Nacogdoches Archives

The Nacogdoches Archives consist of the collection of official documents preserved at Nacogdoches during Spanish and Mexican rule. Communications from the king, the viceroy, and the commandant general to the governor of Texas and by him relayed to the political chiefs of the departments, together with correspondence of the alcaldes, proceedings of the ayuntamiento, military and land records, election returns, census records, and other local matters were accumulated at Nacogdoches in the conduct of the government from 1737 to 1836. In 1850 the documents were transferred to the secretary of state's office and in 1878 to the Texas State Archives, where they have been kept. These documents, presenting the official picture of life on the frontier of Texas, have been transcribed and bound into eighty-nine volumes of about 250 pages each; copies are available in the Barker Texas History Center at the University of Texas at Austin and in the Steen Library at Stephen F. Austin State University at Nacogdoches.