Norman's Crossing

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Williamson County, there's a place with two names and one good story. It starts with a settlement called Avery, planted in the mid-1800s by a man named Daniel Kimbro, a veteran of the Mexican War and a pioneer of this very county.

Kimbro put down roots, and a small farming community grew up around that choice. That was the beginning. But beginnings have a way of giving way to something else.

The community's second chapter belongs to M. B. Norman, who came to the area from Alabama in 1872.

Norman was born in 1856 and would live until 1921, and in the years between he made himself a fixture of this land. He farmed a large tract along Brushy Creek, which is honest, necessary work. But Norman didn't stop there.

He and a man named M. R. Kennedy built and operated the local cotton gin together.

Now a cotton gin in a farming community is not a small thing. It sits at the center of everything. And somewhere along the way, the old name Avery faded, and folks started calling the place Norman's Crossing.

By 1914, the village had grown into something worth boasting about. A general store. A school.

A church. And, showing you this was a community keeping up with the times, a garage and machine shop. That last one tells you the world was changing, and Norman's Crossing was changing right along with it.

The story doesn't end cold, either. Descendants of some of those original settlers still live in the area today. The names may shift, the seasons keep turning, but some roots go deep enough that nothing pulls them loose.

What the marker says

The settlement of Avery was established in the mid-1800s by Daniel Kimbro, veteran of the Mexican War and Williamson County pioneer. The small farming community later was known as Norman's Crossing after pioneer M. B. Norman (1856-1921) who came to the area from Alabama in 1872. Besides farming a large tract of land along Brushy Creek, Norman, along with M. R. Kennedy, built and operated the local cotton gin. By 1914 the village boasted a general store, school, church, and a garage and machine shop. Descendants of some of the settler still live in the area. (1982)