Mexican priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence
1761 CE
to 1821 CE
Moses Austin (October 4, 1761 – June 10, 1821) plays a large part in the development of the American lead industry and is the father of Stephen F. Austin, a leading American settler of Texas.
He is the first to be allowed to gather Anglo Americans for settlement in Spanish Texas.
After receiving a land grant from the Mexican government, he becomes the first to establish an English American settlement in what is at this time a sovereign Mexico.
His son will continue the practice of reselling land at 12 cents per acre, and the U.S. born settlers, many of them slaveholders in a slave-free Mexico, demand autonomy and win Independence from the Mexican ruler Santa Anna in 1837.