Saint Hedwig

Reconstruction was hard on the settlement. Outlaws tried to rob the Michalski store in 1868; Albert Kosub was murdered on the road to Bandera in 1870 and Lawrence Ploch on the road to San Antonio in 1871. Mail came through Cottage Hill until its postmaster, John Humphrey, was assassinated in 1877, and the post office moved to Saint Hedwig that June. Residents refused land for a railroad in the 1870s, so the line built in the 1890s bypassed them for Adkins and Carpenter. Martin Mroz rose to trail boss for a New Mexico cattle company.

What the plaque says

Saint Hedwig Located in far eastern Bexar County, Saint Hedwig was settled in 1855 by immigrants from upper Silesia in Prussian Poland. Without land grants, funding or transportation provided by an empresario, establishing a community proved to be difficult for the Silesians. Charles G. Napier, a planter from Georgia, agreed to sell the immigrants about half of his plantation near the Martinez and Cibolo watersheds. The settlers quickly registered their cattle brands with the Bexar County Clerk and cleared land to build homes and a church. The settlement was officially named "Martinez" and was known by locals as "Polanderville." The settlers were farmers and ranchers and did not own slaves. The reasons for the Civil War were not well understood by the community, and the 19 men who served only did so after Conscription Laws were enforced. After the Civil War, the community grew to about 40 families. African slaves, freed from nearby plantations, were welcomed into the polish settlement where some bought land. They taught the settlers how to produce cotton. In 1868, the Roman Catholic Poles began construction of a sandstone church and school. They were completed in 1871. Around this time, the settlement changed its name to Saint Hedwig to honor the patron saint of Silesia. The first school for the black community opened in 1877, and they established a church and cemetery quickly thereafter. By 1890, Saint Hedwig achieved status as the largest Polish community in Texas. Through the 20th century and with the rapid growth of nearby San Antonio, Saint Hedwig maintained its rural character as a farming community. The city, incorporated in 1957, continues to evolve as an area rich in Polish-Texas culture and heritage. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission San Juan — 16 mi
  The mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 16 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• The Alamo — 16 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.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 17 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.

More markers nearby

• La Vernia — 7.3 mi
• Concrete Cemetery — 7.4 mi
• Claiborne Rector — 7.4 mi
• Immanuel Lutheran Church — 7.4 mi