DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. In 1847, a man named Henri Castro established a colony — his fourth — about one and a half miles east of where you're standing right now. He named it D'Hanis, after an official of the Castro Company, and then he handed it over to a group of Alsatian immigrants and essentially said: good luck.
Now, those folks were going to need it. They endured great hardship — the marker doesn't sugarcoat that — building a community from the raw Texas ground. But they built it.
And D'Hanis thrived. For over thirty years, it stood right there, rooted to that original spot east of here, a testament to what stubborn, hardworking people can will into existence. Then came 1881.
The railroad was coming through the country, and railroads in those days were the difference between a town with a future and a town with a past. And the railroad bypassed D'Hanis. Now, a lot of towns would've just... stayed put and faded.
Not D'Hanis. D'Hanis moved. The whole town picked up and went to meet the railroad.
You've got to appreciate the nerve of that. Aided by the railroad, the new D'Hanis got to work — sending cattle, cotton, and brick out to markets. From 1900 onward, a strong Mexican-American community grew in that town, contributing to its fortune.
Then came crop failures. Then came the Great Depression. The new D'Hanis survived it all, and somewhere along the way, people stopped saying 'new' D'Hanis.
It became simply D'Hanis. Some places earn their name once. This one earned it twice.
What the marker says
In 1847 Henri Castro established D'Hanis, his fourth colony, 1.5 miles east of this site, named for a Castro Company official. Alsatian immigrants endured great hardship to build a community that thrived for over 30 years. In 1881, when the railroad bypassed the town, D'Hanis moved with it. Aided by the railroad, new D'Hanis flourished, sending cattle, cotton, and brick to markets. From 1900 a strong Mexican-American community grew in the town, contributing to its fortune. The new area survived despite crop failures and the Great Depression, becoming known simply as D'Hanis. (1997)