In 1853, the City of San Antonio purchased 20 acres east of downtown to house the final remains of San Antonio’s citizens. By 1904, 31 public, private, religious, fraternal, and military cemeteries covered more than 103 acres.

Thanks to Bruce Martin, a Professional Tour Guide of San Antonio, the East Side cemeteries came to life on a recent tour. Martin explained that the word cemetery comes from the Greek word koimētērion, which means sleeping place.

Like San Fernando Cemetery #2, many of San Antonio’s “Who’s Who” are sound asleep in the East Side cemeteries: Clara Driscoll and Adina De Zavala, saviors of the Alamo; John Lang Sinclair, songwriter of “The Eyes of Texas;” Julian Onderdonk, Texas landscape artist; Samuel Augustus Maverick, a lawyer, politician and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence; Alfred Giles, architect; Thomas Claiborne Frost, founder of Frost Bank; Harry M. Wurzbach, Congressman; and Robert H.H. Hugman, concept architect of the San Antonio River Walk, to name a few. It was a thrill to see their burial places and to think about how much San Antonio has changed since they were alive.

The National Cemetery at 517 Paso Hondo contains the remains of more than 300 Buffalo Soldiers, African-Americans who served during the Indian Wars. A reenactor happened to be in the cemetery when we were there, paying tribute to the fallen.

One of the more colorful residents of the East Side cemeteries is Sandra West, the widow of Oilman Ike West Jr. Sandra asked to be buried dressed in a lace nightgown inside of her cherished 1964 baby blue Ferrari “with the seat slanted comfortably,” and she was.

Martin ended our tour with samples of Mary Maverick’s Sweet Potato Cake. (Mary Ann Adams Maverick was the wife of Samuel Augustus.) I’m certain that the confection received a thumbs up from Mary. It certainly did from me!

Denise Barkis Richter, Ph.D., author of “San Antonio’s Passport to Fun,” has been blogging about San Antonio since June of 2010. Follow her at facebook.com/SanAntonioTourist so that you’ll never miss a post. Her love affair with the Alamo City began at Hemisfair in 1968. She moved to San Antonio in 1979 as an 18-year-old college student, and San Antonio has been her home ever since. Denise completed certification to become a professional tour guide in 2019. Please contact her at sanantoniotourist at gmail dot com if you’d like for her to curate a fabulous San Antonio experience for you!