Our History

Ebensberger-Fisher Funeral Home is the oldest continuous business in Boerne since 1882. The Ebensberger family and the funeral home business are intertwined with the history and growth of Boerne.

Boerne was founded in 1849 by German immigrants, who carved out a new home for themselves, survived disease, Indian raids and the Civil War, and by the 1880s was a prospering town.

Ebensberger Family Pat, Julia, C.O., Amanda, Ed, Emmie (seated)

Carl Oscar (C. O.) Ebensberger (1845-1908) was born in Posen, Prussia and migrated to Texas when he was 20 years old in 1865, landed in Indianola and traveled by oxcart to New Braunfels where he first settled before coming to Boerne. He married another immigrant, Julia Schwope (1857-1935), and they raised 4 children: Edmund, Berthold (Pat), Amanda (Offer) and Emmie (Campbell).

The early years Pictured from left to right: Mr. Foote, C. O. Ebensberger and Ed Ebensberger

The C. O. Ebensberger building was built in 1882, and he started his first business as an undertaker that year. The family lived upstairs on the she second floor and the first floor was used for business as an undertaker and embalmer. C. O. was a cabinet-maker, by trade, which at the time was basically making caskets.

In 1883 he started a hardware store and lumber company. The lumber company operated out of the same building as the mortuary; the lumber-yard was located behind the mortuary. All of the buildings were in what is now known as "Old Towne", owned by the Lloyd Holekamp family since the 1970s. The two-story funeral home and residence is now a one-story stucco building that has been known as Tamarac Office Supplies and several commercial stores.

C. O. ran the funeral business, hardware store and lumber store and lumber-yard until 1907, when his son, Edmund Walter Ebensberger (1885-1972) took over.

Prior to that time, local funerals were conducted in the home of the bereaved family. About this time, the City of Boerne incorporated with a population of 885, the first Kendall County Fair was held at the Opera House and the first automobiles began to appear, changing the face of Boerne business from horse and buggy to automobile and gasoline.

Ebensberger Funeral Home sold lots for the Boerne Cemetery, which opened in 1867, and sold lots for $2.00. A family might buy 10 lots, but in the early days, burials or transfer of lots were not always recorded, so today, we have many lots in the oldest section where we don't know if someone is buried or not.

Recently, we have been "witching" with rods and know where people are buried, but this doesn't tell you their names. It wasn't until the early 1900s that the recording of burials became regulated. Before that, anyone who made caskets would bury without recording.

In 1907, when Edmund took over, all of these changes were coming about. Edmund was born in 1885 in Boerne and married Ella Ammann. He became a licensed embalmer and funeral director and also worked in the lumber business. Funerals were held from homes, as late as 1950, and then from churches. In the early days, horse drawn hearses were rented from the Schader Livery Stable. Then in 1920, the first motorized hearse was used.

An Ebensberger horse drawn hearse. The hearse was was used in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The funeral home remained in its original location until 1938 when Edmund bought the old Becker Hotel on E. Rosewood, had it razed and built the present funeral home at 111 Rosewood Ave. The Becker Hotel had been part of an early time when Boerne was a health mecca for patients with lung diseases and the train brought loads of patients to town. That time had now past and the hotels were closed.

Ed Ebensberger in front of the funeral home circa 1945

In 1952 Edmunds's son, George Charles Ebensberger, entered into partnership with his father and by 1957 he owned the funeral home business. After a 4 year stint in the Marines during WWII George did his apprenticeship at Porter Loring's and received his morticians license in 1947. George said, "My father was an undertaker, I'm a funeral director", noting the developing sophistication of the business and the fact that it has become very regulated. George, Sr. passed away in December 29, 2008.

George's son, George, Jr., better known as "Sonny", joined his father in the business in 1977, and later bought the funeral home business from George, Sr. In 2008 Dustin Fisher and his wife Jo Lynn purchased the funeral home from Sonny and Yvonne.

The funeral home itself is an Art Deco style of architecture, very popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The style is quite rare in Boerne. The floor plan of the funeral home has not changed since it was built, which is a testament to the excellent planning for the needs of the community that went into it. The only changes to the building are to the garage and the addition of the front canopy. The building also had an interesting central cooling system, before air conditioning systems were used. It involved a big fan that would circulate the air like a big suction machine, in one area and out another.

Not only is the funeral home a historic building, but, also is home to the oldest continuous business in Boerne.