Moscow began with a post office called Green's

Before Moscow was Moscow, its post office was called Green's. David and Matilda Green settled on the John Dickinson headright in the 1840s, and Green opened the post office in 1847. Postal authorities rejected Greenville as its new name, so Moscow took its place in 1853. The town incorporated three years later.

Moscow had an estimated 228 residents in 1880, when the Houston, East and West Texas Railway reached town. In 1899, the W. T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company built a seven-mile railroad from Moscow to its Camden mill. The charter aimed for San Augustine, but the tracks stopped a short distance east of Camden.

The Moscow Male and Female Academy added school life to the trading and railroad town. It operated under Masonic auspices after 1857 and later merged into the public school system. A 1936 granite marker remains at the academy site, keeping that chapter visible after the school itself disappeared.