With the French cession of Louisiana to Spain in 1764, the necessity for
the Spanish garrison in Nacogdoches ceased; and the town was abandoned
as a military post in 1773, to be refounded by Captain Antonio Gil
Ybarbo and his compatriots in 1779.
[Illustration: The Red House
Built in 1827 for accommodation of Mexican officials. See page 23.]
The city of Nacogdoches, as a civic corporation, dates from that year,
in which that sturdy old Spaniard, Ybarbo, conducted his harassed and
bewildered followers from their experimental settlement of Bucareli on
the Trinity river, to the old Mission of Guadalupe. The eastern boundary
of Texas was at that time a shadowy, uncertain quantity, somewhere
between the Sabine and Red rivers. Louisiana belonged to Spain, and the
government was but little concerned to mark out definitely the exact
limitation between its provinces.
Gil Ybarbo recognized the necessity of a commissary for the storing of
military and commercial supplies, and after applying to the authorities
in Mexico for such a building, and growing weary of the endless delays
and red tape, that industrious old Spaniard erected on his own account
what he and his followers called “The Stone House,” now generally
referred to as “The Old Stone Fort.” It was not erected primarily as a
fort, but as a house of commerce; and that has been its main use
throughout its varied history. But the construction of its walls—almost
a yard in thickness—made it practically impregnable to the ordinary
means of offense; so that it naturally became a place of refuge and
haven of safety in the successive perils that visited the old
border-town.
Gil Ybarbo, ruling his people as a benevolent despot, was officially
known as Lieutenant Governor of the Eastern Province of the New
Philippines and Military Comandante of the Post of Our Mother of the
Pilar of Nacogdoches. He promulgated the first Book of Ordinances for
the government of the city in 1780, the original of which is now in the
Nacogdoches Archives in the Capitol at Austin.
The new city grew apace, and by the beginning of the Nineteenth Century
embraced a population of several hundred souls. In 1792 General Don
Ramon de Castro sent Don Juan Antonio Cortez, captain of cavalry at
LaBahia, to Nacogdoches for the purpose of conducting an investigation
of the irregularities of verbal land grants made by Ybarbo, as well as
of his illegal traffic with the French and Indians. The result of the
investigation was the removal of Ybarbo from his office; he was sent to
Bexar while the investigation proceeded. Don Carlos de Zepeda succeeded
Ybarbo as Lieutenant Governor, and in turn was followed by a succession
of officials who had charge of the public business of the town, and
superintended legal and commercial affairs, in addition to leading what
military expeditions were needed in their infrequent exigencies.
Nacogdoches was at that time the second largest town in Texas.