An early center of culture for this part of Texas, Old Waverly was settled from 1835 into the 1850s mainly by people from Alabama. The community took its name from Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels, then very popular. To provide education equal to any, Waverly Institute was founded in 1854 with separate departments for boys and girls. The plantation system prevailed until the 1860s. During the Civil War, Federal troops camped in the heart of Waverly on Soldier's Hill. Of the three early churches, only the Presbyterian church, organized in 1860, still exists, and its present building was erected in 1904.