The former settlement was located along Water Hole Creek, near the site of Preston, another ghost town.

During the Civil War, the town provided soldiers to the Confederate States Army as well as a Home Guard unit.

The town was situated along a major trail from Matagorda on the Gulf of Mexico and San Felipe on the Brazos River.

[2] During the Civil War, Waterville raised a company of soldiers for the Confederate Army called the "Rough and Ready Mounted Rifles" under Captain C. F. Whittington.

[1] Five-ninths of the distance along a straight line drawn on a map between Wharton and Pledger places Waterville very close to Farm to Market Road 1096 and Water Hole Creek.