Mull Cemetery
Center, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. James Allen and John M. Mull, brothers who married sisters Rebecca and Mary Dempsey, respectively, brought their families here from Alabama in 1894. In Mar. 1896, Mary died of smallpox at age 34. Interment in the city cemetery was denied for fear of contamination, so Y. W. Rogers offered a burial place on his land on the San Augustine road. In 1901, John Mull bought two acres from Rogers and organized a trusteeship for Center South Cemetery (later Mull Cemetery). John, James and Rebecca are also buried here among at least ten family members; some graves are unmarked, with the latest believed to be from 1936. In 1956, the city of Center took over care of Mull Cemetery, a reminder of a family who brought their traditions to Texas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Brothers James Allen and John M. Mull brought their families from Alabama to Shelby County in 1894, only to lose John's wife Mary to smallpox two years later. Fear of contagion barred her from the city cemetery, so a neighbor offered a burial spot on his land along the San Augustine road, and in 1901 John Mull bought the ground and organized what became Mull Cemetery. The family and at least ten relatives lie here, a small graveyard the city of Center has maintained since 1956.
Why it matters
The cemetery's origin in a smallpox death and a denied burial captures how disease and community fear shaped frontier life, and how one family's grief created a lasting local landmark.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. James Allen Mull
- · John M. Mull
- · Mary Dempsey Mull
- · Y.W. Rogers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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.
Fairview Cemetery
Center, TX
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.
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.
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.