Waller

Waller is on U.S. Highway 290 forty miles northwest of Houston in eastern Waller and northwestern Harris counties. K. H. Faulkner filed a plat on January 11, 1884, to establish the town, which was named for Edwin Waller. Within the first month of the town's existence a post office was set up, and a short time later "Uncle Doc" Sanders opened Waller's first general store. The public school, organized in 1887, had eighty students at the end of its first year of operation. The town boundaries were extended in 1889, when Waller was actually laid out. Eight years later it had an estimated population of 500, an established newspaper, and a bank. Farmers raised cotton, corn, and small fruits and berries. The South Texas Baptist College was established in 1898 in Waller by the South Texas Baptist Conference. The Galveston hurricane of 1900 badly damaged many buildings, including the college, which was closed and never rebuilt. The town's business district grew in the first part of the twentieth century. Telephone service was installed in 1912, and the Guaranty Bond State Bank opened in 1915. Around 1918 "God's Mercy Store," a unique general store, began operation. Goods were marked at cost, and customers paid cost plus whatever profit percentage they felt was appropriate. Owner A. D. Purvis claimed that the store was established "by the spirit of Christ which is Love, Mercy, and Self denial." The store showed a tidy profit and was still operating in the late 1920s.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.