Where is Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU)?
Austin (TX) is named for Stephen F. Austin, who in the early 19th century led about 300 families from the future Missouri into the then-Spanish colony. It was the area's first major wave of non-Hispanic white move-ins. Thus Austin is dubbed 'Father of Texas'.
However, SFASU, founded in 1923, is further east of Austin in Nacogdoches (Nac), in a very 'bosky', i.e., richly forested, area, the basis for a 200-plus-year-old timber industry. Thus SFASU's mascot is a lumberjack. In turn 'Axe 'em, 'Jacks!' is a customary greeting to SFASU alums and current students.
Nac and Lufkin (roughly half-hour drive south) are the two largest and most populated cities within a 40-mile radius of both. Together they are the heart of an uneven quadrilateral formed by Dallas, Houston, Beaumont and Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana.
Like much of eastern Texas and NW Louisiana, Caddo Indians were indigenous to the future area of Nac, in turn named for Nacogdoche, a Caddo sub-tribe. Incidentally, 'tejas' is the Caddo word for 'friend', in turn the basis for the name 'Texas'.
Starting in 1716 Nac's first European settlers were French and, to a lesser extent, Spanish. In 1779 a larger wave of Spanish settlers arrived; their leader, Colonel Antonio Gil Y'Barbo, became lieutenant governor of the newly established town of Nac.
Sam Houston (1793-1863), future first president of the Republic of Texas (1836-38), lived in Nac (1832-35) practicing law before the Texas Revolution (1836).
More Info:
www.nactx.us