The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977 Page: 401
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
San Antonio, August 2, 4:00 p.m.
I have just now crawled out of bed. I had an attack of illness. The hot
weather and the frequent rain made me weak, so I will rest a few days
and go to see the country around Castroville.
Yesterday the local Mexicans celebrated Saint Peter's day, and none of
them worked. The ladies wore white dresses. In the afternoon the young
people of both sexes dashed through the streets on horseback and yelled.
Mud splashed up to their ears, and the muddier they became the better.
I was not able to find out what sense there was to all these doings. It could
not have been a race because there was not enough order for that. Again
today these chases are being continued.
Castroville, August 2, evening
The air is cool. I am sitting on a high place near Castroville.113 My hosts
are good, plain people from the country near Strassburg."4 Below us flows
the clear, green Medina River; to one side is the city and to the other are
hills with a sparse growth of trees. Everything is beautiful, but not by far
as beautiful as it is painted in the books. Castroville is situated twenty to
thirty miles from San Antonio. The road leads for a part of the distance
through poor mesquite woods, but now and then live oaks are seen. The
Medina River has a swift current, but it is easier to cross than the Guada-
lupe. Many of the inhabitants make a living from the sale of wood. I found
those former travel companions of mine who had come here. They are
working as day laborers, and most of them live in miserable huts. Mr.
Haas, the innkeeper, is doing good business. Crop failures, which are caused
by insufficient rain, are not rare here. The prospects for this year are good,
but in I847 there was only a small harvest. Several houses are under con-
struction, and there are sufficient building stones and timber here. The
man at whose house I am staying is an educated peasant. He is yearning
in vain to return to his old homeland, where he had things better than
here, in spite of the fact that he is doing quite well in comparison to others.
He is the father-in-law of our stonemason. He intends to sell his farm and
move to San Antonio.
11"Henry (Henri) Castro founded Castroville in 1844. Steinert calls the town a
French settlement, but most of the settlers were German-speaking people from Alsace
in eastern France. See Jordan, German Seed, 47; Waugh, Castro-ville; Biesele, German
Settlements, 107; Carlos Castafieda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, 1519-1936 (7
vols., Austin, 1936-1958), VII, 95. See also Castro, Colonisation aqt Texas. ....
(Antwerp, 1845) and Le Texas (Antwerp, 1845); Jordan, German Seed, 21I.
x14Strasbourg, in German-populated Alsace, was then and is now again in France.4oI
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977, periodical, 1976/1977; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101204/m1/455/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.