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From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 804-805
NATHANIEL AUSTIN. Prominent among the early settlers in Bloomington is Nathaniel AUSTIN, who well represents that hardy class of honest, sensible and progressive men who have made Grant county the desirable locality it is. When first he located here, in 1854, a few houses represented what is now a flourishing town. For more than forty years Mr. AUSTIN has taken his part in the development of this section of the State of Wisconsin. Nathaniel AUSTIN is of Canadian birth, although of New England parentage. He was born Aug. 26, 1830, a son of Nicholas and Harriet (ORVIS) AUSTIN, natives of Vermont, who were of English ancestry, and the family was founded in America in Colonial times. For generations their religious belief was that of the Hicksite Quakers. The father of Harriet ORVIS served in the Continental army.
Nicholas AUSTIN was a man of good education, and was long a teacher by occupation. Both he and his wife were reared in Vermont, but after the birth of their first child, removed to Canada, and there passed the rest of their lives. After locating in Canada, Mr. AUSTIN engaged in farming, clearing a heavily timbered tract, and he was one of the first to succeed in raising apples in that part of Canada. When he left his Vermont home, he took with him seeds of various kinds, including the apple, and from these raised trees which became productive and are still in fine condition. Our subject was one of a family of eight children, seven sons and one daughter. The old homestead farm in Canada descended to the youngest son and his next older brother. Later the youngest disposed of his interest and removed to Ohio, but the other brother still owns a part of the land. Five of the family still survive: William, a resident of Oklahoma; Nathaniel; resident of Ohio; and Elizabeth, a resident of Milwaukee. Hiram died at Wichita, Kansas, in 1899, at the age of seventy-five years; and Alfred died at seventeen.
Nathaniel AUSTIN grew to manhood in his Canadian home and, with his brothers, assisted in the clearing up of the farm. The country was improved and his educational advantages were consequently limited. In the fall of 1852 he left home and started out for himself, coming to Fond du Lac, Wis., and engaging in any honorable employment that came his way. His wages for his first winter's work were nine dollars a month. In March of the next year he went to Lancaster, and there and at Waterloo, Grant county, was constantly employed until he was able to save the sum of $500, which he applied as a first payment on a farm which he purchased in the township of Bloomington. Settling on the place, he industriously labored there for two years, making many improvements, and then, as opportunity offered, he sold it and returned to Canada. His health had failed, and, with the hope of regaining it, he did not settle down again for about a year, when he came back to Bloomington, bought another farm, upon which he lived for forty years. In February, 1899, he removed to the village of Bloomington, where he owns a pleasant home and enjoys every comfort of life.
On Nov. 12, 1857, Nathaniel AUSTIN was married to Samantha C. LYMAN, a daughter of William and Abigail (CHANDLER) LYMAN, natives of Vermont, but their ancestors came from Connecticut. Mrs. LYMAN's grandfather, Rev. Amariah CHANDLER, was a noted Congregational minister for over half a century, preaching for thirty years in one pulpit and for twenty years in another. William LYMAN and wife removed soon after their marriage to Cattaraugus county, N.Y., and in 18543 came to Grant county, Wis. By trade he was a carpenter, but after locating on the rich lands of this county he engaged in farming and later removed to Fredericksburg, Iowa, where the wife and mother died, in 1876. Mr. LYMAN remarried and moved to Kansas, where his second wife died, after which he returned to Wisconsin and made his home with Mr. and Mrs. AUSTIN until his own decease, on Feb. 27, 1901, at the age of eighty-six years. Mrs. AUSTIN was one of a family of ten children; five sons and five daughters, and two sons and two daughters survive at the present time, these being: Mrs. AUSTIN; Mrs. Eleanor Augusta BENEDICT; William Azro; and Ordello. Two of the children died in infancy, and those who attained maturity and have passed away were : Susan C., Amariah, Charles and Frank. Mr. and Mrs. AUSTIN have three children surviving, Eleanor C., Charles F. and Wilbur A., while those who have passed away were: Alfred Llewellyn, at the age of seventeen, and Edgar at the age of thirty-three.
Mr. AUSTIN had but limited advantages for education in his youth, but has given his surviving children liberal opportunism, all being graduates of the Wisconsin State University at Madison. His daughter is a teacher of Latin and German in the Hudson, Wis., high school, and is a lady of high attainments. For some time Charles has had charge of a military school at San Antonio, Texas; and Wilbur is a mechanical engineer, and resides in Chicago. Mr. AUSTIN adheres to the teachings of his Quaker ancestry, while Mrs. AUSITN is a devoted and valued member of the Congregational Church. The family is one which possesses the confidence and high esteem of all the people of Bloomington.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck