Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de los Hainais
Douglass, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally built in 1716, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais was established during Domingo Ramóns expedition to forge Spanish settlements in Texas. Father Félix Isidro Espinosa, the President of Querétaran missions in Texas, founded Concepción on July 7, 1716 in the village of the Hainais, the lead tribe of the Hasinai or Tejas Caddo. Accounts indicate that Mission Concepción was located east of the Angelina River, and that the church and missionary residence were placed on a north-south oriented mesa (or terrace) near two springs. It served as the original headquarters of the missions in East Texas and Ramón placed Presidio Dolores nearby. The important French trader and diplomat St. Denis visited Concepción many times. Following a period of hardship and drought, Mission Concepción was re-supplied in 1718 during a visit by Governor Martin de Alarcón. A house was built near the mission for the governor. Alarcón moved the sagacious Caddo translator, Angelina, to the mission as well. All the East Texas missions were abandoned in 1719 due to a French attack on Mission San Miguel but were soon reestablished and reinforced by the 1721 Aguayo expedition. Due to the closure of the nearby presidio in 1729, Concepción was relocated to the San Antonio River in 1731 and renamed Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de la Acuña. During the first fourteen years of permanent Spanish occupation of Texas, Mission Concepción was a key hub along El Camino Real de los Tejas, fostering interaction among Catholic priests, Spanish governors, French traders and East Texas Indian groups. (2012)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1716 during Domingo Ramón's expedition, this mission stood in a village of the Hainai, the leading people of the Hasinai (Tejas) Caddo, and served as headquarters for Spain's early East Texas missions. Priests, soldiers, Spanish governors, and French traders all passed through, and the noted Caddo interpreter Angelina lived here. Abandoned amid French-Spanish conflict and later relocated to the San Antonio River, it marked Spain's fragile first grip on the region.
Why it matters
It captures the collision of Spanish, French, and Caddo peoples along El Camino Real, where empires and Native nations negotiated the future of Texas.
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Related people
- · Félix Isidro Espinosa
- · Domingo Ramón
- · Angelina
- · Martín de Alarcón
- · St. Denis
Related events
- · Ramón expedition (1716)
- · Aguayo expedition (1721)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Presidio Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Tejas
Douglass, TX
Established in 1716 as the first presidio in Spanish Texas, this fort guarded a chain of missions among the Tejas Caddo and countered growing French trade in the region. Built by an expedition of more than seventy people, it was the first Spanish settlement in the province to include women and children. Abandoned during French-Spanish tensions, rebuilt, and finally closed in 1729, it helped Spain press its claim to Texas against France.
Louis Juchereau de St. Denis
Douglass, TX
A French-Canadian trader and diplomat, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis moved with rare ease among the Spanish, French, and Caddo worlds of the early 18th-century borderlands. Sent from Louisiana after a Spanish priest sought French help, he crossed into Spanish Texas, won over authorities in Mexico City, and guided the 1716 expedition that planted missions and a presidio in East Texas. From his base at Natchitoches he supplied the missions and traded—often illicitly—with the Caddo, becoming both indispensable and, to Spanish eyes, dangerous.
San Patricio Rancho
Douglass, TX
By the late 1790s traders William Barr and Samuel Davenport had settled on the site of the old Presidio Dolores and renamed their grant for Saint Patrick. Holding a Spanish monopoly to trade with the region's Native peoples, they built a network of ranches and river crossings along El Camino Real that supplied soldiers, sheltered travelers, and exchanged goods for furs and livestock. Caddo communities lived within these grants, and the crossing here on the Angelina River was a required stop between Nacogdoches and San Antonio.
1796 Spanish Colonial Rancho of Bernardo D'Ortolan
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In 1796 the French-born Spanish militia captain Bernardo D'Ortolan settled a rancho along the storied El Camino Real near Nacogdoches, in the turbulent borderland where Spanish, French, Anglo, and Native worlds met. An Indian interpreter and veteran of frontier expeditions, D'Ortolan lived here with his sons and enslaved people, among them Marie Juana, who in 1808 won the governor's permission to buy her eldest son's freedom over D'Ortolan's objection. Swept up in the revolts that shook Spanish Texas, he left his emancipated slave Raphael in charge before being forced out in 1813.