San Luis Obispo County Biographies

W. H. AUSTIN

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

W. H. AUSTIN was born in Windham County, Connecticut, in 1830. His father was a 
farmer and a native of Rhode Island. His parents both died in the boyhood of our 
subject, and he then went to Putnam, where he learned the trade of house, carriage 
and sign painter, and for some years followed his trade in Providence, New London 
and Norwich. He married Miss Francis Reynolds, at Brooklyn, Connecticut, and then 
settled in Putnam, where he carried on his business in all its branches. He then moved 
to Killingly, Connecticut, where he secured some large contracts from manufacturing 
houses. In 1861 he enlisted at Killingly in Company B, Eighteenth Connecticut Regiment, 
Colonel Ely, and was stationed at Fort McHenry, near Baltimore; and there, subject 
received a severe injury in his foot, which permanently incapacitated him from marching, 
and he was honorably discharged in 1862, and returned to Killingly, where he carried on 
his trade until 1865, when, with his family he moved to California, coming by water and 
the Isthmus of Panama, with Judge Peckham and family of San Jose. Mr. Austin settled 
at Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, where he carried on his trade until 1873, when he 
moved to San Luis Obispo, and after five years of business he tried the hotel life as 
proprietor of the old Eagle Hotel; but in one year he lost $3,000. He then went to 
Guadalupe and again started a hotel, and in one year he made up his last loss, and then 
sold out and returned to his trade. In 1880 he came to Lompoc, and bought a house and 
lot on K street, where he still resides. He also opened a shop and he returned to his trade, 
buying out the shop of John Henry, and has had a very lucrative business. Mr. and Mrs. 
Austin have but one child, William, who was born in November, 1876. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.