Caldwell County MO Archives History .....AUSTIN FAMILIES IN NEW YORK TOWNSHIP 1866 
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	THE AUSTIN FAMILIES IN NEW YORK TOWNSHIP 1866
	Narrator:  Mrs. Maria Young

     The three Austin brothers, Oliver, Jacob, William, came into New York 
township, Caldwell co. 1866.  The township was not so called then, getting its 
name from the influx of settlers from that state.  They were former citizens 
of the same N.Y. community, Jefferson co. N.Y. as the Houghton, Searls, 
Salisbury, Thwing, Boutwell families, all coming here to reside.  They (the 
Austins) were born in Herkimer county N.Y., fought in the Civil war and came 
out shortly after the war to Missouri.  They settled in a community made up at 
that time largely of Virginians.  They were the first families of the New 
Yorkers to settle there, although James Houghton, a single man, had come 
earlier.  Jacob was the first Austin brother to come.  He bought 700 acres 
from the railroad and sold part of it to his two brothers.  Afterwards, he 
sold his farm and moved to Hamilton to live.  There he did much in founding 
the Hamilton Savings Bank, the second bank in that town.  It stood about where 
McPherson Produce store is.  His children were Fred, Ella (married Joseph 
Anderson), Albert (married Miss Inskipp).
     The other two brothers stayed longer down in N.Y. settlement (or York 
settlement, as the Eastern settlers used to say).  Oliver Austin married 
twice:  Charles Austin married Clara Wolcott a neighbor, Mary Austin married 
1) A. Bogan who died in young manhood 2) Dr. Tinsley Brown of Hamilton.  These 
children, Chas. and Mary, were of Oliver's first marriage.  The children of 
the second were Mrs. Maria Young (the narrator), Mrs. Nelle Clark, Cora Austin.
     The third brother William had two children:  Mrs. W.A. Guffey, Mrs. Alice 
Stephens.  After the death of his first wife, he married Mrs. Mary Frances 
McMurtrey and when he died 1904, he was buried with her people in Highland 
cemetery.
     The Austins went to school at Radical school in N.Y. township.  Mary 
Austin, oldest daughter of Oliver had gone to Mary Houghton back in "York 
State" and went to her again in the Radical school here in Caldwell county.  
Maria her half sister, started at five years and had as first teacher, Sophia 
Houghton, half sister of Mary above.  Sophia Houghton afterwards became Mrs. 
Ross Kautz and Mary Houghton became Mrs. Geo. Kautz.  Three of that Houghton 
family taught the Radical school, James, Mary, Sophia.  Another teacher at 
Radical was Miss Wellwood, who afterwards became the mother of Mr. E. 
Merryman, whose father was the brother of Mrs. Jim Filson of that district.  
All three girls in the Austin (Oliver) family went to Wm. Guffey, now an old 
man of Hamilton.
     Maria Austin (Young) herself was a teacher, taking her first examination 
under Steve Rogers, when she was 15 and teaching at the same age.  Her next 
examination was under county school commissioner Burbank of Breckenridge, and 
then she took under Henry Gee when he had the office.
     The Oliver Austin was a power in establishing the N.Y. Presbyterian 
church.  Mrs. Elizabeth Austin, the mother, was a charter member, a Sunday 
school teacher, and in the 70s and 80s, the two sisters, Maria and Nelle, were 
the organists.  The communion set used there in the early days was sent out 
from Mrs. Austin's home church in Antwerp N.Y. and consisted of 2 pewter 
goblets and a pewter pitcher.  Later, it was returned to N.Y. when the church 
here in N.Y. twp. prospered enough to buy a set.  The first church out there 
was made up of Congregationalists, Methodist and Baptists, but the 
Presbyterians got the organization.  Church was held for some time in the 
Radical school house.  The church was organized 1869.  Finally in 1879 the 
frame church, now standing, was built with Sam Martin of Hamilton as 
contractor.  Many people erroneously speak of the church as the "Radical" 
church, because of the name of the school district, so named because of the 
liberal religious opinions of some of the residents.  Many of the older 
Austins are buried in the N.Y. township cemetery, 
  
the land for which was donated by A. Wolcott, one of the N.Y. settlers.  He 
also was a coffin maker and made the coffins for most of the corpses in the 
70s.
     Interview  1934.

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