Editing Stephen F. Austin (section)

==Move to Texas==
[[File:The Alamo 1936 Issue-3c.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Sam Houston]] and Stephen Austin depicted on the [[Texas]] Centennial Issue [[postage stamp]] of 1936]]
During Austin's time in Arkansas, his father traveled to [[Spanish Texas]] and received an [[empresario|empresarial]] grant that would allow him to bring 300 American families to Texas.<ref name=edmondson59/> Moses Austin caught pneumonia soon after returning to Missouri.<ref name=edmondson59/> He directed that his ''empresario'' grant would be taken over by his son Stephen. Although Austin was reluctant to carry on his father's Texas venture, he was persuaded to do so by a letter from his mother, written two days before Moses's death.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fau11 |title=Austin, Mary Brown |series=Handbook of Texas Online |date=December 6, 2019 |access-date=March 14, 2020 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |last=Gracy II|first=David B.}}</ref>

Austin boarded the steamer ''Beaver'' and departed to New Orleans to meet Spanish officials led by [[Erasmo Seguín]]. He was at [[Natchitoches, Louisiana]], in 1821 when he learned of his father's death. "This news has effected me very much, he was one of the most feeling and affectionate Fathers that ever lived. His faults I now say, and always have, were not of the heart."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Gqo7AQAAMAAJ&q=effected&pg=PA401 Letter from Stephen F. Austin to Maria Austin, July 13, 1821], ''The Austin Papers, Volume 1,'' Issue 1. Page 401. Retrieved 1 January 2020.</ref>

Austin led his party to travel {{convert|300|mi|km}} in four weeks to [[San Antonio]], with the intent of reauthorizing his father's grant; they arrived on August 12. While in transit, they learned Mexico had declared its independence from Spain, and Texas had become a Mexican province rather than a Spanish territory. [[José Antonio Navarro]], a San Antonio native with ambitious visions of the future of Texas, befriended Stephen F. Austin, and the two developed a lasting association. Navarro, proficient in Spanish and Mexican law, assisted Austin in obtaining his empresario contracts.<ref name="Todish107">Todish (1998), p. 107.</ref> In San Antonio, the grant was reauthorized by Governor [[Antonio María Martínez]], who allowed Austin to explore the [[Gulf of Mexico|Gulf Coast]] between San Antonio and the [[Brazos River]] to find a suitable location for a colony.<ref name="edmondson60" /> As guides for the party, [[Manuel Becerra (settler)|Manuel Becerra]] and three [[Aranama people|Aranama]] Indians went with the expedition.

Austin advertised the Texas opportunity in New Orleans, announcing that land was available along the Brazos and [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado]] rivers.<ref name="edmondson61">Edmondson (2000), p. 61.</ref> A family of a husband, wife, and two children would receive {{convert|1280|acre}} at twelve and a half cents per acre. Farmers could get {{convert|177|acre|ha}} and ranchers {{convert|4428|acre|ha}}. In December 1821, the first U.S. colonists crossed into the granted territory by land and sea on the Brazos River in present-day [[Brazoria County, Texas|Brazoria County]].