The Father of Modern Texas

“The prosperity of Texas has been the object of my labors, the idol of my existence—it has assumed the character of a religion, for the guidance of my thoughts and actions for fifteen years.”
                 Stephen F. Austin, 1836

Stephen Fuller Austin, the son of Moses and Maria Brown Austin, was born in southwestern Virginia on November 3, 1793.  When his father developed an interest in lead mining, he moved his family to the lead-rich rim of civilized settlement in what is now southeastern Missouri. 

At the age of 10, Stephen was sent to school in Connecticut, and from there he returned westward and studied at Transylvania University in Kentucky. Upon his return to Missouri in 1810, Austin assumed the management of his father’s business.  Seeking to retrieve broken fortunes caused by the depression following the War of 1812, Moses Austin developed the idea of Texas colonization and traveled to San Antonio to obtain a land grant. 

Unfortunately, he died a month following approval of his grant, leaving the completion of his ambitious enterprise to his son. 

After the disappointment of learning that the provisional government formed after the Mexican Revolution refused to recognize his father’s Spanish grant, Austin went to Mexico City, where his unremitting efforts secured permission to settle 300 American families in Texas.  Austin obtained additional contracts in 1825, 1827, and 1828 to settle 900 more families in the area of his first settlement.

As an empresario, Austin’s influence shaped every aspect of his colony.  He drew up a civil and criminal code, organized and led campaigns against threatening Indians, mapped much of Texas’ interior lands, directed the distribution of land, and conducted unending negotiations with the government on behalf of his colonists.

When the increasingly centralist policies of the Mexican government pushed the colonists to arms, Austin became a key figure in the independence movement.  After serving briefly as commander-in-chief of the Texas army, Austin was elected to serve as a commissioner to the United States to raise funds and munitions for the Texas cause. 

After the victory at San Jacinto, Austin served as secretary of state of the young Republic until his untimely death on December 27, 1836.  Upon hearing of Austin’s death, Sam Houston wrote:  “The father of Texas is no more.  The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed.”

To see the Stephen F. Austin exhibit, visit us today.