In 1866, a group of East Texas plantation owners working with the Polish merchant, Meyer Levy, formed the Waverly Emigration Society. This enterprising new group hoped to bring European farmers to the Waverly area in order to replace the recently-freed African-American population that had once performed the region's agricultural labor. Hundreds of Polish immigrants soon entered the Waverly community and took up work on local farms. These laborers found a religious leader in Rev. Felix Orzechowski, who established New Waverly’s St. Joseph's Catholic Church in 1869.

St. Joseph’s was the first Catholic Church in Walker County, and it served the many Polish families who settled in the area in the 1870s. Church tradition often sustained the immigrants until they adjusted to life in their new country. Services were held outdoors or in private homes during Father Orzechowski's pastorate. Soon after leaving the parish in 1876, he returned to Poland and was imprisoned by ruling Russian officials for advocating democratic ideals.

In 1877, the congregation that Orzechowski had established purchased two lots from the Texas Land Company to serve as the site for a church building. Construction of St. Joseph's initial building was overseen by Rev. Victor Linicki. The first church building was a box-frame house, approximately 20' x 30' in diameter. As St. Joseph's congregation increased, church leaders felt that a larger church building was needed. In 1892, under the leadership of Rev. Theodore Jaron, construction of a new church building began. The new church was designed and constructed by Tom Lavandorski. Mrs. Catherine Ripkowski contributed the lumber for the new building, which was cut from trees on the land that is now St. Joseph/Elmina Cemetery. The building was approximately 40'x 68' in diameter, with 12' walls. The church was dedicated on the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1897.

By 1902, St. Joseph's congregation had grown to 125 families. During this time, Rev. Thomas Aloysius Bily encouraged the congregation to construct a new church building that would accommodate the growing congregation. The church purchased the remainder of the block as well as a lot across the street. The new church was designed by the architect L.S. Green who wanted to create a grand cathedral in a traditional Gothic-style. Once constructed, the church featured large stained-glass windows, which let in the morning sun. The cruciform edifice measured 120' by 60' in diameter, and with two sections of pews, the church could seat 300 people. The new church building was dedicated on December 16, 1906. Construction lasted three years and cost $13,000.

In 1984 and 1985, St. Joseph's went through a $250,000 renovation, which replaced the tower window, eaves' crossing, and confessional. The church also purchased a new organ and nativity using donations from the community. St. Joseph's has grown considerably over the years, from 40 families in the 1860s to over 400 families today. Throughout its long and vibrant history, St. Joseph's has served a diverse parish consisting of many cultures and backgrounds. The congregation's spirit for ministry is what truly makes St. Joseph's great.

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During the twentieth century, Minnie Fisher Cunningham (1882-1964) worked as a leading reformer on women’s issues, including voting rights and equal pay. Born near New Waverly, Texas in southern Walker County, Minnie was raised by her parents, Horatio and Sallie (Abercrombie) Fisher, to be an educated, politically-minded young woman. She earned her state teaching certificate at age sixteen, but chose to further her education at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In 1901, she became the first woman in Texas to earn her Graduate of Pharmacy degree. She began and ultimately ended her pharmacy career in Huntsville’s downtown drug store, however, where she earned less than half of what her male counterparts made. It was this experience that she credited with “making a suffragette out of me,” and once she married B.J. Cunningham in 1902, her medical career came to an end.

Cunningham first became politically active in local volunteer organizations in Galveston, where she and her husband relocated in 1907. She began her speaking and lobbying career, while volunteering for the Women’s Health Protective Association (WHPA) and helped to found Galveston’s Equal Suffrage Association (GESA). As a delegate of GESA, she participated in the creation of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association (TWSA) and helped link it to the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1915, she was elected president of TWSA, soon called the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA), and it was in that role that she worked for the passage of a state bill that would allow women to vote in political primaries. Although the bill ultimately failed to pass in 1917, Cunningham and her organization used their considerable influence to help impeach the sitting governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson, for corruption. When Ferguson decided to run for governor again, despite being banned from doing so, Cunningham negotiated a deal with State Representative Charles Metcalfe and Governor William Hobby to allow women to vote in the state's primary, promising that the female vote would support Hobby in his bid to remain governor.

Despite her success during the election of 1918, Cunningham and her forces were unable to secure the passage of an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would have allowed women to vote in the state. Cunningham did not give in, however, but instead worked diligently for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She was part of the team that convinced Woodrow Wilson to openly support it during World War I, and she actively lobbied the Texas Legislature for immediate ratification in 1919. Following the successful campaign to secure women’s voting rights through the Nineteenth Amendment, Cunningham became the first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters and became active in progressive political causes, joining the Democratic Women’s Advisory Committee at the suggestion of Eleanor Roosevelt. She later became the first woman to run for the Senate in Texas, and though she lost in the primary, she later became the first woman to run for governor as well. In that latter race, she came in second out of nine candidates having been defeated by the incumbent, Coke Stevenson in the primary. She worked tirelessly for the implementation of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and was late in life a supporter of John F. Kennedy. She died in her hometown in 1964 of heart failure.

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