Norman

Norman is at the intersection of Farm Roads 3349 and 1660, seven miles southwest of Taylor in southwestern Williamson County. The initial settlement was called Avery, after Texas Revolution veteran Willis Avery, who settled there around 1850. The Avery school became known as Kimbro and was later called Walnut Springs. In 1903 the Walnut Springs school had fifty-four students. A black school, Svenson's Grove, was located west of the community. M. B. (Mart) Norman bought a farm at the site of the present community in 1880 and later erected a gin there; the place was then called Norman's Crossing. Norman also ran a store, and his son Isaac added a garage and machine shop in 1914. A Methodist church, Robinson's Chapel, was built nearby. The estimated population rose from twenty-five in the 1930s to sixty during the 1940s. The number of residents then declined and was estimated at twenty from 1952 to 2000. In the mid-1980s the school building served as a church and community center, and a restaurant occupied the renovated garage.