March 19, 2023
Kristi and I made a short trip to visit the gravesite of an American Revolutionary soldier. Mark Manning is one of two veterans of the American Revolution who are buried in Walker County. (The other is James Tinsley, whose precise gravesite has sadly been lost.)
Manning was born in North Carolina in 1750. Sometime after the war he moved to Conecuh County, Alabama and, at age 97, moved to Texas to live with his sons who had received land grants from President Sam Houston for their service during the Texas Revolution. Manning passed away in 1850. He is buried in Manning-Brimberry Cemetery, a small family cemetery northwest of Huntsville.
Route: Brimberry Cemetery Road
Brimberry Cemetery Road is a dirt road. It is in decent shape, but I recommend a vehicle with a high ground clearance as there are a couple of sketchy spots along the way. It is accessible from the I-45 frontage road that runs between FM 1696/Pinedale Road to the south, and FM 2989 to the north. The frontage road is paved and is an easy drive, but do not attempt it after a heavy rain because parts of it are prone to flooding. Also, be mindful of animals, such as deer and wild hogs, that may cross the road in the more wooded parts.
From the FM 1696/Pinedale Road overpass, the frontage road heads north, where it runs behind the rest stop on the northbound side of I-45. This is a surprisingly pretty drive for an Interstate frontage road. In several places the freeway is not even visible.
A historical marker is located at the entrance to Brimberry Cemetery Road, next to a small, gravel parking area.
After reading the marker, we turned onto Brimberry Cemetery Road. It was a pretty drive through the forest…
…until we were about halfway down. A pipeline is being built through the area, and the land looks, as Kristi put it, “dystopian.” The land on either side of the road has also been cleared for some distance away from the pipeline.
Heavy machinery was busy clearing downed trees while we were there. There were many stacks of timber, and several piles of brush were being burned. This was no logging operation, though. The woods are being clear-cut for some purpose. What for, we do not know, but I did see that a large piece of land in the area had been sold back in 2019, so maybe part of it is being converted to pasture.
After a while we went back to the trees. The clear-cutting had us a bit unnerved, though, and we started to wonder whether we were still on a public road. But the road itself was in decent shape despite all of the destruction surrounding it, and we never came up to any gates, cattle guards, signs, or other indications that the road was on private property.
We kept driving and driving, wondering if we’d ever find the cemetery. We had no idea whether it was clearly visible from the road, or tucked away in the woods out of sight. Google Maps, however, showed a feature along the side of the road that I thought was the cemetery. We passed over a small creek that I later determined was a tributary of Manning Branch, which flows into South Bedias Creek.
Then, just as we were about to give up and turn back, the cemetery came into view!
It didn’t take us long to find Mark Manning’s gravesite.
The plaque at the bottom reads:
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER
MARK MANNING, SR.
1750 – 1850
PLACED BY
MARY MARTIN ELMORE-SCOTT
CHAPTER, DAR
Uphill from Manning’s gravesite are twelve iron crosses. Unmarked graves from an old cemetery in these parts usually means that they are the gravesites of slaves which, in fact, they are. According to one source (see page 87), these were the first burials made in this cemetery. It’s sobering and sad to see such a contrast here: mere feet away from one another, an effort was made to preserve the memory of one person while the memories of a dozen other human beings have probably been lost.
A few feet in another direction from Manning’s grave is that of his son, Mark Manning, Jr. He is one of Manning, Sr.’s sons who fought in the Texas Revolution and received a land grant from the Republic of Texas, signed by President Sam Houston. I checked the 1858 map of Walker County but could not find land listed in his name. I did, however, find a plot of land owned by a S. Manning, whom I assume is either his brother or a descendent. Mark Manning, Jr.’s land grant certificate is viewable in the Rice Digital Scholarship Archive. If you read it, you may notice that the land is listed in Montgomery County. Walker County was formed from Montgomery County in 1846, whereas the grant was given in 1844.
Toward the back of the cemetery, I found this marker:
According to the Mexican-American War roster maintained by The TXGenWeb Project, James Anderson Brimberry fought in the Mexican-American War in the First Regiment of Texas Mounted Rifle Volunteers, better known as Hays’s Texas Rangers. I’m a little fuzzy on the dates of service, though. The roster shows him serving from April until August of 1947, so he may have actually served in the second regiment. It seems clear that, one way another, he did serve in the war.
I’ve saved the best for last. Located near the entrance of the cemetery, this grave marker stands out from most of the rest:
Ovie and Dunk Brimberry. Such interesting names! But aside from that, Ovie lived to be 99! She passed in 1983. Sadly, her husband passed away when they were both fairly young. I felt that there had to be an interesting story here and considering that there are people alive today who might have known Ovie, I reasoned that some information might exist somewhere on the web. After a little digging I found a biography about Ovie written by her daughter, Reba Brimberry Stewart. It’s buried down about three-quarters of the way through the linked article, but it’s definitely worth a read. Here are some of the highlights:
Ovie was born October 30, 1883 in Plasterville, Texas, which was named for her grandfather, Thomas Pliney Plaster, who owned a plantation in the area and was the community’s first postmaster. Plasterville is an older name for Bedias, which I have mentioned in other posts. Her family was poor, but she and her siblings were talented musicians. Her father went blind, so they traveled about the countryside performing to make money.
During her travels she met and fell in love with Dunk Brimberry. They married in 1906. Dunk’s father gave them 50 acres, which they cleared and farmed. (I assume that the land was located somewhere fairly close to the present location of the cemetery.) They had one child, Reba, in 1913. Dunk passed away in 1916 from “yellow jaundice.”
Ovie’s mother, Amanda, came to live with her and Reba. Together they farmed and raised hogs (Amanda was a noted hog caller). During this time Ovie learned carpentry by doing work around her house and began boarding oil well hands who worked nearby.
When Reba was nine, they moved to nearby Huntsville where Ovie rented the Royal Cafe, located at the intersection of 11th Street and Avenue K (now called University Avenue). Later, she ran a boarding house across the street from the old jail on Avenue K (about half a block from the cafe). Working and living in town made it easier for Reba to attend school. Reba married Raymond Stewart in 1933.
The Great Depression hit the cafe hard, and Ovie closed down her businesses in town and moved to a community called Ten Mile Spring, located north of Huntsville. There, at the age of 49 she resumed farming. She also sold cemetery monuments, which were installed by her son-in-law, and started an upholstery business. She upholstered her last piece of furniture at the age of 90!
Ovie passed away just seven months shy of her 100th birthday and was laid to rest next to her beloved husband, Dunk.
Now, if that isn’t a great life story, then I don’t know what is. I can only hope that I’ve had half the impact that Ovie had on those around her.
One other note that I’d like to make is that Dunk Brimberry’s father was a James Brimberry–not the same James I mentioned above. Although I cannot find a direct link between James Anderson and Dunk’s father, I have to wonder if maybe the younger was named for the older.
Another note I’d like to make is that, if you are at the Manning-Brimberry Cemetery and need to use the restroom (and you are desperate enough), there is an outhouse located in the back corner of the cemetery. Just watch out for wasps.
When we finished exploring the cemetery, we got back into the truck and headed out. It was a fun and very unexpected experience. This little cemetery out in the middle of nowhere turned up a lot of interesting history, and what I have listed here I am sure just scratches the surface.
We visited one other cemetery today. Everything is still in order. Hopefully Patrick’s memory will be preserved.
