DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The place you're passing near used to be called Center Point — straightforward name, honest name, the kind early settlers gave a spot when they figured it was, well, the center of things. But Center Point wouldn't stay Center Point forever.
In 1900, the U.S. Government granted a request to establish a post office here, and with that came a new name: Palava. A woman named Stella A.
Daniel — member of a pioneer Fisher County family — stepped in as the town's first postmaster. That's how Palava announced itself to the world. Through the mail.
In the early 1900s, settlers kept comin', and Palava grew into a cotton marketing center. At its peak, this place had homes, four churches, a school, and a full spread of businesses — a cotton gin, retail stores, a blacksmith shop, a barber shop, and a cafe. You could get your horse shod and your hair cut and sit down for a meal all in the same afternoon.
That's a town with some ambition. Now, out here in Palava Cemetery, the oldest documented burials date to 1893. But here's the thing — it's believed there are unmarked graves reaching back as far as 1855.
Names nobody recorded. Stories nobody kept. The cemetery holds veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam.
And buried among them is Charles Byrd, who died in 1912, having served as a Texas Ranger in the Frontier Battalion back in the 1870s. The kind of man the frontier chewed up and spit out — or didn't. In 1954, the Palava School was consolidated with the Sweetwater School District, and after that, the community began to decline.
The homes went quiet. The businesses closed. The four churches stopped calling folks in on Sunday mornings.
Today, the Palava Cemetery is the only physical reminder of a once thriving town. The town that started as Center Point, became Palava, boomed on cotton and community, and then slowly returned to the prairie — leaving only its dead to mark the spot and tell you something was here.
What the marker says
Originally named Center Point, the town of Palava traces its history to early settlement in this area in the late 1870s. It was renamed when the U.S. Government granted a request to establish a post office here in 1900. Stella A. Daniel, member of a pioneer Fisher County family, served as the town's first postmaster. As more settlers arrived in the early 1900s, the town grew into a cotton marketing center. At its peak Palava boasted homes, four churches, a school, and such businesses as a cotton gin, retail stores, blacksmith shop, barber shop, and cafe. Although the oldest documented burials in the Palava Cemetery date to 1893, it is believed there are unmarked graves from as early as 1855. Interments include those of veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. Also buried here is Charles Byrd (d. 1912), who served as a Texas Ranger in the Frontier Battalion in the 1870s. After the Palava School was consolidated with the Sweetwater School District in 1954, the community began to decline. The Palava Cemetery is now the only physical reminder of a once thriving town. It serves as a memorial to the area's pioneers. (1990)