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HARRY B. AUSTIN,
manager of the Effingham Planing Mill Company, and one of the leading and progressive business men of Effingham,
is a native of Kentucky. He was born in Kenton County, on the 2d of December, 1862, and is a son of Edward and Susie L. (Winter) Austin. A sketch of his father appears on another
page of this work. When only a year old our subject was brought by his parents from Kentucky to Illinois, the family
locating in Jasper County, where they resided from 1863 until the spring of 1865, when they came to Effingham County.
Harry
Austin spent the days of his boyhood and youth upon his father's farm, adjacent to the city, where his parents
still reside. He attended the city schools and during vacations aided in the cultivation of his father's farm,
and in the care of the dairy. He was thus employed until 1884, when, having attained his majority, he left home
and went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he spent the two succeeding years of his life in the architectural iron business.
During the succeeding five years, he was engaged in contracting and building and in the milling business in Alabama.
He then left the South, returning to Effingham on the 4th of December, 1891. In February following, he took charge
of the building of the Effingham Planing Mill
plant, which is owned by his father and Uncle Calvin,
and of which he has been manager from the start. A sketch of the Effingham Planing Mill Company appears on another
page of this work.
On
the 18th of September, 1888, in Louisville, Ky., was celebrated the marriage of H. B. Austin and Miss Nannie Huston,
a daughter of Col. Sam Huston. The lady was born in Bloomfield, Ky., her father being a cousin of his illustrious
namesake of Texas fame. The branch of the Huston family to which Mrs. Austin belongs, has, however, dropped the
letter "o" from the original spelling of the name, which was Houston. By the union of our subject and
his wife have been born two interesting children, a son and daughter, Julia Juniata and Edward.
In
politics, Mr. Austin is a Republican supporting the principles of the party with which he has been connected since
he attained his majority. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and are highly respected citizens,
who hold an enviable position in social circles. Mr. Austin is a skilled architect and mechanic, and as the Planing
Mill Company makes contracting and building an important feature of their business, he finds in the discharge of
his duty as manager a free field for his talents. He is a young man of energy and ambition, possessing a thorough
knowledge of his business, and is making the industry of which he has charge one of the important factors of Effingham's
business interests. The annual business of the company has already grown to the gratifying figure of $75,000, with
the prospect that it will soon reach an even $100,000. This success is largely due to Mr. Austin, whose excellent
management, perseverance and enterprise have won him a foremost place among the leading citizens of his adopted
country.
Portrait
and Biographical Record of Effingham, Jasper and Richland Counties Illinois, Containing Biographical Sketches of
Prominent and Representative Citizens, Governors of the State, and the Presidents of the United States. (Chicago:
Chapman Brothers, 1887), p. 482. Transcribed by Judy Rosella Edwards.
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