Weaver H. Baker Cemetery

Hidalgo Co. Cemeteries of Tx

Submitted by Frances Isbell

With Permission  of Hidalgo Co. Historical Commission (2008)

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LOCATION: Moore Field, about eight miles northwest of Mission on FM 681, one mile north of intersection with Monte Cristo Road (FM 1925).

SURVEYED: Abandoned 1952.

HISTORY: In 1941, John Shary and other businessmen bought land northwest of Mission for an air base, and then sold it at cost to the U.S. government. From 1941-1946, there were always about 5,000 men in training at Moore AFB. After WWII, the base became the Tri-Cities Airport and the Weaver H. Baker Memorial Tuberculosis Center.

The airfield was reactivated in 1953 for the Korean War and more than 4,000 pilots trained there before the base was closed again in 1960. In 1962, the USDA developed half of the base into a biological pest-control center.

San Antonio State TB Hospital was established in 1955 as a replacement for Weaver H. Baker Memorial Sanatorium which had been reclaimed in 1952 for air base purposes by the U.S. government.

Obituaries on file at Mission Historical Museum report burials in the Weaver H. Baker Cemetery. However, no cemetery was found at Moore Field in 2008. Cemetery records have not been located and apparently the remains were transferred elsewhere when the Sanatorium was closed.