Fairview Cemetery
Center, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1901, Fairview Cemetery was added as the City of Center's second oldest cemetery to augment burial plots for the first cemetery, the First United Methodist Church Cemetery (est. 1866). Fairview Cemetery Association was formed in 1901 with the following members: B.F. Bridges, A.R. Chandler, W.B. Downer, O.L. McKnight, John C. Rogers, John Sanders, and J.F. Willis. Land was purchased by the association for the cemetery from Allen R. Chandler, who had procured several pieces of land from the headright survey of Jesse Amason by way of James C. Wilson and his wife, Margaret Ann Davis. The first burial was in 1902 for Kate Crisp Ricks, one of the early promoters of the new cemetery. Many early civic leaders who assisted in the growth of the new city of Center and their families are buried in Fairview Cemetery. Some of the names include: R.L. (Bob) Parker, who brought the county records from Shelbyville to Center to establish the county seat; several Drs. Hurst, the family for whom Hurstown, south of Shelbyville, was named; Judge Richard S. Bryarly and his wife, Panzie Annie Rennick Bryarly, the first female member of the Texas Press Association, who was instrumental in organizing the Center Women's Reading Club in 1896; Roy R. Loving, a photographer of many early portraits and renderings of the downtown Center square; Richard Gathright Maury and his mother, Mrs. Virginia Gathright Maury; Dr. Laried Stephen Oates, Sr., and Dr. Laried Stephen Oates, Jr.; and W.A. Bridges, son of B.F. Bridges. Many tall and striking monuments can be found in this cemetery as well as a beautiful white gazebo in the center of the main drive through the cemetery. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1901 to add burial space alongside the older Methodist churchyard, Fairview became Center's second-oldest cemetery, organized by a seven-member association that bought land tracing back to the Jesse Amason headright survey. Kate Crisp Ricks, an early promoter of the project, was the first buried here in 1902. Its monuments mark many of the civic leaders who built the young town—among them Panzie Annie Rennick Bryarly, the first female member of the Texas Press Association—beneath tall memorials and a white gazebo at the cemetery's heart.
Why it matters
Fairview Cemetery gathers the founders of a growing East Texas county seat, including trailblazing women, into a single record of the town's making.
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Related people
- · Kate Crisp Ricks
- · Panzie Annie Rennick Bryarly
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Christian Church of Center
Center, TX
Formed in 1856, First Christian Church of Center is among the oldest congregations in Shelby County, gathered by a group of founding families who first worshipped in a house in the Pleasant Grove community. The church erected its first building in 1886 and called its first pastor in 1893 after years of lay leadership. Its present sanctuary, built in 1905, was moved to this site in 1930, and its fellowship still counts descendants of the original charter members.
Shelby County Courthouse
Center, TX
Irish-born architect J.J.E. Gibson designed this striking Romanesque Revival courthouse to resemble a castle, building it between 1883 and 1885. The site's records had arrived under dramatic circumstances in 1866, secretly spirited away from Shelbyville after a contested election named Center the county seat. Among the notable cases tried here was an 1896 land dispute involving the heirs of Sydney O. Penington, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Shelby County
Center, TX
This corner of East Texas lay within the lawless 'neutral ground' between 1803 and 1819 before Anglo-American settlement began in the 1820s, first organized as the district and then municipality of Tenehaw. Renamed in 1836 to honor Revolutionary War officer Isaac Shelby, the county sent delegates to Texas's early conventions and soldiers to San Jacinto, and its seat moved from Shelbyville to Center in 1866. From 1841 to 1844 it was torn by the Regulator-Moderator Feud, a bloody vigilante conflict finally ended when Republic of Texas troops under Gen. James Smith restored order.
The First Battle
Center, TX
This marks the vicinity of the first clash in the Regulator-Moderator War, a bitter feud that convulsed Shelby County from 1841 to 1844 in the days of the Republic of Texas. What began as a quarrel between rival factions escalated into an unorganized war of ambush and reprisal, ending only when General James Smith led Texas forces in to restore order in August 1844—reportedly without firing a gun.