Nacogdoches

Nacogdoches (năk'ədō`chĭs), city (1990 pop. 30,872), seat of Nacogdoches co., E Tex., in a pine and hardwood forest area; settled 1779. Industries in the city include lumbering, livestock and poultry raising and processing, and the manufacture of feed, wood and electronic products, motor homes, and furniture. Tourism is also important; within the vicinity is the huge Sam Rayburn Reservoir and many lakes. A Spanish mission was founded there in 1716; permanent settlers did not arrive until 1779. The settlement was a Spanish bastion against the French in Louisiana. After the Louisiana Purchase it was twice (1812, 1819) seized by U.S. raiding expeditions. In 1820 about 100 American families were issued land grants there; such settlement led to the 1826 Fredonian Rebellion. The city was active in the Texas Revolution (1835–36). The state's first oil wells were drilled near the city in 1859. On the campus of Stephen F. Austin State Univ. is a Spanish presidio built in 1779. Sam Houston and Thomas J. Rusk lived there. Four signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence are buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery.