Isaac and Abigail Chenoweth Austill

The Chenoweths were a family who had come into the Scioto River Valley early, before the turn of the century. It is possible that William Austill had come into Ohio from Kentucky with the Chenoweth group of three brothers and their families. The brothers all became large land-holders and were attorneys and judges, prominent in legal and political affairs in Pike County.

Isaac and Abigail Austill had ten children and most of them are buried in the Mound Cemetary outside Piketon, where a tall monument stands with small stones clustered around it. Muriel Austill, the wife of Maurice Albert Austill, painted a fine oil of this spot; the painting hangs in the home of Juanita Austill Allen.

Census and tombstone records give a pathetic picture of this large family - of the ten children, five died in early childhood. The family group sheet shows with simple statistics how this family must have suffered.

Isaac Austill farmed 190 acres and served at two different times in the Ohio State Legislature. He was a member of the county board of commissioners at the time a new bridge was built across the Scioto. He was to be given the honor of being the first to ride across the bridge at its dedication; but as the approaches were not finished, the townsmen bodily lifted his carriage up onto the bridge, and led the horses. *

                    * History of the Lower Scioto Valley
                      pub. Chicago, 1884
                      Inter-State publishing Co.

This makes an interesting mental picture, as we have a picture of Isaac which shows him to be a large, dignified and rather formal-looking person.

The same above-mentioned book tells us that the first court held in Pike County was in an old stone building in Isaac Austill's door-yard (at that time Arthur Chenoweth's property). There was no jail for the one prisoner, so a large hogshead barrel was inverted, air holes drilled, and the prisoner kept inside with a deputy sitting on top to prevent escape.

We have bits and snatches of information about other children of Isaac. The third child, William Henry Harrison Austill was always called "Tip". He was born in 1841, the year that William Henry Harrison became President; this President was the "Tippecanoe" of "Tippecanoc and Tyler too", a general in the Army who was victorious at the Battle of Tippecanoe. "Tip" Austill died in Johnson County, Kansas, at the home of his brother, George William Austill.

The fifth child in this family, Isaac Newton Austill, fought in the Civil War, during which he must have been quite young, as he was born in 1845. He served in the 149th Ohio, Co. "A". He and his wife, Caroline Johnson, had four daughters, the oldest two twins. The third daughter, Carrie Abigail, was known throughout the family as "Cousin Doll".

The ninth child. grandfather of the writer of this book, married Sarah Ann Carskaden. In 1894 they moved with their young family of five children, to Eastern Kansas, where they farmed in Johnson County, near the town of Desoto.

George William was a semi-invalid during the last few years of his life. His daughter-in-law, Ida Jewett Austill, has told that he had a severe form of sciatica which was so painful that he could not stand to lie in bed - he slept on the floor.

His obituary stated that he was widely known and respected as a truly gentle man; he was a surveyor, a farmer, and an expert at bee culture, in which field he helped many others.