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MAURICEVILLE,
TEXAS
AKA Maurice, Texas
Orange County, Gulf
Coast / East Texas
30°12'56"N 93°52'23"W (30.215616, -93.873095)
Junction of State Highways 12 and 62
11 Miles NW of Orange the county seat
18 Miles NE of Beaumont
ZIP code 77626
Area code 409
Population: 3,252 (2010) 2,743 (2000) 2,046 (1990)
Mauriceville, Texas Area Hotels ›
Orange
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History in
a Pecan Shell
Mauriceville had
the blessing of becoming a crossroads of two railroads. In 1898 the
Texarkana and Fort Smith Railroad arrived and four years later, it
was the Orange and Northwestern. Being a railroad town, and a crossroads,
at that, railroad officials (who usually held naming rights) decided
to honor the first president of the Orange and Northwestern by naming
it after his son Maurice (Miller).
A post office was granted in 1906 and the Beaumont Land Corporation
took charge of selling lots to prospective residents in 1910.
To say that lumbering was the region’s main economic engine would
be an understatement. In 1917 the R. W. Wier Lumber Company built
a tram road north and west of the tiny (pop 50 in 1920) community.
The “limit-less” forests of East
Texas were found to have limits after all and mills and processing
plants started dying off . Orange
County was perhaps better warned than other counties and switched
to other industries such as rice and dairy farming.
Mauriceville never accumulated a large population and even into the
1980s, it had less than 200 people. Yet the 1990 census counted 2,046
people while the 2000 census reported nearly 3,000 residents.
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