Ranch Home of Charles De Montel

Born Scheidemontel in Konigsberg, Prussia, in 1812, Charles DeMontel changed his name after reaching Texas and met Henri Castro in San Antonio, who persuaded him to join as aide, guide and surveyor. He commanded a Ranger company on Seco Creek in 1848, on ground that became Fort Lincoln, and with John James and John Hunter Herndon surveyed the townsite of Bandera. At the 1861 secession convention he was recorded as the owner of nine enslaved people. The house stands on a private road, and no route is given here.

What the plaque says

Ranch Home of Charles De Montel Frontiersman, soldier, and engineer, came from Europe to Texas, 1838. Helped found Castroville and organize Medina County. Served as county judge; Texas Ranger Captain; and Navy Commander in Civil War (1861-65). Also a confounder of Bandera. Wed Justine Pingenot in 1847. Built home 1848-50. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 1.9 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 25 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• King William Historic District — 25 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 25 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.

More markers nearby

• Alsatians of Texas — 1.6 mi
• General Wool and the Chihuahua Road — 1.6 mi
• St. Louis Day — 1.6 mi
• Moye — 1.7 mi