Stephen Fuller Austin (3 November 1793 – 27 December 1836) was the Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas under President Sam Houston from October to December 1836. Austin led the first 300 American settlers into Texas in 1821, being hired by the government of Mexico to bring settlers to the barren region to help in populating it. Austin was initially a strong opponent of secession, but he would later agree with the rebels and help them in their independence struggle.
Biography[]
Stephen Fuller Austin was born in Wythe County, Virginia on 3 November 1793, and he graduated from Transylvania University in Kentucky in 1810. In 1814, he became a legislator in Missouri at the age of 21, and he helped in obtaining a charter for the Bank of St. Louis. In 1819, he was left penniless after an economic disaster, and he moved to Arkansas, purchasing property near what is now Little Rock.
Settling Texas[]
Austin in 1821
In 1821, he met with some officials from Mexico in New Orleans, Louisiana, and they recruited him to enlist several Americans to help in settling Texas, which was severely depopulated. Austin became an empresario of Mexico, and he managed to recruit several people to head to Texas. Austin was trusted by the Mexican government, and he abided by their laws and had faith in the decisions made by the youthful Mexican democracy; however, he had to deal wih several potential settlers who refused to give up their American values in favor of living in Texas as Mexican citizens. During this time, he met a woman named Maddie Quimper, who defended him from critics and became a close friend of his. They developed a close relationship, and Austin gave her control of her own settlement, which would become "Quimper's Ferry".
Texian leader[]
Austin would later become a pro-independence leader after Mexico began to implement military rule in Texas, introducing immigration controls and tariffs. In addition, the Mexicans threatened to deport any Texians who were not married to Mexican women, and Austin agreed with the nationalist politician Sam Houston that war was the only solution to the Texian question. Austin was arrested in Saltillo, Mexico in January 1834 because the government believed that he was inciting Texian dissent, but he would be released under the general amnesty of July 1835. Austin fell ill, leaving Sam Houston to command the Texian army during the Texas Revolution; Austin did not want the hot-headed William B. Travis or the drunkard James Bowie to lead the army. Austin recovered by the time that the revolution was over, and Houston decided to make him the Secretary of State of the new Republic of Texas. He served in this post for just two months before dying of pneumonia in December 1836 at the age of 43.