Willis, Texas has a very active history. In 1870, The Houston and Great Northern Railroad began surveying for a rail line in Montgomery County. Peter J. and Richard S. Willis, two merchants from Galveston who were landholders in Montgomery County, donated a site to the railroad along the proposed route.
Two years later the town of Willis was established and businesses and new residents began to arrive in the new town and established a post office. Then by 1874, the citizens launched a campaign to get the county seat moved to Willis from the city of Montgomery. However, in 1880, the citizens of Montgomery County took another vote, and consequently the county seat was moved to Conroe, where it remains today.
By the late 1870s, Willis had established itself as a major lumbering and agricultural commodities town, featuring lumber products, wagons and farming and other agricultural implements. Over the next several years the town’s population fluctuated and various other business and industries such as cigar factories came on the scene.
By 1904 population of Willis was estimated at 832 and continued to slowly climb over the next several years. Ten years later a telephone exchange was in operation in the town, but Willis struggled over the next few decades until an oil boom in central Montgomery County began to have a positive effect on Willis area with renewed economic activity and another influx of residents. This improvement was followed by yet another sag in growth activity, but the town remained basically at that level for three decades.
Finally, in the late 1960s Willis's growth resumed again when the construction of Lake Conroe began on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River. The population of Willis jumped to an estimated 1,457 in 1970, but increased more slowly over the next a decade and a half before the next spurt of growth came about in the 1980s and passed 2100 in 1990. In the 2000 census, the population had reached 3,985.
Willis TX Real Estate
The city of Willis benefits from easy access to the nearby communities in the Houston metropolitan area. Willis is only 18 miles north of The Woodlands and 46 miles north of Houston and its conveniences. Willis itself offers a wonderful diversity of population, and unlike most places, males are in greater number than females.
Nearly half to the adults in Willis are married, and the town has a big "family” feeling. There are plenty of young children in the area. To accommodate these families, Willis TX real estate provides a wide range of housing types. Homeownership is high at 64% and the homes are of newer construction than most of the homes found in surround areas.
“Tejas”, the Spanish spelling for Texas, comes from an Indian word for “friendly”. Willis TX real estate offers a chance to make your home among other friendly people!
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