Waverly, also known as the Peyton house, stands on the historic Natchez Trace, the main road from Raymond to Clinton. Built from 1831 to 1834 by John B. Peyton, an early surveyor and settler of central Mississippi, it served in 1863 as the headquarters of Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson after the Battle of Raymond on May 12 and as the headquarters of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on May 13. Family history holds that Grant slept in a tent outside the house while using its large parlor and gallery for staff calls with his officers. Peyton, born in Fauquier County, Virginia, in 1797, migrated to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1819, surveyed for many years, was elected major of the 18th Regiment of the Mississippi Militia in 1827, and was elected to the Mississippi legislature in 1828. In 1829 he cast the deciding vote that kept the state capital in Jackson rather than moving it to Clinton, leading Judge Isaac Caldwell of Clinton to challenge him to a duel. Peyton chose rifles, both men survived, and Caldwell was killed in another duel in Clinton seven years later in 1836. Peyton died at Waverly in 1868. The house is built on brick piers as a one-and-a-half-story gable-front structure with dormers and elaborate woodwork, with 14-foot ceilings downstairs, nine-foot ceilings upstairs, and an indoor carriage room to keep ladies dry when leaving a carriage on a rainy day.
