The first permanent European settlement in the town of Nacogdoches was
made in June, 1716, when Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus founded the
Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Nacogdoches on what is now North
street, overlooking the valley of the Banito, “little bath.” The
Spaniards named the town Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Nacogdoches.
In the struggle between the French and Spanish for mastery of Eastern
Texas (called the Province of the New Philippines), the Mission
Guadalupe had an eventful history. Deserted at times but never
permanently abandoned, it finally decayed and its very site was utterly
forgotten, though the information concerning its location has been
preserved in the ancient Spanish parchments of our Nacogdoches archives.
When the Spanish settlers began making their homes in the old Indian
town, they found several mounds within the limits of the town, relics of
the centuries of Indian occupation before the coming of the white man.
Three of the larger of these mounds were located on what became the
Nacogdoches University campus, now the high school campus. The
importance of these mounds was not recognized by those who founded the
university, and they were razed in an effort to level the ground of the
campus. Only one now remains, on Mound street, so named because of these
monuments to the antiquity of the town. A large oak tree, whose age has
been estimated at about two hundred years, grows from the summit of this
remaining mound.