Page 35 - Wings CRS Recruiting Booklet SM_Neat

CASTROVILLE, TEXAS

AROUND THE AREA

Castroville was established in After a few hard years, the town Today, though, native speakers
1844 by Henri Castro, an empre- and surrounding farms flour- of Alsatian are dying out, and
sario of the Republic of Texas, ished; although for generations, fewer of the town’s residents
who brought several dozen Eu- the residents remained insular. can trace their ancestry back
ropean families to the area from In Castroville’s first century, a to the original Castro Colo-
Alsace and adjoining Baden to visitor would be more likely to nists. The suburbs of nearby
populate his land grant along hear Alsatian — a dialect spo- San Antonio are encroaching,
the Medina River 20 miles west ken in Europe before Standard and much of the town has been
German was prevalent — than made a national historic district
English spoken in the town’s to preserve the unique, sloped-
homes, stores, and taverns. roof architecture of dozens of
Modern Alsatian travelers original Alsatian homes and
noted that the dialect spoken in shops.
Castroville was more like that
which was spoken in the 1840s. The Steinbach Haus (originally
The descendants of the original built between 1618 and 1648 in
settlers worked diligently to Wahlbach, France) was disman-
preserve their language, which tled and reconstructed in Cas-
has slowly been eradicated in troville in 1998. It was opened
of San Antonio. The first colo- Europe by political actions of to the public in 2002.
nists disembarked at Galveston France and Germany, especially Castroville is a sister city of
on January 9, 1843. They were since World War II. Ensisheim (Alsace) in France.
taken by ship to Lavaca Bay and
traveled overland to San Anto-
nio, where they took shelter in
abandoned buildings until the
Texas Rangers were prepared
to escort them to their land and
protect them from hostile Indi-
ans. On September 2, 1844, the
first colonists arrived at Cas-
tro’s land grant on the Medina
River.[4]
From 1849, Castroville, on the
Medina River was a water stop
on the San Antonio-El Paso
Road and a stagecoach station
on the San Antonio-El Paso Mail
Line and San Antonio-San Diego
Mail Line.

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