Boerne Cemetery

The town the cemetery serves began in 1849 as Tusculum, a camp of German colonists from Bettina on the north side of Cibolo Creek, named for Cicero's home in ancient Rome. In 1852 Gustav Theissen and John James laid out a townsite and renamed it for Ludwig Boerne, the German author and publicist. August Staffel became postmaster in 1856. Boerne had only ten houses in 1859, but when the county was created in 1862 it won the county seat by sixty-seven votes. Its courthouse, built in 1870, was still in use in the 1990s, the second-oldest in the state.

What the plaque says

Boerne Cemetery When Adam Vogt (1822-1882) deeded land for this cemetery to the city in 1867, there were already some graves present. The earliest documented burial, that of Anton Peter Loth, dates to 1862. In the older sections of the cemetery are graves of area pioneers and German immigrants, including Vogt and George Wilkins Kendall (1809-1867), for whom the county was named. A row of paupers' graves may also be seen. Land acquisitions over the years have increased the size of the graveyard. Boerne Cemetery serves as a reflection of the area's rich history. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986 Boerne Cemetery Established 1867 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2000

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Treue der Union Monument — 16 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Frontier Times Museum — 21 mi
  A museum built of fossils, petrified wood and cave formations in Bandera, holding a printer-historian's collection of frontier relics and oddities.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 21 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Natural Bridge Caverns — 25 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.

More markers nearby

• George Wilkins Kendall — steps away
• Saint Helena's Episcopal Church — 0.5 mi
• Early Boerne Schoolhouses — 0.7 mi
• German Music in Boerne — 0.7 mi