On a 2,952.2-acre Republic of Texas land grant awarded in 1838 to Dr. Josiah Wheat, an early settler of Tyler County who in 1847 donated 200 acres for the county seat that was soon named Woodville, William G. McDaniel acquired the site for this residence and built the earliest part of the house in 1848 with two rooms downstairs and two upstairs. Its most memorable feature was a gallery over the front porch, where jurors slept when housing was scarce during county court sessions. After 1881, several owners held the property, including T.C. Mann, father of 20th century U.S. diplomat Thomas Mann. In 1918 James Edward Wheat, son of Light Nowlin and Martha Bryant Wheat and great-grandson of Dr. Josiah Wheat, purchased the house on his ancestral land. An attorney, he served as president of the Woodville School Board from 1920 to 1949, first mayor of the city after its incorporation in 1929, a member of the Texas Centennial Commission in 1936, a member of the Texas State Prison Board from 1942 to 1948, secretary of the Executive Committee of the State Democratic Party in 1950, chairman of that committee in 1951 and 1952, and first chairman of the Texas State Historical Survey Committee from 1953 to 1959. He enlarged and improved the house.