DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it like this, and I'm just the one bringing it to your ears on this stretch of Medina County road. We're talking about a town called Quihi, and the story starts with a man named Henry Castro — born 1781, died 1861 — who by any measure was a distinguished pioneer and colonizer of Texas. In October of 1844, Castro had this ground surveyed.
You can picture it: somebody with a chain and a compass, walking off the bounds of what was meant to become something real out here in the brush country. And become something real it did. Come March of 1845, Quihi was established — ten families, that's who came first.
Ten families trusting that this place was worth the gamble. They arrived in the charge of Louis Huth, who was serving as agent for Castro, the man who'd set the whole thing in motion. Ten families is not a crowd.
Ten families is neighbors, and everybody knowing everybody, and the weight of building something from nothing resting on not very many shoulders at all. Now here's where the telling gets heavy, and it deserves to be said plainly: many of those settlers were killed by Indians before 1860. That is not a footnote.
That is the price a number of those early Quihi families paid just for being here. The marker doesn't flinch from it, and neither should we. This marker was erected by the state of Texas in 1936 — nearly a century after those ten families first set down roots.
Henry Castro surveyed it. Louis Huth led them in. And Quihi stood.
What the marker says
Surveyed in October, 1844, by Henry Castro, 1781-1861, distinguished pioneer and colonizer of Texas est. in March,1845. By ten families in charge of Louis Huth, agent for Castro. Many settlers were killed by Indians before 1860. Erected by the state of Texas, 1936.