Boecker Cemetery
Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
FRIEDRICH BOECKER DIED IN 1880 AND WAS BURIED AT THIS SITE, IN THE SOUTHWEST PORTION OF HIS 203-ACRE FARM. DURING THE FOLLOWING FOURTEEN YEARS, ELEVEN MORE PEOPLE—ALL MEMBERS OF NEIGHBORING GERMAN FARM FAMILIES—WERE ALSO BURIED HERE. IN 1896, FRIEDRICH’S SON HEINRICH SOLD JUST OVER TWO ACRES TO CEMETERY TRUSTEES FRED SCHULTZE, JR., FRED WOELKE AND WILLIAM MOLTZ, OFFICIALLY ESTABLISHING BOECKER CEMETERY. AN ASSOCIATION WAS FORMED IN 1901, AND A $5.00 MEMBERSHIP FEE WAS ESTABLISHED, ALLOWING A VOICE AT BUSINESS MEETINGS AND BURIAL RIGHTS FOR THE MEMBER AND HIS FAMILY. BOECKER CEMETERY CONTINUES TODAY TO SERVE DESCENDANTS OF THE AREA’S ORIGINAL GERMAN SETTLERS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Friedrich Boecker was buried in 1880 in a corner of his 203-acre farm, he began what became a neighborhood cemetery for the German farm families nearby. Over the next fourteen years eleven more were laid to rest here before his son sold two acres to trustees in 1896, formally establishing Boecker Cemetery. A cemetery association formed in 1901, charging a modest membership fee that carried burial rights, and the grounds still serve the settlers' descendants today.
Why it matters
Boecker Cemetery reflects the tight-knit German immigrant farming communities that shaped the Texas Hill Country and sustained their own institutions for generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Friedrich Boecker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Dietz Community
Seguin, TX
In 1851 the Jamaica-born land agent Jacob De Cordova settled beside good springs on the San Antonio Road, building a home that doubled as a stage stop and mail station. The land passed through a cluster of German bachelors—earning it names like "Nine Men's House"—before the Dietz brothers gave it their name and Johann Stautzenberger anchored it with a store, post office, and school. A singing society, the Frohsinn Maennerchor, and Friedens Church grew out of the little schoolhouse before consolidation, better roads, and the automobile quietly erased the town.
Concrete Cemetery
La Vernia, TX
Concrete Cemetery grew out of the land of James Henry Newton, who brought his family from Mississippi about 1851–52 and set aside a burial ground when his brother Joel died in 1856, though an 1855 grave suggests earlier use. The surrounding community—first called Bethesda, then Concrete—took its name from an 1858 concrete building that served as school, church, and Masonic hall. Newton deeded the tract formally in 1875, and the cemetery came to hold both Anglo and Hispanic sections, with more than 800 burials of pioneers, veterans, and children.
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Cemetery
St. Hedwig, TX
Beginning in December 1854, Polish families from Upper Silesia settled eastern Bexar County in a community first called Martinez, building a log mission church by 1857 and a cemetery beside it. The first known burial, in 1863, was of Rev. Julian Przysiecki, killed in a fall from his horse, leaving the settlers without a Polish-speaking priest. A new church to the Virgin Mary followed in 1868, the present cemetery was chartered in 1872, and the town was renamed St. Hedwig for Silesia's patron saint.
German Pioneers in Texas
Sattler vicinity, TX
Between 1844 and 1847 a society of German nobles, the Mainzer Adelsverein, sponsored the emigration of thousands of Germans to Texas, who founded New Braunfels in 1845 and Fredericksburg in 1846. Pushing west, these farmers, artisans, scholars, and scientists endured epidemic and privation, and a treaty with the Comanche opened millions of acres between the Llano and Colorado rivers to settlement. Much of the land they first settled now lies beneath Canyon Lake.