Built of brick in 1855-6, the Ira and Asenath Sturdevant house is the oldest surviving dwelling in Waverly, Iowa. Ira Hainer Sturdevant, born in Tinmouth, Vermont, in 1793, was the son of a Revolutionary War veteran and a veteran of the War of 1812, and Asenath Lilley Sturdevant, born in 1794, was the daughter of a Revolutionary War veteran. After Ira served at the Battle of Sacket's Harbor in May 1813, he married Asenath that December. The family moved west across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois before settling in Bremer County in the early 1850s, after sons William and Lafayette had explored the Cedar River Valley and encouraged their relatives to come. The family arrived in 1854, and Ira erected this two-story brick house on the northeast corner of his 40 acres, later adding a barn in 1857. William's land became the William Sturdevant Addition to Waverly and Ira's bounty land claim became the Ira Sturdevant Addition, and Ira and William deeded rights of way for streets and alleys to the community. The Sturdevants welcomed travelers with meals and beds, and when passing Indians needed shelter for the night, Ira and Asenath invited them to sleep near the fireplace. Ira received tributes at July Fourth ceremonies as one of several War of 1812 veterans in Waverly, and the family were founding members of the Methodist Episcopal church, now Trinity United Methodist Church. During the Civil War era the family suffered losses: Ira died in the house of lung fever, probably pneumonia, on April 12, 1862; Asenath died on May 7, 1867; William died in the Civil War; and Lafayette survived. Both Ira and Asenath were buried in the original Sturdevant family plot in nearby Harlington Cemetery, where five generations of descendants also rest. After Asenath's death the house left family ownership and served many residents for more than 150 years, until Waverly's June 2008 flood led to its abandonment. Descendants repurchased it at a sheriff's sale on April 14, 2009, formed the non-profit Ira Sturdevant House, Inc., and undertook its restoration as a community educational living-history site.