How the town came to be
The History of Wallis
Wallis began as Bovine Bend, was renamed for a railway director, and was shaped by two railroads and by the Czech families who settled here from about 1890. Its population has moved between roughly 600 and 1,400 for more than a century.
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1830s
First Anglo-American settlement
Settlers took up the strip of land between the Brazos and the San Bernard rivers in the late 1830s.
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1873
A post office called Bovine Bend
The first post office in the community opened under the name Bovine Bend.
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1880s
The railroad arrives, and a new name
After 1880 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built its Galveston-Brenham spur through the area. The settlement became Wallis Station, named for J. E. Wallis, a director of the railway. The post office followed suit in 1886.
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1887
A second railroad
The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, building east toward Houston, reached Wallis Station — putting the town at a junction.
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1890
Czech families settle
From about 1890 Czech immigrants took up residence in the area, many arriving by way of Fayette County. Wallis remains part of the Texas Czech belt.
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1904
631 residents
The town had grown to an estimated 631 people.
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1911
"Station" is dropped
The post office name changed from Wallis Station to simply Wallis.
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1925
800 people
The town counted about 800 residents, up from 631 two decades earlier.
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1933
American Legion Post 200 is founded
Veterans met in December 1933 and organised the Post that still meets at 330 Legion Rd.
Source: Post 200 records
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1943
Wartime peak: 900 residents and 39 businesses
The town reached about 900 people supporting thirty-nine businesses — its high-water mark for most of the century.
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1949
A sharp fall to about 690
Within six years the estimated population had dropped by more than two hundred.
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1966
Recovery to about 1,075
The town had regained and passed its wartime size.
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1975
Eight churches, two schools, a bank and a newspaper
By 1975 Wallis supported eight churches, two schools, a bank, a public library and a weekly newspaper.
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1991
About 1,411 residents
The town reached its largest recorded estimate.
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2000
1,311 at the census
The 2000 decennial census counted 1,311 residents.
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2020
1,292 at the census
The most recent decennial count. Wallis has held between roughly 1,000 and 1,400 people for sixty years.
Since 1933
The Post's Own Story
American Legion Post 200 has been part of Wallis since December 1933. Its own history — the founding, the charter members, the building of the Legion home — is kept separately, and the Post is still assembling it.
Questions About Wallis History
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Anglo-American settlers arrived between the Brazos and San Bernard rivers in the late 1830s. The community's first post office opened in 1873 under the name Bovine Bend. After 1880 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built through, and the settlement was renamed Wallis Station after J. E. Wallis, a director of the railway. A second railroad arrived in 1887, Czech families began settling from about 1890, and the name was shortened to Wallis in 1911.
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Bovine Bend. That was the name of the first post office, established in 1873. It became Wallis Station in 1886 and simply Wallis in 1911.
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J. E. Wallis, a director of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, which built its Galveston-Brenham spur through the settlement after 1880.
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Czech immigrants began settling the area around 1890, many arriving by way of Fayette County. Wallis sits within the Texas Czech belt, and that heritage remains part of the town.