Henri Castro

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Henri Castro (July 17, 1786 – November 3, 1865), a Jewish Texan, was one of the most important empresarios of the Republic of Texas. Only Stephen F. Austin was responsible for bringing more colonists to Texas as an empresario. Castro, who was born in Bayonne, France, was a French diplomat of Portuguese-Jewish descent, and he would later become an American citizen. The hundreds of families he recruited for emigration to Texas came primarily from the Haut-Rhin region of Alsace, and they settled in the Medina River valley, just west of San Antonio. The city of Castroville on the Medina River is named for him, as is Castro County in the Texas Panhandle. Castro himself settled for a time in Castroville.

[edit] External links

• Account "a Brief History of Castro's Colony from Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas by John Henry Brown published 1880, hosted by The Portal to Texas History