NACOGDOCHES

city, seat (1837) of Nacogdoches county, eastern Texas, U.S., near the Angelina River, 140 mi (225 km) north-northeast of Houston. It originated in 1716 when a Spanish mission (Nuestra Seora de Guadalupe) was established near a Nacogdoche Indian village. Abandoned in 1718, the site was settled in 1779 when Antonio Gil Y'barbo built the Old Stone Fort (reconstructed on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University ). The old Nacogdoches University building (1845) is on the high school campus. In Nacogdoches, Hayden Edwards declared Texas independent (1826) and attempted to organize the Republic of Fredonia, but he was quickly driven out by Mexican officials. The pioneer home of Adolphus Sterne, a founder of the Republic of Texas, houses the Hoya Memorial Library and Museum. The city's economy depends chiefly on poultry, dairying, feed processing, truck crops, lumbering, and tourism. Sam Rayburn Dam and Reservoir and the Angelina, Davy Crockett, and Sabine national forests are within a radius of 35 miles. Inc. 1837. Pop. (1990) 30,872.