Blumberg Cemetery

German immigrants Carl Freidrich Blumberg and Catherine (Katharine) (Ruff) Blumberg arrived in Texas with their six children in 1845 aboard the bark Neptune. The family bought land in the Schumannsville community and became forbears of many descendants. The large Texas families of Blumberg, Elley, Koehler and Koepsel and later generations, including Kaiser, Mertz, Nagel, Pape, Schneider, Traeger, Voges and Vordenbaum, owned much of the land along the Guadalupe River in the McQueeney area. In 1872, local families established Guadalupe Valley Methodist Church and School adjacent to the present-day cemetery. The community cemetery was officially established in 1894, known as Guadalupe Valley and then McQueeney Cemetery before settling on the Blumberg Cemetery name. The earliest burial is Amalia Koepsel, who died in 1890, the wife of Fritz Koepsel. The Blumbergs and Koepsels were friends and neighbors in Germany and again in Texas. Another notable burial is Gustav Elley, a Republic of Texas soldier, sailor and Texas Ranger, and later a Methodist minister, who married Henriette Blumberg, Carl and Catherine's daughter. More than 200 marked and 50 unmarked graves have been documented there. German- and Spanish-language grave markers are distinctive features. Among the unknown burials are believed to be nineteenth-century enslaved African Americans whose remains were reinterred with the creation of Lake McQueeney in 1928. Today it remains a cherished place of heritage and memory for many generations of descendants of the area's early settlers.

McQueeney, Texas · United States