Guardian Angel Catholic Church

Wallis began as Bovine Bend, the name of its post office in 1873, on the narrow strip between the Brazos and the San Bernard. When the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe built its Galveston-Brenham line through in 1880, the place became Wallis Station after J. E. Wallis, a director of the railroad, and the post office took that name in 1886 and the short form in 1911. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass reached it in 1887, and around 1890 Czech immigrants began to settle nearby. By 1943 the town had 900 people and thirty-nine businesses.

What the plaque says

Guardian Angel Catholic Church This congregation was organized in 1892 by several Czech families who had relocated from Fayette County, Texas, to an area about 3 miles southeast of Wallis, Texas. The congregation held services in the Krasna School building which was located on four acres donated by Francis V. Smid in 1892. At the suggestion of the bishop of the Diocese of Galveston, church members erected a sanctuary in 1899 at a site closer to the railroad at Wallis. The congregation held their first services on Easter Sunday and named their church "Guardian Angel." The church building was destroyed in the storm of 1900, but rebuilt in 1904 after a determined effort by the small congregation. The Rev. Frank Machan became the first full-time pastor in 1909. In 1913 a new Gothic-style sanctuary was built at this site to accommodate a growing congregation. In 1914 a school was established with an enrollment of 64 students. By 1933 the school consisted of six teachers and 170 students and the parish had grown to 300 families. The congregation serves the community of Wallis and a number of rural communities in the area with a variety of outreach programs. The church continues to be an important element of the area's heritage. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazos Bend State Park — 32 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.

More markers nearby

• Wallis State Bank — 0.7 mi
• Martin Allen — 4.7 mi
• Frydek Catholic Cemetery — 10 mi
• Powell Point School — 10 mi