City History

The City of Waverly was founded in 1829 along the Ohio-Erie Canal which ran for more than 300 miles connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Originally called Union, a name claimed by several other Ohio communities, the name of Waverly was suggested by an engineer on the Ohio-Erie Canal, Francis Cleveland. Cleveland had been reading Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels.

Waverly's growth was closely tied to commerce on the canal, and James Emmitt, the town’s first entrepreneur, made most of his fortune from canal activities. He first hauled grain on the canal. Then he built a grain mill, followed by a distillery to make whiskey. Emmitt added other businesses as well as many acres of farmlands. In the 1850's he claimed to be the Scioto Valley's first millionaire, reportedly was Pike County's largest taxpayer and was said to employ half the men in Waverly.
Perhaps Emmitt's most lasting achievement was a successful campaign from 1859 to 1861 to move the Pike County Court house from Piketon to WaEmmitt Houseverly. In later years, railroads destroyed canals in Ohio and the Federal Government taxed the smaller distilleries out of business. Emmitt's influence remains today in several of the town's historic buildings and Emmitt Avenue, the main street.

Waverly remained basically unchanged from 1900 to 1950. In 1952, the Atomic Energy Corporation announced that it was going to construct a gaseous diffusion plant in Pike County. The influx of construction workers caused a major population expansion in Waverly taking the population from 1,750 to 8,000 in the mid 1950's. The plant went on-line in 1956, and Waverly settled back to 3,300 residents in 1960.

Waverly achieved city status in 1970, and drew up its charter. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Waverly has 4,165 residents as of 2020.