Mauriceville

Mauriceville, also known as Maurice, is at the junction of State highways 12 and 62, seventeen miles northeast of Beaumont in north central Orange County. It was established in the wake of the construction of two railroads: the Texarkana and Fort Smith (in 1898) and the Orange and Northwestern (1902). The community, located at the junction of the railroads, was named for Maurice Miller, son of the first president of the Orange and Northwestern. Mauriceville secured a post office in 1906. The town was developed by the Beaumont Land Corporation, which sold its first lot there in 1910. Lumbering proved to be the area's chief business, and the 1917 construction by the R. W. Wier Lumber Company of a tram road north and west of Mauriceville was an important boon to local residents. In 1920 the population of Mauriceville was estimated at fifty. As the rapid depletion of timber hurt the lumber industry in Orange County, rice, truck, and dairy farming became increasingly important to the community economy, though a few sawmills remained. By the early 1980s Mauriceville had 175 residents; nine businesses served the community in 1983. In 1990 its population was reported as 2,046. The population grew to 2,743 in 2000.