DeRuyter Gleaner
November 1880

JAMES AUSTIN 
 
 On Wednesday of last week, the friends and relatives assembled to pay their 
last respects to the remains of James Austin, who departed this life Nov. 8, 
1880, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years, eleven months and 
twenty-five days. 
 The deceased was the second of a family of ten children. His father, Caleb 
Austin, who was a shoemaker, came from Vermont. He first settled in 
Cazenovia, and owned twenty acres of the land on which the village of 
Cazenovia now stands. It was there that James was born. 
 When James was two years old his father exchanged this piece of land for one 
hundred and sixty acres situated in the eastern part of the town of DeRuyter, 
on what is now known as Crumb Hill, and moved his family to that place. On 
this land he built a log house a few rods east of where the station is on the
railroad, and on the farm now owned by Henry Bumpus. He was the first settler
on the hill. There were no roads at that time, and no neighbors nearer than 
a mile and a half. The nearest grist-mill was at Truxton. 
 James was first married about the year 1822, to Kathrina Fraver, who bore 
him three children; one of which is still living. Upon the death of his first
wife, he married Anna Warner. By this marriage seven children were born to 
him, all but one of whom are now living. Upon the death of his second wife he
was married to Mrs. Ann Pickens. She was a sister of his first wife, and now 
survives him. 
 He first lived on what is now known as the Mann Farm. Although he moved 
several times, yet all the farms on which he lived are all adjoining. On the 
farm on which he lived at his death, he had lived for more than fifty years. 
He has long been a member of the M.E. church. At his death, he had nineteen 
grandchildren living, and three great grandchildren. 
 His whole life was marked by great industriousness. One of his maxims was 
that "it is better to wear out than rust out."