DUANE
Duane's take
The way this marker tells it, here's what you need to know about Old Center Cemetery — and I'll give it to you straight. Back in 1856, a man named James Rowe donated the land that would become the Old Center Cemetery. The marker calls him a community pioneer, and it also calls him something weightier than that — a veteran of the Texas War for Independence.
So when Rowe set aside that ground, he wasn't just a neighbor doing a neighborly thing. He was a man who'd lived through something, and he understood that a community needs a place to put its dead. Now, Rowe himself is buried there.
His grave is dated 1868, and it stands as one of the oldest in the cemetery. But here's the thing that catches you sideways — the very earliest marked grave doesn't belong to Rowe at all. That distinction goes to Arminta C.
Cash, whose marked grave dates from 1865. Earlier on the stone, later in the ground. History has a way of doing that.
Today, Old Center Cemetery holds about four hundred marked burial sites. And then there are the unmarked graves — the marker doesn't put a number on those, and maybe that's fitting. Some folks passed through this world without leaving a name on stone, but they're there.
The cemetery is described as one of the few physical reminders of the Old Center community itself — which tells you something about how thoroughly time can erase a place while leaving only its dead behind. And the Rowe family? They didn't walk away after that first donation in 1856.
Over the years, the descendants of James Rowe have continued giving acreage to enlarge the cemetery's boundaries. A pioneer donates the land. His people keep giving it.
That's a long promise, kept quiet, kept steady — out here in Panola County where the pines grow thick and the old names run deep.
What the marker says
In 1856, land for the Old Center Cemetery was first donated by James Rowe, a community pioneer and a veteran of the Texas War for Independence. Rowe's grave, dated 1868, is one of the oldest in the cemetery. The earliest marked grave, that of Arminta C. Cash, dates from 1865. One of the few physical reminders of the Old Center community, the graveyard contains several unmarked graves and about 400 marked burial sites. Over the years, the descendants of the original land donor have given acreage to enlarge the boundaries of the cemetery. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986