Nacogdoches County

AUSTIN COLONIES: TEXAS BUILT HISTORY IN 1830s

Stephen F. Austin organized the first major settlements of American colonists in the Mexican province of Texas in 1822 with 300 families, known as the Old Three Hundred. Moses Austin, Stephen’s father, spearheaded the initial efforts to establish an American colony in Texas by securing a land grant and permission to settle Texas with citizens from the existing states in 1820, but died before the project was complete. Stephen assumed the leadership as the intermediary between the colonists from the United States and the Mexican government. The contract with Mexico stipulated that the “families which are to compose this Colony besides being industrious must be Catholics, and of good morals.”

John Morgan Little is counted among the original three hundred families, in 1824, and the particular land grant where the Little Family built this dogtrot predates Texas’s entry into the Union. One of their descendants, George Little, pastored funerals and other services at a chapel in the colony.

After the success of this first colony, Austin established four more colonies in Texas.  The town of San Felipe, founded on the Brazos River in 1824, served as the capitol of the colony and the location of the Colony land office. Other towns founded during this period include Matagorda, Brazoria, Columbia, Independence, and Washington-on-the-Brazos.

Over the next decade, Stephen Austin and other colonizers brought nearly 25,000 people into Texas, most of them Anglo-Americans. Always more loyal to the United States than to Mexico, the settlers eventually broke from Mexico to form the independent Republic of Texas in 1836.

NACOGDOCHES COUNTY

Considered to be the oldest town in Texas, Nacogdoches was settled in 1779 by the Spanish trader Antonio Gil Y’Barbo. By the 1800s Nacogdoches was considered the gateway to Texas. The earliest known history of this quaint town, however, begins with the Caddo-Mississippian Indians.

The Nacogdoche split from the Eastern Mississippian Culture, and arrived in East Texas around 800 A.D. Travelers and traders, they built log cabins and burial mounds between the Banita and Lanana Creeks that run through the present-day town of Nacogdoches. Nacogdoches remained a Caddo Indian settlement until the early 19th century.

The Nacogdoche were a friendly people—their word for friend was tejas. Legend has it that Nacogdoches was founded when a Caddo chief who’d settled on the Sabine River sent one of his twin sons three days to the west and the other three days to the east to set the boundaries of their settlement. One son founded Nacogdoches; the other established Natchitoches to the east of the Sabine.

Over the course of its history, Nacogdoches had nine different flags rather than the six for the rest of Texas.  The flags included: the Spanish, French, Gutierrez-Magee Rebellion, Dr. James Long Expedition, Mexican, Fredonia Rebellion, Lone Star, Confederate Stars & Bars and the United States of America.

DOGTROT LOG HOME

This particular dogtrot home, thought to be circa 1830s, is unique in that it’s an asymmetrical structure with the log pen on the left being square, and the pen on the right is a rectangle that is two feet wider with an asymmetrical window arrangement. The log fabrication also appears distinctive, having been adzed and possibly planed smooth, but not sawn. The logs themselves are somewhat rectangular. They’re so consistent that it’s possible they were planed at a date later than the original construction of the home. Simple gable and shed roof with two appendages were added to back at a later date to provide an indoor kitchen and bathroom.

Closeup of barn construction (right) is in amazingly good condition for having been built circa 1850, over a one-hundred-seventy years ago.

INTERIOR DECOR

Our client is an antiques dealer from Houston who plans to make this his permanent home, when all three phases of the project are completed. He has collected the work of Early Texas Craftsmen, as well as handmade furniture from 19th century Europe. To most Americans, the area that became the state of Texas between the years of 1840-1880 was a land of ranches and cattle pens, a central downtown of mud-filled streets and wooden sidewalks, Spanish ponies, gunfights, and Comanches. The images and stories created by decades of books on cowboys created myths that some still believe today. Stephen F. Austin’s colonists were felling trees, building log houses, they also sought itinerant carpenters and cabinet makers in the southeast and Hill country to craft the finer parts of homemaking. Some pieces appeared primitive, while others were the sophisticated work of European immigrants. The furniture in the gallery (below) was collected by the owner and he will restore them for use in his log home. Among the items pictured are: willow chairs and tables, leather-seated rockers, iron lanterns, wrought iron chandeliers, oil jars, pie safes, wooden benches, and a “dunce’s stool” with the word fool spelled out in nails on the round seat. He plans to use popular colors of the era for accents in the furniture and interior: oxblood red, pastel blue, and deep green.

THE RESTORATION PROGRAM

The restoration of the dogtrot home includes the preservation of the original homestead, as well as the removal of the inappropriate shed roof additions to the back of the home. The two-pen dogtrot will be able to accommodate two bedrooms and two baths downstairs and a bedroom and master bath upstairs. The owner has purchased an additional historic log structure that will be moved to the site to create a great room with dining area. Both structures will be joined by a covered hallway and kitchen. Historically, kitchens were set away from the home because of heat and the danger of fire.

The exterior log fabrication (photo right) shows the original adze marks and planing of the logs for the house. Close inspection of the middle log reveals folk markings that would let travelers know if the home was accommodating to strangers in search of a bed for the night or a meal.

Chambers Architects welcomes projects that preserve Texas’s built history and the narrative that each of these homes tell us about what life was like in the westward movement of our country in the 19th century. These structures serve as an education for communities, historical organizations, and generations to come.