WHAT DO YOU KNOW ?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Castroville, Texas In 1844, a ship of mostly farmers landed on the Gulf Coast of Texas to travel overland, past San Antonio, upstream on the Medina River. Two deer, three bears and one alligator were killed before reaching Henri Castro’s land grant from the Republic of Texas. The 36 future Texas colonists from Alsace-Lorraine, a territory of France, were led by Captain John C. Hays and his Texas Rangers to what would become called “Little Alsace.”________ For the next five years the settlers endured Comanche raids, a drought, invasion of locusts and a Cholera epidemic.(*) The town was patterned after a European village. The very un-Texan houses were on small lots and narrow lanes, usually two stories tall, made of timber and rough cut stone that was plastered, with thatched roofs. Surrounding the houses were individual farming plots.________ The first church in Castroville and also the first in the county of Medina was St. Louis Catholic Church. Finally in 1853, the Zion Lutheran Church accommodated Castroville’s first school. In 1865, this settlement was 12th largest in Texas, population of 1000. ________ Colonists from the small European territory of Alsace-Lorrain were primarily French and German. After the Franco-German War (1871) the small territory of Alsace was ceded to Germany by France. But in 1919 after World War I it was retroceded to France. During WW II in 1940, it was ceded again to Germany. Then after Hitler’s defeat it was again retroceded to France. Likely in confusion, settlers fled to and from Europe to Texas and population yo-yoed. In 1990, the population was only 2000, still a small town.________ Henri Castro had been born in France in 1786. His family moved to southwest France after the Spanish inquisition where they gained status and wealth. Young Henri became a member of Napoleon’s honor guard and married a wealthy widow with a dowry of 50,000 francs. After the fall of Napoleon he immigrated and became a U.S. citizen. Returning to France, he met Sam Houston who was in Paris as consul general for Texas. Castro became interested in the Republic of Texas. In the year 1842, he entered a contract to settle his first colony. By 1847, he had chartered 27 ships bringing 485 families and 457 single men to settle in four Texas townships, Castroville, D’Hanis (known for producing ceramic tile) and two other settlements. ________ Castro was a modest and caring impresario. Intelligent, wise and humane, he furnished settlers with cows, farm implements, seeds and medicines at his own expense. In 1865 he died and was buried at the foot of the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico.________ Carole Sikes 2/2022 Ref. Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, article written by Ruben E. Ochoa The language of Alsace is Alsatian, a dialect of German, integrating Celtic, Yiddish, and French words. I recommend Tom Hanks’ movie News of the World, it has depictions of primitive Castroville and also San Antonio. The farmer’s wife speaks very little English and the husband, only German. It’s a very splendid and poignant movie of hard times in the early Republic of Texas.