Hranice

Hranice, two miles northwest of Dime Box in north central Lee County, was near the center of the four-league grant awarded in 1831 to Stephen F. Austin. The area was sparsely settled until the early 1880s, when the German land-development firm of Kaulbach and Mierscheidt in La Grange bought some of the land from Austin's heirs and sold it to Czechs and Moravians from Fayette County. The large influx of these immigrants at the time had made land in Fayette County scarce, and many were drawn to the cheaper land in northern Lee County. Hranice, named from the Czech word for "high point" or "promontory," developed around 1881 as a community center for area farmers. During its peak years, between 1900 and 1920, the town had two saloons, a store, a blacksmith shop, a gin and sawmill, six molasses mills, two gristmills, a cloth loom, and a threshing machine. A school had opened there by 1897, when it had thirty-eight students. The town also had a Moravian Brethren church and a Catholic church. After 1920 most of Hranice's businesses closed. During the 1930s two churches and a number of dwellings remained. By 2000 Hranice was a dispersed rural community, and the townsite was marked by Hranice Cemetery and a few scattered buildings.