Moses Austin

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Moses Austin (October 4, 1761 – June 10, 1821) was a leading figure in the development of the American lead industry and the father of Stephen F. Austin, a pioneer settler of Texas. He was the first to obtain permission for Anglo Americans to settle in Spanish Texas. He also established the first Anglo-American settlement west of the Mississippi River.

[edit] Early life

Austin was born in Durham, Connecticut, and moved to Philadelphia in 1784 to enter the dry goods business with his brother, Stephen. In 1785, he married into the affluent iron mining family of Mary Brown. Austin sought to start his own mining in Wythe County in southwestern Virginia, and in 1789 he traveled to southwest Virginia to look at the lead mine site. Moses saw potential in the site and by 1791 his family had joined him in what was now Wythe County. Moses and his brother Stephen and several other partners and individuals industialized the area. Several smelters, furnaces, commisaries, a shot towerblacksmith shops, liverys, and mills were established. The tiny village around the mines became known as "Austinville".

The Austins' second child was born in 1793 and named Stephen F Austin in honor of his father's brother and his mother's great uncle. Their daughter Emily followed in 1795. James Elijah Brown was born in 1803. The Austin's ran up several debts as part of their business which would lead to the eventual collapse of the company. Moses left his brother for Missouri and swore allegiance to the Spanish Crown, while Stephen remained behind to salvage the business which would cause a rift between the two brothers that would last for much of the rest of their lives. The state of Virginia seized much of the property Moses owned and broke up the various operations which were later purchased from the state at great discounts by Thomas Jackson and his partners.

[edit] Businessman

After the Virginia lead business failed, Austin looked toward the rich lead deposits in Missouri, then a part of upper Spanish Louisiana. In December 1796, Austin and a companion traveled to investigate the Spanish mines. In 1798, the Spanish crown granted to Moses one-league (4,428 acre). He moved his family from Austinville and built his home, Durham Hall, an imposing southern-style mansion, in Potosi. He called his lead mine and estate "Mine á Breton". The territorial governor William Henry Harrison appointed Austin to a judgeship, and he served as an officer in the local militia.

In 1808, he founded the town of Herculaneum on the Mississippi River. He built a lead smelter there. Austin joined a group of St. Louis businessmen who wanted to establish the Bank of St. Louis. They were granted a charter but failed to raise the capital to commence business. Teh bank did not open its doors until 1816. In 1813, Austin petitioned the territorial legislature to create Washington County, with Potosi as the seat of government.

The War of 1812 and the Panic of 1819 left Austin financially ruined. On March 11, 1820, he was arrested at his house for his nonpayment of his debts. He was jailed only a short while, but he was forced to sell at auction his Mine á Breton estate.

Austin sought an empresarial grant in Spanish Texas after the implementation of the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1821. He established his headquarters in Natchitoches, the oldest settlement in Louisiana, located near the Red River in the north central portion of the state. He received permission to locate an empresarial plantation in Texas but died before he could launch the settlement. It was left to son Stephen F. Austin to fulfill his father's dream. And Stephen Austin had to secure the permission from the new Mexican government, which displaced Spanish rule that same year before he could bring the first Anglo families into Texas.

Moses and Mary Austin are entombed at the public cemetery in Potosi, Missouri. A date on the tomb is incorrect.

[edit] References

• Barker, Eugene C., Life of Stephen F. Austin (1926)
• Gracy, David B., Moses Austin: his life (Trinity University Press, 1987) ISBN 0-911536-84-1
• Haley, James L. "Texas An Album of History", Doubleday & Co., ISBN 0-385-17307-5
• Haley, James L.;"Passionate Nation: The Epic History of Texas';Free Press; ISBN 0-684-86291-3
• Cantrell, Gregg; Stephen F. Austin-Empesario of Texas; Yale University Press; ISBN 0-300-09093-5
• Moses Austin from the Handbook of Texas Online
• "Moses Austin", A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 1 (1988), p. 25