Ghosts of Old Waverly
and the Old Waverly Cemetery
An East Texas Tale of Two Hills

A knoll in the vicinity was once named Soldier’s Hill. It was (relative) high ground that was once occupied by Union troops although the author doesn’t mention if it was held during the war or in that unhappy period called Reconstruction. For the sake of the story, it hardly matters. Part of the land patrolled by the troops from their base camp of Soldier’s Hill included a desolate cabin – one of the first built by settlers.

The incident that occurred at the cabin has few details. One version has it that a young girl was killed there and three Federal troops may have been involved. Guilty or not, the one agreed on fact is that the three were murdered – perhaps in retaliation for the crime. Fearful of incurring the wrath of the main contingent, the killers hurriedly buried the soldiers beneath the cabin floor.

Ever since, anyone who attempted to live in the cabin was driven out by strange nocturnal sounds. A fiddle was sometimes heard playing, and men were heard coughing. On some occasions the sounds of a screaming girl were heard. The landowners built another house, although they let the older building stand. The cabin went unoccupied but its reputation grew.

If additional proof of a haunting was needed, it was provided by animals who balked at entering the now-deteriorating building. According to Sayer’s account, cats and dogs “would stand in the rain” rather than cross the cabin’s threshold.

One local newspaperwoman who attempted to spend the night in the cabin in the 1970s quitted her project early on. Her contribution to the legend was seeing a strange fog around the site, even while a stiff breeze was blowing.

In respect of the owner’s privacy, the location of the site has been kept a secret.

Sentry Hill

The second haunted site near Old Waverly was described as being just northeast of what had been the town. This spirit seems to be single and is thought to be either a Union soldier who perhaps took his duty a tad too seriously and never left his post – or a sawmill operator who perhaps took his work not seriously enough and left behind his head.

No one has fully described any detailed sightings, but there have been many “auditory” encounters – nearly all of them occurring at night. Sayers reports a local man who is drawn to the site and on one occasion brought a witness. He and his skeptical friend were exploring the site when they heard something running toward them through the underbrush. The friend was amused and as his partner ran toward their car, he (laughing) yelled: “it can stop the car’s engine!” When his friend got in the car and indeed, it didn’t start – the friend stopped laughing and together they jump-started the car, thankful to be able to escape whatever “it” was.

The story had an anticlimactic end with Sayers’ investigation coming to a halt when his guide canceled on him. He then attempted to go it alone but was bogged down in mud up to his wheel wells.

These stories are presented here not for their quality, details, or the goose-flesh factor, but mostly to provide text for their accompanying Waverly Cemetery photographs.

Waverly Cemetery & Marker

TE photos, 2006