Live Oak Cemetery
Manchaca, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The original four-acre section of this cemetry included land donated by James M. Turley (1816-83) and Andrew Jackson Hammett (1829-1907). The oldest grave is that of Turley's daughter, Tennessee Belle Hart, and her baby, who died on Aug. 27, 1874. A community church, erected near the burial ground in 1874, also housed a school from 1877 to about 1886. Pioneers in this area gathered each summer for a 10-day long camp meeting held under an adjacent brush arbor. Live Oak Cemetery was enlarged in 1948, when Herman Heep gave an additional 11.06 acres. The site contains about 1600 graves. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The original four acres of this burial ground included land donated by pioneers James M. Turley and Andrew Jackson Hammett, its oldest grave that of Turley's daughter and her baby, who died in 1874. A community church built nearby that same year doubled as a school from 1877 to about 1886, and settlers gathered each summer for ten-day camp meetings under an adjacent brush arbor. Enlarged by an eleven-acre gift from Herman Heep in 1948, the cemetery now holds about 1,600 graves.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the memory of the pioneer families who settled this corner of Central Texas and the church, school, and camp meetings that bound their frontier community together.
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Related people
- ยท James M. Turley
- ยท Andrew Jackson Hammett
- ยท Herman Heep
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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