Ruiz-Herrera Cemetery

San Antonio, TX

This burial ground traces to Samuel McCulloch, Jr., wounded at Goliad in October 1835 in the opening weeks of the Texas Revolution and long remembered as among its first casualties. He received this land as a bounty for that service, and the earliest marked grave belongs to his father, who died in 1855. After McCulloch deeded acreage to a Baptist congregation in 1861, the site grew into a community cemetery holding area pioneers, Civil War veterans, and noted potter Louis Meyer.

San Antonio, TX

In 1916 Maj. Benjamin Foulois chose land near here for an Army flying field, soon named Kelly Field for Lt. George E. M. Kelly, the first American aviator killed flying a military aircraft. In 1917 training moved to this "Kelly No. 2" flight line, a sprawl of hangars, shops, and barracks whose Advanced Flying School trained aviators including Charles Lindbergh and Claire Chennault. The line served until 1942 and was demolished in 1955 to make way for larger runways.

San Antonio, TX

Kentucky-born Hendrick Arnold took part in the capture of Bexar from December 5 to 10, 1835, one of the early victories of the Texas Revolution as insurgents drove Mexican forces from San Antonio. He died in 1849, and the State of Texas set this marker to his memory in 1936, the centennial of Texas independence.

San Antonio, TX

When Major Benjamin Foulois scouted farmland south of San Antonio in 1917, he found the site that became Kelly Field, opened the day before the U.S. declared war on Germany. Named for the first military pilot killed in a crash, it trained aviators and mechanics for two world wars and taught fliers including Charles Lindbergh and Curtis LeMay. Through the Korean War, the Cold War, and Desert Storm it grew into San Antonio's largest employer before realigning in 2001.