Porterville, California, January 6, 1918

My dad’s oldest brother, Mortimer McKinley Austin (Mac) fought in WWI. Sometime around January 1918, Raymond Austin sent his brother Mac’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, address to the Lone Scout magazine asking for people to write Mac. Many girls wrote from all sections of the country wrote Mac. The following is one of those letters and was written from Porterville, California.

Mr. Mortimer Austin
Company F, 11th U.S Infantry
Military Branch, Chattanooga, Tennessee

My dear friend Mortimer!
As I am unknown to you, I have made up my mind to write you a few lines thinking perhaps you would enjoy a letter from a “Little California girl.” I have a kid brother; he was reading in a paper and your name was in the paper and I thought that I would write you as he asked me to. In other words, he dared me to. So here goes for some foolish stuff.

How long have you been training and how do you like it? Suppose you boys get awfully lonesome. A bunch of Porterville and Visalia boys were home at Christmas and New Year. We sure had some time. We had dances every eve; and of course we girls had all of the dancing we wanted in two weeks time.

In Visalia, they give the “Yama-Yama” dance. My chum and I dress in Yama Yama costumes (pink). She and I did the Yama first. We sure had some time.

My I hardly realize that I am in California and you in Tennessee. And have you ever been out here? If so, how do you like?

I finished my schooling in 1916. Suppose you finished before enlisting? And do they have good schools in Tennessee, and what kind of climate. I sure would like to go to some of those eastern states.
Continue reading

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Laura Austin Clark’s Keepsakes

Laura Austin Clark was the sister of my great-grandfather Henry Austin. My cousin Kathy T. is also a descendant of Henry Austin, and recently she shared some letters and other Austin memorabilia that her grandmother Lillie had saved.

Laura Austin Clark was born in 1830 and died in 1901. I found these pages included in a ledger like book of Laura’s that had mostly poems. They are hair curls from friends.
Continue reading

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Echo Hill and Mountain Grove Update

Echo Hill and Mountain Grove will be the second book in the series, Memoirs from Eldred, New York, 1800 to 1950.

This second book will tell the story of the many boarding houses in the Town of Highland, starting in 1880. Echo Hill Farm House belonged to my Leavenworth great-grandparents. Mountain Grove House belonged first to my Austin great-grandparents and then my Austin grandparents.

Some of the other families who are part of the story include: Bradley (Avery, Hazen, Horton), Parker, Schoonover (Parker, Britt and Waidler), Stevens, Mills, Boyd, Asendorf, and 4 or 5 Myers/Meyers families.

I’ll write more about the book as it gets closer to being printed (probably 4 to 6 months away).

I have lots of information, photos and postcards from a number of sources that is really appreciated and very helpful in writing the story.

Recently I received a box of Austin letters/information from my newly found Austin cousin, Kathy T. In my next post, I will include some pages from the memory book of Laura Austin Clark that is quite fascinating.

My mother saved a wealth of family information, including letters that girls from all over the U.S. wrote to my Uncle McKinley in World War I. I will post some of those letters as I have time.

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Timber Rafting the Delaware River in 1872

The Delaware River Gap was a large break in the Appalachian Mountains. It was one of the very scenic places viewed by timber rafters as they floated their rafts to market on the Delaware River. Postcard of Aida Austin.

The Delaware River near Narrowsburg, New York, had originally been so narrow and with such a sharp bend, that there was barely enough room for a raft to pass through its sharp, rocky shoreline. By 1872, the Narrowsburg passage had been made wider and deeper and other places along the Delaware River had been made easier to navigate in the event of a low water freshet.

Even with improvements, timber rafting was still quite challenging in 1872. That didn’t stop men who were sixty and as old as eighty from helping raft lumber to market when the Spring freshet came.

Both single and double rafts were guided down the Delaware River to Trenton, New Jersey, where they were towed to markets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A single raft of sawed lumber contained about 75,000 board feet and required two or three men to steer it. Continue reading

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Panic of 1873

Panic of 1873
A series of events led up to the Panic of 1873—a severe nationwide economic depression, which lasted until 1879:

• The Black Friday Panic in September, 1869, mentioned in 
an earlier post.
• The October, 1871, Chicago fire and loss of 200 million dollars in property over four-square miles.
• The 1872 Great Epizoötic or equine influenza when there were no horses to pull the street cars or to deliver the coal or wood to locomotives. Fires remained unchecked as there was no way to transport water.
• As there were not horses, the U.S. Army Calvary had to fight on foot, and men ended up pulling wagons by hand, and cargo on ships and trains could not be delivered.
• Gold became the standard in the U.S. in February, 1873, and the value of silver fell.
• There were other factors that played a part in what has also been called, “the long depression,” but they are outside the scope of this book.
—information from www.en.wikipedia.org: Panic of 1873; Long Depression

The Panic of 1873 affected the Depression in 1876. No matter what the cause of the economic woes, my great-grandfather Henry Austin lost his carting business in New York City, in which he had been engaged with his brother.

Henry said his brother could afford to buy into companies they had been doing business with and so rescue himself. William Henry could not. He returned home to Eldred to farm by 1877.

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1872 Cartage Book


1872 Cartage Book of my great-grandfather.

Henry Austin’s 1872 Cartage book is not very large. It lists names and supplies. One of the pages lists hoops in batches of 1,000 and the cost. Sample page:

October 2, 1872
1 b Oats 1.30
Hay 4.50

Nov 6, 1872
1 bale of hay 230 lb. 4.60
1 b oats 1.30
stabling 2.50

Dec 2, 1872
2 b oats 2.80
1 b corn 1.55
1 b oats 1.50
2 b straw .14
stabling 2.50
freight 3.46

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50 Warren Street, New York City


50 Warren St. in New York City around 1872. Photo courtesy of cousin Melva.


Envelope addressed to my great-grandfather Austin who worked
at 50 Warren St. in New York City.

My great-grandfather, Henry Austin, started his wagon delivery or carting business in the fall of 1866. He worked from 50 Warren St., New York City, around 1872. Henry stayed in New York City with his brother Augustus Alonzo Austin and his family, for what seemed to be several months at a time.

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1869 Panic

You may have heard of the money or greenbacks created during the Civil War by the U.S. government, which were backed only by credit.

After the Civil War ended, it was thought that the U.S. Government would buy back the greenbacks with gold.

In 1869, James Fisk and Jay Gould headed a group of speculators who sought to profit by cornering the gold market. They recruited financier Abel Corbin to influence President Grant as Corbin was brother-in-law to the President.

Abel Corbin convinced President Grant to appoint Gen. Daniel Butterfield as Assistant Treasurer of the U.S. Butterfield was to tip the “speculators” off when the government intended to sell gold.

Late summer 1869, Gould began buying large amounts of gold causing prices to rise and stocks to plummet. President Grant realized what was happening and had the federal government sell four million dollars in gold.

Within minutes after the government gold hit the market, the premium plummeted. Investors scrambled to sell their holdings, and many of them, including Corbin, were ruined.

As is the case sometimes, the scoundrels Fisk and Gould, escaped significant financial harm.—from www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(1869)

The Black Friday Panic of 1869, was one of four contributing factors to the Panic of 1873 which caused my great-grandfather to lose his job as a carman or truck man in New York City by 1877.

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Barryville-Shohola Bridge


Photo of ice breaking up under the Barryville-Shohola Bridge with a middle support. Photo courtesy of M.B. Austin.

One very cold morning, about the first of January 1865, three teams of horses and mules were crossing the Barryville-Shohola bridge with two heavy loads
of wood.

The upper cable of the bridge (completed in 1856) parted near the center of the river. The bridge, teams, wood, and six men—Henry Lilly, Oliver Dunlap, William Myers, M. W. Quick, William Loftus, and Charles Deabron were thrown into the river. Three of the mules were drowned. The men were exposed to an hour
of very cold water, but lived.

The Barryville and Shohola Suspension Bridge Company refused to rebuild and the bridge was purchased by Mr. Thomas.

He erected a pier, mended the broken cable and used the same material in what he called the new bridge. He established his own schedule of tolls, high indeed, but to which the people cheerfully submitted first, because they wanted the bridge, and second because no power was known higher than Thomas.

It was last erected and completed in 1867, subserved the intended purposes and proved a good source of revenue during the remaining lifetime of Thomas which finally terminated on the fifth day of October 1882.
—Johnston, Reminiscences
, pp. 349, 351.

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