Stephen Fuller Austin (1793-1836)

*Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1985, "[[StephenFAustin1|Stephen F Austin]]"

*Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1985, "[[StephenFAustin1|Stephen F Austin]]"

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Moore, Edith Austin, The Descendants of Richard Austin of Charlestown Massachusetts 1638, unpublished manuscript, LDS Film#0873972#2. RESEARCH NOTES: attended Transylvania College at Lexington, Kentucky; had just finished school, made his way to New Orleans and entered the office of Joseph Hawkins, a former Kentucky politician, who had been Speaker of the Legislature, when word came that his father was seriously ill. Although death had overtaken his father before he arrived, he got word to "carry on" with the Colony project in Texas. Stephen hit his benefactor and friend Joseph Hawkins for a loan, and Hawkins agreed to back him in the project, whereupon he headed for Texas where he was immediately and almost prematurely recognized by the Spanish-American authorities as the logical successor to his father in the land colonization proposition. [Ref: Moore AUSTIN p61] When in 1833 the Tennessee colonists formed a constitution and sought admission to the Mexican Confederacy, Stephen Austin and other delegates went to the city of Mexico to obtain a ratification of it, but they failed because of the frequent revolutions and anarchy in Mexico. He wrote to Texas recommending the organization of a state de facto. For this he was improsoned. On his release and return, he was greated with an ovation, and when the war came on he took prominent part in the Revolution; being chosen Commander of the Texan army in Oct 1835. However, he induced Sam Houston to take the chief command, while he went as one of the three commisioners sent by the "Consultations" to the U.S. for the purpose of obtaining the recognition of Texas as an independent Government. Before his mission had successfully terminated he returned to Texas, where he died.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Moore, Edith Austin, The Descendants of Richard Austin of Charlestown Massachusetts 1638, unpublished manuscript, LDS Film#0873972#2. RESEARCH NOTES: attended Transylvania College at Lexington, Kentucky; had just finished school, made his way to New Orleans and entered the office of Joseph Hawkins, a former Kentucky politician, who had been Speaker of the Legislature, when word came that his father was seriously ill. Although death had overtaken his father before he arrived, he got word to "carry on" with the Colony project in Texas. Stephen hit his benefactor and friend Joseph Hawkins for a loan, and Hawkins agreed to back him in the project, whereupon he headed for Texas where he was immediately and almost prematurely recognized by the Spanish-American authorities as the logical successor to his father in the land colonization proposition. [Ref: Moore AUSTIN p61] When in 1833 the Tennessee colonists formed a constitution and sought admission to the Mexican Confederacy, Stephen Austin and other delegates went to the city of Mexico to obtain a ratification of it, but they failed because of the frequent revolutions and anarchy in Mexico. He wrote to Texas recommending the organization of a state de facto. For this he was improsoned. On his release and return, he was greated with an ovation, and when the war came on he took prominent part in the Revolution; being chosen Commander of the Texan army in Oct 1835. However, he induced Sam Houston to take the chief command, while he went as one of the three commisioners sent by the "Consultations" to the U.S. for the purpose of obtaining the recognition of Texas as an independent Government. Before his mission had successfully terminated he returned to Texas, where he died.