Manor Cemetery - Manor, TX, USA
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 20.674 W 097° 33.146
14R E 639137 N 3357855
Town cemetery with approximately 1172 graves (info from Find a Grave)
Waymark Code: WMN30T
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/16/2014
Views: 3
James Manor first came to Texas in 1832 with Sam Houston, who had been commissioned by U.S. President Andrew Jackson to negotiate treaties with Texas Indian tribes. Manor's family had moved from North Carolina to Tennessee shortly after Manor's birth in 1804, and it was there that Manor first became acquainted with Houston. The two remained lifelong friends, and Houston frequently visited the Manor home.
In 1836 Manor settled on Gilleland Creek just west of present day downtown Manor while Texas was in its earliest days of the Republic. He cleared the land and constructed a log home on the east bank. In 1842, Manor constructed a two story frame home retaining the cabin at the rear of the house as the kitchen. That house served as the first stage stop out of Austin and as a post office when stage service from Austin to Houston was shifted through the area in 1857.
Located twelve miles northeast of Austin in one of the earliest areas of Travis County to be settled, Manor's first residents, primarily farmers attracted to the rich fertile soil of the blackland prairies, began arriving in the 1830s. Webberville, a stagecoach stop located to the south of Manor, was its major rival. During Reconstruction, when the path of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was being determined, both communities vied for the privilege of having the railroad pass through them. James Manor's offer of land helped turn the decision in Manor's favor, and in 1872 the growing trade center for the surrounding agricultural area was officially named in honor of its benefactor, James Manor.