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D'HANIS, TEXAS
& OLD D'HANIS, TEXAS
Medina
County, Texas
Hill Country
29° 19' 50" N, 99° 16' 47" W (29.330556, -99.279722)
Intersections of U.S. Route 90, FM 1796 & FM 2200
8 miles W of Hondo the county
seat
11 miles E of Sabinal
33 miles E of Uvalde
46 miles W of San Antonio
Area code 830
Zip code 78861
Population: 785 (2020)
835 (2010) 548 (2000)
Book Hotel Here › Hondo
Hotels |
Old D'Hanis St.
Dominic Catholic Church
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, February 2005 |
The
old D’Hanis Cemetery and the ruins of St. Dominic Church are worthy
of a stop for anyone traveling US 90. They are just east of the high
school, a quarter of a mile south of highway 90.
History in a Pecan Shell
Also known as New D'Hanis, the designation doesn’t mean as
much to travelers as it does to local residents. “Old” D’Hanis
which is just over a mile east of what travelers today regard as D’Hanis.
The colony was Henri Castro’s third settlement in Texas and was named
to honor his European agent, William D'Hanis.
When it was formed in 1847, twenty-nine Alsatian families formed the
nucleus of the town. Each family was given a twenty-acre farm and
a town lot. In 1850 the entire town was a mere twenty buildings and
when compared to safe and secure Castroville,
D’Hanis was a primitive and crude outpost. Two years after the settlers
arrived, Fort Lincoln
was established to protect them from frequent Indian raids. Several
tombstones in the old cemetery testify to the violence. |
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The
ruins showing the Old D'Hanis Cemetery and the northern wall of St.
Dominic Church
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
A
post office was granted in 1854. The town became a stage stop along
the San Antonio-Rio Grande road and St. Dominic Church was formed
in 1847. The church building was abandoned in 1914 when the congregation
moved to New D’Hanis. The sandstone arches that form the ruin seen
today are from the original construction of 1853. Other stones are
from an 1869 extension.
The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway built through Medina
County in 1881 and bypassed the town creating “New” D’Hanis (a
mile and a fraction west) in the process.
D’Hanis endured floods in 1894, 1919, and 1935. |
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D'Hanis
water tower and Koch Hotel across the tracks from Hwy 90
Photo by John Troesser, June 2003 |
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Brick kiln and
chimney
Photo by John Troesser, June 2003 |
The
kilns of the D'Hanis Brick and Tile Company (founded 1883) are featured
in T. Lindsay Baker’s excellent Building the Lone Star – a
book on civil engineering marvels around Texas. Seco Pressed Brick,
which opened in 1910, became D’Hanis’ second brick manufacturing company.
D'Hanis had a weekly newspaper from 1908 until 1923.
Our Lady Queen of Peace, was built in 1924 for the town’s Mexican-American
congregation. |
The population of the town has never exceeded 600 people until the
2000s.
The townspeople stopped using the cemetery in 1893 due to a Diphtheria
epidemic, but the old-world artistic inscriptions and the wrought-iron
markers make the Old D'Hanis
Cemetery one of the most interesting in Texas. |
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Northern
wall wall of St. Dominic Church seen from the south
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
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The
ruined back arch
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
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The
upper front facade
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
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THC
Marker in front of St. Dominic Church
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
Historical
Marker on CR 5226 (Old Church Road) and CR 5221 (Old Cemetery Road)
Site of Saint
Dominic Catholic Church and Cemetery
Congregation formed
in 1847 with founding of D'Hanis Colony by settlers from Alsace, France.
In 1853, when town became a mission parish, limestone church was built,
using timber hauled by ox-wagon from Medina River. Sandstone extension
was built in 1868 upon arrival of first resident pastor but abandoned
after 1914 when new church was built in "New" D'Hanis (1 1/2 miles
west). Cemetery, dating from burial of child of colonists in 1847,
was used until 1893, when new cemetery was started following diptheria
epidemic.
(1972) |
| Courtesy
Gary Castillo, June 2016 |
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Photographer's
Note:
"The above two are scans of my wet plate collodion images.
It's the way photos were made back in the 1860's. The beauty of
wet plate is that the process makes a modern scene look old. The
images above were made on glass, then scanned." - Gary Castillo,
March 16. 2017
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| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
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