Home of James Edward Wheat
A Piece of Texas History — The Josiah Wheat House | Woodville, Texas
Some homes are merely places to live. This one is a place where Texas was made.
Set on land that traces directly back to a 2,952-acre Republic of Texas land grant awarded in 1838 to Dr. Josiah Wheat — an early settler from Alabama and the first documented physician in Tyler County — this remarkable East Texas property carries a legacy unlike anything else on the market. Dr. Wheat donated 200 acres for the establishment of the county seat in 1845, the very ground that became the town of Woodville itself.
The earliest portion of the home was built in 1848 by William G. McDaniel, who constructed two rooms downstairs and two upstairs. Its most memorable architectural feature is the gallery above the front porch — a covered upper veranda where, in the early days of Tyler County, jurors slept during court sessions when housing in the young town was scarce.
The property passed through several distinguished hands over the following decades before being purchased in 1918 by James Edward Wheat, great-grandson of Dr. Josiah Wheat and a prominent East Texas attorney who served as the first mayor of Woodville after its incorporation in 1929, president of the Woodville School Board for nearly thirty years, and the first chairman of the Texas State Historical Survey Committee. It was James Edward Wheat who enlarged and refined the home, shaping it into the storied residence that stands today.
Recognized with a Texas State Historical Marker erected in 1970, this is not simply a historic house — it is the founding story of Woodville, preserved in wood and brick in the heart of the East Texas Piney Woods. Whether you are drawn by its architectural character, its irreplaceable provenance, or the rare opportunity to steward a piece of genuine Texas heritage, properties of this significance come to market once in a generation.
Located in Woodville, Tyler County, Texas — the Dogwood Capital of Texas — nestled among the rolling, pine-forested hills of one of the most beautiful corners of the Lone Star State.