Old Center

Old Center, on Farm Road 699 thirteen miles southeast of Carthage in southeastern Panola County, was first settled by James Rowe and his brother around 1830, when they opened a tannery known as Rowe's Tan Yard. In 1856 Rowe deeded land for a community school, a church, and a cemetery. Around 1900 the original log church was replaced by a frame building, and by 1906 the school had grown to two teachers and an enrollment of forty-six. In the mid-1930s Old Center had a church, a school, and a number of houses; the reported population in 1936 was thirty. The Old Center school was consolidated with that of Carthage in the 1940s. In 1990 Old Center had a church, a cemetery, and eighty-three residents. The population remained the same in 2000.