Rothe-Rowe Ranch House
D'Hanis, Medina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On land bordering Fort Lincoln (garrisoned by U.S. Army, 1849-53) and Woll Road (travel artery, 1840s-80s), owned after 1860 by Fritz Rothe and brothers. Louis Rothe (1843-1921) built this native stone house in 1882. Successive owners have had noted guests, including Gen. Jonathan Wainright, U.S.A. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1972
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This sturdy native-stone house rose in 1882 on the Medina County frontier, on land that had once bordered Fort Lincoln, a short-lived U.S. Army post from the early 1850s, and the old Woll Road travel artery. Built by Louis Rothe, whose family had held the land since 1860, it stood through the region's transition from garrisoned borderland to settled ranch country. Later owners hosted notable guests, including World War II general Jonathan Wainwright.
Why it matters
The ranch house embodies the German-descended settlers who put down permanent roots on the Texas frontier, and its ties to a frontier fort and travel road trace how the region moved from military outpost to established ranching community.
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Related people
- · Louis Rothe
- · Fritz Rothe
- · Jonathan Wainwright
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Fort Lincoln
D'Hanis, TX
Established by the U.S. Army on July 7, 1849, Fort Lincoln was one link in a chain of posts strung from the Rio Grande to the Red River to guard the advancing line of settlement. It honored Captain George Lincoln, killed at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War in 1847. As settlers pushed farther west, the frontier moved past it, and the fort was abandoned in 1852.
D'Hanis
D'Hanis, TX
In 1847 empresario Henri Castro planted D'Hanis, his fourth colony, and named it for a company official. Alsatian immigrants endured great hardship to raise a community that lasted more than thirty years—until the railroad bypassed the town in 1881 and the settlement simply picked up and moved to the tracks. The new D'Hanis prospered by shipping cattle, cotton, and brick, and from 1900 a strong Mexican-American community added to its life.
Town of D'Hanis
D'Hanis, TX
In 1847, twenty-nine families led by Theodore Gentilz settled here on behalf of Henri Castro, the Alsatian-born empresario whose colony brought European immigrants to the Texas Hill Country in the years just after annexation. The community took its name from Guillaume D'Hanis, an official of Castro's colonization society. When the Southern Pacific Railroad later bypassed the settlement, residents relocated to a new townsite, leaving behind what is now called Old D'Hanis.
Site of Saint Dominic Catholic Church and Cemetery
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In 1847 Alsatian settlers founded the D'Hanis Colony, carrying French and German Catholic traditions to the Texas hill country, and their congregation soon needed a church of its own. By 1853 they had raised a limestone sanctuary with timber dragged by ox-wagon from the Medina River, later expanding it in sandstone when the parish gained its first resident pastor. The adjoining cemetery, begun with the burial of a colonist's child, served the community until a diphtheria epidemic in 1893 prompted a new burial ground.