Stephen Fuller Austin

Pioneer

• Born: November 3, 1793
• Birthplace: Wythe County, Virginia
• Died: December 27, 1836
• Place of death: Columbia, Texas

American military leader and politician

Austin established the first Anglo-American colony in Texas and played a significant role in the Texas Revolution, which resulted in that province’s securing its independence from Mexico and later joining the United States.

Areas of achievement Military, government and politics

Early Life

Stephen Fuller Austin was born on November 3, 1793, in Wythe County, Virginia. His father, Moses Austin, was a mine owner who came from a family of Connecticut merchants. His mother, née Maria Brown, had a New Jersey Quaker heritage. The Austin family moved to the province of Spanish Louisiana in 1798 to seek better lead deposits for mining. Moses established and operated a lead mine south of St. Louis. There young Stephen passed his childhood until the age of eleven years. In 1804, his family sent him to Connecticut to begin his formal education. He spent several years as a pupil at Bacon Academy and then entered Transylvania University in Kentucky. In 1810, the youth returned to Missouri, which had become part of the United States because of the Louisiana Purchase. The young man worked at a bank in St. Louis and, for a time, engaged in storekeeping. In 1814, his neighbors elected him as a delegate to the Missouri Territorial Legislature, a post he held until 1820.

In 1817, Austin took charge of the financially troubled family mining operation at Potosi. He was, however, unable to make it a profitable business. In 1820, he therefore followed his brother-in-law James Perry to the Arkansas Territory. There he established a farm near Long Prairie on the Red River. The governor of Arkansas appointed him a district judge in July of 1820.

By early adulthood, it had become obvious that Austin had natural leadership ability. He had a pleasing personality along with a mature outlook. He was a physically small person of slight build, only five feet, six inches in height. Dark haired and fine featured, Stephen was no doubt a handsome youth who inspired confidence in all whom he met. His greatest strengths, however, were his moderate personal habits. A well-educated man, he was charitable, tolerant, and loyal in his relationships with others. Also, although he never married, he seldom lacked companionship from the many friends he made throughout his life. It is not surprising, therefore, that Austin decided upon the practice of law as his career. In 1821, he went to New Orleans to study for the bar.

Events set in motion about this time by his father, however, changed forever the course of Austin’s life. Moses Austin decided to found a colony in the Spanish province of Texas. The fertile and unsettled land there had rich agricultural potential. Many Anglo-Americans from the United States, especially cotton farmers from the South, would probably be glad to immigrate to Texas. They would exploit the land, something the Spanish had never done. Moses went to San Antonio, where he secured a colonization grant from the Spanish governor in 1821. This grant permitted him to settle three hundred families in the province. These immigrants would agree to become Spanish subjects in return for grants of land. Moses Austin, however, died in 1821, before he could begin his colonization venture. With his dying breath, he asked that Austin carry through this enterprise and bring it to successful conclusion. This his son agreed to do.

Life’s Work

The summer of 1821 found Austin in San Antonio. There he secured a reconfirmation of his father’s colonization grant from the Spanish authorities. Unfortunately, however, Mexico became independent from Spain in early 1822, and, consequently, the grant was no longer valid. Austin, who could not secure a renewal from the incoming Mexican authorities in Texas, decided to travel to Mexico City to speak about his grant directly with the newly independent government. He arrived there on April 29, 1822, in the hope that meeting with the Mexican leaders would restore his concession. In the meantime, various Anglo-American farmers began moving to Texas in anticipation of Austin’s success in Mexico City.

Austin remained in Mexico for a year while he witnessed the turmoil and instabilities of the new Mexican government. Because of problems related to establishing a workable form of government, Austin could not immediately secure a confirmation of his Texas concession. He did use this time in Mexico City to personal advantage, however, learning to speak and write Spanish with marked fluency. He also made many friends among the Mexican leaders, including Miguel Ramos Arispe, who authored the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Austin furnished Arispe with a translated copy of the U.S. Constitution and made recommendations concerning the contents of the Mexican document.

The Mexican government confirmed the Austin grant in early 1823. Austin returned to Texas and assumed direction of the colony, which grew rapidly. By the end of 1824, almost all three hundred colonists permitted by the colonization charter had received grants. The Austin colony centered along the rich land of the Brazos River. Most colonists settled in a region called “the bottom,” several leagues inland from the Gulf coast. The small town of San Felipe became its chief settlement. A formal census of the colony taken in 1825 showed eighteen hundred residents, of whom 443 were slaves.

During the summer of 1824, the Mexican government approved the establishment of additional Anglo colonies in Texas. Any prospective colonizer could apply for an empresario contract, the Spanish term used to describe these concessions. In all, Mexico issued several dozen such contracts to various individuals during the following decade. Most of them did not enjoy success, although Austin continued to do so. His original contract fulfilled, he applied for additional colonial grants under the empresario provisions. The additional settlements that he sponsored brought hundreds of families into Texas. By 1830, Austin had attracted some five thousand people into Texas. This influx, added to the families who came under the leadership of the other empresarios, resulted in a considerable Anglo population in the province by the end of the 1820’s.

Austin became involved in Mexican politics that, during this period, were chaotic and complicated by factions. The Anglo-Texans increasingly came to identify with the Federalists, a Mexican political group whose beliefs seemed similar to their own. The Centralists, the opposing faction, thus began to identify Austin and the Anglo-Texans as members of the Federalists by the early 1830’s. Therein lay one of the causes of the Texas Revolution.

In addition, the Mexican government was concerned that too many Anglo-Americans had immigrated to Texas. As a result, it passed the law of April 6, 1830, which (among other restrictions) ended all future immigration into Texas from the United States. Austin worked hard to secure a repeal of this law. He once again went to Mexico City to lobby for measures favorable to Texas. Although he failed to secure all the concessions he wanted, he did persuade the government to repeal some of the most objectionable aspects of the law. By the time he returned to Texas in late 1831, events during his absence had made it increasingly difficult for Anglo-Texans to reconcile themselves to continued Mexican rule.

The actions of the post commander at Anahuac on the Texas coast had caused great dissatisfaction among Anglo residents. During the summer of 1832, the colonists took to arms to force his removal. The military commander in Texas eventually removed the offensive garrison commander at Anahuac. For a time, this forestalled additional armed confrontations with the increasingly unhappy Anglo population. By then, however, the crisis had begun. The town council of San Felipe issued a call for a convention of Anglo colonists to discuss common problems and desires. The fifty-eight delegates who composed this group assembled in October, 1832, and elected Austin the presiding officer.

This Convention of 1832, as it subsequently came to be called, drafted a long list of concessions that the Anglo-Texans wanted from the Mexican government. It also created a standing committee of correspondence in each area of Texas for the purpose of monitoring additional problems with Mexico. The delegates also agreed that another convention would be held the following year. This second convention met in 1833 and drafted a provincial constitution for Texas as a separate state within the Mexican government. The Convention of 1833 delegated Austin to deliver this document to the central government. Austin left Texas in May, 1833, on a journey that would result in a two-year absence from Texas. He spent much of this time in a Mexican prison.

Austin arrived in Mexico City, where he presented the proposed constitution to government officials. He also wrote a letter to the town council in San Antonio that complained about the political situation in Mexico. A government official intercepted this letter en route to Texas and believed that it contained treason. Austin, arrested for this in early January of 1834, remained in prison until December of that year. He did not return to Texas until July 11, 1835. Austin’s confinement in Mexico City, much of it in the harsh Prison of the Inquisition, permanently ruined his health. During his absence from Texas, dissatisfaction there with Mexico continued. By late 1835, many Anglo-Texans, including Austin, had come to favor a break with Mexico.

The Texas Revolution began on October 2, 1835, with a skirmish between Anglo and Mexican troops near Gonzales, Texas. A committee of colonists issued a call for a provincial convention that appointed Austin commander of the revolutionary army. He held this position for only a few months. The Texas government then appointed him as an agent to the United States, charged with finding materials and supplies for the revolt. Austin spent much of the Texas Revolution in the United States, visiting Washington, D.C., Richmond, Philadelphia, and other cities. He returned to Texas during the summer of 1836 after the Texas Revolution had ended in an Anglo-American victory. Austin permitted his supporters to place his name in candidacy as president of the Republic of Texas. When Sam Houston won election to this office, Austin looked forward to retiring to private life. Houston, however, prevailed upon him to become secretary of state in the new government, which Austin reluctantly agreed to do. He served only a few months. His health broken by the imprisonment in Mexico, Austin died on December 27, 1836.

Significance

Stephen Fuller Austin played a significant role in the westward expansion of the United States. Although credit for the Anglo colonization of Hispanic Texas belongs to his father, Austin carried out the dream, and its success belongs to him. He approached the colonization of Texas with a single-minded determination that consumed all of his efforts. In fact, he had time for little else from 1821 until the events of the Texas Revolution. Although he initially believed that Texas should remain a part of Mexico, Austin had become a vocal advocate of independence by 1835. His activities during the revolt materially assisted the Texan victory. It had been his intention to retire from public life after the success of the revolt. He had earlier selected a picturesque, unsettled location—on the lower Colorado River in Texas—as the site for his home. It is fitting that the modern city of Austin, the state capital, occupies that location. It is there Stephen Fuller Austin rests, in the State Cemetery.

Bibliography

Barker, Eugene C. The Life of Stephen F. Austin, Founder of Texas, 1793-1836: A Chapter in the Westward Movement of the Anglo-American People. Nashville, Tenn.: Cokesbury Press, 1925. Standard scholarly biography from original sources, mainly the Austin family papers. Until the publication of Cantrell’s book (see below), this was the only full-length biography and study of Austin’s life, his Texas colony, and his impact on American history.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Stephen F. Austin.” In Handbook of Texas. Vol. 1, edited by Walter P. Webb. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1952. Provides highlights of Austin’s career in a short biography. It offers a concise, short treatment of Austin’s life in a factual manner.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. The Austin Papers. 3 vols. Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association, 1919-1926. Collection of personal papers and letters of Moses and Stephen F. Austin. Covers the early years of the Austin family in Missouri, with the major part of the collection dealing with the period from 1822 to 1836.

Cantrell, Gregg. Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. The only significant biography since Barker’s (see above). Cantrell describes how Austin transcended his self-interest in Texas land speculation to become a believer in the idea of an independent Texas. Accessible book for general readers as well as history buffs.

Glascock, Sallie. Dreams of Empire: The Story of Stephen Fuller Austin and His Colony in Texas. San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor, 1951. Well-written biography designed for the general reader or for young readers. Good starting place for those unfamiliar with Austin’s life.

Holley, Mary Austin. Texas: Observations, Historical, Geographical, and Descriptive. Baltimore: Armstrong and Plaskett, 1833. Holley was Austin’s cousin. Provides a firsthand account of life and events in the colony and useful insights into the Austin settlement.

Tracy, Milton, and Richard Havelock-Bailie. The Colonizer: A Saga of Stephen F. Austin. El Paso, Tex.: Guynes Printing, 1941. Concentrates on the empresario career. Makes few improvements on the Barker biography of Austin but is a solid, general assessment of Austin’s life, placing him in historical perspective.

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