Stephen F. Austin: "Introduced the Concept of Rangers into the Texas Lexicon"

Stephen Fuller Austin is rightfully considered the "Father of Texas." As Mike Cox observed, "The land clearly spoke to Austin. The grassy prairies and timbered river bottoms influenced him every bit as strongly as his father's dying wish that he continue with his colonization plans." He did indeed succeed his father in establishing an Anglo colony in the Mexican province of Tejas, and spent the next fifteen years guiding the region into becoming a sovereign nation. While the Republic of Texas, and the later American state, would owe its existence to Austin's labors, he also introduced the concept of rangers into the Texas lexicon. The results of his inspiration, the subsequent spies, mounted gunmen, mounted volunteers, and ranging companies of Texas, would form and disband countless times until they became in effect a permanent force in 1874. Similar to the state that it protects, the present Texas Ranger Division is beholden to Austin for founding the antecedents of that renowned law enforcement agency.

He was born in Austinville, Wythe County, Virginia, on November 3, 1793, the eldest son of Moses and Mary "Maria" (Brown) Austin. Stephen's father had been born a British subject in Durham, Connecticut, on October 4, 1761, while Maria was a native of Morris County, New Jersey. Their citizenship would change once the thirteen colonies declared and secured their independence as the United States of America. Entering the world of commerce, Moses was a partner in a mercantile business in Philadelphia and Richmond. In the former city, Moses met Maria, and they married on September 28, 1785. He first leased, and then purchased, Colonel John Chiswell's old lead mines in Wythe County, and engaged in the extraction and manufacturing of lead. Two of Stephen's sisters, Anna Maria Austin and Eliza Fuller Austin, did not survive infancy, but another sister, Emily Margaret Austin, born June 22, 1795, and one brother, James Elijah Brown Austin, born October 3, 1803, reached adulthood. Pursuing new opportunities, the extended Austin family traveled to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, then part of Spanish Upper Louisiana, in the summer of 1798, and became Spanish subjects. Moses engaged in lead mining at Mine á Breton while the ownership of Louisiana transferred to France and then to the United States. His operations turned a quick profit and Moses amassed an impressively large personal fortune of $200,000. In time, Moses constructed Durham Hall, a stately mansion on Breton Creek, for his family, and also opened a dry goods store.

In 1804, Stephen was sent to Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut, where he studied for three years. He left the East in January 1808, and attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, later the same year. In April 1810, due to some losses in the lead market, and the subsequent cash shortage, Austin was forced to leave school before obtaining his degree. He returned home and managed his father's commercial affairs while Moses took a trip to New York City to obtain investors. Even after the elder Austin's return, Stephen continued to take on more responsibility for the family's mercantile and mining ventures.

Three years later, while American forces were fighting the British to the east, the Illinois and Missouri frontier was the scene of several Indian attacks. The governors of the two territories received authorization from Congress to raise militia troops to answer the threat. Governor Benjamin Howard of Missouri mustered in companies for the purpose of clearing hostile Indians from the country along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Desiring to join the campaign, Stephen enlisted as a private in the First Regiment of Mounted Militia under the command of Colonel Alexander McNair. He soon earned promotion to regimental quartermaster sergeant. Dividing his forces on September 10, 1813, Howard, in his new rank of brigadier-general, sent an element of regulars up the Illinois River on gunboats, and marched the Illinois regiment under Colonel Benjamin Stephenson along the east side of the Mississippi and the Missourians on the west. They then swept through the area for seven weeks, burning deserted villages and fighting small skirmishes, but failing to engage any Indians in decisive combat. The volunteers were disbanded at Fort Russell on October 21. Two years later, Stephen was promoted to the position of adjutant of the Sixth Militia Regiment. A few months after, he was elected to the lower house of the territorial legislature. On December 4, 1815, he took his seat and represented Washington County in the Second and Third Legislatures, and in a special session that convened from October 26 to December 23, 1818.

Beginning in 1817, Stephen made unspecified improvements to public lands along the Red River in Arkansas, particularly at a tract dubbed Long Prairie. Even without ever seeing the ground, he had established a foundation for a preemption claim when the government opened the area for settlement. He further amassed goods to sell to the immigrants he was positive would rush into the territory. With two partners, he located five New Madrid claims at two locations: the Ouachita River near the mouth of the Caddo River and the sandstone formation known as the Little Rock on the south bank of the Arkansas River. Austin arrived at Long Prairie in June 1819, and spent the summer and fall performing the preliminary work to establish Mount Prairie, his anticipated plantation. For reasons known only to himself, he sold his interest in the Little Rock claim to his brother-in-law, and acted as the latter's agent in promoting the new town of Fulton. He also lobbied to have the seat of the territorial government moved from Arkansas Post to the more advantageous Little Rock location. In May 1820, he decided to divest himself of his interest in Mount Prairie, but the real estate market was glutted with others also looking to sell. By the summer, Austin was forced to admit his Arkansas ventures had proven to be embarrassing failures.

Stephen was not alone in his commercial disappointments. The War of 1812 had disrupted trade along the Mississippi River and adversely affected Moses Austin's already overextended finances. Adding to his troubles, the Panic of 1819, which began in the East earlier in the year, spread to Missouri by the fall. The general contraction of the territory's economy was fueled by excessive land speculation and debt, waning migration, the depreciation of bank notes, and a steep decline in the value of land. Creditors, who were themselves ensnared in the financial crisis, began to sue Moses...