sentences:  Stephen F. Austin was born in the mining region of southwestern Virginia (Wythe County) in what is known as Austinville today, some southwest of Richmond, Virginia.He was the second child of Mary Brown Austin and Moses Austin; the first, Eliza, lived only one month.On June 8, 1798, when Stephen was four years old, his family moved west to the lead-mining region of present-day Potosi, Missouri, 40 miles west of the Mississippi River.