Tejano History

Nacogdoches, Tx

Nacogdoches, Tx

Tejanos |

       NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS. Nacogdoches, the county seat of Nacogdoches County, is on State highways 7, 21, 59 (a principal artery to Houston), and 259, fifty miles west of the Sabine River and 100 miles north of Beaumont in the central part of the county. It was named for the Nacogdoche Indians, a Caddo group. Archeological research has established that mounds found in the area date from approximately A.D. 1250, when the Indians built lodges along Lanana and Bonita creeks, which converge just south of Nacogdoches and continue as a single stream to the Angelina River. The mounds were found to contain human bones and pottery. The expedition of René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, visited the area in 1687. Louis Juchereau de St. Denis was sent by the French governor Sieur Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac to establish trade with the Indians in Spanish Texas. St. Denis marked a trail through Nacogdoches to the Rio Grande, along part of the route later known as the Old San Antonio Road, and was briefly arrested. In the summer of 1716 he accompanied Domingo Ramón back to East Texasqv to found Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches and five other missions. The Franciscan Antonio Margil de Jesús had charge of the missions. Guadalupe Mission was abandoned briefly two years later due to fears of a French invasion but was reestablished by the Marqués de Aguayo in 1721. It operated more or less continuously until 1772, when viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa promulgated the New Regulations for Presidios, which recommended the recall of all missions and settlers to San Antonio. The following year Governor Juan María Vicencio de Ripperdáqv sent soldiers to force the removal of all Spanish subjects to San Antonio. Antonio Gil Ibarvo, from the Lobanillo Creek area southeast of Nacogdoches, became the leader of the settlers. He petitioned successfully for the group to be allowed to return part of the way to East Texas. They established a community named Bucareli on the banks of the Trinity River, where they remained for four years until floods and Indian raids caused Ibarvo to lead them in 1779 to the abandoned mission site at Nacogdoches, possibly the only building of European origin then standing in East Texas. Later Ibarvo was commissioned commander of the militia and magistrate of the pueblo of Nacogdoches, the first official recognition of civil status for the community.

 

Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online

   Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.