Stephen Fuller Austin (1793-1836)

Stephen Fuller Austin was born 3 Nov 1793 in Wythe County, [[Virginia]] "at the lead mines in Southwestern Virginia", in what is now known as Austinville.  His father apparently had an interest in lead mines in Virginia.  He was the second child of Moses Austin (1767-1821) and Maria Brown (1768-1824), their first child only lived one month.  On 8 Jun 1798 when he was four, his family moved to land that would later become part of the Louisiana Purchase, later still part of the Missouri frontier.  His father Moses bought the site of Mine a Breton and had a lead-mining operation in Bellevue, in what was later [[Washington County, Missouri|Washington County]], [[Missouri]].  In 1813 Moses lobbied the territorial legislature to create the county of Washington, and to locate the county seat at the town of Potosi in Washington County, a town he had established.

When he was ten, his family sent Stephen to school at the Bacon Academy in Connecticut.  He returned home, and then went to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky from where he graduated in 1810.  Stephen served in the Missouri Territorial Legislature, from 1814 to 1819.  He was appointed by the [[Arkansas]] Territorial Governor, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Miller_(general) James Miller] in 1820 as Judge of the First Circuit Court serving Lawrence County for a term of three years.  He only evidently served at the first session, for in August of that same year he was in Natchitoches, [[Louisiana]] where he studied law.

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1819 Economic Panic of 1819] led his father to embark on a scheme for the colonization of Texas, then part of Mexico.  In 1821 Moses obtained a grant from the Spanish-controlled Mexican government.  His son reluctantly agreed to help his father in this scheme, but Moses died soon thereafter on 10 Jun 1821, while his son was still in Louisiana. Stephen persued his father's idea and started a colony there in 1822 with several hundred families on the Brazos River, after gaining recognition from the newly-independent Mexican government.

When the Texas Revolution broke out, he went to the US to obtain assistance.  He lost to [[Samuel Houston|Sam Houston]] for Presidency of Texas, but served briefly as Secretary of State in 1836.  Stephen Austin died 27 Dec 1836 in Austin, Texas.