William A. Wills

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some names just have a way of stickin' to the land. William A.

Wills was a Tennessee man, born in 1804, and somewhere along the way he decided Texas was calling his name. In 1847, he packed up his wife, Mary Ann, who folks called Polly, she was a Phillips before she married him, and he gathered up his children and pointed everything south and west. They put down roots right on the Dallas-Shreveport Road, in what would become Van Zandt County.

And here is the thing about settling on a road like that. People travel roads. So the Wills family did what good people do.

They opened their home to travelers passing through, and hosted many of them along the way. That is the kind of hospitality that gets you remembered. By 1850, William was serving the county as tax assessor-collector.

Now, nobody has ever thrown a parade for a tax assessor-collector, but the county needed one, and Wills was the man. He kept on serving, too, as road overseer and as Van Zandt County commissioner. The man had civic running through him like a river.

And here is where it gets interesting. As early as 1855, the commissioners court minutes, those dry, careful, official records, were already referring to the area surrounding his property as Wills Point. The name was already there, already settled into the language of the county, before most people even knew to use it.

Then came 1873. The Texas and Pacific Railroad laid its line through the territory, and when the town was laid out along that railroad, it took the same name it had already been carrying for years. Wills Point.

William A. Wills passed in 1864, and he is buried in the White Rose Cemetery. The railroad came after he was gone.

The town bloomed after he was gone. But the name, his name, that was already waiting for both of them.

What the marker says

Tennessee native William A. Wills (1804-1864) moved to Texas with his wife, Mary Ann "Polly" (Phillips), and their children in 1847 and settled on the Dallas-Shreveport Road in what became Van Zandt County. They hosted many travelers in their home. In 1850, Wills served the county as tax assessor-collector and later held other public offices, including road overseer and Van Zandt County commissioner. As early as 1855, references in commissioners court minutes referred to the area surrounding his property as "Wills Point." When the town was laid out along the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1873, it became known by the same name. Wills is buried in the White Rose Cemetery. (2001)