The American pioneer Stephen Fuller Austin (1793-1836) was the chief colonizer of Texas. With the exception of Utah, no other state so owes its existence to one man.

Born in Austinville, Wythe County, Va., on Nov. 3, 1793, Stephen Austin moved to Missouri in 1798, where his father, Moses Austin, engaged in lead mining and land speculation. Stephen attended Colchester Academy in Connecticut and Transylvania University in Kentucky before returning home. In Missouri he served in the state legislature from 1814 to 1820, was a director of the Bank of St. Louis and an officer in the state militia, and became active in lead mining, land speculation, and manufacturing.

When the Panic of 1819 bankrupted the family enterprises, Austin moved to Arkansas, where he was appointed a district judge. In August 1820 he moved again, seeking in Louisiana a means of making enough money to repay the family's debts. In New Orleans he read law...