Old Centerview Cemetery
Pineland, Sabine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Sabine County is one of the oldest settlement areas in the state. The farming community of Centerview, which dates to the 1840s, supported a stagecoach station, post office, general store, church and school. There are at least a dozen unmarked or undated gravesites in this community cemetery, but the oldest marked grave dates to 1899 and the interment of a baby, Merle Taylor. Other burials include leaders of the community and generations of area families, as well as veterans of conflicts including the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Cemetery features include wooden markers, curbed plots and an elaborate arched entryway. In 1968, Centerview Methodist Church conveyed this land to the newly formed Centerview Cemetery Association. Today, the association holds an annual workday for descendants of early Centerview residents, who come together to preserve their community's history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2003
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In one of Texas's oldest settled regions, the farming community of Centerview took root in the 1840s around a stagecoach stop, post office, store, church, and school. Its community cemetery holds a dozen or more unmarked graves alongside the oldest dated burial — an infant, Merle Taylor, laid to rest in 1899 — plus community leaders and veterans of every war from the Civil War through Vietnam. Wooden markers, curbed plots, and an arched entryway survive, tended each year by descendants.
Why it matters
A rural burial ground like this preserves the memory of an entire vanished community, tracing the lives and losses of ordinary East Texas families across a century and a half.
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Related people
- · Merle Taylor
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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