Centerville became the county seat of the original Livingston County in 1804. A Presbyterian Church was started there in 1797 by the Rev. Terah Templin. The county seat moved to Salem in 1809. From 1834 to 1838, the U.S. Army used earlier buildings there as a supply depot during the Cherokee relocation known as the Trail of Tears. By the Civil War, little remained of the town, and today only foundations and earth depressions mark the site.