Monday, Feb 5th, 2018
As I was researching my family tree just now I stumbled upon and discovered a 14th Great Grandfather through my mother's family line from her father (my grandfather) Ray Dietz, named Stephen Austin, who was born in 1484 in Kent England.
On a lark I decided to research the ancestry of the namesake of Austin Texas to see if my ancestral great grandfather was somehow connected to the "Founder of Texas"......
Stephen Austin
(1484-1557)
My 14th Great Grandfather
*Stephen F. Austin's 6th Great Grandfather*
Stephen F. Austin
(1793-1836)
My 7th Cousin
Father of Texas
And I discovered that Stephen is my 14th great grandfather and that he is Stephen Fuller Austin's 7th great Grandfather!
Stephen was the Father of William, Stephen II (my 13th GGF) ,Robert, Mary, Susan and Thomas (Stephen F. Austin's 6th GGF)
This makes this great pioneer of Texas and the namesake of the Texas capital my 7th cousin!
Who would have thought.....
My Pedigree to Stephen Austin
(My 14th Great Grandfather)
John Repinski
You
your mother
her father
his father
his mother
her mother
her mother
her father
his father
his mother
her mother
her mother
her father
his father
his mother
her father
his father
(My 14th Great Grandfather)
My Pedigree to Stephen F. Austin
(My 7th Cousin and the Father of Texas!)
John Repinski
You
→ Marlene Grace Repinski
your mother
→ Raymond Harold Dietz
her father
→ Henry Chester Dietz
his father
→ Eleanor May Dietz
his mother
→ Mary E. Brown
her mother
→ Mary Elizabeth Smith
her mother
→ Ziba Smith
her father
→ Simon Smith
his father
→ Lydia Dexter
his mother
→ Mary Dexter
her mother
→ Martha Field
her mother
→ Thomas Harris, Sr.
her father
→ Andrew Harris
his father
→ Joan Harris
his mother
→ Stephen Austin, II
her father
(My 13th Great Grandfather)
→ William Austin
his brother
(My 14th Great Uncle and Stephen's 5th Great Grandfather)
→ Richard Austin, I
his son
→ Richard Taylor Austin, Jr
his son
→ Capt. Anthony Austin
his son
→ Capt. Richard Austin
his son
→ Elias Austin
his son
→ Moses Austin
his son
→ Stephen F. Austin ("Father of Texas")
his son
The Life of my 7th Cousin
Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836), known as the Father of Texas, led the second and ultimately successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the United States. The capital of Texas, Austin in Travis County, Austin County, Austin Bayou, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Austin College in Sherman, as well as a number of K-12 schools are named in his honor.
Birth and Early years
Stephen F. Austin was born in the mining regions of southwestern Virginia (Wythe County), in what is now known as Austinville, some 195 miles (314 km) west of Richmond, Virginia.
He was the second child of Moses Austin and Mary Brown Austin, the first, Eliza Austin, having lived only one month. On June 8, 1798, when he was four years old, his family moved 40 miles west of the Mississippi River to the lead mining region in present-day Missouri. His father Moses Austin received a Sitio from the Spanish government for the mining site of Mine á Breton, established by French colonists.
When Austin was eleven years old, his family sent him to be educated at Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut and then at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1810. After graduating, Austin began studying to be a lawyer; at age twenty-one he served in the legislature of the Missouri Territory. As a member of the territorial legislature, he was "influential in obtaining a charter for the struggling Bank of St. Louis."
Austin was left penniless after the Panic of 1819, and decided to move south to the new Arkansas Territory. He acquired property on the south bank of the Arkansas River, in the area that would later become Little Rock. After purchasing the property, he learned that the area was in consideration as the location for the new territorial capital, which could make his land worth a great deal more.
He made his home in Hempstead County, Arkansas, before moving to the Texas territories. Two weeks before the first territorial elections in 1820, Austin declared his candidacy for Congress. His late entrance meant that his name did not appear on the ballot in two of the five counties, but he still placed second in the field of six candidates. He was later named a judge for the First Circuit Court. Over the next few months, Little Rock did become the territorial capital, but Austin's claim to land in the area was contested and the courts ruled against him. The Territorial Assembly reorganized the government and abolished Austin's judgeship. Austin then moved to Louisiana. He reached New Orleans in November 1820, where he met and stayed with New Orleans lawyer and former Kentucky congressman Joseph H. Hawkins and made arrangement to study law.
Moving to Texas
During Austin's time in Arkansas, his father traveled to Spanish Texas and received an empresarial grant that would allow him to bring 300 Americans to Texas (they would later become known as The Old 300). Moses Austin was attacked on his way back to Missouri. Upon returning home, Moses became ill with what was believed to be pneumonia and died on June 10, 1821. He left his empresario grant to his son Stephen. Though Austin was reluctant to carry on his father's Texas venture, Austin was persuaded to pursue the colonization of Texas by a letter from his mother, Mary Brown Austin, written just two days before Moses Austin died.
Austin boarded the steamer Beaver and departed to New Orleans to meet Spanish officials led by Erasmo Seguín. He was at Natchitoches, Louisiana, on June 31, 1821, when he learned of his father's death. "This news has effected me very much, he was one of the most feeling and affectionate Fathers that ever lived. His faults I now say, and always have, were not of the heart."
His party traveled the 300 miles (480 km) in three weeks to San Antonio with the intent of reauthorizing his father's grant, arriving on August 12. While in transit, they learned that Mexico had declared its independence from Spain, and Texas had become a Mexican province rather than a Spanish territory.
A San Antonio native, José Antonio Navarro, having like visions of the future of Texas befriended Stephen F. Austin, and a lasting association developed between the two. Navarro, proficient with Spanish and Mexican law, would assist Austin in obtaining his empresario contracts. In San Antonio, the grant was reauthorized by Governor Antonio María Martínez, who allowed Austin to explore the Gulf Coast between San Antonio and the Brazos River to find a suitable location for a colony. As guides for the party, Manuel Becerra, along with three Aranama Indians, went with the expedition.
Austin advertised the opportunity in New Orleans, stating that the land was available along the Brazos and Colorado rivers. A family of a husband, wife and two children would receive 1,280 acres (520 ha) at twelve and a half cents per acre. Farmers could get 177 acres (0.72 km2) and ranchers 4,428. In December 1821, the first U.S. colonists crossed into the granted territory by land and sea, on the Brazos River in present-day Brazoria County, Texas.
The Founding of the State of Texas
After Moses Austin's death in 1821, Stephen Austin won recognition of the empresario grant from the newly-independent state of Mexico. Austin convinced numerous American settlers to move to Texas, and by 1825 Austin had brought the first 300 American families into the territory.
Throughout the 1820s, Austin sought to maintain good relations with the Mexican government, and he helped suppress the Fredonian Rebellion. He also helped ensure the introduction of slavery into Texas despite the attempts of the Mexican government to ban the institution.
As Texas settlers became increasingly dissatisfied with the Mexican government, Austin advocated conciliation with the Mexican government, but the dissent against Mexico escalated into the Texas Revolution.
As Texas settlers became increasingly dissatisfied with the Mexican government, Austin advocated conciliation with the Mexican government, but the dissent against Mexico escalated into the Texas Revolution.
Austin led Texas forces at the successful Siege of Béxar before serving as a commissioner to the United States. Austin ran in the 1836 Texas presidential election but was defeated by Sam Houston. Houston appointed Austin as secretary of state for the new republic, and Austin held that position until his death in December 1836.
Numerous places and institutions are named in his honor, including the capital of Texas, Austin in Travis County, Austin County, Austin Bayou, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Austin College in Sherman, and a number of K-12 schools.
Stephen's Legacy
Numerous places and institutions are named in his honor, including the capital of Texas, Austin in Travis County, Austin County, Austin Bayou, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Austin College in Sherman, and a number of K-12 schools.
It seems the more I research my family lineage, the more surprises like this I find.
Someday I will find that "pot o Gold" attached to one of my ancestors I feel!
Warm Regards,
My Family Historian and the Cousin of the Father of Texas!
(going to have to make a trip to Austin again soon to pay my respects to my kinfolk)
John
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