Old Center Cemetery

The Handbook of Texas says James Rowe and his brother opened a tannery called Rowe's Tan Yard in the Old Center area, and that Rowe deeded land in 1856 for a school, a church and a cemetery. The original log church gave way to a frame building around 1900. By 1906 the school had two teachers and 46 students, and in the 1940s it was consolidated with the Carthage school. The reported population was 30 in 1936 and 83 in 1990.

What the plaque says

Old Center Cemetery 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

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tex Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame — 14 mi
  Carthage's country music museum, with Tex Ritter's boots, guitars and saddles in a room styled like a movie theater, and exhibits on other Texas stars, Jim Reeves among them.

More markers nearby

• James Rowe — steps away
• Woods New Hope Baptist Church — 3.5 mi
• Site of Town of Spivey, 1870s-1900 — 4.0 mi
• B. F. Morris and the Town of Joaquin — 8.2 mi