Alice, Texas – 1888 to 1900

Frontier Battalion Co. “E” Alice, Texas 1892.

The town’s first school was established in 1888 on the second floor of the Becham Place, a boardinghouse for men. The private school had nine students. Until 1886 Alice students who chose to continue their education attended Goliad College. The Catholic church at Collins was moved to Alice in 1889. Methodist services were held at Mrs. E. D. Sidbury’s lumberyard until 1890, when they were moved to a new school built by George Hobbs. A school board of trustees was elected, and a public school was started. In 1892 the town was served by a hotel, two saloons, two general stores, a weekly newspaper named the Alice Reporter, and a cotton gin. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway had completed its line to Alice. By 1894 Alice was the busiest shipping point in South Texas. The Alice Circuit of the Methodist Church was formed in 1895. By 1896 the town had an estimated population of 885, a library, a bank, the Episcopal Church of the Advent, and a second weekly newspaper, El Eco. The first telephone exchange in Alice was established by the Beeville, Alice, and Wade City Telephone Company in 1896. The first two telephones in the community were located at Trinidad Salazar‘s general store and home. In 1898 Alice flooded, forcing residents to move their houses. In February 1899 a smallpox epidemic hit one of Alice’s Mexican subdivisions, then located on the outskirts of the town. Consequently, the area was quarantined, and the two private Mexican schools in Alice were forced to close down. The epidemic became so widespread that the county commissioner ordered all schools closed and fumigated and authorized the county health officer to vaccinate every one in the area free of charge.

Timeline of Texas History – Alice

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