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Early RepublicReconstruction & Gilded Age

Edens Cemetery

Universal City, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

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)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

The Edens family were among the Anglo settlers who poured into Texas in the 1830s, reaching Houston County in 1831 before Banister Edens moved his family to a ranch on Cibolo Creek in Bexar County by the mid-1850s. When his wife Mary died in January 1856, her grave near the family farmhouse began this small family burying ground. Later generations — including Civil War veteran Napoleon Augustus Edens — kept the land and the cemetery, which their descendants still tend today.

Why it matters

A family graveyard like this maps the arc of Anglo settlement in Texas across three generations, from frontier arrival through the Civil War era to the turn of the century.

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Related people

  • · Banister Edens
  • · Mary Walker Edens
  • · Napoleon Augustus Edens

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