Stephen F. Austin’s Birthplace

Stephen F. Austin’s Birthplace is a Virginia historical marker in Wythe County, dedicated 2016.

Rte. 52, just north of Lead Mine Rd. (Route 69)

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Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) was born near Austinville, three miles west of here. His father, Moses Austin, operated a substantial lead mine and smelting business nearby before moving the family to what is now Missouri in 1798. Moses Austin won permission in 1821 to establish the first large-scale Anglo-American colony in Spanish Texas but died that year. Stephen took over, brought thousands of people to Texas (by then part of Mexico), and negotiated with Mexican officials to promote the colonists' interests. During Texas’s war for independence from Mexico (1835-1836) he was a commissioner to the United States, and he became the first secretary of state of the Republic of Texas in 1836.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1794 · Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1807 · Map Of Virginia (lower center sheet) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1814 · Kentucky (Mathew Carey, 1814) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1823 · North Carolina (Lucas, 1823) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1829 · Tennessee (A. Finley, 1829) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, 1794, covering the location of Stephen F. Austin’s Birthplace, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, 1794, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Stephen F. Austin’s Birthplace

Historical maps covering this location

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