The Manry family originally emigrated from England to Georgia and thence to Tennessee. The great-grandfather of W. T. Manry was familiarly known as Jack Manry and was first representative of the name in this country. One of his sons was Edward Manry, a native of Georgia, and the latter had a son who was called Richard and who was born in McMinn county, Tennessee, in 1828. He was the father of W. T. Manry of this review and he left Tennessee in 1861, making his way to Missouri, residing in the southern part of that state until 1876. He then removed to Texas, locating in Denton county and he died there in the fall of 1887. He was a farmer by occupation, devoting his entire life to general agricultural pursuits. In McMinn county, Tennessee, about 1851 or 1852, he married to Miss Mary Jane Rue, a native of that state. She is still living and makes her home in Snyder, Texas. In their family there were nine children, five sons and four daughters, who lived to maturity. The eldest son is now deceased, but the others yet survive.
William Taylor Manry, son of Richard and Mary Jane Manry, was born in McMinn county, Tennessee, November 26, 1857. He spent his boyhood days on his father’s farm and removed to Texas, coming to the latter state in 1876 when nineteen years of age. His educational privileges were very limited and the only opportunities in that direction that he enjoyed were offered by the common country schools. When twenty-one years of age he arranged with his father and raised a crop upon his father’s place. In fact he carried on farming in this way for two years, when he purchased a tract of land in the same neighborhood in Denton county and there devoted his attention to farming until 1889.
On the 6th of August, 1886, Mr. Manry was married to Miss Mary Louisa Liggon, a native of Titus county, Texas, and a daughter of James Liggon. They have but one child, Lillian Louise, born January 23, 1890, in Scurry county, the parents having removed to this county the previous year. They located at Snyder, where Mr. Manry, in connection with his brother, J. R. Manry, opened a grocery store. They conducted the business together for five years, when in 1894, Mr. Manry purchased his brother’s interest and continued the trade alone for the succeeding four years. In 1898 he added a stock of dry goods, and a year later closed out the grocery department, putting in a full line of dry goods. His business has constantly increased until at the present time, in order to meet the growing demands of the trade, he carries the largest stock of goods between Abilene and El Paso.
Mr. Manry is an enterprising citizen of Snyder who has witnessed almost the entire development of the town and has for the last sixteen years taken an active part in supporting and promoting any enterprise tending to the public good. In business matters he has been eminently successful and is rated with the wealthy men of this immediate section. The lessons which he learned in early life—lessons of industry, perseverance and determination—have been of inestimable value to him in all of his dealings in later years, and by strict economy and diligent attention to his business, even to the minutest detail, he has steadily worked his way upward until he ranks today with the most prosperous business men of this part of the state. His life record offers a splendid example to the young men who would win success, for his career proves that prosperity and an honored name may be gained simultaneously. He has lost but twenty-one days from business during his sixteen years residence in Snyder and is now in control of one of the largest mercantile houses of western Texas. His methods neither seek nor require disguise but have been wrought out along original lines that indicate his excellent judgment, keen foresight and ready adaptability.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 467-468.
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