On February 23, 1854, William C. McKinney, James W. Throckmorton, John A. Throckmorton, and Joseph Wilcox set aside twenty-five acres for the town of Mantua, conceived as a site for Mantua Seminary, with proceeds from town lot sales funding the school. The town plat contained forty-eight city blocks around a town square, and deeds for lots prohibited gambling, horse racing, prostitution, and the sale of alcohol to help ensure a proper environment for the school. Mantua Lodge No. 209 A.F. & A.M. organized in 1857 and first met on the second story of Walcott's store. A post office was established in 1858, with E.B. Rollins as the first postmaster. On October 21, 1858, McKinney, James W. Throckmorton, and Wilcox met with citizens to establish rules for the co-educational Mantua Seminary, and a building was constructed just outside town for the seminary and the Masonic Lodge. Classes first met in 1860, and by 1868 eighty pupils were enrolled. Liberty Christian Church had been established in 1846, and a Methodist congregation formed the next year. In 1872 the Houston and Texas Central Railroad laid tracks about 1.5 miles east of Mantua, and the new town of Van Alstyne formed along the tracks. Almost immediately, Mantua's residents and businesses relocated there. The post office closed in 1873, the seminary last held classes during the early 1880s, and the churches moved to neighboring towns. Today, only Mantua Cemetery and Mantua Road remain as symbols of the vanished community.