769Read the page →
Read the text
mother of Orion V. Boucher, bore the maiden name of Wilcox and from all available reports obtainable, she was the first white woman north of Sugar Creek. Isaac W. Boucher lived at old Allen, before the days of Moberly, and he was one of the first to come here from old Allen when Moberly was founded. Prior to that time, however, he crossed the plains with ox teams in 1850, and remained on the coast about 15 years and returned to old Allen and in 1865 settled in Moberly, or what is now the city of Moberly. After locating here he took a prominent part in the civic life
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Randolph County, Missouri1920 · page 253Read the page →
Read the text
born in 1818. He came to America in 1848, and the same year settled in Randolph County, near Roanoke, and a few years later, he removed to a farm north of Huntsville. Here he resided until 1860, when he came to the vicinity of what is now the city of Moberly, and during the Civil War he cultivated a portion of the present site of Moberly, and lived at what was known as old Allen, and after the war when the railroad was being built the railroad company offered Mr. Lynch and others an amount of land in Moberly equal to that which they owned
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Moberly, 1866 to 1964
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Moberly. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1953Moberly sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Moberly.
Every building
Moberly, building by building, 1916–1923
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Central SchoolschoolLincoln SchoolschoolMoberly Coal Mine Number 5mineSisters of Loretto SchoolschoolSoutheast Park SchoolschoolWest Park Schoolschool
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Moberly
DeskinMemorial ParkOaklandSaint Marys
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Moberly’s history
What year was Moberly founded?
In 1866, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Moberly’s post office opened in 1869, and the census of 1870 counted 1,514 people here.
How does Moberly rank for history?
Moberly is more historic than 84% of U.S. towns, #31 of 247 in Missouri. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Moberly?
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Burkholder-O'Keefe House (listed 1989, the first), and 1 historic district, the Moberly Commercial Historic District, with 89 contributing buildings. 93 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Moberly?
33% of Moberly’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1965.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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