The seat of Tyler County, Woodville is located north of Beaumont between Livingston and Jasper on US Hwys 69, 190 and 69/287 near B.A. Steinhagen Lake.

Sawmilling dominated the life of the area through the first half of the twentieth century. In 1946 there were two mills at Woodville, and fifty cars of poles and pilings were shipped out each week. As late as 1965 the Woodville Lumber Company was the largest sawmill in the county, employing more than 100 workers and turning out over one million board-feet of lumber a month. Woodville also produced pulpwood, poles, construction and piling timbers, fence posts, and handles.

Woodville had a population of 518 in 1890, 1,521 in the 1940s, and 2,636 in 1990.