Westview Cemetery
Center, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Situated in the east Texas hills of Shelby County, the Westview Cemetery is the final resting place for some of the area’s newly freed slaves after the civil war. After emancipation, many African Americans that chose to remain in the area worked as tenant farmers, sharecroppers or worked jobs as available. Soon, they started businesses and established churches and a school. At the time, there was no official cemetery for the black citizens as they were typically buried near former owners or near a black church. The date of the first burial in an area known as union grave yard is not recorded as many original grave markers are lost. It is believed that the first burial was Jane Chumley Miller, a former slave in San Augustine County. The oldest remaining marker is located at the grave of Charlie Carroll from 1909. Many veterans, educators, preachers, deacons and business men and women are buried here. Garfield Richard, supposedly the personal cook to Gen. John Joseph Pershing during WWI, is buried here along with Chatman H. Daniels and R.M. brown, both former principals of the center colored school. In 1912, an official cemetery committee formed and bought four acres of land encompassing the cemetery. More land was acquired in 1970 and 2006. The cemetery was renamed when residents decided that due to its location from the surrounding churches, the old union cemetery would now be called Westview. Funeral home records also refer to the burial ground as Center Colored Cemetery. This historic cemetery remains a testament to the African-American community in center.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the hills of Shelby County, Westview Cemetery became the resting place for African Americans freed after the Civil War, many of whom stayed on as tenant farmers and sharecroppers while building their own businesses, churches, and a school. Long known as the Union Grave Yard and later Center Colored Cemetery, its earliest recorded burial is thought to be Jane Chumley Miller, a former slave, and its oldest surviving marker dates to 1909. Educators, preachers, and business people lie here, including a man said to have cooked for Gen. John J. Pershing during World War I.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a tangible record of an emancipated Black community's determination to establish its own institutions and dignified burial ground in the Reconstruction-era South.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Jane Chumley Miller
- · Charlie Carroll
- · Garfield Richard
- · Chatman H. Daniels
- · R.M. Brown
Related events
- · Emancipation
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
McWilliams Cemetery
Shelbyville, TX
Long known as Wayfare and later McWilliams Graveyard, this cemetery served Todd Springs, a community named for a local landowner and springs that was largely populated by African Americans. Before the Civil War the area held plantations; afterward, freedmen farmed the land and built up a thriving community with businesses, a school, and a lodge before the population thinned in the 1930s and 1940s. Its graves—marked by obelisks, slabs, and Masonic markers—hold farmers, preachers, teachers, and community leaders, and it is maintained today by a cemetery association.
County Line Baptist Church and Cemetery
Geneva, TX
County Line Baptist Church grew out of the Freedmen's community of Weeks Quarters soon after the Civil War, first meeting in homes before Rev. M. McBerry led members in building a frame sanctuary in 1868 that doubled as a schoolhouse. Named for its site near the Sabine–San Augustine county line, the congregation relocated to Hankla beside the County Line Cemetery in 1885 and moved again to this location in 1944. It still draws worshipers from across both counties.
Cedar Grove Baptist Church
Milam, TX
Established around 1890 on land granted in 1830, Cedar Grove was among the first African American Baptist churches in Sabine County. After moving to its present location in 1904, the congregation's building doubled as a school for Black students by 1915, making it a cornerstone of education and community support in the era of segregation.
Sardis School
Center, TX
When the W.R. Pickering Lumber Co. donated four acres in 1917, the community of Sardis got a school of its own, sparing children the long trip to Hughes School. The white frame building held four rooms and grades one through nine, and its students played baseball, basketball, and volleyball against neighboring towns. Consolidation sent pupils to Center in 1956, and the schoolhouse was razed in the 1960s—but the education it gave lived on in local memory.