Royse City is on State Highway 66 five miles northeast of Rockwall in the northeastern corner of Rockwall County and it's out-lying areas are situated in three counties, Rockwall, Hunt and Collin.

Some of the first settlers in this area were the McCaslands. The widow Nancy McCasland, with her three sons, J. D., F. A. J. and A. F. arrived around 1841.

The town was founded in 1886 by Garrett Burgess Griffin Royse when he platted the town site and sold the first lot. Shortly after, the first businesses were opened by G.B.G. Royse, Whit Terrell and Fred Mercer.

People began settling in the area in 1885, when it became known that the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad would be constructed through that part of the county. Many of the settlement's earliest residents and businesses were attracted from the nearby community of Fate, which the railroad had bypassed. The new community grew from the beginning. The first business, a general merchandise store, opened in December 1885 and was followed soon after by a variety of business houses, some of which were pulled on rollers by ox teams from Fate.

In 1886 a post office opened in Royse City. By 1890 the community had a population of 1,000, two cotton gins, a gristmill, and twenty businesses. It was first incorporated in 1891. In 1896 the number of businesses in the community stood at forty, and by 1898 local schools employed four teachers and registered 204 students. By 1914 Royse City had a population of 1,300 and forty businesses. The population remained over 1,000 during the 1920s.

Royse City was in the heart of the Blackland cotton belt and considerable business in marketing, cotton trading, cottonseed oil manufacturing, and cotton ginning took place in the early twentieth century.

The depression of the 1930’s was hard on Royse City, when synthetic fibers replaced cotton. Yet in 1936 fifty-four businesses still operated in the town. Then came WW II in 1941, and many families moved to Dallas to work in the factories.

From 1950 to 1960 the population increased from 1,190 to 1,243, and the number of businesses declined from fifty-five to forty-five. By 1964 Royse City had decreased to a population of 1,100, but afterward grew to 1,535 in 1970, 1,566 in 1980, and 1,800 in 1988. The business community decreased in size between 1960 and 1970 but increased from forty businesses in 1980 to fifty-six in 1988. In 1990 the population was 2,206.

The population in 2000 was approximately 3,000 and the town is experiencing a tremendous growth with a bright and industrious future. However, Royse City has remained a cozy small town with friendly folk, much as it was back in the 19th Century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Handbook of Texas Online
Rockwall County Historical Foundation, Rockwall County History (Dallas: Taylor, 1984)
O. L. Steger, Sr., History of Rockwall County (Wolfe City, Texas: Henington, 1969).