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.