Grave of Moses Austin - Potosi, Missouri - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The following is an excerpt from Missouri: A Guide to the 'Show Me' State, 1941 in the Tour 13 section:

In the Presbyterian cemetery, one block northwest of the courthouse, is the Grave of Moses Austin, marked by a plain box-like monument.  Austin was born in Durham, Connecticut, October 4, 1761, and part of his boyhood was spent at Middletown, Connecticut, where there were important lead and smelting operations during the Revolutionary War.  Later he became a merchant in Philadelphia and Richmond.  In 1789 he acquired lead mines in southwestern Virginia.  In 1796-97 Austin explored the mines of Missouri, and after obtaining the Mine à Breton grant he became Missouri's first industrialist, and a leading citizen of the Territory. The depression following the Napoleonic Wars, and the collapse of the Bank of St. Louis in 1818, bankrupted him.  The following year he conceived the plan of forming a colony in Texas, and discussed the idea at Durham Hall, his Potosi home, with his son Stephen Fuller Austin (1793-1836), who later, as  "the Father of Texas," carried out their plans.  In 1820 Moses Austin rode by horseback to San Antonio, where he was granted permission to settle 300 American colonists in Texas.  The hardships of the return journey destroyed his health and he died near Potosi, at the home of  his son-in-law, James Bryan, June 10, 1821.  In April 1938, Texas attempted to remove his remains to the State cemetery in Austin, where his son, Stephen F. Austin, is buried, but Potosi refused permission.

Moses Austin is known as the "Father of Potosi" and "Grandfather of Texas".  The account of the attempt to remove his remains to Texas in the above passage is milder than some.  The attempt was done at night and the Texans attempting to remove his body were breaking through the "stone" covering his grave thinking his body was entombed in it rather than buried.  They were stopped by the citizens of Potosi and they left town.  The Governor of Texas apologized to the City of Potosi for their action.  The concrete covering his grave was repaired and the repair remains visible. The grave is often decorated with Texas flags (though was not on day I took pictures).