Brackenridge Cemetery
Edna, Jackson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Among family members buried there: John A. Brackenridge (1800-62), a Warrick County, Ind., neighbor from whom young Abraham Lincoln borrowed law brooks, 1855 founder of Texana Presbyterian Church; his son, George W. Brackenridge (1832-1902), emissary to Benito Juarez in Mexico from President Lincoln in 1860s, founder (1866) San Antonio National Bank, donor San Antonio's Brackenridge Park, member first board of regents, the University of Texas, serving 30 years, philanthropist; daughter Mary Eleanor Brackenridge (1837-1924), on first board of regents, CIA (Texas Woman's University).
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Brackenridge Cemetery holds a family whose reach ran from a young Abraham Lincoln to the University of Texas. John A. Brackenridge, an Indiana neighbor who lent law books to Lincoln, later founded a Texas Presbyterian church; his son George became a banker, philanthropist, and long-serving UT regent who gave San Antonio its Brackenridge Park; and daughter Mary Eleanor helped found what became Texas Woman's University and sat on its first board. Together they shaped Texas banking, education, and civic life.
Why it matters
This single family plot links frontier Texas to Lincoln's Indiana and to the founding of two great state universities, tracing philanthropy and women's education across a century.
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Related people
- · George W. Brackenridge
- · Mary Eleanor Brackenridge
- · John A. Brackenridge
Themes & tags
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