Nacogdoches Texas USA: NACOGDOCHES, TX

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

NACOGDOCHES, TX

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 Texas 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. Nacogdoches became a gateway for trade, mostly illicit, with the French and later the Americans, from Natchitoches and New Orleans, Louisiana. Ibarvo constructed a stone house, later known as the Old Stone Fort, where he conducted business. Because of his governmental position it also assumed a public nature, which it retained until it was demolished in 1902. A replica of the building was constructed on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University during the Texas Centennial celebration (1936). The location of Nacogdoches also gave it prominence in early military and political activities. During the 1790s the American mustanger and filibuster Philip Nolan often headquartered there. In 1806 Lt. Col. Simón de Herrera headquartered at Nacogdoches while negotiating the Neutral Ground agreement with Gen. James Wilkinson of the United States. In 1812 filibusters Augustus Magee and Bernardo Gutiérrez de Laraqqv proclaimed Texas free from Spain while at Nacogdoches, and they published the first newspaper in Texas, theGaceta de Tejas, before going on to meet defeat at the hands of Gen. Joaquín de Arredondo at a battle near San Antonio. Arredondo ordered all who collaborated with them to be arrested, and the entire population of Nacogdoches fled into the Texas or Louisiana wilderness for safety temporarily. Arredondo's men almost completely destroyed the town. After the signing of theAdams-Onís Treaty, which fixed the Sabine River as the boundary between Texas and the United States, James Longqv and 300 followers occupied Nacogdoches in 1819 and again declared Texas independent of Spain. Long remained in Nacogdoches only a short time before attempting another expedition on the coast, which resulted in his death. The empresarial grant of Haden Edwardsqvwas headquartered at Nacogdoches, as was his abortive Fredonian Rebellion of 1825–27. After this movement Col. José de las Piedras commanded a Mexican military garrison at Nacogdoches until driven from the area in August 1832 after the battle of Nacogdoches, one of the events that led to the Texas Revolution (see ANAHUAC DISTURBANCES). During that movement several prominent figures, including Hayden S. Arnold, N. Adolphus Sterne,qqv and four signers of theTexas Declaration of Independence-John S. Roberts, Charles S. Taylor, Thomas J. Rusk, and Robert Potterqqv-claimed Nacogdoches as their home. The town was a seat of unrest and supplied the revolutionary cause with men and money. After the revolution the uprising of Vicente Córdova against the Republic of Texas in 1838 also centered around Nacogdoches. In antebellum Texas and during the Civil War and Reconstruction,qqv Nacogdoches lost its prominence in state political and business affairs, due to lack of transportation facilities, particularly railroads and navigable rivers. Though once one of the three most important counties in Texas, Nacogdoches County was reduced to 902 square miles as other counties were formed from its territory. Nacogdoches itself had been incorporated in 1837. During the twentieth century it remained a small city with steady if not dramatic growth. When Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College (now Stephen F. Austin State University) was established in Nacogdoches in 1923, the college became the community's largest attraction to new residents and inducement to cultural activities. The Nacogdoches economy is based on education, agriculture, agricultural services, and manufacturing. The town is the headquarters for Texas Farm Products, a state leader in the manufacture of fertilizer, animal feed, and animal health products. Nacogdoches is a state leader in the broiler industry; several poultry hatcheries, feeders, and processing plants are located here (see POULTRY PRODUCTION). McGraw Edison (electrical equipment), Sun Terrace (lawn furniture), East Texas Canning Company (beverages), Bright Coop Company (chicken coops), Foretravel (recreation vehicles), Herider Farms (processed poultry), Holly Farms and Indian River International (chicks, feed, poultry breeding stock), Mize Brothers Manufacturing Company (women's wear), Moore Business Forms, and NIBCO (valves) are among the local industries. Nacogdoches is a distribution and trade center for East Texas. Tourism is also a major industry. Public ground transportation is provided by the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Trailways Bus Line, and seven freight companies, and private air service is available at East Texas Regional Airport, operated by the city, on State Highway 7 southwest of town. Nacogdoches has two commercial radio stations and a public station sponsored by the university. It receives signals from television station KTRE, which also serves Lufkin, twenty miles to the south. The Daily Sentinel is the city's only newspaper. The community supports several financial institutions. The population was 27,149 in 1980 and 30,872 in 1990. By 2000 the population was 29,914. The town is predominantly white, but African Americans make up an estimated one-third of the population, and the Hispanic population is rapidly growing. There are a few American Indian and Asian residents. Residents are served by nearly forty churches, of which nearly one-half are Baptist. Other communions represented are Assembly of God, Catholic, Church of Christ, Church of God, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Mormon, Nazarene, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, and Seventh-day Adventist. Cultural activities in Nacogdoches center around Stephen F. Austin State University, where local and professional theatrical productions and musical performances are held. More than seventy civic, professional, and fraternal organizations are present in the city. The Nacogdoches Independent School District provides kindergarten, elementary, and secondary education, and private schools located at Christ Episcopal Church and Fredonia Hill Baptist Church provide elementary education. Stephen F. Austin State University, which grants baccalaureate and graduate degrees, annually enrolls approximately 12,000 students. Spectator sports are available at the high school and collegiate level. Other recreation is available at the city parks, at the lake belonging to the park system (primarily intended as a water reservoir), and at nearby Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend reservoirs.qqv Nacogdoches is located on hilly terrain with an altitude that varies from 150 feet to 600 feet above sea level. The center of the city, still a viable downtown shopping area, is a mixture of historic and contemporary architecture. It includes the city hall, a public library, and a retail shopping area with food services, although most fast-food businesses are located along North Street near the university campus. Victorian homes are located along shaded Mound Street, and later subdivisions ring the city. Historic preservation is encouraged; among the historic structures are the restored home of Adolphus Sterne, the oldest structure in the city, the Old University Building, the Blount House, Millard's Crossing (a preservation village), and many private dwellings. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rogayle Franklin, "Nacogdoches: Industry and Education Amidst History," Texas Business, March 1983. Archie P. McDonald, The Old Stone Fort (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1981). Archie P. McDonald, comp., Nacogdoches: Wilderness Outpost to Modern City, 1779–1979 (photocopy, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin). Archie P. McDonald CITATION The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article. Archie P. McDonald, "NACOGDOCHES, TX," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdn01), accessed November 17, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

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The Flag of the Kingdom of Spain 1519 to 1821

The Spanish Flag of Castile and Leon flew over Texas for three hundred years. Spanish involvement in Texas began with Alonzo Alverez de Pineda's mapping of the Texas coast in 1519. Then, in 1542 Luis de Moscoso came to Nacogdoches and East Texas with the remnants of the Hernando de Soto expedition that had begun four years earlier in Florida. Spain's claim to Texas went back to the DeSoto-Moscoso Expedition, which claimed all of southeastern United States as Spanish Florida. Spain's occupation of Texas began in 1690 with the founding of Mission San Francisco de los Tejas on the Neches River. It continued in 1716 with the founding of six missions from the Neches River to Los Adaes in Western Louisiana, and 1721 with the founding of Presidio Nuestra Señora de Pilar de los Adaes----near present day Robeline, Louisiana. Los Adaes was the first capital of the Province of Texas. Texas was under the Spanish flag until Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Interestingly, the first flag used by the Spanish to claim Texas was not the familiar flag of Castile and Leon; it was a banner that had the Virgin of Guadalupe on one side and the crucified Christ on the other.

The Flag of the Kingdom of France 1685 to 1689

France's claim to a part of Texas went back to 1682, when Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Mississippi and claimed all the land in its drainage for France. For some mapmakers and politicians, this included Texas. He named this land Louisiana. La Salle came to Texas in 1685, after he accidentally sailed past his destination at the mouth of the Mississippi. He established Fort St. Louis and a French settlement on Garcitas Creek off Matagorda Bay. The settlement was ill fated from its beginning. LaSalle was murdered by his own men near Navasota in 1687, and the settlers and soldiers who remained at Fort St. Louis were killed or captured by the Indians in 1689. The Spanish found Fort St. Louis and burned it to the ground in 1690. This French intrusion into Spanish territory caused the Spanish to begin the occupation and settlement of East Texas to prevent further French invasions.

The Flag of the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition 1812 to 1813

Bernardo Gutiérrez and Lieutenant Augustus Magee flew their green flag of the new Republic of Texas over the Stone Fort in Nacogdoches in August of 1812. The Republican Army of the North, as these filibusters called themselves, had come from Natchitoches to Nacogdoches to recruit and train troops with the help of Samuel Davenport. They stayed for two months, drilled an army of over five hundred men, and then marched on to capture Goliad and San Antonio. Magee died at Goliad, and his place was taken by Samuel Kemper. Kemper and Gutiérrez captured San Antonio and issued a Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Texas on April 6, 1813. This brief time of Texas Independence was over when the Spanish general Joaquín de Arredondo destroyed the remains of the Republican army at the Battle of Medina on August 18, 1813. Augustus Magee and Samuel Davenport, who were in charge of the militia in Nacogdoches, were both Irishmen. That might have governed their choice of the Emerald Green flag as the Republican army's standard.

The Flag of the Dr. James Long Expedition 1819 and 1821

Some Americans believed that Texas was part of Louisiana as claimed by LaSalle in 1682 and should have been included in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. One of those was Dr. James Long of Natchez, Mississippi, who came to Nacogdoches in June of 1819. Dr. Long proclaimed himself the president of his newly declared Republic of Texas. Dr. Long's red-striped Lone Star flag flew but briefly over the Stone Fort and his Republic of Texas. The Spanish caught Long when he went to Galveston, where he was seeking the assistance of pirate Jean Lafitte. There they defeated him and his meager army and chased him back to Louisiana. Dr. Long returned to Texas with a small army in 1821 and quickly captured the poorly manned garrison at Goliad. However, he was soon under siege by Spanish troops from San Antonio, who recaptured Goliad and took him captive. Dr. James Long was taken to Mexico City, jailed, then freed, and then murdered under mysterious circumstances by a Mexican soldier.

The Flag of the Mexican Federal Republic 1821 to 1836

Spanish Nacogdoches came under the Mexican flag in 1821, when Mexico finally won its independence from Spain. Mexico, in order to prove its ownership of Texas, began settling its eastern parts with the Anglos as early as December 1821. In that year Stephen F. Austin was allowed to bring the first of his Old Three Hundred Settlers into his grant on the Brazos. Thereafter, Americans poured through Nacogdoches, the Gateway to Texas, in search of cheap land. By the time of the Texas revolution in 1836, Anglos greatly outnumbered the Spanish-Mexican population. The Mexican flag that flew over Nacogdoches and still flies over Mexico was adopted in 1825. It has three vertical green, white, and red fields of equal width. In the center of the white field is the Mexican eagle sitting on a nopal cactus holding a snake in its beak. In Mexican legend, this was a sign to the Aztecs that they had reached the land that was to be their home.

The Flag of the Fredonia Rebellion 1826 to 1827

For a brief while, the flag that flew over Nacogdoches was the red-and-white banner of Haden Edward's thirty-seven-day Fredonia Rebellion. Edwards had obtained a grant from Mexico to settle eight hundred families in East Texas in the Nacogdoches area. Unfortunately for him, most of the land had already been settled---legally and illegally---by the early Spanish, by Indians, and by Anglo squatters. His intrusion caused such a disturbance that the Mexican government revoked his grant. Disappointed over the loss of his grant, on December 16, 1826, Haden and his brother Benjamin rode into Nacogdoches, planted their flag in front of the Stone Fort, and proclaimed the Republic of Fredonia. They had formed an uncertain alliance with the Cherokees, thus the reason for the red and white colors of the flag. The flag carried the words "Independence Freedom and Justice" and the Signatures of sixteen of the original Fredonians. The Fredonian army consisted of no more than thirty men, the Cherokees never joined them, and Stephen F. Austin raised a militia to put down the East Texas rebellion. The Fredonians gave up their cause on January 22, 1827, and retreated eastward across the Sabine.

The Flag of the Republic of Texas 1836 to 1846

Mexican Texas became the Republic of Texas after Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna on the plains of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The first official flag was a white upside-down star on a blue background with T-E-X-A-S written between the points of the star. This flag never flew. The second flag of the Republic was adopted by the first Texas congress in December 1836. It bore a single, large gold star on a blue field. This flag was the same design as the "Bonnie blue flag that bears a single star" that was so popular among the Southern troops during the Civil War. The Lone Star flag that we now use was designed by Texas Senator William H. Wharton and was officially adopted by the Senate under President Mirabeau B. Lamar in 1839. The new flag kept the white star on the blue field, but now the blue field was a vertical stripe which occupied one-third of the flag, and it was balanced by horizontal white and red stripes, on the other two-thirds. This Texas flag has been prominently displayed for over 150 years.

The Flag of the Confederate States of America 1861 to 1865

For four years, the Stars and Bars flew over Nacogdoches and Texas. After years of conflicts of interest between the North and the South over states rights, slavery, and the right of secession, the Civil War began in March of 1861. Texas seceded and joined the Confederate States of America. It sent its Texas brigades into battle, and suffered for four years with the rest of the Confederacy before General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The most enduring of the Confederate flags during the War was the Stars and Bars with the square of blue holding a circle of the seven original seceding states. Texas was the seventh star. Because the Confederate Stars and Bars and the Union Stars and Stripes were easily confused in the heat of battle, General P. G. T. Beauregard introduced a Confederate battle flag. This was a square red flag with a white-bordered blue cross running diagonally from corners to corners. The cross contained thirteen stars representing the eleven Confederate states plus Kentucky and Missouri. This battle flag became the flag most closely identified with the Southern cause. The Confederate Stars and Bars came down in Texas after April 1863 and Appomattox, and the United States Stars and Stripes have been flying over this State ever since.

The Flag of the United States of America since 1846

On February 19, 1846, the Lone Star flag was lowered over the Texas state capitol in Austin, and the Stars and Stripes was raised. The Republic of Texas had become the State of Texas. From the beginning of the Republic in 1836, the majority of the Texians, most of whom had come directly from the States, had wanted Texas to join the Union. But many in the Union did not want Texas in the United States. Some did not want one more Southern slave-holding state, and some were afraid of causing a war with Mexico. Nevertheless, on July 4, 1845, the Texas congress voted to accept the articles of annexation offered by United States President James K. Polk, and on December 29, 1845, the congressional resolution proclaiming Texas as a state in the Union was signed by President Polk. The Old Glory that was raised above the Texas state capitol on the following February 19, 1846, had twenty-eight stars in four rows of seven stars each. Except for the four years of the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, these Stars and Stripes have since 1846 flown over the State of Texas.

Nacogdoches Texas USA

Nacogoches

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

NACOGDOCHES, TX

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Rosalind Langston