Nacogdoches, TX
N 31° 36.158 W 094° 39.326
15R E 342955 N 3497580
The WPA writers spent some time on the late 1930s in Nacogdoches, and wrote a very nice sketch of the town in their WPA Guide to Texas
Waymark Code: WMXJN2
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/20/2018
Views: 4
The waymark coordinates are located at the Nacogdoches City Hall in the historic Public Square. The building, formerly the Liberty Hotel, is on the site of Sam Houston's first home in Texas.
From the WPA Guide to Texas:
"NACOGDOCHES, 27 m. (283 alt., 5,687 pop.), is like a town of the Deep South, with its air of dignity and old age, its plantation type houses, great magnolias, gums and oaks, mimosas, hydrangeas and wistaria vines. The business streets are modern. Nacogdoches is the outgrowth of the Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, established in 1716. The Nacogdoches tribe had a permanent village on the site, and beside an Indian trail the Spaniards built their mission.
One of the great tragedies of Texas history was to have a happy ending in Nacogdoches, the tragedy of the removal of settlers from Los Adaes, Spanish capital near the Sabine. On June 6, 1773, the inhabitants were suddenly given five days in which to abandon their homes, the order having been issued by the governor of the province in obedience to a command of the King of Spain. A scene similar to that described in Evangeline occurred as a mournful cavalcade started toward San Antonio. Graves of children marked the route. The exiles soon petitioned for permission to return. Captain Antonio Gil Ybarbo, Spanish rancher, at last succeeded in obtaining authority to remove them to the Trinity, where the town of Bucareli was founded. But the people, threatened by hostile Indians, grieved for their old homes among the friendly Tejas; and in 1779 Ybarbo took matters into his own hands and returned his people to east Texas. The site of Nacogdoches was deserted, but the buildings of the Mission Guadalupe still stood. The return of the Los Adaes exiles to this spot was the actual beginning of Nacogdoches as a civil town.
Following the Louisiana Purchase, a heavy Spanish garrison was maintained in Nacogdoches to guard the western border of the Neutral Ground. During this era the infiltration of non-Latin Americans was slow but steady, and the Magee Expedition of 1812 (see History) found many supporters in the town. In 1819 Dr. James Long with an army of American filibustered took Nacogdoches. A Spanish army quickly drove them out.
The activities of Hayden and Benjamin W. Edwards (1825-26) caused friction with Mexican citizens of the vicinity. Hayden Edwards, an empresario, threatened to seize the lands of the old settlers unless good titles could be shown. His colonization contract was canceled, and he decided to defend the region that had been granted him. On December 16, 1826, he declared Texas independent of Mexico and named it the Republic of Fredonia. Cherokees near Nacogdoches
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agreed to help Edwards in return for lands. The Austin colonists, realizing that Mexico would crush the revolt, refused to aid the so-called Fredonian Rebellion; settlers of Nacogdoches also remained loyal to the Mexican government. The rebellion ended in 1827 when the Edwards brothers fled to the United States.
The petty tyranny of Colonel Jose de las Piedras brought about an uprising of Anglo-American settlers in 1832 and caused the Battle of Nacogdoches, which, resulted in the expulsion of all Mexican troops.
Sam Houston reached Nacogdoches in 1833, Thomas J. Rusk in 1835. Nacogdoches is often credited with having financed the Texas
Revolution; it fed and armed many of the volunteers who came from the United States to join Houston's army.
In 1838 Vicente Cordova, Mexican agent, promoted a rebellion among east Texas Indians and Mexicans, but it was soon crushed,
One of the earliest Texas schools was located here. Mainly because of the destruction of the plantation system the Civil War ruined the town, and it slumped into insignificance until the coming of the railroad in 1882, after which it grew steadily. In 1923 the establishment of the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College stimulated civic progress. Today Nacogdoches is a thriving industrial city, the location of 34 sawmills.
On Mound St. at the Nacogdoches High School is the SITE OF NACOGDOCHES UNIVERSITY (open), established in 1845. The brick
building that housed the male department still stands. A few Indian burial mounds remain in this vicinity.
The Liberty Hotel, southwest corner of the public square, stands on the SITE OF SAM HOUSTON'S HOME.
On the left side of Main St., on Orton Hill, stands the old ORTON HOME (open), built in 1836 of hand-hewn planks. The timbers are held together by wooden pegs. It was on the second floor that Orton, chief justice of Nacogdoches County, kept prisoners in the "strong room," there being no jail.
On North St. is the first SITE OF MISSION NUESTRA SENORA DE GUADALUPE (Our Lady of Guadalupe).
There are many other interesting sites and old buildings in and around Nacogdoches, all easily accessible.
STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE occupies a forest-like campus of 40 acres, facing North St., and bounded by Starr Ave. and Lanana Creek. The two main buildings occupy a slight elevation overlooking a dense forest of tall trees, formerly part of the Thomas J. Rusk estate. There are three smaller units, almost hidden by trees. The college was founded in 1923, and has an average attendance of approximately 850 students, with more than 1,200 during the summer term.
On the campus of the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College is a REPRODUCTION OF THE OLD STONE FORT. This structure was built of stone used in an early fort which is believed to have been erected by Gil Ybarbo in 1779, and at various times was held by Spain, the
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Magee-Gutierrez Expedition, filibustered of the so-called Long Republic and the Fredonian Republic, and by Mexico, Texas, the Confederacy, and the United States."
Book: Texas
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 582-584
Year Originally Published: 1940
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