THE LIFE AND TIMES OF STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

Part 10: Starting A Colony

by Bob Heinonen

At the age of 55, Moses Austin died and was buried at his daughter Emily’s home at Hazel Run in Missouri. Some of his final words to his wife, Maria, were to convince his eldest son Stephen to accept responsibility for his empresario contract in Texas.

When Stephen F. Austin received word of his father’s death and dying wish, Stephen was already half way from New Orleans to San Antonio de Bexar to work on his father’s Texas colonization project. Stephen and his party of ten men had reached the Sabine River on July 9, 1821. The messenger carrying the news of Moses’ death overtook them the next day.

Stephen had been told by his father, when Stephen was only ten years old, that he (Stephen) would be responsible for the family when he (Moses) died. That event had now happened. Stephen was now responsible for the well being of his mother, sister and brother for the rest of their lives.

Upon being informed of his father’s death, Stephen immediately retraced his steps to Natchitoches to consult with a Spanish agent about the possibility that his inheritance of the empresario agreement would be accepted. The Spanish agent encouraged him to continue his journey to San Antonio.

Erasmo Seguin and a party of officials had been sent to Natchitoches to guide Moses Austin back to San Antonio de Bexar, but that journey now fell to Stephen. When Stephen reached San Antonio on August 12, 1821, his inheritance of his father’s empresario contract was warmly accepted by Governor Martinez but the contract was very general in its terms. It only said that Austin would bring in 300 families “and that they be Roman Catholics of good character and industrious habits.”

The governor asked Austin to give him a proposal on how Austin would distribute lands to the families; Austin responded with a plan for each family receiving 320 acres of farm land on a river and 640 acres of grazing land away from the river. In addition, each head of family would receive 200 acres for his wife, 100 acres for each child, and 50 acres for each slave. Governor Martinez approved these recommendations contingent on his superior’s approval. Martinez also reminded Austin that he must govern the colonists until a government was formed to do so.

For the next few months, Stephen and his men explored and surveyed his new colony. Finally, in October, 1821, after arriving back in Natchitoches upon completion of the survey, Stephen F. Austin proposed the boundaries of his new colony in a letter to Governor Martinez.

To Stephen’s surprise, when he arrived in Natchitoches, “he found nearly a hundred letters from Missouri, Kentucky, and other states requesting information about the colony.” “And this did not include the fifty or more families already in the Natchitoches-Nacogdoches region who were planning to immigrate in the next two months….” Stephen F. Austin had to make his Texas venture move forward quickly because the momentum of migration had begun. And his family was now depending on him.

Next Month – Part 11: Mexico’s Independence

All quotations are from Gregg Cantrell’s Stephen F. Austin – Empresario of Texas. Bob Heinonen is the founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Stephen F. Austin since 1993. Copyright© by Bob Heinonen 2008.