Austin, Stephen Fuller (1793–1836)

Whenever the term father is used to describe a man's contributions to society, invention, or country, one can be assured that the namesake has been applied in glowing recognition for the various achievements that have been accomplished. This moniker has been aptly applied to one such “father,” Stephen Fuller Austin, also known as the Father of Texas. Throughout Austin's life, he was able to provide intense leadership in the face of dreaded opposition, which resulted in the successful launch of a nation. Without the vision of Stephen Austin, the state of Texas might never have been born as a republic and subsequently as an addition to the United States of America.

Stephen Fuller Austin was born on November 3, 1793, in present day Wythe County in southwestern Virginia, to Moses and Maria Brown Austin. Moses owned and operated a smelter in the lead mine region of Virginia and could be evaluated as generally successful. A few years after Stephen was born, the lead mines in Virginia had all but been bled dry, and Moses had to pull up stakes and look elsewhere for business. A few speculators had claimed that there were new and untapped deposits in the upper Louisiana region, also known as Missouri, and Moses decided to brave the unknown and ended up creating the first permanent settlement in Washington County, Missouri. As the furnaces were built and the lead extracted, the Austins found themselves doing quite well, and Moses became one of the founders of the First Bank of St. Louis.

Tragic times would soon befall the Austins, for in 1818 speculative land values crashed, causing the Bank of St. Louis to fail and all of Moses Austin's dreams to fail with it. With virtually nothing, Moses decided to brave the frontier again in search of wealth and traveled to Texas, entering San Antonio in August of 1820. During this time, his son Stephen served as a circuit judge in Arkansas, followed by a trip to New Orleans to study law, where he became well attuned to frontier life and the various challenges associated with it. At 27 years of age, Stephen would have to take over the reigns of exploration from his father. As Moses was traveling back to Missouri from San Antonio with a Royal Commission in hand to settle 300 families in Texas, he was robbed and developed a bad cold. He died upon his return to Washington County, but Stephen was fully prepared to carry on his father's legacy.

Because his family had been ruined by land speculation on land purchased from the U.S. government, Stephen Austin felt that he had a significantly better chance of success on Spanish land as opposed to American soil. When he received the official papers from Monterrey, Mexico, and the Spanish commissioners, he was well aware that the resolution required “faith to the Catholic Church and to the King, as well as the new immigrants [will] introduce agriculture, industry, and arts.” Austin and the Spanish commissioners realized that the colonists were Protestant, but as long as they were law-abiding and productive, a blind eye was turned.

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