Wallis, Texas, Austin County. (original) (raw)

Downtown Wallis
TE photo, 2006

History in a Pecan ShellSettlement by Anglos began in the late 1830s. The town was first called Bovine Bend. In 1873 a post office under that name opened but with the arrival of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway the name was later changed to Wallis Station after the railroad director J. E. Wallis. In 1911 the station was dropped and the community simply became Wallis.

In 1887 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway reached Wallis Station and the town now had two railroad connections. In 1890 a number of Czech immigrants started arriving about 1890 and by 1904 the town had a healthy population over 600. By the mid 1920s Wallis had 800 citizens although it wasn't until 1943 when the population rose to 900. The post war population declined to less than 700 but by the mid 60s it was over 1,000. In 1991 Wallis' population was estimated at 1,411. It has since declined to 1,311.

Coca-Cola ghost sign
TE photo, 2006

Wallis Fire Engine
TE photo, 2006

Austin County 1907 postal map showing Wallis Station
where the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway &
the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway intersects
SE of Bellville
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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