Magee and Gutierrez proclaimed their republican government from the old building in 1813; as did Dr. James Long on August 14, 1819. Again it became the capitol of the Fredonian Government, and on December 23, 1826, the Fredonian flag was raised over its walls.
Following the collapse of the Fredonian republic, the old building was occupied as a home by John Durst, and the happy laughter of little children resounded within its walls. Louis O. and Miss Benigna Durst were born in the old house, inherited by Durst from his foster-father Samuel Davenport, who purchased the property in 1806.
In 1831 John Durst moved to his new home on the Angelina river and the Old Stone Fort was sold to Juan Mora, the district judge, and Vicente Cordova, district attorney under the Mexican regime, in 1834. The official records were again placed in the old building, where they remained until a courthouse was built in 1840.
Within its walls the oath of allegiance was administered by the Mexican authorities to such celebrities as James Bowie, Thomas J. Rusk, Sam Houston and David Crockett. Around its walls the forces of Bustamente and Santa Anna vied for supremacy on August 2, 1832, at the Battle of Nacogdoches. Then in the spring of 1836, the stone walls of the old building seemed a bulwark of safety to the few brave souls who refused to flee from threatened Indian massacre in the Runaway Scrape.
On March 17, 1837, the first regular term of district court under the republic assembled in the Old Stone Fort, followed by a special term in August of the same year, presided over by “Three-legged” Willie, with a pistol as his gavel, at which time General Thomas J. Rusk delivered one of his famous orations, which has been preserved to us in our court records.
Even the transfer of title to the old house from Vicente Cordova brings an element of tragedy and in some respects even comedy. Cordova was the leader in the so-called Cordova Rebellion in 1838, in which Zechariah Fenley was murdered and one of his slaves taken away. Following this, in 1840, Rebecca Fenley filed suit for damages against Cordova, not for the death of her husband, but for the loss of her slave. Cordova was a fugitive and a judgment against him for $1500 resulted in a sale of his half-interest in the Old Stone Fort under execution, being purchased by Rebecca Fenley, who was a daughter of Mrs. John S. Roberts.
The Old Stone Fort remained in the Roberts family until it was purchased by Perkins Brothers in 1901; after which it was torn down, the material given to the Cum Concilio Club of Nacogdoches, who used the stones in the erection of the Stone Fort Memorial in 1907 at the northwest corner of Washington Square, where it remained as a museum until 1936, when the State of Texas again used the material from the Old Stone Fort in the erection of the present Replica of the Old Stone Fort on the beautiful campus of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College at the intersection of Griffith and Clark Boulevards.
REPLICA OF THE OLD STONE FORT
Replica of the Old Stone Fort, erected by the State of Texas as a part of its Centennial program, 1936. It stands on the campus of the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College and is maintained by the State as a museum.
THE MISSIONS AND PRESIDIO.—During the summer of 1716, under the direction of Captain Don Domingo Ramon, three missions and a presidio were erected in the present Nacogdoches county. The Presidio Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, built in 1716, was repaired and enlarged by the Marquis de Aguayo in 1721, and abandoned about 1730. Built by the Spanish government as a fort and headquarters for soldiers guarding the East Texas Missions and the borders of the New Philippines, it overlooked Los Terreros or Mill creek, near the intersection of the Lower Douglass road with the road from Douglass to Wells.