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Downtown
Wallis
TE photo, 2006 |
History in a Pecan
Shell
Settlement 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. | |
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