BRICE, TEXAS. Brice, on State Highway 70 in northwestern Hall County, was named for C. R. Brice, the county attorney from 1896 to 1900. The post office was first located in Briscoe County in March 1899 and then moved to the present site in February 1903 with Arthur E. Benson as postmaster. The townsite was situated on the Horn and Dickson properties. George Dickson gave the land for church and school purposes, and Horn opened the first store. At its peak in the 1920s the community served a fertile farm area that produced cotton, grains, and alfalfa. It had three stores and filling stations, two churches, a blacksmith shop, a gin, a garage, and a five-teacher brick schoolhouse for eleven grades. For several years the community was divided into two parts, known as North and South Brice. In 1986 a gin was located on the South Brice site at the junction of State highways 70 and 256. The main community, which included a combination filling station and store and two churches, was two miles north. The school was consolidated with that of Lakeview in 1952, and the post office was closed in 1954, when mail was routed through Clarendon. In 1990 and 2000 the population was thirty-seven.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Inez Baker, Yesterday in Hall County (Memphis, Texas, 1940). Virginia Browder, Hall County Heritage Trails, 1890–1980 (2 vols., Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1982, 1983).
