Site of the Home of James Dill
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Pennsylvania in 1770. Pioneer Indian trader. Recognized by the King of Spain as a public- spirited citizen. First alcalde of Nacogdoches under the Mexican government in 1821 Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James Dill came from Pennsylvania to the Texas-Louisiana borderlands as a frontier Indian trader in the era when this country was still ruled from Mexico City. Trusted by Spanish authorities, he became the first alcalde — roughly a mayor and magistrate — of Nacogdoches under the new Mexican government in 1821. The State of Texas marked his home site during the 1936 Centennial.
Why it matters
Dill's career shows how Anglo-American settlers took root and held local office in Mexican Texas years before independence, part of the slow northward push that would eventually pull the region into the United States.
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Related people
- · James Dill
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
On This Site Stood for a Century an Old Stone House
Nacogdoches, TX
For roughly a century a stone house stood on this Nacogdoches site, thought to have been built about 1779 by town founder Antonio Gil Ybarbo and sold by him in 1805. It later served as headquarters for Indian traders William Barr and Samuel Davenport and, over its long life, did duty as trading post, warehouse, town hall, fort, barracks, church, tavern, and saloon before being demolished in 1902. A reconstruction rose in 1936 on the college campus.
Site of "Old Soledad"
Nacogdoches, TX
Before 1800, this spot was known across East Texas as "Old Soledad," the headquarters of William Barr and Samuel Davenport, licensed traders who did business with the region's Native nations. In the Spanish borderlands, such traders were the crucial go-betweens, exchanging manufactured goods for hides and deerskins and knitting frontier economies together. A 1936 state marker fixes the site's place in that vanished world.
Governor Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo
Nacogdoches, TX
In 1719, as Spain and France clashed over their overlapping colonial claims, the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo took over as governor of Spanish Texas and set out to secure its eastern frontier. In 1721 he led the largest entrada ever mounted in Spanish Texas—nearly 600 soldiers, missionaries, and caretakers—reestablishing six abandoned missions and building presidios that anchored Spanish authority against the nearby French. Along the way he forged alliances with Caddo and Hainai leaders, and negotiated a French withdrawal after learning the two crowns were no longer at war.
Governor Martin de Alarcon in East Texas
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Martin de Alarcon became governor of Spanish Texas in 1716 with a mandate to plant a secure presidio along the San Antonio River to supply the frontier missions. In 1718 his expedition founded the villa of San Fernando de Bexar—today's San Antonio—along with the mission San Antonio de Valero, later famous as the Alamo. Though missionaries resented his crackdown on French trade, his settlement and the turmoil that followed a 1719 French raid laid the foundations for one of Texas's great cities.