DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of the story carved into the official Texas Historical Commission marker for Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, right here in Houston County. Now, before Texas was Texas — before it was anything but a wide stretch of land the Spanish were only beginning to understand — somebody had to go first. And going first, as any Texan will tell you, is never as clean a story as it sounds.
The year was 1690. The Franciscan friars had a mission to carry out — and I mean that in both senses of the word. They were heading into East Texas to convert the Tejas Indians, and the man leading that founding party was Captain Alonso de Leon, a veteran explorer on his fifth journey into Texas.
Five trips deep into this country. That's not ambition, friends, that's a calling. De Leon was riding out with two purposes.
First, to see whether the Tejas people actually wanted missionaries among them. Second — and here's where the story gets a chill to it — to look for any remaining threat from the Frenchman La Salle's expedition of 1685. La Salle had come through these lands five years prior, and the Spanish hadn't forgotten it.
But de Leon found no threat. None. Whatever ghost La Salle had left behind, it had gone quiet.
So he pressed on to the site. And what he found were Tejas willing to accept missionaries. That was all de Leon needed.
He got to work. With rough-hewn logs and a brook running nearby, he built a dwelling and a church — simple, honest, frontier construction. On June 1, 1690, that church was dedicated.
Mission San Francisco de los Tejas: the first Spanish mission in East Texas, standing in the trees. De Leon left Father Damian Massanet in charge and departed on July 4th, 1690. His part was done.
But here's the thing about going first — you also get first crack at all the ways things can go wrong. Three years later, the mission was empty. Not burned, not attacked in any dramatic fashion — just empty.
A handful of troubles had piled up quiet and slow: no sufficient defense, an isolated location, epidemics moving through, and — the marker is candid about this — the insincerity of the Indians, who, as it says, took the Spaniards' gifts but not their religion. By 1693, Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was abandoned. It would be re-established twice more, renamed along the way, but that first chapter had closed.
Now, you might think that's a story of failure, and you'd be partly right. But here's where it turns. Spanish officials looked at what had happened out here among the Tejas — the struggle, the isolation, the collapse — and instead of walking away, they made long-range plans.
Future expeditions. A whole mission and colonization movement in Texas traced its beginning, according to this very marker, to that stumbling, courageous, complicated effort in East Texas. Oh, and one more thing worth holding onto.
The word "Tejas" — that's a Spanish rendition of an Indian word meaning "friend." And in time, that word was adopted as the name of the state itself. Texas. Named for friend.
First mission, first failure, and somehow — the first step toward everything that followed.
What the marker says
First Spanish Mission in East Texas. Established in 1690 by Franciscan friars to convert the Tejas Indians. "Tejas", a Spanish rendition of the Indian word for "friend", was in time adopted as the state name. The founding party was led by Capt. Alonso de Leon, a veteran explorer making his fifth journey into Texas. He was to see if the Tejas desired a mission and to find any remaining threat of the Frenchman La Salle's expedition of 1685. Finding none, de Leon proceeded to this site. As the Tejas were willing to accept missionaries, he built a dwelling and church of rough-hewn logs near a brook. The church was dedicated on June 1, 1690. Leaving Father Damian Massanet in charge, de Leon departed on July 4. Three years later, however, the mission was empty. Lack of sufficient defense, the isolated location, epidemics and the insincerity of the Indians (who took the Spaniard's gifts but not their religion) contributed to its failure. In 1693 it was abandoned, although later twice re-established and renamed. In spite of this, Spanish officials were inspired by the Tejas effort to make long-range plans for future expeditions, which marked the beginning of the Spanish mission and colonization movement in Texas. (1968)