The Texas General Land Office celebrated Stephen Fuller Austin’s 216th birthday Tuesday. He is known by many as the “Father of Texas” for leading the colonization of the state when it remained under Mexican control during the 1820s and ‘30s.
The office invited the public to tour the extensive collection of Stephen F. Austin’s land records, including Austin’s original registry of the land titles for the Old Three Hundred settlement.
Karie Meltzer, spokeswoman for the office, said Austin’s story must be maintained.
“[Austin] is the father of the Texas we know today,” Meltzer said. “The Texas General Land Office protects these records so that they can be enjoyed by everyone, from history buffs to students.”
The Old Three Hundred refers to settlers who received land grants as part of Austin’s first colony in Mexico during the 1820s, said Galen Greaser, Spanish translator for archives and records at the land office.
“There were few Mexicans who wanted to come to Texas, so the government of Mexico decided to open [its] borders,” Greaser said. “Mexico wanted to settle the vacant lands in order to make the area productive and offer protection from Indian attacks on the settlers.”
Before Austin could settle the Old Three Hundred, he had to travel to Mexico to get his contract approved and become a Mexican citizen, Greaser said.
In an original letter housed at the Texas General Land Office dated May 20, 1823, Austin writes about his pride in being a citizen of “the great Mexican nation” and his allegiance to the country.
Austin signed the letter as “Estevan F. Austin.” After his return, Austin began to recruit settlers to Mexico, Greaser said.
He said the Mexican government welcomed settlers on the condition that they were of good, moral character and identified as Roman Catholic. The 1824 Mexican Constitution defined Roman Catholicism as the state religion.
Greaser said settlers were easily able to get around the requirement because the Mexican government had no way of verifying one’s religion.
Austin was able to settle his original “Three Hundred” in Texas and secure hundreds of other contracts, Greaser said.
“When I think of Stephen F. Austin, I think of his role as a consolidator trying to bridge the gap between settlers,” Greaser said.
Meltzer said the Save Texas History campaign, a historic preservation project within the land office, is dedicated to saving and preserving the maps and documents of Texas history, some of which are hundreds of years old.
The office has already saved thousands of historic maps, but at least 400 more maps still need help, according to the organization’s Web site.
“After a while, they start crumbling and get old, so we have to conserve them,” Meltzer said. “Being able to preserve these maps is preserving a window into Texas history that otherwise wouldn’t exist.”
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