| Interment Location | Visited | |
|---|---|---|
| Austin, TX | April 18, 2012 |
“The prosperity of Texas has been the object of my labors, the idol of my existence—it has assumed the character of a religion, for the guidance of my thoughts and actions, for fifteen years.” Five months after he wrote these sentiments, Stephen Fuller Austin — the man anointed the “Father of Texas” — was dead. His remains are interred beneath a looming monument at the Texas State Cemetery in the capital city which bears his name.
This photograph captures a small informational sign staked in the plant bed that envelopes Austin’s memorial. It reads:
“Born in Virginia in 1793, he brought the first 300 Anglo – American colonists to Texas in 1821. Austin became known as the ‘Father of Texas.’
“Shortly after his appointment as Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas, Austin died of pneumonia.
“He was buried at Peach Point, Texas, in 1836, and his remains were brought to the Cemetery in 1910 by an act of Governor O. B. Colquitt. The bronze sculpture was completed the same year by Pompeo Coppini.“
Pompeo Luigi Coppini was of Italian birth and immigrated to the United States in March 1896. After first settling in New York and sculpting wax figures, in 1901 Coppini relocated to Texas to work with German sculptor Frank Teich. Based in San Antonio, Coppini created statues and busts of nineteenth-century southern figures like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. His reputation became such that he worked on sculptures for the Texas State Capitol grounds, and Governor Colquitt commissioned him for the Stephen Austin gravesite statue. Today, when cemetery visitors look with post-World War II eyes upon Coppini’s artwork, attention is drawn to Austin’s outstretched arm and fingers. Will Erwin, the cemetery’s senior historian, writes that “until we get a hold of Pompeo’s personal journals, we’ll never know” what the posture of the 1910 sculpture signifies. But, regardless of the resemblance, there is certainly no connection to the subsequently-developed Nazi salute.
The inclined, bronze tablet attached to the statue’s base reconveys the basics of Austin’s biography. It also describes him as “wise, gentle, courageous and patient” and hails him as “the founder of a mighty commonwealth.” Mexico won its independence from Spain in September 1821, a month after Austin arrived in San Antonio, located in what was then Mexican Texas. Austin aimed to carry on the colonization plans of his late father, who had been bestowed a grant by the Spanish government. The grant was not honored by the provisional Mexican Government after the change in governance, but Austin’s work with Mexico enabled him to facilitate the settlement of 300 white families and their enslaved laborers. Then, due to growing concern about Texas’s potential annexation by the United States, in April 1830 the Mexican Government passed a law curtailing American immigration into Texas.
Stephen Austin opposed the idea the United States annexing Texas. Many of the Anglo families that lived there had relocated in large part to avoid U.S. land laws. In order to keep his vision for his colony alive, Austin needed to carefully balance his words and actions. In his dealings with the Mexican Government, he received assurances that his colony would be exempt from the new immigration restrictions. In June 1830, Austin penned letters in which he voiced his opposition to slavery, his loyalty to Mexico, and his embrace of European immigrants, which anti-slavery Mexicans preferred over American migrants. The publicly-announced stances Austin espoused in these letters contradicted his actions, both past and future. He had previously selected land for the purpose of harvesting crops with slave labor, and he later maneuvered to allow wealthy whites to cross into Texas with their enslaved people. The explanation behind his June 1830 views is likely posturing — he wanted to placate Mexico and stop conflict between it and the U.S. from prematurely erupting. Taking his legacy of slavery into consideration, it seems poetic that one of Austin’s closest neighbors at the Texas State Cemetery is the first Black congresswoman from the South, Barbara Jordan. The groundbreaking politician’s grave appears in the background of this image, on the right hand side of Austin’s monument.
Fast Facts
Born: November 3, 1793 in Wythe County, Virginia
Republic of Texas, Secretary of State Tenure: 1836
Died: December 27, 1836 in West Columbia, Republic of Texas
Cause of Death: Pneumonia
Age: 43
Reputed Last Words: “The independence of Texas is recognized! Don’t you see it in the papers? Doctor Archer told me so.”
Interment: Texas State Cemetery, Austin, Texas
"Some men in the world hold the doctrine that it is degrading and corrupt to use policy in anything....There is no degradation in prudence and a well tempered and well timed moderation."
- Stephen F. Austin
April 9, 1832 in a letter to his secretary
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Barker, Eugene C. Texas State Historical Association. “Austin, Stephen Fuller.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/austin-stephen-fuller.
Bryan, Guy M., Jr. Ed. Account of the Removal of the Remains of Stephen F. Austin from Peach Point Cemetery in Brazoria County, Texas to State Cemetery, Austin, Texas, October 18 to 20, 1910. Houston: Gray, Dillaye & Co., Printers, 1911. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth38129/.
Erwin, Will. “Stephen F. Austin died 175 years ago today 12/27.” Texas State Cemetery. December 27, 2011. https://cemetery.tspb.texas.gov/news.asp?newsid=9237.
Narrett, David E. “A Choice of Destiny: Immigration Policy, Slavery, and the Annexation of Texas.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 100, no. 3 (1997) 271-302. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30239099.
Remy, Caroline, Jean L. Levering, and Eldon Stephen Branda. Revised by Kendall Curlee. “Coppini, Pompeo Luigi.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/coppini-pompeo-luigi.
