Hi Sorry, I inadvertently hit the reply button rather than the forward. here is the info from Roy Austin. ----- Original Message ----- From: <RoyL0126@aol.com> To: <LAUNION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2000 8:18 PM Subject: Re: Austin help > In a message dated 12/23/00 3:49:13 AM Pacific Standard Time, > HUDSONT@MAIL.ECU.EDU writes: > > << Willis Austin served as a soldier in the Phoenix Rifles, Company C, 17th > Regiment Louisiana Volunteer Infantry. He later applied for a Confederate > pension from the state of Oklahoma. > > Can any of the Austin researchers provide me with the details of his pension > application and also when he left Union Parish and settled in OK? >> > > Tim, > > The following is the information that I have on a Willis Austin who lived in > Union Parish. Probably one in the same as your inquiry. > > Willis Austin was born about 1819 in Mississippi, presumably Amite County, as > his parents were living there at that time. He was the son of Richard Austin > and Joannah Ferguson and the grandson of John and Mary Ferguson and John and > Fanny Austin. > > Willis married Louisa Henderson in Union Parish, Louisiana on February 15, > 1843. They had the following children: Melvina, Tabitha, Missouri Lou, > Almeda, William Allen, Francis Marion, and Richard Lewis and possibly a > daughter Nancy. > > Between the 1860 and 1870 census, Louisa died and Willis married second > Millie B. Redden Norman, the daughter of David Redden and widow of Levi White > Norman, in May, 1867. They had a son, Joseph Austin, b. abt. 1869. About > 1876, they moved to Bowie County, Texas, where Millie died before 1880. I > can't place my finger on the information right now, but Willis is buried in > the DeKalb Cemetery in Bowie County, TX. > > > An article in the Farmerville Home Advocate, 8/28/1887, shows that Willis > Austin served in Capt. J. G. Taylor's company of the 17th Louisiana Regiment > that was formed at Camp Moore in 1861. > > There was another Willis Austin who married Alice Lowe in 1867 in Union > Parish, LA. Arelia Breed thought that he was perhaps the son of John Austin > and Elizabeth Regan. John Austin was the son of William Austin and Mary > Ferguson. In the first draft of my Ferguson book, I indicated that John's > son, William Austin married Alice Lowe. This is not correct as William was > only 15 in 1870, living in his father's household. I don't have an age, etc. > on this Willis Austin. > > Not much else on the Willis's and certainly doesn't answer your question. > However, no one of the Austin researchers believe that Willis, son of Richard > and Joannah Austin, went to Oklahoma. But anything is possible. Guess we > need to track down that pension application. > > Good Luck. > > Roy Austin >