BOYCE, TEXAS. Boyce, on Farm Road 879 four miles east of Waxahachie in central Ellis County, was named for W. A. Boyce, who settled there in 1872. The settlement was first served by a stagecoach service that operated between Waxahachie and Ennis. In 1878 the Southern Pacific Railroad was constructed through the area, and settlers moved there. By December 1883 a post office was in operation in Boyce, and within ten years the settlement had grown to support five businesses and three churches. By 1925 Boyce's population had reached its recorded high of 250, but the community began to decline soon after. Its post office closed sometime after 1930. The town reported 150 residents and three businesses in 1945 and eighty residents and no businesses in 1964. Its population remained seventy-five, with no reported businesses, from 1977 through 1990.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Edna Davis Hawkins, et al., History of Ellis County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1972).