Mission San Francisco de los Tejas
Grapeland, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First Spanish Mission in East Texas. Established in 1690 by Franciscan friars to convert the Tejas Indians. "Tejas", a Spanish rendition of the Indian word for "friend", was in time adopted as the state name. The founding party was led by Capt. Alonso de Leon, a veteran explorer making his fifth journey into Texas. He was to see if the Tejas desired a mission and to find any remaining threat of the Frenchman La Salle's expedition of 1685. Finding none, de Leon proceeded to this site. As the Tejas were willing to accept missionaries, he built a dwelling and church of rough-hewn logs near a brook. The church was dedicated on June 1, 1690. Leaving Father Damian Massanet in charge, de Leon departed on July 4. Three years later, however, the mission was empty. Lack of sufficient defense, the isolated location, epidemics and the insincerity of the Indians (who took the Spaniard's gifts but not their religion) contributed to its failure. In 1693 it was abandoned, although later twice re-established and renamed. In spite of this, Spanish officials were inspired by the Tejas effort to make long-range plans for future expeditions, which marked the beginning of the Spanish mission and colonization movement in Texas. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1690 Franciscan friars founded San Francisco de los Tejas, the first Spanish mission in East Texas, after explorer Alonso de León led his fifth expedition into the region to gauge the Tejas peoples and hunt for lingering traces of La Salle's French venture. From the word "tejas"—the Hasinai term for "friend"—came the name of the future state. Beset by isolation, epidemics, weak defenses, and Native resistance to conversion, the mission was abandoned by 1693, yet it seeded Spain's long campaign to colonize Texas.
Why it matters
This fragile outpost was the beginning of the Spanish mission system in Texas and the origin of the state's very name.
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Related people
- · Alonso de León
- · Damián Massanet
Related events
- · Founding of Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, 1690
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mission San Francisco de los Tejas
Grapeland, TX
In May 1690, Spanish missionaries planted Mission San Francisco de los Tejas among the Nabedache people, part of the Caddoan Tejas confederacy whose name the Spanish borrowed for the land itself — "Tejas." It was the first Spanish mission in what would become East Texas, a fragile outpost meant to counter French ambitions in the region and to draw the Tejas into the Spanish colonial fold. The marker was placed in 1934 by early Texas preservationists working to fix the mission's location on the ground.
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Daniel McLean first came to Texas in 1813 with the Gutierrez-Magee expedition and survived the disastrous Battle of the Medina. He returned as a member of Austin's original colony, settling this league in 1821 as the first permanent resident of the area now in Houston County. He and his brother-in-law were killed in a raid in 1837, and he lies buried near this marker.
Mission Santissimo Nombre de Maria
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In the summer of 1690, Franciscan friars planted this short-lived mission near the Neches River as part of Spain's first serious push into East Texas. It belonged to the same evangelizing effort aimed at the Tejas (Hasinai) peoples that gave the future state its name. The stone marker itself was raised in 1934 by early Texas preservationists who traced and located the vanished site.
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