Waterville

Waterville was on Water Hole Creek (Will's Water Hole) near the site of earlier Preston in southeast Wharton County. Before 1846 it was in Matagorda County. The community was served by the main road from Matagorda to San Felipe. A number of men from Waterville served during the Civil War. Its active Confederate Army company, "Rough & Ready Mounted Rifles," Twenty-second Brigade, Battalion E, was under Capt. C. P. Whittington. In 1861 this company had twenty-seven men enrolled and in 1892 thirty-nine. Waterville also served as headquarters for Col. Reuben R. Brown's Thirty-third Cavalry, established in 1862. A home guard was formed as the Twenty-sixth Infantry under Capt. Maclin S. Stith. A post office operated in Waterville from 1859 until 1867 and from 1872 until 1880. In an attempt to breathe life into Waterville, postal service was applied for on February 9, 1883, stating it would serve a population of 500 and that Waterville was eight miles from Pledger and ten miles south of Wharton. Postal service began again in April 1883, but it was discontinued permanently August 1884.