Stephen F. Austin’s Birthplace

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.