Jim Wells County
Alice, Jim Wells County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Formed from Nueces County, created March 11, 1911, organized May 6, 1911. Named for Judge James B. Wells, an able lawyer. Born near Aransas Pass, Texas, July 12, 1854; died at Brownsville, December 21, 1923. Alice, the county seat.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carved from Nueces County and organized in 1911, Jim Wells County took its name from Judge James B. Wells, a leading South Texas lawyer and political power. Born near Aransas Pass in 1854, Wells shaped the region's Democratic politics for decades until his death at Brownsville in 1923. Alice was chosen as the county seat.
Why it matters
The county's creation reflects the early-twentieth-century organization of South Texas, a region whose politics long ran through influential figures like Wells.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James B. Wells
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Alice Cemetery
Alice, TX
When two railroads crossed three miles from the old Collins community in the 1890s, a new town called Alice sprang up at the junction, and Frederic B. Nayer—who had helped sell its lots—donated ground for a burial place in 1903. First called the Alice Fraternal Cemetery, it was renamed after a cemetery association formed in 1925 under its first president, Martha Fawcus, who led the planting of a hundred oaks that still shade the grounds. Prominent citizens, veterans, and Texas Rangers rest among generations of South Texas families.
McGill Brothers Building
Alice, TX
Sons of a Mississippi family, the McGill brothers built one of South Texas's notable ranching operations, purchasing the Santa Rosa Ranch in 1916 and rising to lead the Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. In 1941 Frank McGill erected this office building for the family's ranching enterprise, reportedly patterning it after San Antonio's Alamo, which had impressed him on a visit. With its corbelled stone parapet and Greek touches, it later passed to a museum corporation as a South Texas landmark.
First Presbyterian Church of Alice
Alice, TX
In 1898, twenty-one years after Alice was founded, fifteen charter members met with a traveling evangelist to organize a Presbyterian mission church in this South Texas town. Its Ladies' Aid Society, formed in 1903, raised the money for the church's land through ice cream socials, oyster fries, and bazaars. The mission became a self-supporting church in 1937 and has served the community ever since.
Alice
Alice, TX
In the 1880s two rail lines crossed in what was then Nueces County, and a townsite sprang up at the junction. Known first as Bandana and then Kleberg, it settled on the name Alice when a post office was granted in 1888, and homes, schools, and churches followed. Texas Rangers based their south Texas operations here, and in 1911 Alice became the seat of the newly created Jim Wells County.