Salcedo

Santísima Trinidad de Salcedo—also known as Salcedo, Spanish Bluffs, or Trinidad for short—was a small Spanish villa on the east bank of the Trinity River located near present-day Madisonville, Texas. Spain founded Trinidad in 1806 as a joint military-civilian settlement. From the villa's establishment to its eventual destruction in 1813, the military served as the government of Trinidad and provided civilians with protection from Indian attacks. Civilians, for their part, supplied soldiers with food and skilled workmanship. Spanish officials in Texas hoped that this arrangement would lead to a permanent settlement that would serve as a waypoint between Nacogdoches and San Antonio and a buffer against United States expansion. It is unclear whether this experiment would have worked in the long term, as Trinidad was destroyed in 1813 in the revolutionary violence of the Mexican War of Independence. At its height, Trinidad had a barracks, a chapel, a schoolhouse, and around twenty civilian homes.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.