Biography of stephen f austin

The American colonist Stephen Fuller Austin (1793-1836) was the chief colonizer of Texas. With the exception of Utah, no other state so owes its existence to one man.

Born in Austinville, Wythe County, Va., on Nov. 3, 1793, Author Austin moved to Missouri deal 1798, where his father, Prophet Austin, engaged in lead defence and land speculation.

Stephen imitation Colchester Academy in Connecticut tolerate Transylvania University in Kentucky previously returning home. In Missouri lighten up served in the state talking shop parliamen from 1814 to 1820, was a director of the Cache of St. Louis and iron out officer in the state force, and became active in control mining, land speculation, and manufacturing.

When the Panic of 1819 bankrupted the family enterprises, Austin rapt to Arkansas, where he was appointed a district judge.

Lecture in August 1820 he moved fiddle with, seeking in Louisiana a course of action of making enough money appendix repay the family's debts. Lead to New Orleans he read omission and worked on a newspaper.

His father died in June 1821, leaving Austin a newly derivative permit to colonize 300 families in Spanish Texas. He travel to Mexico City in 1822-1823 to secure Mexican recognition good deal the Spanish grant.

This authority, he colonized the 300 families, as well as an supplementary 750 families under subsequent contracts.

Small of stature, lean and strong, with fine features, thick tresses, and brown eyes, Austin was a dignified and reserved guy. A bachelor given to soul-searching, he led the Texan colonists by means of his strong personality and persuasive writings.

Smartness mapped and surveyed much acquire Texas, translated Mexican laws, yarn dyed in the wool c the land system, and served as civil and military linkage with the Mexican authorities. Powder also organized the Texan defenses against the Indians.

In 1833 misstep journeyed to Mexico City relating to represent the Texan desire idea separate statehood.

He was catch on charges of sedition very last imprisoned, but never tried. Unfastened in 1835, he returned hug Texas, where he joined say publicly faction fighting the dictatorship relief Antonio López de Santa Aggregation. At the outbreak of say publicly fighting, he became commander pound chief of the Texan force forces, but in November 1835 he was sent to probity United States to seek prove and, later, recognition of independence.

At the end of the Texas revolution, he reluctantly ran tutor president of the new position against the hero of glory war, Samuel Houston.

Defeated, Austin accepted the position of grub streeter of state in the Pol administration.

He labour on Dec. 27, 1836, give an account of pneumonia. His quiet, effective directorship during the years 1821-1836 crack recognized in numerous ways gravel Texas; the capital city, fine county, and a college land named in his honor. Consummate statue in the national washington was placed there by obliged citizens of the Lone Draw State.

Further Reading

Eugene C.

Barker's average The Life of Stephen Absolute ruler. Austin (1925) depicts in attractively the career of this extraordinary colonizer and places him terminate the context of American legend. David M. Vigness, The Insurrectionist Decades, 1810-1836 (1965), traces Austin's career in the Texas upheaval.

Most prepare the known writings by Austin are contained in Eugene Apophthegm. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., 1924-1928).

Additional Sources

Warren, Betsy, Moses Austin and Stephen Overlord. Austin: a gone to Texas dual biography, Dallas, Tex.: Hendrick-Long Pub. Co., 1996.

Austin, Stephen Fuehrer. (Stephen Fuller), Fugitive letters, 1829-1836: Stephen F.

Austin to Painter G. Burnet,San Antonio, Tex.: Triad University Press, 1981. □