Exploring Novice: A Historical Overview of a Rural Community in Lamar County


By: Laurie E. Jasinski

Published: June 8, 2004

Novice is a rural community located at the junction of Farm roads 2648 and 195 about eleven miles northeast of Paris in northeastern Lamar County. The village began sometime around the early 1900s and was possibly named after a Navis family. Another explanation says that an earlier settlement called Cross Roads was renamed when a local resident donated land for a church and school, and citizens chose the name Novice to reflect the community's new beginning. Novice had a Methodist church about 1913. In the 1930s the population was listed as ten with one business, and highway maps depicted the hamlet as a crossroads with scattered farms and dwellings. After the 1950s no population statistics have been available, but Novice is included on county maps. Springhill Cemetery is located in the area.

TSHA is a proud affiliate of University of Texas at Austin
Johnie Lee, It Happened in Post Oak (or thereabouts): A Slice of Lamar & Red River County History (Baltimore: American Literary Press, Inc., 2000). Fred Tarpley, Place Names of Northeast Texas (Commerce: East Texas State University, 1969).

Places:

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Laurie E. Jasinski, “Novice, TX (Lamar County),” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/novice-tx-lamar-county.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

TID: HRN49

June 8, 2004

Find out more about this place from our Texas Almanac.

Place
Novice
Currently Exists
Yes
Place Type
Town
USGS ID
1380268
Town Fields
  • Has post office: No
  • Is Incorporated: No
Belongs to
  • Lamar County
Coordinates
  • Latitude: 33.78816210°
  • Longitude: -95.38495440°
Population Counts
People Year
35 2009

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