It sort of depends on whether you count empresarios appointed by Spain as counting or not.  If so then, [Philip Alston][1], in 1790, was appointed an empresario in New Madrid (Missouri) before him George Morgan was appointed empresario by Spain. 

> European Americans renamed the settlement New Madrid in about 1780
> under the auspices of Spanish Governor Bernardo de Gálvez, who was
> appointed to rule Spanish Louisiana (the land west of the Mississippi
> River), and Manuel Pérez, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana in
> Saint Louis. They welcomed settlers from the United States, but
> required them to become subjects of the Spanish crown. In addition,
> they had to agree to live under the guidance of his appointed
> empresario, Colonel George Morgan, an American Revolutionary War
> veteran from New Jersey. Morgan recruited a number of American
> families to settle at New Madrid, attracting a few hundred people to
> the region. [link][2]


  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Alston_(counterfeiter)
  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid,_Missouri