Part 2
Colonel Piedras advanced to meet the Americans and the fighting commenced in the eastern part of town about eleven o’clock. By noon the Mexicans had retreated to the business part of town, around the Stone House. Alexander Horton, a member of the American forces, says: “We were armed with shotguns and various other guns such as citizens used for hunting purposes, while the Mexicans were armed with splendid English muskets; so we turned north and marched down North street. As we began our march we heard a French horn. When we had gotten about opposite the Stone House the Mexican cavalry made a furious charge upon us, pouring upon us a heavy fire of small arms; they advanced to within a few steps of our lines, but were forced back with considerable loss.” This cavalry charge met the American force near the Catholic church, which had been used by Piedras as quarters for his soldiers.
The Mexicans about mid-afternoon were driven out of the Stone House, and the main body of their army was concentrated in the cuartel or Old Red House, the older part of which was built of adobe, and almost as strong as stone; it also had the advantage of several dormer windows on the second floor, from which sharpshooters could better defend the building. The fighting continued with unabated fury until night separated the combatants. Colonel Piedras evacuated Nacogdoches during the night of the 2nd, under the protecting cloak of a heavy fog, retreating westward toward the Angelina river.
The next morning James Carter, with seventeen volunteers, set out in pursuit of the Mexican army, overtaking them at Durst lake, and after a skirmish at that point, Carter and his men went further south, crossing the Angelina at the Goodman Crossing, and marched northward to the West side of Durst’s Ferry to oppose the crossing of the Mexican troops. Here Piedras lost many of his men in an unsuccessful attempt to cross the river. It was from this event that the name Buckshot Crossing was given to this place.
During the following morning Colonel Piedras surrendered the command to Captain Francisco Medina, who in turn declared for Santa Anna and surrendered to James Carter the entire Mexican force of some four hundred men.
Col. James Bowie, who reached Nacogdoches a few days after the battle, agreed to convey the Mexican troops to San Antonio, and in his report stated that there were 33 Mexicans killed and 17 or 18 wounded; the Americans losing three men killed and seven wounded.
The Battle of Nacogdoches was the opening gun in the Texas Revolution, and resulted in the expulsion of all Mexican troops from the territory east of San Antonio, giving the Texans an opportunity to hold their Convention without military interference of the enemy.
Growth of American Influence
Nacogdoches now became more and more American in its character. In 1834 the neighboring municipality of San Augustine was organized, and the two sister towns grew in numbers and influence. Nacogdoches was the capital of the department of the same name, and held jurisdiction over all the region east of Trinity River. The alcaldes who presided over the civil affairs of the municipality from the first reorganization in 1820 had usually been chosen from among the Mexican people living there, but after the expulsion of the Mexican troops in 1832 Americans were selected to fill that office, and the town gradually assumed a character more American than Mexican. American customs prevailed over those of former times, and the business fell into the hands of enterprising merchants and tradesmen from the States. The Indians to the northeast were impressed by the power and vigor of the new people and left them unmolested, although they also had increased until they greatly outnumbered the whites.
Business was thriving, the population was increasing, and new settlers were coming into the town, or taking up land in the country. Commerce was greatly aided by the communication with the other colonies in the interior, and an era of prosperity seemed to have dawned. But in the midst of all came more political troubles in the republic of Mexico. Santa Anna, by a rapid series of measures, overturned the constitution of 1824, under which the settlement of the province by Americans had begun. The guarantees of liberty seemed to be disappearing. In Austin’s colony there arose a “war party,” which advocated resistance to these measures by force of arms. Trouble began to arise at Galveston and at Anahuac. Still Nacogdoches remained peaceful, hoping even against hope that all would yet be well.
War Clouds
At length, however, the ambition of the Mexican dictator began to unfold itself, and his designs against the lovers of freedom in Texas became manifest. Even yet the mind of the people refused to move towards complete independence. Delegates from the war party at San Felipe visited the town, and by their persuasion at length convinced the people that it was in vain to lie still any longer. Then East Texas was ready to act, and from Nacogdoches and San Augustine armed soldiers set forth on the long march across the State to the threatened region around San Antonio.
With the coming of Sam Houston to Nacogdoches in 1833, followed by such men as General Thomas J. Rusk in 1835; with the backing of Colonel Frost Thorne, Haden Edwards, Adolphus Sterne, Charles S. Taylor, John S. Roberts, William G. Logan, Henry Raguet, Dr. James H. Starr, John Forbes, Kelsey H. Douglass, Wm. B. Ochiltree and a host of others, Nacogdoches practically financed the Texas Revolution, feeding and arming the men pouring in from the United States to the defence of the new Republic.
Run-Away Scrape
The tide of war never really rolled near to East Texas. For a time General Sam Houston was accused of intending to flee through Nacogdoches to the Sabine, where an American army was supposed to be expecting him, but he had other designs, which were consummated on the field of San Jacinto, and the danger was dispelled. East Texas, however, did suffer the throes of a paroxysm of panic. It was known that Mexican agents were dispersed among the Cherokee and other Indians north of the settlements. Reports, highly colored no doubt, were disseminated that these Indians were about to move in an overwhelming body on the unprotected settlements, whose men were in the field against the Mexican army, and wipe out town and countryside alike. Fugitives from the devastated West, passing through, helped to spread the terror, and so it happened that the “Run-Away Scrape” came to include both Nacogdoches and San Augustine in the frantic flight to safety beyond the Sabine.
The Republic
The news of victory soon restored the minds of the people to sanity, and they entered with alacrity into the work of establishing the new government of the Republic. After the disorganization of the West and South, which were devastated by the advance of the enemy. East Texas remained in a position of leadership, and furnished perhaps more than its share of the prominent officials of the Republic. The towns, including Nacogdoches, were alive with the discussions of governmental problems, and the advocacy of the names of the foremost citizens for high offices. After the repression of Mexican domination, politics arose to unprecedented heights, and everybody was affected by political fervor. Among the first officials of the new-formed Republic, Nacogdoches furnished Sam Houston for President, General Thomas J. Rusk as Secretary of War; Colonel John Forbes as Commissary General of the Army.
Following the formation of the new government, the business men of Nacogdoches entered upon a period of expansion, resulting in the laying out of numerous new towns in the then Nacogdoches county, extending almost to the Gulf of Mexico on the south and including Dallas on the north. Among the towns thus formed following the Revolution may be mentioned Pattonia south of Nacogdoches on the Angelina river, and a little further south the town of Travis on the same river, Mount Sterling at the home of John Durst on the Angelina river west of Nacogdoches, and a few miles further up the river where the present highway crosses, the town of Angelina where James Durst and his father, Joe Durst, lived. The original town of Rusk was south of Nacogdoches where the road to Fort Teran crossed the Angelina river on the Pierre Roblo grant. Thornville, near the present village of Mahl; Liberty, a few miles northwest of Douglass; Jackson, built on an island on the Attoyac not far from where Chireno was later founded. Haden Edwards founded two towns north of Nacogdoches on the Sabine river, near the present town of Longview, one of which was named Fredonia, in memory of his ill-fated revolution, and the other he called Cotton-Plant. In addition to these ghost towns of long ago, we may mention such towns as Attoyac, Melrose, Chireno and Douglass, each of which was regularly laid out in lots and blocks, in anticipation of the boom to come.
The Cordova Rebellion
But the war was not over yet. The Mexican army had been defeated and expelled, but there were enemies at home. The town of Nacogdoches was aroused to feverish excitement when the preacher and congregation of a country meeting came in one night with the news that the Mexican population of the country had risen in arms under the leadership of a former alcalde, Vicente Cordova, and were on the warpath against the American citizens. General Rusk at once called for volunteers, and scouts were sent everywhere to discover the whereabouts of the insurgents. All the next day their efforts were in vain, but at length John Durst and a party of scouts under him, came in with the report that they were encamped across the Angelina river in what is now Cherokee county, where they were doubtless waiting to join those Indians to make war against the American settlers. Rusk appealed to the people of San Augustine and Sabine counties, and within forty-eight hours they began to arrive, armed and equipped for a campaign. After some delay, caused by contradictory orders from President Houston, Rusk marched into the Indian country, where he found that the rebels had gone to other tribes, and were beyond his reach. He marched to the Cherokee and Shawnee villages and so impressed them with the readiness with which he had assembled so considerable a body of soldiers that they readily premised peace and disavowed any connection with the Mexican insurgents.
Commercial Expansion
In the meantime the town began to grow. It was the home of many of the prominent leaders of Texas during the time of the republic, whose influence was felt in the public affairs of the country. General Thomas J. Rusk was a citizen of Nacogdoches until his death. Sam Houston frequently was a resident until his removal to Huntsville. Charles S. Taylor was very prominent in public affairs. William B. Ochiltree lived here for a time. Thomas J. Jennings, the elder, lived here until his removal to Marshall, as did Dr. James H. Starr. James Reily, who was minister to the United States, had his home here. These are some of the men more prominent in public life; among private citizens there were also many whose names were well known throughout the land. Adolphus Sterne, Archibald Hotchkiss, Henry Raguet and others might be mentioned. Of the county officers Oscar L. Holmes, Richard Parmalee, Murray Orton, William Hart and others were prominent. Colonel Haden Edwards, who returned to Nacogdoches after the bitterness of the Fredonian rebellion had subsided, was here until his death, and his family continued to live here for many years afterwards.
The invaluable services of Nacogdoches and its people in opening up the great northern regions of Texas, after the expulsion of the Indians, had the result, unfortunate for it but inevitable, of diminishing the population and importance of the town. New centers of agriculture and trade sprang up and became towns which attracted more and more people to themselves, and new opportunities presented themselves for business enterprise. It was easier to fence in the prairies than to clear the forest lands of East Texas. Many of the citizens of Nacogdoches, including some of the more prominent persons, removed to other places.
After the annexation of Texas to the United States, Nacogdoches gradually settled down to the station of one of the many flourishing towns of the State, and lost the preeminence in political and social matters which had been its lots from the beginning of its history. With San Augustine it still continued to be the center of this section of the State, and the two towns cooperated harmoniously in the development of the surrounding regions.
Nacogdoches has always been an important social center. Even under Spanish rule it was noted for the culture of its inhabitants, and during the residence of the Governor of the State at this place in the unsettled period after the Louisiana purchase, there was a social life here that was not unworthy of a larger city. During the third and fourth decade of the Nineteenth Century social amenities prevailed even through the confusion of changing political scenes of that time. The Mexican officers at that time were, as a rule, gentlemen, and the American immigrants included many persons of high culture and attainments. After the revolution the social standing of the place grew even stronger. It was not merely in entertainments and enjoyments that Nacogdoches and San Augustine set the pace in East Texas; they became centers of learning as well. Schools flourished, and a refined taste in literary and scholastic affairs exhibited higher ideals of mental achievements. The University of Nacogdoches was established in 1845, and attracted many persons who were desirous of scholastic training.
When the shadow of war fell over the country in 1861, Nacogdoches at once took her place among those who were ready to offer their belongings and their lives upon the altar of their country. Her soldiers went to the front and did gallant service for the cause of the Confederacy. At home, the women and other non-combatants worked and prayed for the success and safety of their loved ones far away on the battlefield. But war brought ruin to the town; the schools were overwhelmed in the general desolation. Business enterprise was at an end, and the great stores gave place to little shops, which barely supplied the necessities of life. The soldiers came home and went back to their farms, but the old plantations had disappeared and the fields barely produced a living for their owners and workers. The town itself was reduced to the proportions of an insignificant village. The people bravely kept up the traditions of a more affluent existence, but it was a mournful struggle against untoward conditions.
These conditions prevailed for twenty years, but at length a harbinger of better times appeared in the shape of a railroad, the Houston East and West Texas, connecting Houston and Shreveport. It was a narrow-gauge road, burning wood for fuel and creeping along at an extremely low rate of speed, but it was the first road to pass through East Texas, where formerly the wagon and the two-horse hack formed the sole means of transportation. It brought new business, new people and new ambitions to the place which soon began to be built up in brick in place of the old wooden houses of the earlier years. Soon cotton wagons assembled, bearing bales of wealth, and in the autumn season the streets were filled with people from surrounding counties selling their crops and buying supplies.
There was no boom. The town grew gradually and slowly. Greater business enterprises were undertaken and accomplished and various kinds of improvements were effected in the way of conveniences of living. For many years the village spirit remained among the people. Everybody knew everybody else, and each was interested in the welfare of all. New churches were erected and a new court house and also, sad to relate, a new jail. A large lumber mill was erected on the east side of town which added to the prosperity of the place.
Finally, after the World War, when a number of new teachers colleges were authorized by the Legislature, the enterprising spirit of the citizens secured the location of that one named for Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, and the promise of cultured prosperity evinced in the days of the Republic, but sadly interrupted by war, was at length realized. Nacogdoches had now become one of the fairest of the little cities of Texas and bids a hearty welcome to all comers within her borders.
And so we close the story of Nacogdoches under nine flags: The Lilies of France with LaSalle in 1685; the Flag of Castile and Aragon of Spain in 1716; the green flag of the Magee-Guitierrez Expedition in 1813; Long’s flag of the First Republic of Texas in 1819; the white and red flag of the Republic of Fredonia in 1826; the flag of the Mexican Republic—1821-1836; the Lone Star Flag of the Republic of Texas; the Stars and Bars of the Southern Confederacy—1861-1865; and finally the Stars and Stripes forever.
_Historical Sites in Nacogdoches County_
For one hundred fifty years tradition has thrown a veil of romance around the old building that formerly stood at the corner of Main and Fredonia streets, facing the northeast corner of the Plaza Principal in Nacogdoches, where the two main branches of El Camino Real merged.
Even as early as Revolutionary days it was regarded by many as being one of the old mission buildings, and later years this belief was strengthened when a wandering sign painter, with the permission of John S. Roberts, painted a sign for the front of his saloon in the old structure: “The Old Stone Fort, erected in 1719”.
The Stone House, as it was called in the early records, has a history more intriguing, more romantic, than any other building in the state of Texas, not even excluding the Alamo. Over its walls all but one of the nine flags of Nacogdoches have flown.
Built as a private enterprise by Antonio Gil Ybarbo in 1779, as a trading post, it soon became the most important building in the New Philippines. In 1801 Lieut. Musquiz brought Peter Ellis Bean and the remainder of Philip Nolan’s expedition and placed them in the Old Stone Fort, where they remained for thirty days.
Cordero, governor of the Province of Texas, together with General Herrera and 1300 Spanish troops, had his headquarters in the stone house when the treaty creating the “Neutral Ground” was agreed upon on November 6, 1806. For three months it was the seat of government of the Eastern Provinces of Spain, when Governor Manuel de Salcedo was here in the summer of 1810.
Magee and Gutierrez proclaimed their republican government from the old building in 1813; as did Dr. James Long on August 14, 1819. Again it became the capitol of the Fredonian Government, and on December 23, 1826, the Fredonian flag was raised over its walls.
Following the collapse of the Fredonian republic, the old building was occupied as a home by John Durst, and the happy laughter of little children resounded within its walls. Louis O. and Miss Benigna Durst were born in the old house, inherited by Durst from his foster-father Samuel Davenport, who purchased the property in 1806.
In 1831 John Durst moved to his new home on the Angelina river and the Old Stone Fort was sold to Juan Mora, the district judge, and Vicente Cordova, district attorney under the Mexican regime, in 1834. The official records were again placed in the old building, where they remained until a courthouse was built in 1840.
Within its walls the oath of allegiance was administered by the Mexican authorities to such celebrities as James Bowie, Thomas J. Rusk, Sam Houston and David Crockett. Around its walls the forces of Bustamente and Santa Anna vied for supremacy on August 2, 1832, at the Battle of Nacogdoches. Then in the spring of 1836, the stone walls of the old building seemed a bulwark of safety to the few brave souls who refused to flee from threatened Indian massacre in the Runaway Scrape.
On March 17, 1837, the first regular term of district court under the republic assembled in the Old Stone Fort, followed by a special term in August of the same year, presided over by “Three-legged” Willie, with a pistol as his gavel, at which time General Thomas J. Rusk delivered one of his famous orations, which has been preserved to us in our court records.
Even the transfer of title to the old house from Vicente Cordova brings an element of tragedy and in some respects even comedy. Cordova was the leader in the so-called Cordova Rebellion in 1838, in which Zechariah Fenley was murdered and one of his slaves taken away. Following this, in 1840, Rebecca Fenley filed suit for damages against Cordova, not for the death of her husband, but for the loss of her slave. Cordova was a fugitive and a judgment against him for $1500 resulted in a sale of his half-interest in the Old Stone Fort under execution, being purchased by Rebecca Fenley, who was a daughter of Mrs. John S. Roberts.
The Old Stone Fort remained in the Roberts family until it was purchased by Perkins Brothers in 1901; after which it was torn down, the material given to the Cum Concilio Club of Nacogdoches, who used the stones in the erection of the Stone Fort Memorial in 1907 at the northwest corner of Washington Square, where it remained as a museum until 1936, when the State of Texas again used the material from the Old Stone Fort in the erection of the present Replica of the Old Stone Fort on the beautiful campus of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College at the intersection of Griffith and Clark Boulevards.
THE MISSIONS AND PRESIDIO.—During the summer of 1716, under the direction of Captain Don Domingo Ramon, three missions and a presidio were erected in the present Nacogdoches county. The Presidio Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, built in 1716, was repaired and enlarged by the Marquis de Aguayo in 1721, and abandoned about 1730. Built by the Spanish government as a fort and headquarters for soldiers guarding the East Texas Missions and the borders of the New Philippines, it overlooked Los Terreros or Mill creek, near the intersection of the Lower Douglass road with the road from Douglass to Wells.
The Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purissima Concepcion was built 1.25 miles northeast of Goodman crossing of the Angelina river, near “two bubbling springs” in the heart of the Hainai Indian village. In 1731 this mission was moved to San Antonio where it now stands.
The Mission San Jose de los Nazonis was built 2.6 miles northeast of the present town of Cushing, overlooking Dill creek. In 1731 this mission was also removed to San Antonio, where it was called San Juan Capistrano.