Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Osmon, Austin 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 13, 2006, 7:36 pm

Author: History of Grundy County, 1914

OSMON, Austin (deceased). - Something more than a simple notice is due to the 
memory of a citizen who has spent his life in assisting in the development of 
the industrial interests of his community. In this class was the late Austin 
Osmon, for many years one of the leading agriculturists of Grundy County, who 
was widely known and highly respected not only for his own worth of character, 
but as a veteran of the Civil War. Mr. Osmon was a native of Norway, born June 
24, 1841, and a son of Osmon and Isabelle E. Osmon. The family emigrated to 
the United States when Austin was a lad of eight years, settling in Lisbon 
Township, Kendall County, Ill., and a few years later removing to LaSalle 
County. The elder Osmon became the owner of large tracts of land in various 
parts of Illinois, and died in Ford County. 

Austin Osmon left home when he was but eleven years of age and began working 
on the farms of neighboring agriculturists, being thus employed at the time of 
the outbreak of the Civil War. In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in the Fifty-
third Illinois Cavalry, and later veteranized in the Fifteenth Regiment, 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry. While in the former regiment, he had his horse 
shot under him in an engagement, but secured another which had lost its rider, 
and continued in the battle. Receiving his discharge January 9, 1865, after a 
brave and meritorious service, Mr. Osmon returned to Illinois, and was engaged 
in farming until his retirement, in the fall of 1892, at which time he moved 
to Morris. There his death occurred July 3, 1903, when his community lost one 
of its best citizens. In March, 1866, Mr. Osmon was married to Miss Helen 
Hill, who was born in Kendall County, Ill., daughter of John and Susan 
(Anderson) Hill, natives of Norway. Mrs. Hill came to the United States in 
1834, when she was fourteen years of age, and her husband emigrated to this 
country five years later. They were married at Ottawa, Ill., and settled on a 
farm which Mr. Hill had purchased from the Government some time before his 
marriage. To this he kept adding from time to time, and when he died, December 
30, 1892, he was the owner of a fine tract of 320 acres in LaSalle County. Mr. 
Osmon was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he numbered 
numerous friends. A Republican in politics, he served one term as alderman, 
while his religious views were those of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. After 
his death his wife went to live with her daughter, at whose home she passed 
away May 18, 1910, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years.

page 879

Additional Comments:
Source:  History of Grundy County, Illinois, Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co. 
Publishers; 1914

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