SECO SETTLEMENT, TEXAS. Seco Settlement was a frontier community near Fort Lincoln and a mile north of D'Hanis in west central Medina County. For protection from Indian raids, settlers from Old D'Hanis moved to sites near the fort soon after its establishment in 1849. The settlement was probably named after Seco Creek, which runs immediately east of the Fort Lincoln site. Most of the community's settlers were from Germany, France, and Ireland. Latter-day accounts describe the country at the time of settlement as "one vast prairie of sage grass." The settlers built a school, homes, and several stores and other small businesses and engaged in farming and the raising of cattle and sheep. The Seco School had one teacher and an enrollment of thirty-five in 1908; the school was still active in the late 1940s. Seco Settlement was no longer evident as a separate community in 1969, and by 1984 its site was part of D'Hanis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Castro Colonies Heritage Association, The History of Medina County, Texas (Dallas: National Share Graphics, 1983). Vertical File, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin (Medina County).
