The Center post office opened in October 1866. In 1869, Confederate veterans Captain Jesse Amason and James C. Wilson, with wife Margaret Davis Wilson, each donated 50 acres of land for the townsite of Center. According to one historical account, Amason would not give the land unless the new town would have a four-acre town square, and that is the reason that Center has such a large square. Mr. Wilson owned considerable land in the southern quarter of the town. Much of that area is called the "Wilson Addition".