Edens Cemetery

The farm country around this graveyard became a town built for an air base. In late 1929 three San Antonio doctors bought farmland here, betting that the military airfield planned across the railroad tracks would draw homes and businesses. Developer Aubrey Milner named the tract Universal City in 1931, the year Randolph Field opened. Growth stayed slow until Headquarters, Air Training Command moved to Randolph in 1957 and housing developments followed. Fearing annexation by San Antonio, voters incorporated the city in March 1960.

What the plaque says

Edens Cemetery Early Anglo settlers to Texas, the John Edens family arrived in Houston County in 1831. John's son Banister Edens, along with his wife Mary Walker Edens and their family, moved to Bexar County in 1855. By 1856 Banister Edens had acquired 350 acres of land near Selma on Cibolo Creek. Mary Edens died January 10, 1856, and was buried close to the family farmhouse that once stood near this site. Her grave marks the beginning of this small family cemetery. Civil War veteran Napoleon Augustus Edens, son of Banister and Mary Edens, and his wife Mary Faith Grigsby Edens moved to the family farm in 1866. They joined his father and stepmother in ranching and farming, and later bought the family farm. During the thirty-five years that Napoleon and Mary Faith Edens remained on the farm, five more burials took place in the family graveyard. The last known burial, in 1902, was that of W.K. Kella, son in law of Napoleon and Mary Faith Edens. When the Edens farm was sold in 1901, the family retained ownership of the small cemetery. The site and the grounds are maintained by Edens family descendants. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural Bridge Caverns — 10 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.
• The Alamo — 14 mi
  Mission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — 14 mi
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
• San Antonio River Walk — 14 mi
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.

More markers nearby

• Site of Geier and Schmid Farm — 1.7 mi
• Schertz — 2.0 mi
• Harrison and McCulloch Stage Stop — 2.1 mi
• St. Paul Church — 4.5 mi