Emily Austin of Texas, 1795-1851 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Emily Austin of Texas, 1795-1851 Sara Crowley Emily Austin of Texas, 1795-1851. By Light Townsend Cummins. (Fort Worth: TCU Press, 2009. Pp. 308. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780875653518, $27.95 cloth.) Light T. Cummins's book, Emily Austin of Texas, is the first book in the Texas Biography Series, published by the Center for Texas Studies at Texas Christian University and the TCU Press. The goal of the Biography Series is to highlight the important people of Texas history, including minorities and women. Cummins's book accomplishes this aim as he recounts Emily Austin's intriguing life. This work demonstrates the significant role Emily Austin, sister of Stephen F. Austin, played in Texas history. [End Page 86] One theme evident throughout Cummins's work is the link between Austin and her family—a tie the author suggests makes her representative of antebellum southern women. Emily Margaret Brown Austin was born on June 22, 1795. As a child, Austin witnessed her father, Moses Austin, work to procure lasting wealth for his family. Emily Austin also demonstrated strength of character that made her an active participant in her family's affairs. For instance, in 1813 Austin married James Bryan, a business acquaintance of the family's, but Bryan died in 1822, and for the next two years, Austin supported her family independently. In 1824, Austin married businessman James Perry, and the two made a home for the next several years in Missouri. After Austin's marriage to Perry, Stephen Austin, who after his father's death in 1821 assumed responsibility for Moses Austin's plans for settlement in Texas, implored his sister to move to Texas. The Perry family would eventually settle on the Peach Point Plantation near the Brazos River. While in Texas, Austin was witness to the events that resulted in the territory's independence from Mexico in 1836, even working for Stephen Austin's release from a Mexican prison. After Stephen's death in 1836, Emily Austin became his primary heir, making her a large landowner. Though James Perry was her legal representative, Emily very much controlled her property, making decisions regarding its management. She died on August 15, 1851. Cummins's research and use of the literature on southern women, as well as family papers, helps to place Austin squarely within a nineteenth-century context, demonstrating how her actions in managing her family's estate and her own plantation find explanation in the general importance southern women placed on family. Yet, as Cummins relates, Austin was not a passive figure. Certainly, Austin's dealings in managing her home as well as Stephen Austin's estate make her an example of the fluid nature of the separate spheres ideology, and is a good reminder that southern women's experiences were complex—a point Cummins demonstrates well. In biographical treatments, authors must decide how much contextual information to include that will enrich the story of the subject while not distracting the reader. For the most part, Cummins negotiates this potential pitfall well. There are a few times when Emily Austin seems secondary to the larger Austin family story. This is not a major fault, for the scope of the work as a general biography would appeal to either those acquainted with Texas history, or those who are not, and might therefore need the additional information. And, to be fair, the Austin story is embedded in Emily's character, so if Cummins indulges us in glimpses of these men and women who surrounded his subject, it is a forgivable distraction. Cummins's look into Emily Austin's life not only demonstrates the unique history of Texas, but the interesting life of an important member of the Austin family. In this sense, the author's work accomplishes his own goals as well as the aims of the Biography Series in adding this fascinating story to the historical record. [End Page 87] Sara Crowley Texas Christian University Copyright © 2010 The Texas State Historical Association