Waverly High School - Novel Yearbook (Waverly, OH)

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Chapters I ADMINISTRATION II FACULTY III SENIORS IV CLASSES V THE GRADES VI ATHLETICS VII ACTIVITIES VIII MUSIC IX SCHOOL LIFE

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Waverly History One hundred and fifty years ago the present Route 23 was an Indian trail connecting Chillicothe with the Ohio River. The Shawnee Indian Village located at the present site of Chillicothe was the headquarters of the powerful tribe, and the “trace”, as the trail was then called, was a busy thoroughfare for their hunting parties. Scattered along the path were several smaller Indian villages, among which was the town of Wan-Du-Cha-Le, the present site of Waverly. Early in 1800 a few German settlers, seeking farm lands to clear, built a group of houses on the site of this village and called their settlement Union-town. It grew slowly, yet gradually assumed larger proportions so that by 1820 it was large enough to require a school. The second and third schools followed in 1822 and in 1824, the total enrollment of the last being 114. Some semblance of order was designed in 1829 by M. Downing,who laid out the streets. A year later a post office was established, and the name Union-town was found to conflict with another in the northern part of the state. After much argument, Capt. Francis Cleveland, an engineer on the Ohio Canal, suggested the name Waverly—from Scott’s “Waverley Novels’’ which he was reading at that time. As early as 1829 James Emmitt, ambitious for Waverly, launched a campaign to move the county seat from Piketon to Waverly. His first victorious move came when the Ohio-Erie Canal, which passed through Waverly, was rerouted away from Piketon. With the formal opening of the canal in 1832, Waverly began a period of growth and importance. Finally in 1861, by a referendum election, the county seat was transferred from Piketon to Waverly. The early history of Waverly is the history of James Emmitt. Coming here from Pennsylvania in 1816 at the age of 10, Mr. Emmitt became one of the outstanding personalities in the state, as well as in his own home town. Since he owned several large businesses and a great deal of land around town, he was instrumental in making Waverly a manufacturing center. He owned a lumber yard, a furniture factory, a distillery, and a quarry, in which he employed over half the town’s people. Aside from his industrial interests he built for himself a “fine fair house”, the Opera House, the Court House, and several county roads, leading to and from the village. From his trips to Europe he brought back several thousand dollars worth of statuary which may still be seen on some of the lawns of Waverly. He is known even yet on the Isle of Capri as the first man to light a match on that island. Mr. Emmitt died in November in 1893. Transportation by rail came to Waverly in 1877 when the Scioto Valley Railroad built a line from Columbus to Portsmouth—now a section of the Norfolk and Western Railroad. At the same time there was being constructed between Jackson and Waverly the Springfield, Jackson and Pomeroy Railroad, which later became part of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton. The first “horseless carriage” was brought to Waverly in 1903 by Dr. W. H. Johnson. Now in the middle of the twentieth century, Waverly is an average American town. The population of 1,600 carry on their businesses on Market Street, go to one of the seven churches on Sunday, and spend their holidays at Lake White or at any one of the several nearby parks. Waverly is proud of its fine school system which boasts a student enrollment of 898 and a staff of twenty-seven teachers. 4

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Superintendent of Waverly Schools John R. Teichert, Superintendent of Waverly Schools, is a man respected for his integrity and admired for his ability. He believes the school should be run for the benefit of its students. Chapter I ADMINISTRATION