Chambers County was created in 1858
and formed from Liberty and Jefferson Counties. Chambers County was named for Thomas Jefferson Chambers, an early lawyer in Texas. The County Seat is Anahuac. The Official County website is located at http://www.co.chambers.tx.us/. The Chambers County courthouse was built in 1937 in Contemporary design of limestone. The architect was Cornell G. Curtis. The structure was built at a cost of $276,000.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Chambers County Clerk has Court Records from 1876, Land Records from 1875, Probate Records from 1876, Marriage Records from 1876 and Birth/Death Records from 1903 is located at P.O.
Box 728,
Anahuac, TX 77514-0728;
(409) 267-3471 . The County Clerk's Office is the record keeper of the county. The county records include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, brand registrations, DD214s (military discharges), land / real estate / property records, probate and civil filings.
Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Texas Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Texas Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Vital Records,1100 West 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756, Please allow up to approximately 6-8 weeks for processing of all type of certificates when ordered through the mail. They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: Birth records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present. For births that occurred within the past 75 years, copies can be requested only by the immediate family of the person whose name is on the birth certificate.
Cost: The cost of a birth record is $22.00. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $22.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Death Certificates: Death records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present.
For deaths that occurred in the past 25 years, copies can be requested only by immediate family members of the deceased.
Cost: The cost of a certified death certificate is $20.00 for the first copy and $3.00 for each additional copy issued at the same time for the same certificate. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $20.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Marriage & Divorce Certificates: Marriage Verifications from Jan 1966 and Divorce Verifications from Jan 1968. Certified copies of marriage licenses or divorce decrees are only available from the county clerk (marriage) or district clerk (divorce) in the county or district in which the event occurred. Marriage verification or divorce verification letters can now be ordered ELECTRONICALLY
Cost: $20 - Fee is for verification only.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Order In Person: The certificates may be ordered by coming into this office. If you want the copy the same day, our hours for same day service are 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Monday – Friday. The Texas Vital Statistics Office in Austin is located at 1100 W. 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756.
Order By Mail: Mail a check or money order (no cash) payable to the "Texas Vital Records " along with the necessary information to the following address: Texas Vital Records, Department of State Health Services, PO Box 12040,
Austin TX 78711-2040. Please include return address on envelope and application form.
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Research Death records In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of historical Texas newspaper articles about deaths. Search for local articles about an old family friend that died many years ago or a celebrity that committed suicide. Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information about the deceased.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29 - Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If you're unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu. These records can be searched by father's first and last names, mother's first and maiden names, year, county, and city. The certificates include the child and parents' full names, residence, occupations, age, time and date of the birth, and the name of the physician attending the birth.
Texas Death Certificates, 1890-1976 - These records are searchable by first and last name of the deceased, year, county, and city. A certificate may include the decedent's date, place, and cause of death; age; date of birth; last residence; and marital status. If known, it will also include occupation, birth place, parents' names, and place of burial. Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu.
Click Here to Search Texas Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Chambers County, Texas are 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. The Texas State Library holds microfilm editions for all of Texas' federal censuses. Although the 1850, 1860, and part of the 1870 mortality schedules have been published, all the original mortality schedules are at the Texas State Library and on microfilm The 1830 territorial census of Miller County, Arkansas, enumerates an area that is in today's Texas boundaries. The remaining 1890 population schedules which exist for Texas include: Ellis County (Justice Precinct 6, Mountain Peak, and Ovilla Precinct); Hood County (Precinct 5); Rusk County (No. 6 and Justice Precinct No. 7); Trinity County (town of Trinity and Justice Precinct 2); and Kaufman County (Kaufman). Although Greer County in present-day Oklahoma functioned as part of Texas between 1886 and 1896, the 1890 census for this county was enumerated under Oklahoma Territory.
Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Chambers County, Texas are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms
Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Arkansas and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps.
Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Maps. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Texas Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Texas (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Texas tax records constitute one of the most complete sets of available records generated at the county level (by the Commissioners Court) because these documents are maintained by the state. These lists may only include approximately sixty percent of eligible males over the age of twenty-one. Persons exempted from taxes included native Americans, "idiots," "incompetents," and those exempted because of age. This final category of exemptions varied over time. Years without an older age exemption were 1840 and 1862-70. Between 1841-44 exemptions began at forty-five years; in 1845 and from 1850-61 the upward age was set at fifty years. In 1837, 1848, and 1849 the limit was established as fifty-five, and in 1846-7, and 1871 the upward limit was set at sixty years.
Texas Ad Valorem (poll, personal, and real property) tax records for 1836 through 1976 are available in microfilm at the Texas State Library from the date of respective county organization; these are arranged by county and date and are somewhat alphabetized within each division. Microfilm copies are housed in the Genealogy Section. Tax lists for the various counties from creation to 1901 may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Tax records through 1901-1947 are readily accessible, but not on interlibrary loan. Those for 1948 through 1976 can be obtained upon request.
Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Texas State Library and Archives Commission, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927 Holdings under the auspices of the Texas State Library are divided. Most important for genealogical research are the Texas State Archives with its Local Records Department, the Records Management Division, and the Information Services Division, which includes a Genealogy Section and a Reference Department.
The Genealogy Section maintains vertical ties that contain notes, clippings, pamphlets, and correspondence on Texas families. These files may be accessed in person, by phone (512-463-5463, forty-five minute limit), or through correspondence.
Texas Historical Commision The Texas Historical Commission (THC) is the state agency for historic preservation. THC staff consults with citizens and organizations to preserve Texas' architectural, archeological and cultural landmarks. The agency is recognized nationally for its preservation programs.
Texas Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Texas Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
During Texas's colonization period Roman Catholics were the most numerous, but early citizens included those representing other religious faiths such as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Christian or Disciples of Christ.
Many cemetery records have been collected and transcribed, including the largest of which is multi-volumes compilation by the DAR and two volumes for Peters Colonists and descendants. The DAR collection, also microfilmed, is available at the Texas State Library and through the FHL.
Some Texas county historical and genealogical societies have published local cemetery and/funeral home records. These are normally available for purchase through the respective society. Two references can help determine which cemeteries have been recorded: Kim Parsons', A Reference to Texas Cemetery Records (Humble, Tex.: by author, 1988), arranged by county; and Sharry Crofford-Gould's, Texas Cemetery Inscriptions: A Source Index (San Antonio, Tex.: Limited Editions, 1977).
Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Texas obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Texas newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Texas.
Click Here to Search Texas Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Chambers County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Chambers County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Texas Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Archeological excavations in the county have produced artifacts dating to A.D. 1000. Karankawa, Coapite, and Copane Indians lived in the area when the first expeditions traveled the lower Trinity River. The land that became Chambers County formed part of the Atascosito (or lower Trinity River) District, a subdivision of Nacogdoches in Spanish Texas. By the late seventeenth century the French intruded on Spanish interests by trading with the Indians as far as the Sabine. French trader Joseph Blancpain's expedition to the area along Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity in 1754 provoked Spanish efforts to protect the region with a system of missions guarded by adjoining presidios. In 1756 Spanish missionaries established Nuestra Señora de la Luz Mission near the site of present Wallisville, and, to gain strategic control of the lower Trinity, soldiers constructed San Agustín de Ahumada Presidio on its east bank near what is now the Chambers-Liberty county line. Missionaries worked with Orcoquiza Indians who inhabited the region. After the 1763 Treaty of Paris removed the French threat by awarding Louisiana to the Spanish, storms and constant Indian hostility resulted in removal of the missions to another location in 1766 and abandonment of the settlements by 1772. In 1805 Spanish troops landed at what is now Smith's Point to reinforce the Atascosito ("Marshy") community, but by 1812 few Spanish settlers had moved into the region. It was subsequently used by filibusters as a staging ground to mount attacks against Spanish Mexico.
By the early 1800s, Alabama and Coushatta Indians had arrived in the area from Alabama, assimilated the local Bidais and Orcoquizas, taken over their livestock trade with settlers along the Atascosito Road, and planted crops. A colony of French exiles from Napoleon's Grand Army under Charles François Antoine Lallemand, planning to free Napoleon and put his brother Joseph on the Mexican throne, attempted to establish themselves near the site of present Anahuac in 1818, but were driven out by the Spanish. Jean Laffite left the area permanently around 1820.
Mexican influence in the area increased after the Mexican war of independence from Spain in 1821, and Mexican place names replaced many earlier designations. In 1825 Perry's Point, the principal port of entry for the colonial grant, was renamed Anahuac, after the ancient capital of the Aztecs. American settlement began in 1821 at the invitation of the Mexican government. Some of Laffite's men stayed, and empresarios Haden Edwards, Joseph Vehlein, David G. Burnet, and Lorenzo de Zavalaq received grants in the area. The major part of what is now Chambers County became Vehlein's grant. T. J. Chambers received land for serving as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Coahuila and Texas and, in 1829, as surveyor general. Chambers's home, built in 1835, today houses the county library. Other early settlers, largely from southern and western Louisiana, included Peter Ellis Bean, James Morgan, James Taylor White,q and the Wallis family, which settled at the future site of Wallisville. White is believed to have introduced a herd of longhorn cattle at Turtle Bayou in 1827; other farmers raised rice and cotton, and the lumber industry became important by the 1850s. Antebellum education in Chambers County was private.
Struggles between Anglo settlers and Mexican authorities increased as officials sought to prevent further immigration from the United States and maintain control. The Mexican government established Fort Anahuac in 1830 and gave command of the port at Anahuac to John Davis Bradburn, whose difficulties with the settlers culminated in the Turtle Bayou Resolutions and the eventual withdrawal of the Mexican garrison. Bradburn also arrested Francisco I. Madero, whose commission was to grant land titles to American immigrants. In a further foreshadowing of the Texas Revolution, discontented settlers rose against Mexican rule in 1835 in a conflict set off by disagreements over Mexican tariff policy (see ANAHUAC DISTURBANCES). At the same time, others chose to get along with a lax Mexican government that levied no taxes and frequently failed to enforce the law. A substantial number of these moved eastward during the Texas Revolution.
In the 1840s, the western edge of the future county was developed. Among those who acquired land was Sam Houston, who established a home at Cedar Point around 1837. The first post office was established at Anahuac, then known as Chambersea, in 1844. When the area became part of Liberty County after independence, land quarrels broke out, among them the notorious conflict between Charles Willcox and Chambers, who, with property valued at more than half a million dollars by 1860, was the county's wealthiest resident.
Chambers County was formed in 1858 from Liberty and Jefferson counties, and organized the same year with Wallisville as its county seat. By 1860, census returns reported merino sheep, 26,632 cattle, and only 344 slaves countywide, a reflection of the importance of livestock in the local economy. Of sixty families that owned slaves in 1859, John White held thirty-three, and only twelve families among the remainder owned more than ten. Cotton growing increased in the antebellum period, but by 1860 only 100 cotton farmers operated in a county population of 1,508. Industry was confined to a steam sawmill and a shipyard.
Chambers County residents voted 109 to 26 for secession, and many participated in the ensuing conflict. The Liberty Invincibles, formed in 1861, joined Company F of the Fifth Regiment of Texas Volunteers. Others joined the Twenty-sixth Regiment of Texas Cavalry, the Moss Bluff Rebels, which became Company F of the Twenty-first Regiment of Texas Cavalry, or Company B of the Texas State Troops. Fort Chambers was established by Confederate troops in 1862 to protect the Gulf Coast, and Union troops reached Liberty by July 1865, but no major fighting occurred in Chambers County.
During Reconstruction the county began to recover from the hardships of war, but by 1870 its population had dropped to 1,503, below the prewar total. Roughly one-third of this number were black, and as many as fifteen African Americans were property owners. The Freedmen's Bureau opened a black school at Wallisville in 1869, and other black and white schools opened in 1871. By 1898 thirteen white schools were operating with an enrollment of 324, and ten black schools with 211. Local politics reflected a struggle for control between those seeking to institute reforms and others resistant to change. Among the most notable incidents was Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds's attempt in 1869 to remove county and city officials who did not qualify under the Iron Clad Oath. Other conflicts arose from Ku Klux Klan opposition to the Union League, which sought to enroll black voters, and from other opposition to improvements in the lives of former slaves. In 1876 the election of local officials reflected passage of a new Texas constitution that overturned many Radical Republican reforms. Thereafter the white primary and the poll tax remained as obstacles to civil rights.
The opening of a meat-packing plant in Wallisville in the 1870s reflected the continuing importance of ranching in the Chambers County economy, though many cattlemen drove their herds north to Kansas City or shipped them after railroad service reached the area. The Whites and Jacksons maintained large ranches, and James Jackson introduced wire fencing on 26,000 acres in 1882. Price declines after the Civil War kept cotton farming to a minimum. Brickmaking on Cedar Bayou supported a Galveston building boom in the 1870s, while other manufacturers turned to boatbuilding, particularly at the Turtle Bayou Shipyard. The lumber industry centered at Wallisville helped that city to grow in the 1880s and 1890s, while Anahuac remained unoccupied.
Because railroad routes reached no farther than the county's eastern and western borders by the 1890s, with the exception of a single branch line that provided freight service to the interior, Chambers County remained isolated and dependent on steamer traffic and other water transportation to Galveston. No important towns developed in the county until 1896, when settlers from the Midwest, who also developed the port at Bolivar, helped to complete the Gulf and Interstate Railway from Beaumont to Bolivar Peninsula. Later, important railroad towns developed at Winnie and Stowell, in the extreme northeastern part of the county. Railroads in the western part of the county were first built from Dayton to the Goose Creek oilfield by Ross S. Sterling and later taken over by the Southern Pacific.
A disastrous fire at the county's wooden courthouse destroyed early records in 1875, hurricanes in 1875 and 1900 damaged crops and livestock, and a smallpox epidemic in 1877 killed many residents. Though some farmers left Chambers County after the 1875 hurricane, total farms increased from 146 to 327 between 1870 and 1900. In the latter year the total acres in farms reached 366,436; farm value had increased tenfold in the previous ten years. General prosperity resulted in a near doubling of the population between 1880 and 1910 from 2,187 to 4,234. In 1900 county farmers owned a total of 49,000 cattle, the highest in the county's history.
Between 1910 and 1930, tenant farmers increased from roughly 27 percent to more than 35 percent of all farmers. Mules in use as draft animals reached a high of 1,022 in 1920. In the early 1900s, canal development by the Lone Star Canal Company and other firms enabled some farmers to begin rice farming, while others in the eastern part of the county turned to truck farming. A total of 210,000 barrels of rice was harvested in 1903, and significant quantities of sweet potatoes, Indian corn, and sugar were produced by 1910. Lumber peaked at Wallisville in 1906, but declined during the panic of 1907. The largest local mill and the community's only important industry, Cummings Export Lumber Company, built by the Cummings brothers in 1898, closed in 1915 when another major hurricane blew through.
In 1906 Wallisville adopted a stock law to prevent pigs from running loose. Anahuac had become a boomtown. In 1908 Anahuac supporters filed suit and, in spite of Wallisville's genteel swine law, succeeded in making their town the county seat. Efforts to dissolve the county itself were made in 1915, 1923, and 1925 as conflicts developed over stock laws, prohibition, and the county seat question; these were complicated by offers of lower taxes from Harris and Liberty counties, whose officials hoped to cash in on Chambers County oilfields.
Despite increased agricultural production, the Chambers County population declined from 4,234 to 4,162 between 1910 and 1920, then rose again to reach a high of 5,710 by 1930 as a growing oil boom brought new residents to the area. Barbers Hill oilfield, developed after 1918, reached its peak production of 8,082,000 barrels in 1933; the field was later serviced by five pipelines. Oilfields were subsequently discovered at Lost Lake, Anahuac, Monroe City, and Turtle Bay, and near Hankamer, and gas reserves were developed in the eastern part of the county. Oil production provided jobs and revenue that helped the county weather the Great Depression with relatively little discomfort, and brought in workers who increased the population to 7,511 by 1940. Transportation gains after 1926 included the extension of State Highway 146 from Anahuac to Stowell.
During World War II many Chambers County residents found employment in refineries and shipyards at Baytown, Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange. After September 1943 rice farmers employed German prisoners of war from camps in Liberty and Chambers counties. The establishment of the Fraternity of the White Heron, the Forward Trinity Valley Association, the Texas Water Conservation Association, and the Chambers-Liberty County Navigation District advanced area water interests, including the dredging of a channel from the Houston Ship Channel to Smith Point, Anahuac, and Liberty. The Trinity Bay Conservation District was started in 1949. Major highway improvements were made to Farm roads 563 and 565 and State Highway 73, later Interstate 10.
After the war the population grew to 7,871 by 1950 and 10,379 by 1960. By 1959 county farms totaled 483, of which roughly 62 percent were commercial and only 12.4 percent tenant-operated. Mining, contract construction, wholesale distribution, petroleum extraction, and natural-gas production were the chief county industries. Only four manufacturing firms were operating, among 112 mining and mineral establishments. By 1966, though the overall population continued to increase, no populated place in Chambers County had as many as 2,500 inhabitants; 22.5 percent of the population was described as living in poverty; and the population density was only nineteen persons per square mile. In this period, many black residents left for jobs in urban areas.
Growing national support for environmental preservation and passage of the 1967 National Environmental Policy Act had important effects on Chambers County. Relying upon an earlier study by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in preparation for the construction of a saltwater barrier across the Trinity River to aid rice farmers, improve river navigation, and provide increased water supplies for adjacent counties, in 1960 state legislators proposed a 23,200-acre reservoir and wildlife refuge that would inundate Wallisville. Despite protests, engineers purchased the townsite, the plan was approved in 1962, and work began. Excavations led to the unearthing of a primitive burial site and other historic discoveries. Ultimately, the project drew the interest of the Sierra Club, and other environmental groups as well as a representative of the commercial shrimping industry filed suit against several state and national agencies. In 1973 a United States district judge ordered construction stopped, when the project was 75 percent complete. The corps of engineers eventually wrote off the $23 million investment and in 1977 recommended a smaller project. Wallisville Heritage Park, established in 1979, henceforth preserved the townsite and some of the community's historic buildings.
Between 1970 and 1980 the rural population of Chambers County grew 52 percent, and in the early 1980s the total county population was 19,100. People of English origin comprised 27 percent, Irish 17 percent, French 6½ percent, African-American 14 percent, and Hispanic 3 percent. Forest products and cattle, along with rice and soybeans, potatoes, peaches, and pecans constituted the county's principal products. A total of 288 business establishments operated countywide, including sixteen manufacturing establishments with 400 employees. Oil and gas extraction, agribusiness, petroleum refining, and the manufacture of plastics and resins topped the list of industries. The proximity to Houston enabled many residents to commute to jobs in that city. In the late 1980s, after a number of petroleum-industry-related accidents nearby, residents of Mont Belvieu were moved and the community was purchased by oil companies, which rebuilt it at another location. The county's three school districts included four elementary, three middle, and three high schools. Whereas in 1960 only 10 percent of the population had completed high school and fewer than 3 percent had completed college, 57.5 percent of the county population had completed high school and 10 percent had finished college in 1982. By 1990 the county's population had grown to 20,088.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29