Moses Austin - Virginia's Forgotten Founding Father

When you think of Virginia, you think of George Washington and Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, James Madison and Montpelier, along with other famous Virginians. However, you usually do not think of Moses Austin as one of those other famous Virginians. But he should be considered one of them because there are not many people who helped start a new country, and one that would later become the proud and great State of Texas!

Located in New River State Park and Austin Memorial Park in Austinville, Virginia, is a monument dedicated to Stephen Fuller Austin, the "Father of Texas," which also mentions his father, Moses Austin, and his uncle, Stephen Austin. Moses and his brother had left Connecticut to scout for lead mines after the Revolutionary War and later revived an old abandoned lead mine in Montgomery County, which, a few years later, became Wythe County, Virginia.

Moses founded Austinville and, with his brother, built his lead industrial complex. They became wealthy through contracts with the State of Virginia to provide lead for the new Virginia Capitol building and for other needs. They also constructed one of the first "shot towers" to produce badly needed shot for guns in a new nation rapidly expanding its frontier. When his debts mounted, he also went to what was then Spanish Missouri in 1798 and started a lead-mining business there. But due to poor investments and the banking crisis, he decided to try to rebuild his fortune in the Provincia de los Tejas^[1] by becoming the first American to receive an empresario contract from the Spanish government to settle families in Texas. He died before fulfilling those dreams, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, did complete the contract.

What Moses Austin accomplished in Virginia helped launch the American lead industry, one that was vital to the nation's growth. Should he not be recognized as one of those important Virginians? I think so, and I hope you do too!

1. Officially, this area was known as "Nueva Filipinas" in Spanish records in the 1800s. The Historical Significance of Nueva Filipinas in Texas, Texas State Historical Association (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/new-philippines: accessed 18 March 2026).↩︎