The old King’s Highway, known to the Spaniards as “El Camino Real,” which runs through Nacogdoches, San Augustine and Sabine counties, was followed by La Salle and his men in 1685, at which time they spoke of this road as being “as well beaten a road as that from Paris to Orleans.” This road was followed by St. Dennis in 1714, as he was making his way from Natchitoches on Red River to San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande. It was doubtless an Indian trail to the western borders of the Tejas Indians, probably about the Trinity river, and from there to San Antonio the best route was determined by use. After the Mexican Revolution and the coming of the American settlers it was straightened into a cart-road or Camino Carretera, and was known as the Old San Antonio Road. State Highway 21 now follows approximately the track of the old road.

Highway 21 leads east to San Augustine, the sister town to Nacogdoches from the earliest days, where are the sites of the old Mission of Dolores, the home of General James Pinckney Henderson, Governor O. M. Roberts, and many of the prominent men of the Republic of Texas. The home of Stephen W. Blount, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, many of whose descendants live in Nacogdoches and San Augustine, was built on the north side of the King’s Highway, and is in an excellent state of preservation.

Seven miles west of San Augustine on this highway was the home of Thomas S. McFarland, who laid out the town of San Augustine in 1834. The house was built about 1830 and was provided with port-holes for shooting Indians in case of attack.

Pendleton Ferry was the original ferry on the King’s Highway across the Sabine river; now spanned by a splendid interstate bridge. Not far from the road is McMahan’s Chapel, the first Methodist Church in Texas, and the site of old Sabine-town.