Historic Walker County

Despite the natural advantages these river
ports offered, many migrants to Walker County
settled near prominent local figures who lived a
safe distance from the Trinity River and its trade
routes. For instance, some people sought
out Hillary M. Crabb, a large landowner
who served as both chief justice of Walker
County (1848-52) and a state representative
to the Texas legislature (1853-57). His
homestead at Crabb’s Prairie, a few miles
northwest of Huntsville, grew into a substantial
agricultural community and attracted a number
of pioneer families. 16
Shepherd’s Valley, a settlement seven miles
southeast of Huntsville, provides another
example of the role that large landowners played
in the creation of local communities. Named for
Jacob H. Shepherd, a soldier who served in the
Texas Revolution and received a league of land
for his participation in the conflict, Shepherd’s
Valley grew up in the 1850s. It soon had a
number of prominent local residents, who
contributed to the economic and intellectual
development of the county. 17
Few settlers in Walker County could rival the
wealth and power that was accumulated in
Waverly or Old Waverly as it is sometimes
called. Founded by James W. Winters, a migrant
who moved to southeastern Walker County
from Alabama in 1835, Waverly hit a growth
spurt in the early 1850s. First, the Fisher family
arrived from North Carolina in 1851, and then
the following year some three hundred people
moved in from Alabama with dozens of African
American slaves.
The local inhabitants farmed cotton and built
a school, the Waverly Institute, for their children.
Soon, the town had a Methodist, Presbyterian,
and Episcopalian congregation, as well as a
Masonic Lodge. Indeed, after the Civil War, local
planters formed the Waverly Emigration Society
and employed Meyer Levy, a merchant of Polish
origins, to secure 150 Polish laborers to replace
the African-American slaves who had recently
been freed. Meyer accomplished his task, and in
1867 approximately 40 Polish families arrived in
the area. Waverly then became associated with a
rich Polish culture that can still be seen today
at sites like St. Joseph’s Catholic Church,
which had its origins in the work of Reverend
❖
Top: Descendants of Joseph Werner,
the founder of Newport, photographed
in 1899.
COURTESY OF THE HUNTSVILLE
ARTS COMMISSION.
Middle: St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.
COURTESY OF THE WALKER COUNTY
HISTORICAL COMMISSION.
Bottom: A map of river stops along
the Trinity River.
COURTESY OF THE WALKER COUNTY
HISTORICAL COMMISSION.
Felix Orzechowski. 18 C h a p t e r I I ✦ 1 1