The age-herald., 1897-08-08
AN OLD STONE FORT.
One of the Mysteries of Texas-The Scene
 of Many Bloody Battles.
Especial Correspondence.l

of Many Bloody Battles.
 Special Correspondence.1
 NAcoGDocHEs, Tex. Aug. 8.-This town possesses one of tho most interesting mys- teries in the United States in the form of the queer old yellow stone fort that stands facing one side of the public square. It is not a handsome building either as to de- sign or finish, the walls being laid with little or no pretense to regularity, while its ground plan is a simple rectangle, but it is one of the solidest, sturdiest old struo- lures in the world. Its walls are 13 feet thick, and the stones of which they were erected are firmly bound with a sort of mortar that supms indestruotibie. No one knows when the fort was built even, though, from the fact that one of the stones in the wall bears the inscription, "1619 Anno Domini," 1t is believed, by many Nacogdoches folk at least, that the structure was erected by La Salle and that it was one of his famous chain of fortresses to stretch from Canada to New Orleans for the protection of the French of Louisiana from the Spaniards of Mexico.
 At all events, 1t was standing when the first Tennesseeans entered Texas. They found the fort roofess ruin, and estab lished their settlement around 1t, repair ing and roofing 1t and using it as an ar senal and refuge when attacked by their enemies, who were many and cantanker- ous. These included the Kickapoos, the Comanohes and the Mcxicans, and the hardy American settlers had many a bloody fight with them before either Hous- ton or Austin went to Texas By the time the republic of Texas was formed Nacog- doches had become large and flourishing settlement for those times, and at first was the capital of the new government. It was during this part of it's troubled history that the old fort saw fiercer fighting than ever before. While Houston, Austin, Crockett and others were struggling with the Mexicans at San Antonio and else where, the Indians, actually much better fighters than the Mexicans, were seeking to aid them by making desperate assaults on Naoogdoches. The Texans there were commanded by Kelsey Harris Douglass. Tennesseean who had settled in Texas early in the centdry and had conducted successful trading post before the break ing out of the war. Time and again he was attacked by overwhelming numbers, but he never was beaten. Even after the independence of Texas was assured the Indians made occasional attacks, and finally General Harris sallied out, burned all their towns and whipped them into a state of absolute submission.
 The interior walls of the old fort bear many ancient inscriptions in. French and some in Latin, and from their word ing it is believed by many parsons that in- stead of being built by La Salle the structure was put up by a Frenchman named St. Denis, who, according to tradi- tion, established a little republic in the western wilds some time in the eighteenth century, holding 1t against Indians, Frenchmen and Spaniards as long as he lived, the fort being his stronghold. He had the help of the Natchez Indians, so the story runs, and attracted to himself many restless Frenchmen from Louisiana and number of pirates who had been obliged to give up their buccapeering lives, but there is no documentary evil dence whatever to prove that the legend of the republic of St. Denis is correct.
 Nacogdoohes is not much of town now. It began to decline in 1s40 It is in hilly, heavily wooded country that cannot be made suitable for cultivation without much hard labor. and settlers prefer to pass the seat of the old stone fort by and go to the smooth, fertile, treeless prairies farther west. c. P. SwENsoN.