Alice

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little South Texas flavor. Back in the 1880s, out where the brush country rolled on as far as a man cared to squint, two railroad lines came converging on the same patch of ground. The Corpus Christi, San Diego, and Rio Grande railroad and the San Antonio and Aransas Pass railroad, they crossed right there, and wherever two railroads met in those days, you could bet your boots a town wasn't far behind.

Sure enough, somebody platted a new townsite at that junction, back when the whole territory was still part of Nueces County. Now, a town needs a name before it can be properly introduced to the world, and this one went through a couple before it found the right fit. First they called it Bandana.

Then Kleberg. Neither one stuck for good. But when a post office was granted in 1888, the town finally got the name that would carry it forward.

Alice. Named for Alice King Kleberg. With a name came permanence, and permanence brought people.

Homes went up. Businesses opened their doors. Schools were established, churches too.

The Texas Rangers serving in south Texas set up their headquarters right there in Alice, which tells you something about the town's standing in the region. In 1904, P. A.

Presnall was elected the first mayor, and the community kept on growing into its own identity. Then came 1911, and Jim Wells County was newly created, and Alice was named its county seat. From a railroad crossing with no name, to Bandana, to Kleberg, to Alice, county seat and all.

Some towns just know where they're headed.

What the marker says

In the 1880s, when the lines of the Corpus Christi, San Diego, & Rio Grande and the San Antonio & Aransas Pass railroads intersected, a new townsite was platted at the junction in what was then Nueces County. First called Bandana and then Kleberg, the town was finally named Alice (for Alice King Kleberg) when a post office was granted in 1888. Homes, business, schools, and churches were soon established. Texas Rangers serving in south Texas were headquartered in Alice. P. A. Presnall was elected the first mayor in 1904. Alice became the county seat of newly created Jim Wells County in 1911. (1988)