Woodville

Woodville is on U.S. highways 190, 69, and 287 and the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, near the geographical center of Tyler County. It was established in 1846, when Tyler County was separated from Menard District. In the same year Woodville won the election for county seat from Town Bluff, the temporary seat, and from another proposed site on Wolf Creek in the northeast part of the county. The town was laid out on 200 acres in the Turkey Creek area donated to the county by Dr. Josiah Wheat. Wheat, the first physician of record in the area, moved with his family to Tyler County from Alabama as a settler. The town was named in honor of George T. Wood, second governor of Texas. In 1847 Woodville received a post office with James H. Fulgham as postmaster. The Lea Inn, erected in 1847, later became the Eden Hotel. The first Tyler County courthouse was a two-story log house completed in 1849. Read more at TSHA