Founder (1761-1821) of the American lead industry, father of Texas pioneer Stephen F. Austin, and the first man to obtain permission to bring Anglo-American settlers into Spanish Texas. Manuscript DS, one page, 7.5 x 12.5, April 5, 1812. Bail bond in the case of Carr and Elliot vs. Bates, reads, in part: “Know all Men by these present that we Moses Bates and Moses Austin are held and formerly bound to H. Dodge Sheriff of the District of St. Genevieve in the kind sum of Eight hundred and forty Dollars lawful money of the United States to be paid to the said Dodge or his successor.…The condition of the above obligation is such that a capias ad respondendum has Issued from the Court of Common Pleas for the District cop[ie]d at the suit of William C. Carr and Henry Elliott administrator of Earon Elliott deceased on which said suit bail is required for the sum of four hundred and Twenty Dollars and the said Dodge has arrested the said Moses Bates in his capacity as sheriff…of the said Bates should be cast in the said suit he will pay the cost and condemnation money or surrender his body in execution for the same or that the said Moses Austin his bail will do it for him as witness our hands and seals this day and date as above written." Scattered toning along intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, a trimmed left edge, and some other areas of scattered light toning, otherwise fine condition.
After mining lead in southeastern Missouri for several years, Austin’s business venture began to flounder and he fell into financial peril by 1812. Owing money to numerous people, as identified in this document, Austin would move to Texas in 1820 in pursuit of other business opportunities. After receiving permission to bring 300 colonists to Texas, Austin returned to Missouri to find residents for his new colony, only to die two months after his arrival. He requested that his son, Stephen F. Austin, continue with the planned Texas colony—a measure that would earn Stephen a title as the ‘Father of Texas.’ RRAuction COA.
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