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History in a Pecan
Shell
The town had originally been in Walker County. When San Jacinto
County was formed in 1870, the community was split east and west by the new county
line. James W. Winters, former Alabaman, settled in the area just a year before
Texas Independence in 1835. Other families moved into the area and by 1852, the
community had promising population of 300 people.
Just before the Civil
War Waverly was platted and incorporated. The town ( like Ivanhoe
in North Texas) is said to be named after the writings of Sir Walter Scott. A
male and female academy opened in 1856 and the town had a post office in operation
from 1855 through 1872.
Storekeeper Meyer Levy, a Polish Jew and Civil
War Veteran, suggested to others in the community that bringing new settlers from
Poland would benefit all concerned. The Waverly Emigration Society was formed,
but while the plan was to recruit about 150 workers; the numbers fell dramatically
short of the goal. As the Houston and Great Northern Railroad extended it's tracks
north through the region, fearful townspeople refused to grant a right-of-way
to the railroad. This misguided refusal spawned the town of "New"
Waverly 10 miles west and spelled the end to Waverly - which was thereafter
referred to as Old Waverly.
In 1896 Old Waverly still maintained a population
of nearly 400, by by 1925 it was down to 100. Today, all that's left of Waverly
is the cemetery and Presbyterian church (both on the west side of the county line).
The cemetery is at the west end of the street while the church is on the far right
end. A "subdivision" on the south side of 150 has appropriated the name of Old
Waverly, but the former town now consists only of the Presbyterian church, the
handsome cemetery and two historical markers.
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Old
Waverly’s fade into oblivion may be short of tragic elements, but two separate
stories were enough to have it included in the late Ed Sayer’s Ghosts of Texas.
When one considers the cottage industry that spooks and spirits have become in
recent years, it’s an accomplishment to be included as one of the fifty-odd stories
in what is considered to be the first volume written on Texas Ghosts.
The
sites of the stories are several miles apart in what remains today of the dense
forest that was laboriously pushed back by slave labor to plant cotton.
Click here for the stories> |
| Presbyterian
church in Old Waverly. TE photo, 2006 | |
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