Haby Settlement
Marker Text: Located on the high bluff on the west side of the Medina River, seven miles north of Castroville, the Haby settlement was established in the 1840s. François Joseph II and Marie Anne Haby, Jean Jacque and Marthe Haby, and Catherine (Haby) Michel Gsell and they families immigrated to Texas from Oberentzen, Alsace, France. Other Haby family members followed as well as the family of George Joseph Beck. Also from Alsace, Friends. The two families purchased land together to find them develop.
The eldest sons of Francois Joseph II, Joe and Nicholas, were among the twenty-seven colonist who founded Castroville on September 3, 1844 and served Castro as paid hunters to bring in venison, known as the fighting Haby's," The family protected the settlement against the dangers of the frontier several Haby men joining the Texas Rangers. The Habys quickly realized the importance of water and took advantage of an ingenious system of gravity-fed ditch irrigation allowed them by the perennial artesian springs named Die Quelle by the family, which are flowing to this day. Most of the Haby homesteads also included in rock-lined well into the shallow river gravel or cistern and to capture rainwater off the roof of the home. The Catholic school in the Haby settlement was operated by the Sisters of Divine Providence from Castroville from 1874 to 1895 and was housed in the first home of Andrew Haby today, the Haby settlement reveals around ten quaint stone Alsatian homes with many farms and ranches in the area still owned and operated by Haby descendants. (2015) |
Marker No: 18274
Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker
Geographic: 29.441891, - 98.898125
Location: FM 2676 at CR 271
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