Who Were the Old Three Hundred?
The Old Three Hundred were the first families to receive land grants in Stephen F. Austin's original colony, laying the foundation for Anglo-American settlement in Texas. Their courage, determination, and vision helped transform a vast frontier into thriving communities and played a pivotal role in the history of what would become the Republic of Texas.
The story began in 1821, when Moses Austin received permission from the Spanish government to settle 300 families in Texas. Before he could carry out his plans, he died in Missouri. His son, Stephen Fuller Austin, honored his father's dream by traveling to San Antonio, where Spanish Governor Antonio María Martínez recognized him as his father's successor and authorized him to continue the colonization effort.
Austin quickly recruited families willing to begin new lives on the Texas frontier. Over the next several years, these pioneers traveled hundreds of miles, enduring uncertainty, disease, floods, droughts, and the hardships of frontier life in search of opportunity and a better future for their families.
Although history remembers them as the Old Three Hundred, the name is symbolic rather than exact. Because some land grants were issued jointly to unmarried partners and a few families received more than one grant, historians have determined that 307 land titles were issued to approximately 297 individual grantees. Nevertheless, the name Old Three Hundred has endured for more than two centuries as a tribute to the original settlers of Austin's colony.
The colonists established homes along the fertile bottomlands of the Brazos, Colorado, and San Bernard Rivers, extending from present-day Brenham, Navasota, and La Grange to the Gulf of Mexico. Most earned their living through farming and ranching, and the community of San Felipe de Austin became the administrative and social center of the colony.
The majority of the settlers came from the southern United States, particularly Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri. Many arrived with farming experience, livestock, equipment, and the determination to build prosperous homes in an unfamiliar land. Stephen F. Austin carefully selected colonists whom he believed possessed the character, industry, and perseverance needed to establish a successful settlement.
A Shared History
The history of Austin's Colony is broader than the story of the land grantees alone. It is also the story of the enslaved African Americans who accompanied many of the settlers and whose labor helped clear fields, build homes, establish farms and ranches, and support the colony's early growth. Though they were denied the freedoms and opportunities enjoyed by the colonists, their lives and contributions are an essential part of the history of Austin's first colony.
The colony also developed within lands that had long been home to Native peoples, including the Karankawa, Tonkawa, Waco, Tawakoni, and Comanche, among others. Their relationships with the settlers varied over time—from trade and diplomacy to conflict—but their history is inseparable from the story of early Texas. Likewise, the success of Austin's colony depended upon the cooperation and leadership of Tejanos and Mexican officials, whose support made the colonization effort possible.
Together, these communities helped shape the early history of Texas. Their experiences—though often very different—form a richer and more complete understanding of the world in which Austin's Colony grew.
Preserving Their Legacy
Today, the Descendants of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred is dedicated to preserving the heritage of the original colonists while encouraging a deeper understanding of the many people whose lives intersected in Austin's Colony. Through genealogical research, historical preservation, educational programs, publications, and visits to the places where this history unfolded, we honor the courage, perseverance, and sacrifices that helped shape Texas.
More than two centuries later, the story of the Old Three Hundred continues through their descendants and through everyone who values the remarkable history of Austin's first colony. By preserving these stories and sharing them with future generations, we ensure that the legacy of the Old Three Hundred—and all who contributed to the colony's history—will never be forgotten.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924–28). Lester G. Bugbee, "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). Lester G. Bugbee, Austin Colony (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1893). T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans (New York: Macmillan, 1968).