A look at the history of the Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery near Salado Creek in San Antonio, Texas. A mystery solved.

Bexar County Poor Farm had a cemetery located north of their buildings on Farm Road just off Southton Road. This cemetery was established as Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery in 1915. This cemetery was plotted on their property north of the 3 story building near Salado Creek. All the paupers and indigents in the area were placed on this land outside of the city. This included unidentified people and stillborn children from area hospitals. The former Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery near Salado Creek operated from 1915 until the mid 1970s.


By the early 1910s, the Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery that was located at North St. Mary’s Street & Mulberry Avenue where the first Bexar County Poor Farm was located had already becoming overcrowded and unsightly. An issue arose about where to relocate all paupers that were buried for reinterment. (Ref: San Antonio Light February 12, 1911)

In 1913, County Judge Phil Shook wanted to remove all evidence of the former Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery that was located at North St. Mary’s Street & Mulberry Avenue. This cemetery had been located there for 58 years. County Judge Phil Shook referred to the former Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery as an “unsightly burial ground”. (Ref: https://www.sanantonio.gov/Portals/0/Files/HistoricPreservation/arc_reports/BrackenridgePavilion.pdf)

According to a news article from The San Antonio Light dating back to July 27, 1913, the commissioners’ court had already bought 100 acres for the Poor Farm, and they planned to raise money for “an institution for the poor that will not be surpassed anywhere in the South” by selling the old poor farm on Jones Avenue in the city. The commissioners’ court planned to establish a modern institution and tent colony. (Ref: The San Antonio Light, WILL REMOVE BODIES FROM COUNTY FARM, July 27, 1913)

Planning of the cemetery removal took several months as commissioners and judges tried to figure out what to do. The county had plans to build “a modern building on a large farm south of town where  the inmates will be given greater freedom and be put to work as far as they are able”. (Ref: Yoakum 1914, 112–113).


According to San Antonio Light, the news article appeared under the headlines of WILL REMOVE BODIES FROM COUNTY FARM. (Ref: The San Antonio Light, WILL REMOVE BODIES FROM COUNTY FARM, July 27, 1913)

Commissioners Take First Step to Prepare Property for Sale.
 
PLAN FOR NEW BUILDING
 
     The initial step in an effort to sell the old poor farm on Jones Avenue, thereby securing a sum which added to another sum to be appropriated for the purpose, will be enough to erect a modern institution on the 100 acres bought for the purpose by the old commissioners' court, was taken yesterday when the county commissioners ordered that all bodies in the burial grounds adjacent to the poor farm be buried elsewhere.

     The contract was let to the Zizik Undertaking Company, which company agrees to provide suitable graves for each of the known dead in the potter's field and to re-bury all those whose identities are unknown.  The known dead are to be re-buried in City cemetery No. 7, and it is expected that the others will be put into a common grave to be dug at the new poor farm.  Suitable shafts will be erected in each instance.
 

Should Bring Good Sum
 
     Four years ago, Judge Phil Shook, then county judge, sought to sell the old poor farm, having in mind the construction of a building on the new farm. Judge Shook believed that the 18 acres of the old place ought to bring at least $1,000 per acre, but the best offer he could secure was $12,000. Neither Judge Shook nor the ten county commissioners believed the offer was adequate and declined to close the deal.

     Since Judge Davis has been in office he has taken the matter up again and believes that by doing away with the unsightly burying ground and leveling all evidences of it after removal of the bodies, that the property may be sold to advantage. Judge Davis is not prepared to set a figure at which the county will be willing to sell, but the value of real estate in San Antonio has increased somewhat during the last four years.  Possibly $1,000 per acre may be obtained, giving the county $18,000 to cash to be used in building a new poor house.
 

What the Plan Contemplates
 
     The county has ample land about nine miles from San Antonio on which to place an up to date institution of the kind that is needed to care for the poor and indigent. In all, slightly over 99 acres are owned by the county, the tract having been bought four years ago from the late Dr. William Meier. At that time a detention hospital was erected on a portion of the land but the greater part has been used for three years as a farm.

     If the contemplated plans go through, the county not only will get a modern poorhouse but also have a tuberculosis colony of tents.  The proposition of placing a boys' training school there also has been under consideration, but the belief prevails that this may not be so feasible. In any event, the commissioners are working on the theory that the sale of the old poor farm and the placing of an additional sum with the proceeds thus obtained will be adequate to build an institution for the poor that will not be surpassed anywhere in the South. The first step is the removal of the graveyard.
 

2,500 bodies buried at the former Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery were disinterred about 1914. Reinterment of identified pauper burials were relocated to City Cemetery No. 7. Reinterment of the unknown pauper burials in were relocated to a cemetery at the new poor farm on Farm Road just off Southton Road. Other burials were relocated to cemeteries across the city of San Antonio such as City Cemetery No. 1 or City Cemetery No. 2. All evidence of the old Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery was leveled after the removal of the bodies. (Ref: https://web.archive.org/web/20190205225140/www.poorhousestory.com/TX_BEXAR_Article_Cemetery.htm)

According to the San Antonio Daily Express, the old Bexar County Poor Farm was sold that year. J. H. Kirpatrick was the bidder. (Ref: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth441935/m1/5/zoom/?q=poor%20farm&resolution=3&lat=4160.100238380365&lon=3424.1670639672784)



A new Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery was established at the new Bexar County Poor Farm in 1915. The new Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery would be located far north of Farm Road on a small parcel of mowed land. The new Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery was located north of their buildings on Farm Road just off Southton Road.

This cemetery was plotted on their property north of the 3 story building near Salado Creek. All the paupers and indigents in the area were placed on this land outside of the city. This included unidentified people and stillborn children from area hospitals.

The new Bexar County Poor Farm had a cemetery. This cemetery was established as Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery in 1915. The former Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery near Salado Creek operated from 1914 until the mid 1970s.

Most of Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery near Salado Creek was disinterred during the mid-1970s while the Bexar County Poor Farm, Bexar County Boys Home, and Southton Convalescent Home and Tuberculosis Hospital were being shut down.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, the graves and burials from Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery were dug up in 1974. News about the graves and burials being dug up made the headlines under “Southton Farm Road: Pauper graves being dug up” on the date of September 18, 1974. (Ref: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utsa/00307/utsa-00307.html)


The Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery was recently bulldozed over to aide the utility line easements connected to the new shooting range for Bexar County Sheriff’s Shooting Range back in 2019. These utility lines are pipes which provide electricity and water to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Shooting Range. None of the burials were harmed in the process. Today the cemetery is now gone. So are the fence and markers. All that remains is an empty field of grass and the former road connecting to this cemetery which has now been removed. (Ref: https://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=23427)

There is no inventory on the number of interments at the Poor House Cemetery and no record of whether any or all those interments were ever moved to the City Cemetery. None of the burials were transcribed onto any headstones. Yet some interment records exist. (Ref: http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txsaghs2/Pages/Links-Cemetery-Bexar-N-Z.htm)

However burials from both cemeteries are believed to be located in City Cemetery No. 6 at Dignowity Hill on the East Side of San Antonio. There are some burials that were relocated from Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery to City Cemetery No. 6 and City Cemetery No. 7.

The Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery was located at 10915 Southton Road, San Antonio, Texas, US 78223.