Fairview Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Fairview Cemetery has to say, so take it straight from the record. Now, every town worth its salt in Texas has a cemetery that holds its story better than any courthouse ever could. Center, Texas, in Shelby County, has one that dates to 1901, and if you want to understand how a city plants its roots, you could do a lot worse than walking through Fairview Cemetery on a quiet afternoon.

The story begins a little earlier, back in 1866, when the First United Methodist Church Cemetery was established as Center's first burying ground. By 1901, that original cemetery needed help keeping up with a growing city, and so Fairview Cemetery was established to serve as the second oldest cemetery in Center, augmenting what the first could no longer do alone. Seven men formed the Fairview Cemetery Association in 1901 to make it official.

Their names were B.F. Bridges, A.R. Chandler, W.B.

Downer, O.L. McKnight, John C. Rogers, John Sanders, and J.F.

Willis. That's the founding council of this place, right there. Seven names that put their hands to something meant to last.

The land itself had a history before it became a cemetery. The association purchased it from Allen R. Chandler.

Chandler 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. Layer upon layer of Texas land transfer, the way it always goes, land passing through hands until it finds its purpose.

Now, you might wonder who was first to be laid to rest in this new ground. That was Kate Crisp Ricks, in 1902. And here's the quiet irony the marker wants you to know: Kate Crisp Ricks had been one of the early promoters of the new cemetery.

She believed in this place before it was needed. And then she became its first. The people who followed her in that ground read like the working biography of Center itself.

R.L. Parker, known as Bob, was the man who brought the county records from Shelbyville to Center to establish the county seat. That's not a small thing.

Carrying those records meant carrying the authority of Shelby County from one place to another, and Center became what it became in part because of that journey. There are several Drs. Hurst buried there as well, a family the marker notes as the one for whom Hurstown, south of Shelbyville, was named.

Judge Richard S. Bryarly rests at Fairview, and beside him his wife, Panzie Annie Rennick Bryarly. Now, Panzie Annie is somebody worth slowing down for.

She was the first female member of the Texas Press Association, and she was instrumental in organizing the Center Women's Reading Club in 1896. In a time when such memberships and such organizing took a particular kind of determination, her presence in those institutions was not incidental. Roy R.

Loving, a photographer who captured many early portraits and renderings of the downtown Center square, is buried there too. The man who preserved the visual memory of a young city now rests in its oldest memories. Richard Gathright Maury and his mother, Mrs.

Virginia Gathright Maury, are there. So are Dr. Laried Stephen Oates, Sr., and Dr.

Laried Stephen Oates, Jr. And W.A. Bridges, son of B.F.

Bridges, one of those original seven men who formed the association and helped bring the whole place into being. The marker tells you there are many tall and striking monuments throughout this cemetery, and a beautiful white gazebo standing at the center of the main drive. Something put there not for the dead, but for the living who come to remember.

Fairview Cemetery has been holding Center's story since 1901. The gazebo stands. The monuments rise.

And the names of the people who built a city are still right there, carved in the Texas stone, waiting on anyone curious enough to stop and read them.

What the marker says

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