The New Student's Reference Work/Austin, Stephen Fuller

Austin, Stephen Fuller, son of Moses Austin, the Texan pioneer, and himself founder of the state of Texas, was born at Austinville, Va., November 3, 1793, and died at Columbia, Texas, December 25, 1836. Taking up the work of his father, who died in 1821, he obtained from the Mexican government a confirmation of the grant to his father; he built up at Austin, Texas, a thriving settlement, while he pacified those Indians that threatened trouble. In the thirties the colony became restive under Mexican rule, and he, siding with the revolutionists, was for a time imprisoned. On being liberated he actively took up arms against the Mexicans, and, calling General Sam Houston to his aid, he committed himself to the project of Texan independence. In 1835 he was a commissioner to the United States to secure the recognition of Texas, but that object was as yet distant, and he died before seeing his cherished designs fulfilled.