CHARLES N. AUSTIN, who is
the efficient and valued foreman of a department in the important
manufacturing establishment of Dempster Company, at Beatrice, is a
member of the honored pioneer family that was founded in Gage county
nearly a decade before the admission of Nebraska to statehood, and
adequate data concerning the family are given in the article dedicated,
on other pages of this work, to his father, the late Homer B. Austin,
who was one of the very first settlers in what is now the city of
Beatrice.
Charles N. Austin was born at Austinburg,
Ashtabula County, Ohio, on the 21st of May, 1855, and his early
education was received principally at Augusta and Galesburg, Illinois.
He was about two years old, however, when his parents, Homer B. and
Mary A. (Dunbar) Austin came to the Nebraska Territory, in 1857, the
father erecting a small cabin on the homestead claim which he entered
near the present village of Pickrell and then turning his attention to
breaking his land and developing a frontier farm, he having been one of
the earliest settlers in the county. Later he returned with his
family to Ohio and for a number of years prior to returning to the west
of the family home was maintained in Illinois.
Charles N. Austin has been continuously a
resident of Gage county since 1890 and for six years he was here
employed in a leading nursery. About 1895 he established his
residence in Beatrice, and for virtually a score of years he has here
been in the employ of the Dempster Company, with which representative
industrial concern he now holds a responsible department foremanship, as
previously intimated.
On the 7th of March, 1876, was recorded the marriage of
Mr. Austin to Miss Stella Hall, who was born at Seneca,
Missouri, near the Oklahoma line, and who is the daughter of William
G. and Margaret R. (Roberts) Hall, the former of whom was born near
the historic old city of Vincennes, Indiana, from which state they came
to Nebraska in 1887, here passing the remainder of their lives.
John A. Hall, a brother of Mrs. Austin, now resides in the
city of San Francisco and is in the civil service department of
government service. He is a member of Company C. First Nebraska
Volunteer Infantry, in the Spanish-American war, thereafter served two
years in the regular army, in Alaska and Hawaii, and he has been a
resident of San Francisco since the time of the great earthquake in that
city.
Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Austin
the following brief record is consistently entered: Harry A. is
now a member of the American army preparing for service in the great
world war and at the time of this writing, in the spring of 1918, he is
with his command at Deming, New Mexico. He enlisted in the
Nebraska National Guard on the 28th of July, 1910, and in his present
company he holds the office of first lieutenant. He was married
Jan. 2, 1918, to Miss Selena Brown, of Crab Orchard, Johnson
county. Louis is a member of the class of 1919 in the
Beatrice high school; Mary R. likewise is attending the public
schools of Beatrice.
In politics, Mr. Austin is aligned staunchly in
the ranks of the Republican party, and he has been actively affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since May 28, 1876. He
has been specially active in the affairs of this admirable fraternal
order and is past grand of his lodge. He is identified also with
the Woodmen of the World. He has served twenty-two years as a
member of the volunteer fire department of Beatrice and he and his wife
are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
 Source: History of Gage County, Nebraska - Publ.
Lincoln, Nebraska, Western Publishing and Engraving Company -
1918 - Page 709 |
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