Town of D'Hanis
D'Hanis, Medina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Now Known as Old D'Hanis. Established in 1847 by 29 families under the leadership of Theodore Gentilz, representing Henri Castro (1781...1861), distinguished pioneer and colonizer of Texas who introduced the early settlers of Medina County. Named in honor of Guillaume (William) D'Hanis, manager of the colonization society. When the Southern Pacific Railroad missed the town, its citizens moved to the present D'Hanis. Erected by The State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
D'Hanis embodies both the immigrant colonization schemes that peopled 19th-century Texas and the familiar frontier story of a town that lived or died by whether the railroad reached it.
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Related people
- · Henri Castro
- · Theodore Gentilz
- · Guillaume D'Hanis
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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.
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.
Hondo
Hondo, TX
Spanish explorers named the deep gully 'El Arroyo Hondo' long before Henri Castro's colonists began settling the area in the 1840s. The town took shape after the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad platted a townsite in 1881; a post office followed in 1882, and the county seat moved here from Castroville in 1892. Hondo grew as a cotton and trade center, struck oil in the 1920s, and exploded during World War II when an Army Air Corps base pushed its population toward 12,000 before the base closed in 1946.
Fohn-Bless Store
Hondo, TX
This store-residence was built in D'Hanis around 1878 by John Fohn, a native of Prussia, and served not only as a general mercantile but also as a site for local elections and a Justice of the Peace court. In 1897 Rolf Frerichs bought it from the Fohn estate and moved it to this location, where his son-in-law C. J. Bless ran a store until 1939. The Medina Electric Cooperative later used the building until 1963.