Day 14 -- August 9, 2019
(Yes! I am still writing about the trip to Boston two years ago, but I will finish someday. I am a busy person.)
During our early morning walk around the hotel, we see the swimming pool, and decide that a few laps would be great exercise.
Continuing our trip toward Texas, we see a billboard for Stephen F. Austin, and are quite puzzled. We know of Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches TX, but why in the world would it be advertised up here.
So we stop at the welcome center to go in and inquire. The photo below shows Herb going into the building.
The ladies are only too happy to explain it to us, and give us a brochure with a history of his life. Stephen Fuller Austin was born to Moses Austin on November 3, 1793. He and his father had several businesses, some successful and some not. Their main investments were in mining lead shot, and they got a tarrif put on foreign imports.
Moses received an empresarial grant that would allow him to bring 300 American families to Texas, but he caught pneumonia soon afterward and directed that his empresario grant would be taken over by his son Stephen. Although Austin was reluctant to carry on his father's Texas venture, he was persuaded to pursue the colonization of Texas by a letter from his mother, written two days before Moses' death.
By 1825 Austin had convinced 300 American settlers, with their slaves, to move to the territory of Texas, and that is how he became "The Father of Texas." If you research, you will find there is much more about his life, including the fact that he was once put in debtors' prison. He died in December of 1836.
The photo is by Unknown Author.
Willie of Sweet Georgia Brown
and of Walldog and Willie
August 9, 2019
