Site of Geier and Schmid Farm

Selma was young when the families arrived. Settled in 1847, it was cattle range for John B. Brown and William Davenport until about 1860, and its post office opened in 1856. By 1885 the town had two general stores, two cotton gins, three blacksmiths, a saloon, a school and a wagonmaker. German and Polish immigrants pushed the population to 600 by 1896, but the town declined after 1900 and its post office closed in 1906. Incorporated in the 1960s, Selma grew with the traffic between San Antonio and Austin.

What the plaque says

Site of Geier and Schmid Farm This site was once the farm of German immigrants Martin Schmid and Wilhelm Geier. Wilhelm, his wife, Theodora, and their daughter, Johanna, immigrated to Texas from Wolfenbuettel, arriving at the Port of Galveston in 1849. They moved inland and settled first in New Braunfels, where Johanna Geier married Martin Schmid, from the state of Wuerttemberg, in 1854. Martin, Johanna and her parents moved to the new community of Selma, then known as Cibolo, in 1855. They bought 127 acres of land and established a farm for each family. In 1869, Geier and Schmid agreed to split the land, each receiving a portion. Martin and Johanna Schmid reared four children in Selma: William, Sam, Sedonia Haile and Mary Elizabeth Wuest. Martin, a Civil War veteran who served under Capt. Theodore Podewils' 32nd Regiment of the Texas Cavalry, died in 1880 and was buried in this immediate area, thus establishing the Schmid family cemetery. Johanna remained on the farm until 1894, when she sold it and moved to San Antonio. She, along with her parents, two of her infant children, son William and daughter Sedonia, were buried in the family cemetery. All original fencing and tombstones have disappeared from the Schmid family cemetery, as they have from the Kincaid family cemetery, which lies 100 yards northwest. Kentucky native David Kincaid moved his family to this area and was the town blacksmith. His wife, Talitha; their daughters Esther Ada Kincaid Wallace and Josephine P. Kincaid; and Talitha's father, John Davis, are buried in the Kincaid cemetery. Their stories reflect the patterns of settlement and rural life in this part of Texas in the 19th century. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural Bridge Caverns — 8.6 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.
• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 14 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.
• The Alamo — 15 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 — 15 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.

More markers nearby

• Harrison and McCulloch Stage Stop — 0.6 mi
• Edens Cemetery — 1.7 mi
• Schertz — 2.5 mi
• St. Paul Church — 5.2 mi