Parks Springs Cemetery is a place of tribute and memory, connecting the African-American community of Manor with their past. On this ground, Monday, January 3, 1881 at Galaway road (now Old Lockwood Road) near the Manor & Webberville road (now Blake-Manor Road); two Reverends, Alonzo L. Johnson and Jessie Shackles along with six Christian members, brothers Moses Brooks, P. Arnold, C. Parks and M.
McCarthen, like-minded in their love for the Lord Jesus Christ, assembled together to form a new church. Six years later, on Monday, September 12, 1887, following negotiations and raising the necessary funds, Brother Joseph Cunningham purchased that very same one acre plat for $25 dollars cash from landowner Addison Earldom Lane for the sole purpose of constructing their church building out of his sixty acre parcel. In need of a burial ground, church trustees; Reverend Alonzo L. Johnson, Alfred Raney and John Wadkins entered into a contract with Claus Johan Anderson and his wife, Johannah Sophia Anderson to purchase twenty-five acres of land adjoining the existing church property for the sum of $250 dollars on October 10, 1893. On New Years day 1898, three gentlemen representing the Manor Lumber Company advanced church trustees; Reverend Dallas G.W. Cunningham, Peter Dewitty and C.W. Hodge the $400 dollars in material and lumber they needed to construct what would become Parks Springs Baptist Church and their cornerstone (still extant) was laid. God's church still stands today after 141 years. Historical Note: The land in which the church ground is situated was carved out of an original Republic of Texas land grant (Certificate No.161 issued by the Board of Land Commissioners for the County of Bastrop, File 414 - February 3, 1838 / Land Patent April 14, 1841) issued as bounty and compensation to the widow and heirs of Gordon Cartwright Jennings (1782-1836) who came to Texas in 1835 from Connecticut. He died on March 6, 1836 defending the Alamo.
