Center Point Cemetery
Center Point, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The earliest known settlers in this area were Mrs. Elizabeth Denton and her children and slaves, who arrived in 1852. They were joined in 1858 by the family of Dr. Charles Ganahl, who named the new community Zanzenberg, after his hometown in Austria. The town became known as Center Point in 1872, and settlers continued to moved into the area. In 1872 land was purchased for a church and cemetery on this site, and in 1881 two acres were added to the property to enlarge the cemetery. The church was moved off the property, and another land acquisition in 1901 increased the cemetery property to 5.3 acres. Approximately 1,452 graves have been located here. The oldest marked burial is that of Lydia Burney (1795-1875). Many early pioneers and community leaders are buried here, as well as 32 Texas Rangers, whose names are: W. D. C.Burney; N. Coldwell; J. A. Gibbens; H. T. Hill; F. L. Holloway; R. J. Irving, Sr.; R. J. Lange; J. H. Lane; S. T. Lane, Jr.; T. Lane; M. A. Lowrance; J. L. McElroy; S. G. McElroy; A. S. Moore; F. M. Moore; G. K. Moore; G.R. Moore; G. W. Moore; H. C. Moore; James Moore; J. T. Moore; M. F. Moore; D. C. Nowlin; J. C. Nowlin; R. W. Nowlin; P. Alonzo Rees; N. O. Reynolds; W. H. Rishworth; J. L. Sellars; A. J. Sowell; W. H. Witt; S. G. Wray. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The land around Center Point drew its first settlers in the 1850s, including Dr. Charles Ganahl, who named the early community Zanzenberg after his Austrian hometown before it became Center Point in 1872. That same year land was set aside here for a church and cemetery, which grew over the decades to more than five acres and some 1,452 graves. Among the pioneers and community leaders buried here rest 32 Texas Rangers, an unusually dense gathering of the frontier lawmen.
Why it matters
With dozens of Texas Rangers among its dead, Center Point Cemetery is a rare concentrated memorial to the men who policed and defended the violent Hill Country frontier.
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Related people
- · Charles Ganahl
- · Elizabeth Denton
- · Lydia Burney
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
N.O. Reynolds
Center Point, TX
Pennsylvania-born and a Union veteran of the Civil War, Nelson Orcelus Reynolds enlisted as a Texas Ranger in 1874 and quickly made his name, capturing the Horrell brothers and brokering a peace to end their feud with the Higgins faction—a feat that won him command of the newly formed Company E. He was later charged with jailing and guarding the notorious gunman John Wesley Hardin for trial. After leaving the Rangers in 1879 he served as Lampasas County sheriff and settled in Center Point, where he died in 1922.
Center Point Christian Church
Center Point, TX
Founded in 1879 by traveling Kentucky minister Green L. Surber, this Disciples of Christ congregation grew alongside the frontier settlement of Center Point during a broader campaign to strengthen faith across a growing Texas. After the first building burned in 1888, the community rebuilt in 1892 with materials hauled from San Antonio and Kerrville. In the 1920s its members helped establish the Guadalupe River retreat known as Camp Christian, later shared with a Jewish youth camp and other groups.
Center Point United Methodist Church
Center Point, TX
Methodism reached this Hill Country spot before the town did: in 1852 Mrs. Henrietta Rees arrived from Tennessee and arranged for circuit riders to preach in the area. A congregation bought land in 1872, built an early church house around 1876, and after a storm toppled one building under construction, the men of the congregation completed the present structure in 1911. The church's story runs parallel to the founding of Center Point itself.
Woolls Building
Center Point, TX
Built of limestone in 1873–75 by stonemason Sam H. Wellborn, the Woolls Building housed George W. Woolls's mercantile business and is one of Center Point's oldest surviving commercial structures. Its full-width balcony and exterior staircase led to an upper floor where fraternal groups gathered, including a Masonic lodge that counted several Texas Rangers among its members. For most of its life the ground floor kept up the town's retail trade.