A lumber town, it was named for the lumber company of Walworth & Neville in 1903 taking the first syllable of Walworth and the last of Neville. An older name for the place is Rock Creek, taken from the nearby creek. By 1941the weathered but once pretentious offices and residences of the mill staff contrasted with the shabby shacks occupied by Japanese and other laborers, long since gone, like the mill that was dismantled when the forested hills were denuded.