| |
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. |
| | 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.
|
| | D'Hanis
water tower and Koch Hotel across the tracks from Hwy 90
Photo by John Troesser,
June 2003 |
| |
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.
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|
| | Northern
wall wall of St. Dominic Church seen from the south
Photo by John Troesser,
May 2004 |
| | The
ruined back arch
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
| | The
upper front facade
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
| | THC
Marker in front of St. Dominic Church
Photo by John Troesser, May 2004 |
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.
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. See
Old D'Hanis Cemetery >
© John Troesser | |
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