History of Fort Bend County
History of Fort Bend County
History of Fort Bend County
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December 1820 The Governor of Texas refuses Moses Austin and orders him out of Texas. He has a chance meeting with a long-lost friend, the Baron de Bastrop, who is the vice mayor of San Antonio. The Baron intercedes on his behalf. The governor reconsiders and decides in favor of a contract permitting Austin to settle 300 families in Texas and establish a town at the mouth of the Colorado River. The approved contract is received one month later.

June 1821 Before Moses Austin can begin the colony, he falls ill after a perilous trip home. Two days before dying, he asks his wife Maria to write his son Stephen with his "father's last request to prosecute the enterprise." Stephen Fuller Austin is 27 years old. He has just moved to New Orleans to study law and work at a newspaper to support his family. He had only reluctantly agreed to help his father with his "Texas Venture."

July 1821 Expecting that his father has departed New Orleans with a ship of settlers, Stephen F. Austin is in Natchitoches, La., to meet Spanish officials for an overland trip to the land grant. Austin sets out on horseback for Texas. A rider overtakes the group with word of his father's death. Writing his mother that "we must resign ourselves to the dispensations of Providence," he travels on to San Antonio seeking approval to assume his father's contract.

August 1821 Austin and his party reach the Brazos River, noting the fertile soil, abundant deer and black bear. Across the river are grassy prairies and buffalo. In San Antonio, they learn of Mexico's new independence from Spain. The governor recognizes Austin as the heir to the contract. He takes on the role of "empresario," or colonization agent. Empresarios contract with the Mexican government to bring Roman Catholic settlers to Texas in exchange for 23,000 acres for each 100 families brought.