NARRATIVE: Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836), American empresario and namesake of Austin, Texas, needs no introduction to most proud Texans. Through fortunes of fate, willingness to accept responsibility passed on to him by the dying wish of his father to carve out a settlement in Texas, he provided opportunities and land for settlers from the United States to be the beginning of what would ultimately lead to the formation of Texas. The original group led by Stephen F. Austin to enter the territory, then under rule of the newly independent nation of Mexico, is famously dubbed The Old Three-Hundred. Austin's generous plan allowed the settlers to prosper with generous land grants that profited him little and gave them a foothold from which they could endure trials and later achieve independence from Mexico, forming their own independent nation. Stephen was one of many notable heroes who made Texas what it is today.