DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some places leave behind a courthouse, or a grand old church, or maybe a statue in the square. Waverly, Texas left behind something quieter — and in some ways, more honest.
It left behind its cemetery. The land this burial ground sits on was originally purchased in 1853 by four people: Mary M. Lewis, James E.
Scott, Laura A. Scott, and Milly D. Scott.
Four names on a deed, a patch of Walker County ground, and a story that had already been unfolding for years before the ink was dry. The first recorded burial here was John Andrew Jackson — born 1822, died 1855 — a pioneer settler of Waverly. His is the name the record holds first.
But walk through that cemetery and you'll find three gravestones dated 1852, and you might think, well, somebody got here before Jackson. Not quite. Those stones mark reinterments, not earlier burials.
The men whose remains rest beneath them — Hamlin F. Lewis, John Elliot Scott, and Robert Lindsey Scott — had a harder road to Texas than most. They left Alabama bound for Texas, and cholera found them in 1852 before they ever arrived.
They were buried along the way, wherever the road stopped for them. But their relatives didn't forget. In 1859, those families had the remains brought back — or rather, brought forward — to this place in Waverly.
So those 1852 stones carry the year those men died, not the year the ground received them. There's a difference, and it matters. By 1857, Waverly Institute had purchased two hundred acres of land that included the burial ground.
And it was through the efforts of Henry M. Elmore — born 1816, died 1879 — president of the Waverly Institute board of trustees, that twelve acres were officially set aside for cemetery use in 1873. A man who understood that a community's dead deserve dedicated ground.
And Waverly in those days was worth commemorating. Before the Civil War, it was a cultural, educational, and religious center — the kind of town people pointed to with some pride. Then came the 1880s, and with them the railroad, and with the railroad came New Waverly, founded right along those tracks.
Old Waverly didn't survive the competition. Towns rarely do, when the railroad decides to look the other way. Waverly declined.
But its cemetery remained in use. The dead have a way of anchoring a place that the living sometimes can't manage on their own. In 1965, descendants of those original pioneer settlers formed a cemetery association to maintain the site.
The town may be gone, but the people who know whose names are carved in that Walker County ground — they're still tending it. That's Waverly. Not the town.
The part that lasted.
What the marker says
This cemetery is situated on the land originally purchased in 1853 by Mary M. Lewis, James E. Scott, Laura A. Scott, and Milly D. Scott. The first recorded burial was that of John Andrew Jackson (1822-1855), a pioneer settler of Waverly. Three gravestones dated 1852 indicate reinterments rather than earlier burials. Hamlin F. Lewis, John Elliot Scott, and Robert Lindsey Scott left Alabama for Texas but fell victim to cholera in 1852 and were buried along the way. Relatives of the men had their remains placed in this site in 1859. In 1857 Waverly Institute purchased 200 acres of land which included the burial ground. Through the efforts of Henry M. Elmore (1816-1879), president of Waverly Institute board of trustees, twelve acres were officially set aside for cemetery use in 1873. The town of Waverly was a cultural, educational, and religious center before the Civil War. When New Waverly was founded on the railroad in the 1880s, Waverly declined, but its cemetery remains in use. The burial ground has always been associated with the pioneer settlers of Waverly. In 1965 descendants of the settlers formed a cemetery association to maintain the site. (1978)