When the Missouri Pacific Railroad was being constructed north of the village of Boston (now Old Boston) in the summer of 1876, it was clear to many businessmen in the town that it would suffer a serious decline as a consequence of its distance from the line. At a mass meeting, J. H. Smelser, a local resident and surveyor for the railroad, was selected to meet with railroad officials to secure the location of a depot at a point on the line nearest to Boston. The negotiations were successful, and in September 1876, lots were laid out and put up for sale on that the railroad had purchased. Because most of those engaged in the project were from Boston, the new town was named New Boston. A post office was established in 1877 with L. C. DeMorse as postmaster. The town grew rapidly, and by 1884, it had 400 residents, two churches, a school, several mills and gins, and a newspaper, the "New Boston Herald", edited by W. W. West. A furniture factory and another newspaper, the "Bowie County Populist", were added in the 1890s.