Established in 1901, Fairview Cemetery became the City of Center's second oldest cemetery, adding burial plots beyond those available at the First United Methodist Church Cemetery, established in 1866. The Fairview Cemetery Association was formed in 1901 with B.F. Bridges, A.R. Chandler, W.B. Downer, O.L. McKnight, John C. Rogers, John Sanders, and J.F. Willis as members. The association purchased land for the cemetery from Allen R. Chandler, who had obtained several pieces of land from the headright survey of Jesse Amason through James C. Wilson and his wife, Margaret Ann Davis. The first burial took place in 1902 for Kate Crisp Ricks, one of the early promoters of the new cemetery. Many early civic leaders who helped the new city of Center grow, and their families, are buried there, including R.L. (Bob) Parker, who brought the county records from Shelbyville to Center to establish the county seat; several Doctors Hurst, the family for whom Hurstown, south of Shelbyville, was named; Judge Richard S. Bryarly and his wife, Panzie Annie Rennick Bryarly, the first female member of the Texas Press Association, who was instrumental in organizing the Center Women's Reading Club in 1896; Roy R. Loving, a photographer of many early portraits and renderings of downtown Center square; Richard Gathright Maury and his mother, Mrs. Virginia Gathright Maury; Doctor Laried Stephen Oates, Senior, and Doctor Laried Stephen Oates, Junior; and W.A. Bridges, son of B.F. Bridges. The cemetery also contains many tall and striking monuments and a white gazebo in the center of its main drive.