Mission San José de los Nazonis was founded in 1716 by the Domingo Ramón expedition among the Nasoni Indians on a branch of Shawnee Creek in what became northwestern Nacogdoches County. The Texas Department of Transportation has placed a marker designating the location of this mission 2½ miles north of present Cushing. Ramón put Isidro Félix de Espinosa, president of the Franciscans from the College of Santa Cruz of Querétaro, in charge of the mission. Espinosa appointed Fray Benito Sánchez the first minister. San José de los Nazonis was abandoned in 1719 because of French incursions from Louisiana but was restored by the Marqués de Aguayo in 1721. In 1730 it was removed to the Colorado River near the site of Zilker Park, Austin, with San Francisco de los Neches and Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainai missions. The following year it, along with the other two missions, was moved to the San Antonio River and reestablished as San Juan Capistrano Mission.
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Robert Bruce Blake, "Location of the Spanish Missions and Presidios in Nacogdoches County," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 41 (January 1938). Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936–58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Charles W. Hackett, "The Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo and His Recovery of Texas from the French, 1719–1723," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 49 (October 1945).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Winifred W. Vigness,
“San José de los Nazonis Mission,”
Handbook of Texas Online,
accessed August 19, 2022,
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/san-jose-de-los-nazonis-mission.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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Original Publication Date:
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1952
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Most Recent Revision Date:
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August 11, 2020
This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects: