The Chamber of Commerce was chartered on March 6, 1916, by then Secretary of State John G. McKay. It was started after nine civic-minded residents decided that the community should have a Chamber of Commerce to establish and maintain uniformity in the commercial usage of cities and towns to acquire, preserve and disseminate valuable business information, to adopt rules, regulations and standards of classification, which shall govern all transactions connected with the cotton trade, and with other commodities where standards and classifications are required, generally to promote the interest of trade and increase facilities of commercial transactions and to develop and extend agricultural, industrial, commercial and civic resources of the City of Navasota, Grimes County and the State of Texas.

The names of those nine civic-minded men are familiar to even present-day residents of Grimes County, for they left their mark indelibly in the community. They were J.N. Baylor, J.W. Brosig, C.C. Camp, J.T. Evans, H.H. Knox, Ewing Norwood, R.A. Patout, Ward Templeman and E.H. Terrell. Ward Templeman served as the first president of the Chamber, serving for four consecutive years through 1919. Betty Jane Burlin was the first woman to serve as president when she took office in January 1979.