Name: Center Point, Texas
Address: Center Point, TX

The Rangers' Own Arlington RoadyGoat

1872

The land here was bought for a church and cemetery in 1872, expanded in 1881 and again in 1901 to about 5.3 acres. Roughly 1,452 graves have been located, the oldest being Lydia Burney, who was born in 1795. But the cemetery's fame rests on who else lies here: its 1986 state marker lists 32 known Texas Rangers, an extraordinary concentration for one small country graveyard. The Hill Country was a favorite retirement spot, so Rangers settled nearby and were laid to rest among their own, until being buried here became a tradition. Among them is Andrew Jackson Sowell, the frontier scout who wrote 'Rangers and Pioneers of Texas,' and Captain N.O. Reynolds, 'the Intrepid,' who helped end the Horrell-Higgins feud. Writers have called it the unofficial Arlington of the Texas Rangers.

The Town That Named Itself the Middle RoadyGoat

1859

Center Point sits on the Guadalupe River about eight miles southeast of Kerrville, and its name is a plain statement of geography. In 1859 Charles de Ganahl opened a post office inside his home on the north bank and called it Zanzenburg, after his ancestral home in the Austrian Tyrol. The mouthful never stuck. When the post office moved to the south side of the river in 1872, new postmaster Dr. G.W. Harwell renamed it Center Point. His reasoning was mathematical: the settlement sat roughly halfway between Kerrville and Comfort, and also roughly halfway between Fredericksburg and Bandera. By 1900 the little river town held about 500 people, with churches, schools, and a reputation as a health and recreation resort in the clear Hill Country air.

The Bald Conifer Guarding the River RoadyGoat

1000

The giant trees leaning over the Guadalupe at Center Point are bald cypress, and they are stranger than they look. Bald cypress is a conifer, a cone-bearing cousin of pines and firs, yet it drops its needles every fall, turning rust-orange before going bare, which is where the name comes from. It thrives with its roots in flowing water and has reportedly reached ages of 800 to 1,200 years. Around the trunks you may spot woody cones called knees, thought to help support the tree and possibly aerate its submerged roots. Center Point sits near the western edge of the story: the bald cypress native range peters out here on the Edwards Plateau, following the clear, spring-fed streams as far as the dependable water reaches, then stopping where the Hill Country turns dry.

Camp Verde - U.S. Camel Corps

1856

Camp Verde was the headquarters of the U.S. Army's experimental Camel Corps in the 1850s, where imported camels were tested for military desert transportation.

4.9 mi away

Center Point Cemetery

1872

The earliest known settlers in this area were Mrs. Elizabeth Denton and her children and slaves, who arrived in 1852. They were joined in 1858 by the family of Dr. Charles Ganahl, who named the new community Zanzenberg, after his hometown in Austria. The town became known as Center Point in 1872, and settlers continued to moved into the area. In 1872 land was purchased for a church and cemetery on this site, and in 1881 two acres were added to the property to enlarge the cemetery. The church was moved off the property, and another land acquisition in 1901 increased the cemetery property to 5.3 acres. Approximately 1,452 graves have been located here. The oldest marked burial is that of Lydia Burney (1795-1875). Many early pioneers and community leaders are buried here, as well as 32 Texas Rangers, whose names are: W. D. C.Burney; N. Coldwell; J. A. Gibbens; H. T. Hill; F. L. Holloway; R. J. Irving, Sr.; R. J. Lange; J. H. Lane; S. T. Lane, Jr.; T. Lane; M. A. Lowrance; J. L. McElroy; S. G. McElroy; A. S. Moore; F. M. Moore; G. K. Moore; G.R. Moore; G. W. Moore; H. C. Moore; James Moore; J. T. Moore; M. F. Moore; D. C. Nowlin; J. C. Nowlin; R. W. Nowlin; P. Alonzo Rees; N. O. Reynolds; W. H. Rishworth; J. L. Sellars; A. J. Sowell; W. H. Witt; S. G. Wray. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

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N.O. Reynolds

1874

Lieutenant Nelson Orcelus Reynolds was a noted Texas lawman. Born in 1846 in Pennsylvania, Reynolds served in the Union army during the Civil War. In 1874, he enlisted as a Texas Ranger in Blanco County. Reynolds captured the Horrell brothers and forced them to sign a peace treaty to end the feud with the Higgins faction. As a result, he was given command of the newly formed Company "E." Reynolds was later responsible for jailing, transporting, and guarding John Wesley Hardin for his trial in Comanche County. He retired from Ranger service in 1879 and later served as Lampasas County sheriff. He married Irene T. Nevill in 1882. The couple had two children and lived in Center Point, where Reynolds was buried after his 1922 death. (2010)

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Center Point, TX (Camp County)

1865

Center Point is just off Farm Road 2057 nine miles southeast of Pittsburg in southeastern Camp County. The site was originally settled by former slaves, beginning shortly after their emancipation in 1865. Because the major roads through the area crossed at the center of the community, the settlement came to be known as Center Point. Settlers in the area had established a church by 1873 and a school by 1889. These were the focus of the dispersed rural settlement. By 1897 the one-room, one-teacher school enrolled thirty-one Black children. That year the school was listed in the county school superintendent's report as being in bad condition and worth only fifty dollars. The school term was 100 days. In 1900 the residents of the community began a long and ultimately successful campaign to improve their school. By 1908 the school had two teachers, and bonds voted shortly thereafter financed a four-room school building in 1916. The General Education Board donated $1,700 for additional buildings, and Julius Rosenwald later made donations totaling $5,750, which were also used for buildings, including a library. By the 1935-36 school year the school had become in many respects one of the best schools in the county. Its physical plant included four buildings with ten classrooms and was valued at $14,000. Nine of the ten teachers who taught in the Center Point school had at least B.A. degrees, and, despite the fact that Black teachers were typically paid less than White teachers with the same education and experience, the average teacher's salary at Center Point was higher than that at any other Camp County school, White or Black. The school term was 176 days, only one day shorter than the longest school term in the county. The school enrolled 279 students, 129 in high school. Many of the high school students came from other districts that did not offer the upper grades. During the late 1930s the population of the area began to decline, at first because of the Great Depression and then in the 1940s and 1950s because of increased economic opportunities for Blacks in urban areas. By 1938 the enrollment in Center Point High School had dropped to seventy-eight, and by 1955 the district had been consolidated with the Pittsburg Independent School District. The 1983 county highway map showed two churches, a cemetery, and a community center at the site. The population was forty-one in 2000.

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Center Point, TX (Kerr County)

1859

Center Point is on the Guadalupe River eight miles southeast of Kerrville in southeastern Kerr County. The site became a focal point for business activity when early settler Dr. Charles de Ganahl opened a post office in his home on the north side of the river in November 1859. Ganahl called the post office Zanzenburg in honor of his ancestral home in the Austrian Tyrol. The new postmaster, Dr. G. W. Harwell, renamed the growing community Center Point in 1872, when the post office was moved to the south side of the river. It is reported that he chose the name because the settlement was halfway between Kerrville and Comfort, as well as halfway between Fredericksburg and Bandera. The area's potential as a farming and stock-raising center, its healthful climate, and its abundant game continued to attract settlers. Virginia Jordan (Wright) de Ganahl, Charles de Ganahl's widow, deeded 200 acres to the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in 1888. She hoped to draw the center of population back to the north side of the river around a community to be called Ganahl. Although the community never developed, the Ganahl depot, located a mile north of central Center Point, ensured the town's position as a trade center for the surrounding region. By 1900 Center Point had an estimated population of 500, permanent churches, a solid business community, public schools, and a growing reputation as a health and recreation resort. Early newspapers encouraged the growth of the region. The Excelsior , published by John A. Corbell and edited by D. C. Nowlin and J. M. Coleman, began as a bimonthly paper in 1878. Thomas A. Buckner of Bandera County established the weekly Center Point News in 1905. It continued publication under various owners until it was absorbed by the Kerrville Times in 1924. The town was incorporated, for public school purposes only, in August 1889 and in April 1890 elected its first school trustees. In February 1913 it voted to complete incorporation and establish a commission government. A new vote in October of the same year, however, dissolved the municipality. Center Point held its position as area trade center until the 1920s, when the paved highway skirted the edge of town and surrounding towns developed their own transportation facilities. The town maintained a stable population and business community throughout succeeding years. In 1984 its population was estimated to be 800. Much like other towns in scenic Kerr County, Center Point has several small service and manufacturing businesses and attracts a steady stream of vacationers, retirees, and summer residents. The population was 623 in 1990 and 800 in 2000.

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Burney, Jesse Green

1895

Jesse Green Burney, state legislator, farmer, and businessman, was born in Kerr County, Texas, on May 10, 1864. He was born to parents Hance McCain Burney , a well-known Kerr County judge, and Mary Ann Tatum and was the fourth of nine sons. The eldest brother, Robert H. Burney , was a district judge and a Democratic state senator. The second eldest, Ivey H. Burney, was a successful lawyer and a member of the firm of Cowan and Burney, who were general attorneys for the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas . Jesse Burney graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, in 1881 and Waco Business School in 1882. After college, he entered the lumber business in Gatesville and later taught school in McCulloch, San Saba, and Mason counties. On August 12, 1885, he married Mary A. Vann, with whom he had at least one son, Renie. Burney leased his father's ranch in 1888 until he purchased his own farm near Center Point in Kerr County. In 1894 Burney received the People's party nomination for Texas House District 92, composed of Kendall, Bandera, and Kerr counties. In the race against Democrat W. A. Lawrence, Burney won with 57 percent of the vote, thanks in large part to winning Bandera County (where he got 67 percent), which had significant Populist support. When Burney took his seat in the House of the Twenty-fourth Texas Legislature in January 1895, he was also the only one of the twenty-two Populist legislators in the House to hold a college degree. He served on the Public Lands and Land Office Committee, participated in a conference committee that resolved differences between two House bills regulating contested elections, and was named to the State Affairs Committee. During this term, Burney introduced four bills. The first was House Bill 204, which was designed to regulate the charges that public grain mills could levy. It stated that steam-powered mills could charge one-sixth of the value of grain and one-eighth the value at water-powered mills. The second was House Bill 417, which was a bill to amend the Texas Code of Criminal Procedures relating to the appointment of clerks for grand juries. The third was House Bill 494, which was a bill to empower a three-person commission to select a uniform set of textbooks for use across Texas public schools. The last was House Bill 613 which would have commissioned convict labor for work on public roads. These inmates would have been supervised by the commissioners court rather than private lessors and would have done valuable work for which organized labor would not be in competition. None of his bills became law. Burney ran for reelection in 1896 against Democrat G. J. Fee. Fee won Bandera County, but Burney carried Kerr and Kendall counties to win a second term. In the Twenty-fifth legislature, he was appointed to the committees on Irrigation; Privileges and Elections; Contingent Expenses; and Stock and Stock Raising. In the regular session, he again introduced four bills. The first was House Bill 232, which aimed to ensure the collection of wages for labor performed. The second, House Bill 246, again sought to regulate charges levied by public mills. House Bill 668 amended the Texas Civil Statutes relating to the creation of private corporations. House Bill 672 proposed to make it illegal for railroad companies to hold stock in other railroad companies. Only House Bill 668 became law. By 1903 Burney had settled in Austin, where he owned a grocery store. He was both vice president and treasurer of the Retail Grocers' Association of Texas and was vice president and a member of the board of the Capital Bank and Trust Company. He served as secretary of the Austin Business League, and he was also one of the incorporators of the Travis County Fair. By 1920 he had acquired a farm in Bastrop County. He was a Mason and a member of the Methodist Church . Jesse Green Burney died at the age of eighty-two on May 13, 1946. He died of natural causes while sitting in a car in Austin. He was

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Center Point, Texas

Music in Center Point

Songs About Center Point

Artists From Center Point

Rivers & Roads in Song near Center Point

History of Center Point

The Rangers' Own Arlington RoadyGoat

The Town That Named Itself the Middle RoadyGoat

The Bald Conifer Guarding the River RoadyGoat

Camp Verde - U.S. Camel Corps

Center Point Cemetery

N.O. Reynolds

Center Point, TX (Camp County)

Center Point, TX (Kerr County)

Burney, Jesse Green

Things to Do in Center Point

Everything Near Center Point