Orange Grove

Orange Grove is at the intersection of State Highway 359 and Farm Road 624, eighteen miles north of Alice in northeastern Jim Wells County. The site was part of the Ventana Ranch owned by George and Hannah (Compton) Reynolds. In March 1889, when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway reached the area, the Reynoldses donated fifty-one acres of land to the railroad company as an inducement to build a stop on the ranch. In 1908 Fennell Dibrell and Max Starcke qv were hired by George Reynolds, Jr., and Ernest Miller to subdivide and sell 2,500 acres cut from the Ventana Ranch and from Miller's ranch. Dibrell and Starcke platted streets, which they named for their friends. They then sold a large portion of the land to German settlers from other German Texas towns. The developers chose the name Orange Grove for the new town, hoping to lure more settlers to the area by evoking the booming and profitable citrus industry in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The Orange Grove post office was opened in 1909, and that year the first store was established by L. W. Mumme, who accepted produce as payment on accounts. The Orange Grove Rifle Club was organized in 1911 and by 1912 had its own hall. By 1914 Orange Grove had an estimated population of 200, a bank, a cotton gin, four general stores, and a weekly newspaper, the Orange Grove Record