Date: September 12, 1844

On this day, Henri Castro, empresario of the Republic of Texas, and his first thirty-five colonists held an election to choose two justices of the peace, a constable, and the settlement's name, Castroville. Henri Castro, a learned, wise, and humane man, received contracts for two grants of land on which he was to establish 600 families. In the management of his colonies, he is more comparable to Stephen F. Austin than any other Texas empresario. He had an unbounded faith in the capacity of intelligent men for self-government. During Castro's colony's first year the population grew to 2,134. Although the colony suffered from Indian depredations, cholera, and the drought of 1848, the population increased sufficiently for the formation of Medina County in 1848.