Community of Weches

The Handbook of Texas credits T. J. Hennin with founding Weches around 1847 and naming it Neches for the nearby river. The post office ran under that name from January 1847 to July 1848, then as Naches from 1853 to 1882. When residents sought a new office in 1887, the name Neches belonged to another town, and they chose Weches. By 1890 it had a steam gristmill, a cotton gin, a store and a Baptist church, and by 1896 an estimated 400 people. By the early 1970s only twenty-six were left.

What the plaque says

Community of Weches Located near site of 17th-century Spanish missionary activity, this farming community had its beginnings with the settlement of the McLeans, Conners, Patton, and Gregg families, who had all arrived in the area by 1840. Originally known as Neches for the nearby river, the similar name Weches was adopted when Post Office officials informed residents that "Neches" had been assigned to another community. The following year Alfred Monroe Gregg set aside land for a church, school and cemetery. The Weches post office closed in 1939. (1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 5.9 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 24 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• The Joseph R. Rice Log Cabin — 0.3 mi
• Mission San Francisco de los Tejas — 0.4 mi
• Mission San Francisco de los Tejas — 0.6 mi
• Weches CCC Camp — 1.0 mi