Editing Castroville, Texas (section)

==History==

Castroville was established in 1844 by [[Henri Castro]], an ''[[empresario]]'' of the [[Republic of Texas]], who brought several dozen European families to the area from [[Alsace]] and adjoining [[Grand Duchy of Baden|Baden]] to populate his land grant along the [[Medina River]] {{Convert|20|mi|km}} west of [[San Antonio, Texas|San Antonio]]. The first colonists disembarked at [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]] on January 9, 1843. They were taken by ship to [[Lavaca Bay]] and traveled overland to San Antonio, where they took shelter in abandoned buildings until the [[Texas Ranger Division|Texas Rangers]] were prepared to escort them to their land and protect them from hostile [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]]. On September 2, 1844, the first colonists arrived at Castro's [[land grant]] on the Medina River.<ref name=wolff>{{cite book|last=Wolff|first=Linda|title=Indianola and Matagorda Island 1837 – 1887|year=1999|publisher=Eakin Press|location=Austin, Texas|isbn=1-57168-340-2|pages=9}}</ref>

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]].

After a few hard years, the town and surrounding farms flourished, but for generations, the residents remained insular. In Castroville's first century, a visitor would be more likely to hear Alsatian—a dialect spoken in Europe before [[Standard German]] was prevalent—than English spoken in the town's homes, stores, and taverns. Modern Alsatian travelers noted that the [[dialect]] spoken in Castroville was more like that which was spoken in the 1840s. The descendants of the original settlers worked diligently to preserve their language, whose usage in Europe has been diminished by the political actions of France and Germany, especially since [[World War II]].

The [http://www.castroville.com/portfolio_page/steinbach-house/ Steinbach Haus] (originally built between 1618 and 1648 in [[Wahlbach, Haut-Rhin|Wahlbach, Alsace]]) was dismantled and reconstructed in Castroville in 1998. It was opened to the public in 2002.