Old Waverly (For additional, see Moore's Grove)
Waverly, also known as Old Waverly, was originally located in
southeastern Walker County. James W. Winters, the first settler, came
from Alabama in 1835 and cleared farmland and built a home. He was
joined by the Fishers from North Carolina in 1851. In the autumn of 1852
some 300 people from Alabama, including slaves, moved into the Waverly
area. The town was surveyed, mapped, and incorporated in 1858. According
to popular legend the town was named for the Waverly novels of Sir
Walter Scott. Some considered Waverly to belong to the South of
"moonlight, magnolias, and landed gentry." In reality it was a small
enclave of the slave-plantation system imported from central Alabama.
Waverly Institute, consisting of a male and female academy, was
established in 1856. A post office operated from 1855 until 1872. A
Masonic lodge operated from 1861 to 1865, and Methodist, Presbyterian,
and Episcopalian congregations were started in town. In September 1866 a
group of planters from Walker County met in a general store at Waverly
to discuss their labor problems and the impending harvest. The store was
owned by Meyer Levy, a Polish Jew who owned several stores in East
Texas. He had been a merchant in several states in the South and a
blockade runner in the Civil War
and was highly respected in the region. During this meeting plans were
completed to bring the first group of Polish farmworkers to East Texas.
Twelve planters formed the Waverly Emigration Society and commissioned
Levy to go to Europe and find about 150 laborers to work on their
plantations. Initially, however, only a few families came over. These Poles
and their descendents became an important cultural element in Walker
County. In 1870 San Jacinto County was formed from a part of Walker
County, including the Waverly area. At that time Waverly leaders, in
fear that the Houston and Great Northern Railroad would bring "tramps
and ignorance to the town and kill cattle," refused to give the railroad
right-of-way. In doing so they ensured the rapid demise of Waverly. The
town of New Waverly was established ten miles west of Waverly in 1870
to take advantage of the railroad and became a prosperous town. In 1896
Waverly, also called Old Waverly, had a population of 400, but only 100
were enumerated in 1925. In 1986 all that remained of Waverly was a
cemetery, a nearby Presbyterian church, and a rural subdivision called
Old Waverly, which had a population of about fifty people. Texas
historical markers were erected for Old Waverly in 1969 and for the
Waverly Cemetery in 1978. In 2000 the population was 200. TSHA
Texas State Historical Association
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/waverly-tx
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Waverly,_Texas
Texas Escapes
http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/Old-Waverly-Texas-1.htm
Find a Grave
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/5813/old-waverly-cemetery
Old Waverly: East Texas Ghost Town
https://oldwaverlytexas.com/2019/08/18/example-post/
Ghosttowns
https://ghosttowns.com/states/tx/waverly.html
Some History of Old Waverly
http://www.countygenweb.com/txmontgomery/old_waverly_walker_county_texas.htm
Mapcarta
https://mapcarta.com/21778790
THE HISTORICAL MARKER DATABASE
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=118946
Polish Ethnoreligion of East Texas
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1936&context=ethj
Find a Grave
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2705887/browder's-pasture-cemetery