New Waverly
New Waverly is thirteen miles south of Huntsville on State Highway 75
and Interstate Highway 45 in southern Walker County. It was founded by
the Houston and Great Northern Railroad Company after the residents of
what became Old Waverly refused to grant the railroad a right-of-way
through their community. In 1870 the company laid its tracks ten miles
west of Old Waverly and set aside a townsite known as Waverly Station.
The new community attracted many residents of Old Waverly, and the new
town's name was soon changed to New Waverly. The local economy was based
on cotton, and Polish immigrants recruited from Europe between 1870 and
1902 supplied local landlords with tenants for their land. Apost office
opened at the community in 1873. The new town grew rapidly, and in 1884
New Waverly had a population of 150 and seven general stores, four
steam sawmills, two cotton gins, two saloons, and a gristmill. The
community continued to grow, adding a boardinghouse, a restaurant,
another gristmill, and two doctors by 1892, and a lumber company by
1896, when New Waverly reported a population of 250.
By 1914 the
town shipped agricultural products and lumber and had a population of
500, a bank, a telephone company, a hotel, and a newspaper, the New
Waverly Post. The community established Baptist, Methodist,
Presbyterian, and Catholic churches. A local school was consolidated
with nearby Elmira and other schools to form the New Waverly Independent
School District. In 1952 New Waverly incorporated as a general-law
city, and in 1949 it had a post office, a bank, eighteen other
businesses, and a population of 410. In 1964 the town's population
increased to 620, and the number of businesses decreased to fourteen. In
1982 New Waverly had a population of 824 and thirty-three businesses,
and in 1990 it reported a population of 936. Around that time the
largest employer in the vicinity was Louisiana-Pacific, a large
lumber-manufacturing company in adjacent old Elmira.
Texas State Historical Association
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/new-waverly-tx
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Waverly,_Texas
Texas Escapes
http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/New-Waverly-Texas.htm
The History of New Waverly
https://tex-family.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=275