Alice (Texas)

Alice is a city in and the county seat of Jim Wells County, Texas, United States, in the South Texas region of the state. The population was 19,104 at the 2010 census. Alice was established in 1888. First it was called Bandana, then Kleberg and finally Alice after Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg, the daughter of Richard King, who established the King Ranch.HistoryAlice originated from the defunct community of Collins, three miles to the east. Around 1880 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway attempted to build a line through Collins, which then had about 2,000 inhabitants. The townspeople were not amenable to selling their land to the railroad company; consequently, the railroad site was moved three miles west, and in 1883 a depot called Bandana was established at its junction with the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Railway. Bandana soon became a thriving cattle-shipping point, and application for a post office was made under the name Kleberg in honor of Robert Justus Kleberg. The petition was denied because a town named Kleberg already appeared on the post office list, so residents then chose the name Alice, in honor of Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg, Kleberg's wife and the daughter of Richard King. The Alice post office opened for business in 1888. Within a few years the remaining residents of Collins moved to Alice, which was by then a thriving community.