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.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Medina County, west of San Antonio, was one of the edges of settled Texas in the mid-nineteenth century. In the 1840s European colonists, many of them recruited through Henri Castro's colonization effort, founded settlements here, including D'Hanis. They were building homes on land where the frontier was still very real.
To protect settlers and travelers, the U.S. Army garrisoned a line of posts across Texas after the Mexican War. Fort Lincoln, beside the land where this house stands, was one of them, garrisoned from 1849 to 1853. Once the frontier moved farther west, the soldiers moved with it.
Nearby ran the Woll Road, a travel route used from the 1840s into the 1880s. It took its name from the Mexican general Adrián Woll, whose 1842 expedition to San Antonio crossed this country. The road later served settlers, traders and travelers moving through the region.
People & events
After 1860 the land belonged to Fritz Rothe and his brothers. That date is significant, since it came just before the Civil War, when frontier life in this part of Texas grew even more uncertain. The family held on through those years.
In 1882 Louis Rothe (1843–1921) built this house from native stone. By then the fort was long gone and the frontier had moved far to the west. A stone house is a permanent thing, and building one marked the family's confidence that this land was now home for good.
The house has had several owners since, and it has hosted notable guests. The best known is General Jonathan Wainwright of the U.S. Army. (The marker spells his name Wainright.) Wainwright is famous for commanding American and Filipino forces at Corregidor in the Philippines early in World War II and for enduring years as a prisoner of war. He received the Medal of Honor and later held command in San Antonio. The marker does not record the details of his visits, only that he was among the house's guests.
Its place in the American story
This house traces a cycle that played out across the American West: army posts and travel roads first, then permanent settlers. Fort Lincoln protected the frontier for a few years and was abandoned. The families who came after stayed, and their stone houses outlasted the soldiers' camps.
It is also part of the story of the European immigrants who helped settle Texas. The communities around D'Hanis grew from colonists who crossed the Atlantic to build new lives on the frontier. The craft of building in native stone is a lasting reminder of their presence in the Texas Hill Country region.
The Wainwright connection links a small Texas ranch house to one of the defining military stories of the twentieth century. It is a reminder that famous figures in American history often passed through quiet places like this one. Local landmarks can hold threads of the national story.
If you visit
The main thing to see here is the native stone construction. Look at the walls and think about the labor involved in quarrying, shaping and laying that stone on the frontier in 1882. Houses like this were built to last, and this one has.
It also helps to read the landscape. The site of Fort Lincoln and the route of the old Woll Road were close by, so you are standing where soldiers, travelers and settlers all crossed paths. Treat the house as private property unless you know otherwise: view it respectfully from public areas and don't trespass on ranch land.
D'Hanis is on the route west of San Antonio, so it makes a natural stop on a drive through Medina County's settler communities. Combine it with nearby towns founded by European colonists for a day of frontier and immigrant history, and enjoy the open ranch country along the way.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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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
D'Hanis, TX
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.