2024-25NacogdochesDirectory 1-17-24 - Flipbook - Page 23
PRESERVERS
HISTORY
Texas has a rich and storied history with deep roots in
Nacogdoches. Nacogdoches — the Oldest Town in
Texas — is named for the Caddo family of Indians who
once occupied the area.
Caddo Indians occupied the Nacogdoches area as early
as 1200 A.D., settling along Lanana and Banita creeks,
names given to these streams later by Spanish settlers.
The Caddo lived in huts made of limbs lashed together
and covered with grass. They gathered the natural
bounty of East Texas’ forests and streams and established
elaborate trade relationships with other Indians.
Nacogdoches remained a Caddo Indian settlement
until 1716. At that time Domingo Ramón established
five religious missions and a military presidio in East
Texas, including Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los
Nacogdoches del Pilar. That was the first European
activity in the area, but a mission was not a town — it
was a church. The mission struggled until strengthened
by the Marqués de Aguayo in 1721, but even then it
endured more than prospered.
The “town” of Nacogdoches was established after the
Spaniards decided that the French were no longer a
threat and that maintaining the mission was far too
costly. After France ceded claims to lands west of
the Mississippi River to Spain in 1763, Spain’s New
Regulation of the Presidios required all settlers and
priests in Eastern Texas to withdraw
to San Antonio. Some were eager
to escape the wilderness, but
others had to be forced from their
homes by soldiers.
Antonio Gil Y’Barbo, a prominent
Spanish trader, emerged as the
leader of the settlers and, in
the spring of 1779, led a group
back to Nacogdoches. Later that
summer, Nacogdoches received
designation from Spain as a
pueblo, or town, thereby making
it the first town in Texas. Y’Barbo
was named Lt. Governor of the
new town and established the
rules and laws under which the city
was governed. He laid out streets
with the intersecting El Camino
Real and El Calle del Norte as his
central point. On the main thoroughfare he built a stone
house for use in his trading business. The house, or Old
Stone Fort as it is called today, became a gateway from
the United States to the vast Texas Frontier.
“Nacogdoches, like Texas, has a long and proud history! Now
is the time for us to focus on those objectives that will ensure a
prosperous future for our children and grandchildren.”
nacogdoches.org
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Dustin Beavers | Austin Bank
Past Chair of the Board of Directors
Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce
