Wallisville was settled in 1825 by Elisha H. R. Wallis, a pioneer from Georgia, on land in the grant of Joseph Vehlein, a contractor working to place colonists in Texas. When Chambers County was organized in 1858, Wallisville became the county seat, and after receiving a post office in 1859 the town grew into a thriving retail market. Many county records were burned in a courthouse fire in 1875. In 1886, a brick and stone courthouse was completed along with a jail and a unique hanging tower for executions. By 1900, the town had 728 people, a shipyard, a lumber yard, a cotton gin, a skating rink, several stores, and an export house. It had daily hack service by land to Liberty, while sloops made regular runs to Galveston. Chambers County's first newspaper, the “Wallisville Age,” was published there. Wallisville remained the county seat until 1908, when the courthouse was moved to Anahuac after the famous County Seat Hog War over the issue of letting animals roam at large. The town lost few people then, but a 1915 storm almost destroyed it. Part of the historic townsite is now included in Wallisville Reservoir, constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.