Stephen Fuller Austin

Stephen Fuller Austin: A Texas Hero

(1793-1836)

It was November 3rd, 1793 in Wythe County, Virginia when Stephen Fuller Austin, son of Moses Austin, known as "The Father of Texas" was born. Austin attended school in Connecticut as a child and graduated from Transylvania University in Kentucky. In 1813, Austin was elected to the Legislature of Missouri and was reelected to that same position for three years until he moved to Arkansas. He was chosen as judge of the judicial district of Arkansas. He planned to go to Louisiana to study law, but decided to join his father in his journey.

On a journey to Missouri, Austin's father was struck with a pneumonia. When Moses Austin died, he asked that his son continue his goal to travel to San Antonio to settle three hundred families in Texas, in 1821. Austin and his group traveled three hundred miles when they learned that Mexico had announced it's independence and Texas was now a province of Mexico. Austin set out to see Governor Martinez, being escorted by Erasmo Seguin. Governor Antonio Martinez permitted Austin to carry out his father's colonization plan between the rivers of San Antonio and the Brazos River. The colonization plan arranged for six hundred forty acres of land given to each husband, three hundred twenty acres for each wife, one hundred sixty acres for each child, and eighty acres for each slave. Later, Austin was informed that the request by his father was refused due to an immigration law of the provisional government. Austin hurried to Mexico City and succeeded in getting Agustin de Iturbide's congress to finish a law that offers each head of family to receive four thousand six hundred five acres of land and sixty-seven thousand acres of land to emperasarios, or agents, for each two hundred families they recruit.

In 1823, Austin persuaded congress to grant his contract of introducing three hundred families. These first settlers were eventually known as, "The Old Three Hundred." In 1825, congress passed a law stating that each married man four thousand four hundred twenty-eight acres of land. Austin completed his contract of settling three hundred families. Austin earned three more contracts in 1825, 1827, and 1829, and settled a total of nine hundred families in his first colony, as well as a partner contract to settle eight hundred families in Western Texas, which caused disputes and disagreements with Sterling C. Robertson.

Austin had authority over his colonists until 1828, when he allowed officials from San Antonio and Monterrey to elect militia officers, citizens organized for military reasons, and local alcaldes, or judicial officers. The Constitution of Coahuila and Texas went into effect in November of 1827, and Austin took the chance to relieve himself of responsibilities of the details of the local government by hurrying the organization of the city council, known as the ayuntamiento. Austin's most interesting work was committed to the establishment of the land system. This had to do with surveying and measuring land, avoiding overlay, and minimizing conflict and disagreements. The work of

instructing surveyors, entertaining colonists, punishing troubling Indians, and much more was expensive and had a high cost. Austin's only possibility was to impose taxes upon the colonists. Although his first arrangement was to charge twelve and a half cents per acre, some refused to pay due to the imperial colonization law offering the refund of

emperesarios by grants of land. Settlers called for the officials in San Antonio, and ruled that Austin would not be able to gather fees. However at the same time, he imposed a fee that permitted the Baron de Bastrop to charge one hundred twenty-seven dollars per four thousand four hundred and twenty-eight acres of land. Austin made a meeting with Bastrop to divide the fee amongst the two of them.

Peace between state and federal authorities was necessary for the success of the colonies. He opposed the efforts and defeated the hopes of Haden Edwards bringing colonists into the Fredonian Rebellion and led the militia from Brazos and Colorado to help Mexican troops in taking it down. By 1830, Austin's variety of colonies consisted of sixteen thousand people, and other, less successful, had recruited many, many more. It became much harder for Austin to restore his leadership to them. However, the quick development of the colonies, along with efforts of the United States to buy Texas, increased the nerves and anxiety of Mexican leaders. Their tries to attempt to safeguard the territory by stopping immigration continued conflict and led to revolution and independence.

The Law of April 6, 1830, incorporated the Mexican policy of stopping further colonization of Texas by settlers from the United States. By intelligent and a bit unpleasant interpretation, Austin ensured exemption and immunity of his own colonies and the colony of Green DeWitt from the banning. He had found a loophole from continuing immigration from the United States and turned to the job of getting the law canceled. This task was succeeded in December of 1833.

In the meantime, measures to enforce the Law of