Moses Austin Bryan was an early settler of Texas. Moses served as Secretary for his uncle, Stephen F. Austin

Stephen F. Austin

Stephen Fuller Austin was born in Virginia and raised in southeastern Missouri. He was known as the Father of Texas, led the second, but first legal and ultimately successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the United States. The capital of Texas, Austin in Travis County,...

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Family

His mother was Emily Austin Perry

Emily Austin Perry

Emily Austin Perry was an early settler of Texas and sole heir to Stephen F. Austin. She achieved significant political, economic and social status as a woman in Texas at a time when women often were not equal to men.-Early life:...

 and his father was James Bryan. Born in Missouri, Moses moved to Texas several months before his mothers. Moses was named for Moses Austin

Moses Austin

Moses Austin played a large part in the development of the American lead industry and is the father of Stephen F. Austin, a leading American settler of Texas. He was the first to be allowed to gather Anglo Americans for settlement in Spanish Texas...

, his grandfather, who had initially obtained permission from Mexico to serve as an empresario

Empresario

An empresario was a person who, in the early years of the settlement of Texas, had been granted the right to settle on Mexican land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for new settlers. The word is Spanish for entrepreneur.- Background :...

 to settle Texas. His grandmother is Mary Brown Austin

Mary Brown Austin

Mary Brown Austin had dramatic influence on early Texas history. Perhaps her most important contribution to history is writing a letter to her son, Stephen, two days before the death of her husband, Moses Austin, imploring Stephen F. Austin to carry out the dying wish of his father—that Stephen...

.

His brothers include William Joel Bryan

William Joel Bryan

William Joel Bryan was a Texas soldier and land owner.Bryan was born at Hazel Run in Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri to James Bryan and Emily Austin Perry. He attended school at Potosi, Missouri until 1830. In 1831, William Joel Bryan's mother and stepfather James Franklin Perry followed...

 and Guy Morrison Bryan. Stephen Samuel Perry

Stephen Samuel Perry

Stephen Samuel Perry managed Peach Point Plantation, and is credited with amassing and preserving significant historical manuscripts related to Texas history....

 is his half brother.

Service to Texas

Moses fought in the Battle of San Jacinto

Battle of San Jacinto

The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican forces in a fight that lasted just eighteen...

Moses traveled with Stephen F. Austin to Mexico where Moses learned and communicated in Spanish. Moses also records an account of the battle and reflects Sam Houston

Sam Houston

Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...

into history. By nature of his communication abilities, Moses was part of the diplomacy between Austin and Mexico.

Historic marker

There is an historic marker for Moses Austin Bryan located in Washington County, Texas at the Independence Cemetery.

Additional References

The Handbook of Texas. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbrar.html

Dixon, Sam Houston and Louis Wiltz Kemp. The Heroes of San Jacinto. Houston: Anson
Jones Press, 1932.