The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-24

doches, the home of the old Stone For
 and the battle ground of many a we'll
 fought victory over Mexican and In
 dian. The red man whose mortal re-
 mains were buried deep in the earth a
 hundred years ago. with the prayer that
 heaven eexterminte all his tribe, is now searched for, as eager crowds wait tC do homage to the excaVated skull that once held a treacherous and malicious
 mind An Indian head that made our
 mothers shudder with horror is now a
 most precious relic: a Mexican dirk is 1 treasured as a priceless souvenir, and
 a tomahawk captured from some Tn
 dian bravo would bring its weight in l gold.
 Nacogdoches is indeed place to in- | spire the deepest veneration in the his- | torian The place was originally an Tu- | dian village. located with that intuitive 1 knowledge or traditional belief that no cyclone or destructive storm should ever devastate the wigwam of the red
 man. Early yin the eighteenth century the Spaniards. taking measures to colonze
 Texas, then called the New Philippians, established missions from the Rio Grande to the Sabine River. In the year 1715, one year after St. Denis had laid off the San Antonio road, Captain Don Ramon established a mission on this site among the Nacogdoches In- dians for the purpose of guarding the country against the French who claim ed the territory by right of La SalIe's discovery in 1885, and to suppress the illicit trade being carried on over the T 1,o Crozot in 1712,
 After France ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1762, there was lull in hos tiities among French and Spanish claimants, Spain abandoned many of her military posts to centralize her forces for the enjoyment of the lucra- tive trade that sprang up over the old route to Mexico.
 In ITS many families of culture and means emigrated from Louisiana to Nacogdoches, during which time Captain Gil Y. Barbo was military commandant. He was a man of enter prise and earnest purpose He laid the foundation for the old stone house, which has stood century and a quar- ter, to attest his industry and untirng zeal, besides erecting an arsenal and barracks for the soldiers on the hill west of the Banita Creek, no remains of which now are to be found The town of Nacogdoches, beginning thus in the wedge-shaped valley made by the Orton hill on the east and the Irion hill on the south and west, has spread over both and grown from a mere village to a prosperous little city of some thou sand inhabitants. To complete it's isola- ton, q creek skirts the foot of each hill La Nanana, or nourishing mother, rolls turbid and sluggish at the base of Orton hill on the east, while the Banita shoots like q liquid arrow through the west of town, turning to the south and separating from the business portion quite population living in peaceful and well-appointed homes at the base of Iron hil,
 The old San Antonio road entering the town from the east forms Main street for several blocks the buildings follow ing the deviating dirt road in the deter that it's line shall not be lost | On reaching the heart of town the houses drop back to the south block, forming the public square, the old stone house standing, like grim sentinel, weather beaten and old, to guard It's on the east As the road leaves the business street the houses close in again, and South Main street | becomes again the San Antonio road. | passing the historic elm on the | north, winding over Irion hill to the 1 west, to lose itself in the luxuriant for asts through which it family reaches San Antonio
 St. Denis intended this historic thor oughfare to enter the town by a, cir ,uitous route. to follow the hillside so that the contraband wagons could sud lenly appear upon the scene, but years afterwerd when the fertile soil | If the hillside was put into cultivation, he constant travel interfered with the progress of cotton growing, and Col )rton, into whose possession the land lad come. with his own slaves cleared he road straight over the hill Public sentiment was against the change and few braver than wise continued to ravel the old way: but the sturdy old yentleman was not to be vanouished. With his dog and gun he stationed him. elf to meet travellers coming borh
  if no avail used more persuasive weapons to turn them back and compel hem to pass the way he had provided or their accommodat tion. It is a beau ifu view in summer when the over 'anging boughs of the tree lining the hillside meet. forming continuous rch of foliage, and the road, like a. carlet ribbon, buries itself in undulat- ng folds in the deep grade of the rgillaceous soil.
 But to return to the old stone house rom whence all historic interest of radiates and which is soon Q be demolished in order to make room or modern building, We find that It's tyle of architecture could hardly be lassified by Mir. Ruskin and grim Its spect It is more akin in architectural tructure to the Pyramids of Eeypt han St. Marks of Venice, and no doubt III y Barbo erected it's walls much in he same spirit of that Remeses. who ' lade the lives of the Hebrews hard ! l mortar and brick. It is seventy ,et long, twenty feet high. and twenty ' yet wide. The huge stones with which is constructed were quarried from the s Dck beds south of town, and after [ landing a century and quarter bear C 10 scars of many conflict, and if it's
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