Biography of George W. Austin Franklin Co, AR

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        Date: 16 Aug 1998
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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed
Publishing Co., 1889.

George W. Austin was born in the State of New York on the 26th of May,
1849, and in 1851 removed with his parents to Central Illinois, and
resided in different portions of the State until 1874. In 1865 he
began learning the printing business, and has worked at that
occupation in different capacities up to the present time. In 1874 he
removed to Kentucky, and started a paper called the Ballard News, at
Blandville, in Ballard County, and the following year removed to
Northwest Missouri, and at the end of two years returned to Kentucky.
In the spring of 1876 he came to Arkansas, and worked as foreman of
the Western Immigrant, at Dardanelle, Yell County, for two years,
removing from that town to Clinton, the county seat of Van Buren
County, where he became foreman on the Clinton Banner. In 1880 he went
to Little Rock, and took charge of the mechanical department of the
True Democrat, a weekly paper, which was removed to Fort Smith and
consolidated with the Fort Smith Independent, under [p.1223] the name
of the Independent True Democrat. While at Fort Smith he was foreman
consecutively of the Morning Herald, the Evening News and the Evening
Times. Mr. Austin was the first compositor employed on the Fort Smith
Journal, and worked there until the 1st of May, 1888, when he started
the Altus Advance, which is a breezy and thriving little Democratic
paper. While residing in Kentucky in 1874 he was married to Miss Leila
C. Stom, who died August 16, 1882, while Mr. Austin was in Little
Rock, leaving three children: Harry S., Willis, and Herbert, who died
soon after his mother's death. Mr. Austin is a son of Aaron and Annie
E. (Vanderkar) Austin, the former a native of York State, and a member
of the religious sect of Quakers by rearing, but afterward became a
member of the Methodist Church. He was a farmer, and died in Nodaway
County, Mo. The mother died November 14, 1888.