Medina County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, some counties come into the world quiet, and some come in with a story worth sittin' around a fire for. Medina County, well, it came in clean and deliberate.

Carved right out of Bexar County, created on February 12, 1848, and organized by August 7 of that same year. No dawdling. No second-guessing.

The people of that region had work to do and land to tend, and they got on with it. The county takes its name from the river that runs right through it, the Medina, traversing the county like it owns the place, which in some ways it does. Now, a county needs a seat, a home base, a place to plant its flag and file its papers.

Medina County found that home in Castroville, and Castroville held that title from 1848 all the way to 1892. Then, as these things sometimes go, the seat moved on. Hondo has carried that distinction ever since.

And what has this county been doing all this time, through seat changes and river crossings and decades rolling by? Farming. Ranching.

The honest, unhurried work of people who know the land and answer to it. That's Medina County. Not flashy.

Just steady, and still here.

What the marker says

Medina County, Formed from Bexar County. Created Februaru 12, 1848, organized August 7, 1848. Named for the river which traverses the county. County Seat, Castroville, 1848-1892, Hondo since. Primarily a farming and ranching area.