City Expansion
The railroad lured a diverse population including doctors, lawyers and merchants. The city was incorporated in 1882, and by 1884 its 3,000 residents were served by 3 churches and a school, as well as 2 banks, 2 weekly newspapers, an opera house, and a waterworks, among others. Temple boomed, soon exceeding the size of nearby Belton, the county seat of Bell County. Attempts to relocate the county government to Temple failed.