Mission San Francisco de los Tejas
Grapeland, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Was founded near this marker May 24, 1690, at the Nabedache (Tejas) Indian Village ----------------- Erected, A. D. 1934, by DeZavala Chapter, Texas Historical and Landmarks Association. ----------------- Located by: Dr. Albert Woldert, Tyler, Texas. Miss Adina DeZavala, San Antonio, Texas Assisted by Mr. J. M. Lovell, Augusta, Texas
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
This spot marks the beginning of sustained Spanish missionary activity in East Texas and the origin of the very name Texas — a meeting point of Caddo civilization and European empire.
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Related people
- · Adina De Zavala
- · Albert Woldert
Related events
- · Founding of Mission San Francisco de los Tejas (1690)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pine Springs Campground
Weches, TX
Long before Europeans arrived, the Tejas Indians favored this spring-fed grove for its game and fresh water, and the site kept drawing travelers for centuries afterward. Sitting beside El Camino Real — the King's Highway that linked Spanish missions and presidios across the province — it hosted explorers, missionaries, traders, and later the wagon trains of 19th-century pioneers who circled up in the trees to rest. Hunting parties would camp here for weeks at a stretch well into the settlement era.
Site of the Mission San Francisco De Los Tejas
Alto, TX
Franciscan missionaries first founded Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in 1690 to convert the Neches and other Native peoples of East Texas. Reestablished in 1716 and briefly abandoned after a French incursion from Louisiana in 1719, it was relocated here in 1721 by the Marquis de Aguayo, then moved again until it finally settled on the San Antonio River in 1731 as San Francisco de la Espada. A 1936 state marker records its wandering history.
Ellis P. Bean
Alto, TX
Peter Ellis Bean led one of the most improbable lives on the early Southwestern frontier. Arriving with Philip Nolan's mustang hunters in 1800, he was captured by Spanish troops, imprisoned in Mexico, then freed to fight—first for royalists, then for the Mexican rebels under Morelos. He even joined Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans before returning to Mexico, later serving as an Indian agent in Texas and settling near this site.
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.