MOSES AUSTIN - PROMISSORY NOTE SIGNED 10/24/1806 - HFSID 294524

MOSES AUSTIN
At his Burton Mine, Louisiana Territory, Austin co-signs the promissory note of Joseph Whittlesey.
Promissory Note signed: "Moses Austin", Jos. Whittlesey", a page, 8x5¼. Mine au Burton [Louisiana Territory], 1806 October 24. Moses co-signs a $70 promissory note for Joseph T. Whittlesey, on a sum borrowed from John Baker: "On condition Mr. Whittlesey should not be capable to pay the above I will on the condition pay the sum of Seventy Dollars." MOSES AUSTIN (1761-1821), the father of Texas pioneer Stephen F. Austin, was known as "the Lead King" of southwestern Virginia, where he owned mines and production facilities to make buckshot and other lead products. His business failed, and in 1798 Austin and his family moved to what is now Missouri, then Spanish territory. (Austin had purchased the land from Spain, but when he signed this note it was actually in French territory under a secret Franco-Spanish treaty, soon to be acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803). Mine au Burton (named for Francis Burton, who had discovered the lode in1763) was the first of 10 mines Austin opened in what would become Missouri, near the town of St. Genevieve, on the Mississippi. Austin established the first Anglo-American town and the first American mining operation west of the Mississippi at Potosi, Missouri, which he named after the Bolivian silver-mining town. Austin prospered for a time, but his business failed again in the Panic of 1819. He then traveled to Texas, acquiring permission to settle there with a colony of Anglos. Moses Austin died before he could return with the colonists, but his son Stephen F. Austin led 300 colonists there, and became known as the "Father of Texas," and was the first Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas when he died suddenly in 1836. Little is known of borrower Joseph T. Whittlesey, but his name appears on an 1806 petition to President Jefferson recommending candidates for Territorial Governor of Louisiana, listing Whittlesey's home as St. Genevieve. Right edge frayed and worn. Edges and corners worn. Heavily toned with soiled spots around edges. Multiple mailing folds. Otherwise, fine condition.