Waterville, a city of Marshall county, is located on the Little Blue river and the Missouri Pacific R. R., 16 miles southwest of Marysville, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices, weekly newspapers, grain elevators, banking facilities, a public library, an opera house and good schools and churches. Three rural delivery mail routes go out from the postoffice.

Waterville was settled in 1857 by Stearns Ostrander. He was followed the same year by Ralph Ostrander, P. Bollar, R. Brown, T. Palmer and H. Brown. The next year William Pearsoll, William Hawkinsmith, John Hughes, W. Dickinson, H. Bramer and Mrs. A. Davis located in the vicinity. A mill was built in 1858 by William Pearsoll, who operated it as a combination grist and sawmill. The original owner of the land which became the town site of Waterville was David King. It passed through the hands of G. H. Hollenberg, William Osborn and R. M. Pomeroy, the last named conveying it to the Central Branch R. R. The railroad company established the town in 1868, and several business buildings were erected. Waterville was incorporated as a village in 1870 and was made a city of the third class the next year. The population in 1910 was 704.