Joseph William Austill

Joseph William Austill was born in Piketon, Pike County, Ohio, on 13 Mar. 1886 to George William and Sarah Arm Carskaden Austill. He was the second of five children: Mabel Evangeline was born 13 Feb. 1833; Joseph; then Canzada Belle, 4 Oct. 1889; and twin boys, Grover Clay and George Oren, 23 Dec. 1892.

Both sides of this family were long-time Ohio residents. Joseph's father, George William Austill, was born in Pike County in 1836. His grandfather, Isaac, was born in Ross County in 1808 to William and Rebecca Warren Austill. The Warrens were pioneer residents and descended from a Solomon Warren who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Isaac Austill was a man of substantial means, on whose farm the first Pike County election was held. He served at two different times in the Ohio State Legislature. His wife was Abigail Chenoweth, whose family were also in Ohio from pre-statehood days. The Chenoweth family traces back into the nobility in the family of George Calvert, third Lord Baltimore, founder of the state of Maryland.

Sarah Arm Carskaden's father, Arthur, was born in Ohio in 1824 to pioneer parents; her great-grandparents were married in Guernsey County, Ohio in 1816. George and Sarah Austill brought their family to Kansas in 1893 and they settled on a farm in Johnson County, near DeSoto. George Austill was in poor health, and from an early age Joseph, as the oldest son, had a large responsibility in giving financial help to his family. He was a highly intelligent person. He was required to drop out of school after the sixth grade to work, and several years later he completed grades seven and eight in one year, earning the highest grades in the county. He had a beautiful tenor voice and always loved music. He played a harmonica (jew's harp) and loved to sing, especially with a child on his lap.

It is one of life's sad ironies that with his good mind he was unable to receive further education. He loved to read, always kept up with the world around him, and seemed never to forget anything he had read or heard. An education would have given him a more broad-minded outlook on life, and surely would have given great pleasure to him. But early in life, he had learned that pleasure was going to be an illusive thing to him; he "bowed to the rod" and I for one never heard him express any regret about the way his life turned out. What had to be done had to be done!

As a young man, he tried many types of work. It was never possible for him to continue his education, but people were always impressed by his alertness and good memory. For a time he worked in a bakery. later, he began to work on the railroads, halping lay tracks throughout the Sierras.

He returned to Kansas and went to work for the Santa Fe, first as a section hand and then as section foreman. On 16 October, 1912, he married Ida Alicia Jewett in Kansas City, Missouri. To this couple were born four children: Maurice Albert on 10 October, 1913; Margaret Frances on 5 Sept. 1915; Juanita Belle on 23 July 1920; and Robert Joseph on 21 Feb. 1928 after the family had moved to Lawrence, Kansas. This move was made in order to take advantage of the better school system in Lawrence.