Browse Exhibits (45 total)

William Davenport was born in 1820 Saltville Township, Virginia.  His family later lived in Kentucky before settling in present day Kaufman County, Texas in 1843.  There William met and married Mary Ware, daughter of Texas Revolutionary veteran, William Ware.  William and Mary built a home south of Cibolo Creek soon after purchasing land here in 1851, part of the Vincente Micheli survey.  When Mary died the following year, William buried her near their home establishing a community burial ground in 1853.  William married Nancy D. Young whose father John was a veteran of the War of 1812 and was also later buried in Davenport Cemetery. 

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August Fredrich Ernst was the grandson of the early immigrant Ernst family who initially settled in New Braunfels, Comal County, TX. His grandparents, John Peter Ernst (born about 1803) and his grandmother, Katherine, (born about 1804) arrived in the U.S. in 1852 from Nassau, Germany. The Ernst’s initially establish residency in Comal County where they were purchased property and established a farm. After several years August and his parents along with other family members moved to Bexar County.  Here they again bought property and established their home in a small community that was thriving at the time, but unfortunately no longer exists.

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The historic Francois and Catarina Callaghan Guilbeau farmhouse and associated structures (c1885) are in danger of being demolished.

Architecturally the primary structure, the Guilbeau house, is valuable for the study of the period, type, method of construction and use of indigenous materials.  It was built c1885 and is a vernacular stucco-clad limestone dog trot folk house with an enclosed central passageway.  It is built of local stone that was likely quarried from a nearby source.

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Nine Historic Structures built in the 1860s: Log cabin, barn, smokehouse, water well, workshop, Heidemann-Barrera house, storage house, cemetery, possible early kiln.

• Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, July 6, 2011.

• In 2014, Professor Frances Gale of the University of Texas At Austin, School of Architecture, took the Materials Conservation Laboratory class to the Heidemann property to analyze the building materials of the log house and the barn.

• A Building Award was given to Mr. Roy R.Barrera, Sr. and Mr. Gilbert Barrera by the San Antonio Conservation Society in March 2016 for the restoration of the cabin, the barn and the smokehouse by Gilbert Barrera.

• In 2016, the Heidemann Family Cemetery was dedicated and designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery (HTC).

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The Blas Herrera Ranch, located in southern Bexar County, Texas, represents an important survival of an early 19th century homestead complex in south Texas.  The structures comprising the compound reflect the simple character of central Texas vernacular architecture during the early 19th century and the simple Tejano structures which were common to the area.  Historic built features throughout the ranch reflect the evolution and changing uses of the land, from active ranching, to one of scaled back ranching activities, to social and community events, to the simple pasturing of horses.  At the heart of the ranch stand two jacales dating from the 1830s-1840s, the larger jacal having been one of two Herrera-Ruiz homesteads.  Other structures include two wooden buildings, a pavilion and a few additional structures related to ranching and social activities.  The jacals are indicative of the early Tejano construction techniques.

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