Waneta Community and School

The Handbook of Texas says Waneta, off Farm Road 228 ten miles northeast of Grapeland, was established around 1899, when a post office opened. The office closed in 1909, and the population was ten in 1915. By the mid-1930s the small community had a school and a number of houses. The Handbook says the school was later consolidated with the one at Percilla, and that by the mid-1960s only a community center and a few widely scattered houses remained in the area.

What the plaque says

Waneta Community and School Settlement of the Waneta Community can be traced to 1852, when Charles W. Butler purchased land and established a farm. By the 1870s a number of families lived in the vicinity and the rural community was growing. A post office was established in 1899. Area businesses included a general store, blacksmith, and cotton gin. The Waneta School opened in 1914 and continued to serve area students until 1949, when it was consolidated with Grapeland Schools. Although Waneta declined after the 1940s, descendants of early settlers still reside in the area. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 12 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 18 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• John and Lucinda Nugent Sheridan — 2.6 mi
• The Edens-Madden Massacre — 2.8 mi
• Daniel McLean and John Sheridan — 2.8 mi
• Site of Old Town of Augusta — 2.8 mi