Millions of Americans are familiar with famed Texan Stephen F. Austin, the man who secured his place in history as the "Father of Texas." Most, however, are unaware that the "Father of Texas" not only hails from the Old Dominion, but from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia's historic Wythe County.
Born November 3, 1793, in what is now Austinville, Virginia, Stephen Fuller Austin was the second child of Moses Austin and Mary Brown Austin. Moses, born in 1761, was originally from Connecticut. He and his brother moved to eastern Wythe County in August 1789 with intentions of founding a lead mines on the banks of the New River.
