Stephen F. Austin: A Brief Biography

Stephen F. Austin, (1793-1836). Stephen was born in the lead mines in southwestern Virginia on November 3, 1793. In 1798 Moses Austin moved his family to other lead mines in southeastern Missouri and established the town called Potosi in what is now called Washington County. There Stephen grew up to the age of eleven, where his father sent him to a school in Connecticut, from which he returned westward and spent 2 years at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. At Potosi, Moses Austin was working in the mining, smelting, and manufacturing of lead and, in addition, conducted a general store. After he got back from Transylvania in the spring of 1810, Stephen Austin was working in the store and quickly took over the management of most of the lead business. He

He took the oath of office and qualified in July 1820, but he only held court for a little while, for at the end of August he was in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and in December he was in New Orleans, where he had made arrangements to live in Joseph H. Hawkins home and study law. At this time Moses Austin was traveling to San Antonio to apply for a grant of land and permission to settle 300 families in Texas. Though not totally excited about the Texas adventure, Austin decided to cooperate with his father. He arranged to get a loan from his friend Hawkins to float the enterprise and was at Natchitoches expecting to go with his father to San Antonio when he learned of Moses Austin 's death. He proceeded to San Antonio, where he arrived in August 1821. Confirmed by the Governor Antonio María Martínez to keep on with the colonization enterprise under his father 's grant, Austin came to an understanding about certain administrative procedures and was told by the governor to explore the coastal plain between the San Antonio and Brazos rivers for the purpose of picking a site for the proposed