Westview Cemetery

Situated in the east Texas hills of Shelby County, the Westview Cemetery is the final resting place for some of the area’s newly freed slaves after the civil war. After emancipation, many African Americans that chose to remain in the area worked as tenant farmers, sharecroppers or worked jobs as available. Soon, they started businesses and established churches and a school. At the time, there was no official cemetery for the black citizens as they were typically buried near former owners or near a black church.

The date of the first burial in an area known as union grave yard is not recorded as many original grave markers are lost. It is believed that the first burial was Jane Chumley Miller, a former slave in San Augustine County. The oldest remaining marker is located at the grave of Charlie Carroll from 1909. Many veterans, educators, preachers, deacons and business men and women are buried here. Garfield Richard, supposedly the personal cook to Gen. John Joseph Pershing during WWI, is buried here along with Chatman H. Daniels and R.M. brown, both former principals of the center colored school.

In 1912, an official cemetery committee formed and bought four acres of land encompassing the cemetery. More land was acquired in 1970 and 2006. The cemetery was renamed when residents decided that due to its location from the surrounding churches, the old union cemetery would now be called Westview. Funeral home records also refer to the burial ground as Center Colored Cemetery. This historic cemetery remains a testament to the African-American community in center.