Our volunteers work hard to keep the garden area looking nice. It was planted for us years ago by the Guadalupe County Master Gardeners, who used plants from their own gardens. The bell is from the Rector Chapel, which was moved in 1891 from the other side of the Cibolo to the spot where the La Vernia Primitive Baptist Church is now located on Chihuahua Street. The bell tower became unstable, so the church donated the bell to the museum. In 2010, the church burned down and was later rebuilt. In 2017, the La Vernia Garden Club donated the lovely bench. We placed it under the Deaf Smith next-generation tree, which was planted here by Skipper and Iris Seale from an acorn of the Deaf Smith tree. The original tree was located on the Circle N Dairy, north of La Vernia, but it recently died. From a vantage point high in the original tree, Smith, a scout for General Sam Houston, spied on Santa Anna’s troops camped on the Cibolo. The garden has a lot of history.