ponyscott wrote:Oh heck and why do they spell a town name like that anyway...I bet most of the students at SFA can't spell it either. Thats why I went to SMU as I CAN spell Dalas.
ROTFLMAO! Look how you spelled Dallas!
Nacogdoches is named for the Caddo family of Indians who once lived in the area. There is a local story, traced back to a Nacogdoches schoolteacher of the 1920s, that tells of an old Caddo chief who lived near the Sabine River and had twin sons. When the sons grew to manhood and were ready to become leaders of their own tribes, the father sent one brother three days eastward toward the rising sun. The other brother was sent three days toward the setting sun.
According to the story, the twin who settled three days toward the setting sun was Nacogdoches. The other brother, Natchitoches, settled three days to the east in Louisiana. In the story, the two brothers remained friendly and the road between the two communities was well traveled, eventually evolving into the eastern part of the El Camino Real.
Nacogdoches remained a Caddo Indian settlement until 1716 when Spain established a mission there, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches. That was the first European activity in the area, but a mission was not a town - it was a church. The "town" of Nacogdoches got started after the Spaniards decided that the French were no longer a threat and that maintaining the mission was too costly. So, in 1772 they ordered all settlers in the area to move to San Antonio. Some were eager to escape the wilderness, but others had to be forced from their homes by soldiers.
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:32 pm