Midway, Madison County
In this vicinity, at Paso Tomas on the Trinity, was the Spanish town Nuestra Senora del Pilar De. Bucareli (1774-1779) Indian troubles had caused Spain to move Louisiana colonists to Bexar (San Antonio). These people, however, pled to return to East Texas, and secured the consent of Viceroy Antonio Maria Bucarelo. Led by Gil Ybarbo (1729-1809), they built at the Trinity crossing a church, plaza, and wooden houses, and grew to a town of 345 people. But ill luck with crops, a few Comanche raids, and river floods sent the settlers farther east. Again led by Ybarbo, they rebuilt the old town of Nacogdoches, 1779.