U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Austin, Philander Spillsbury (1821-1886) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Ritchie County by Minnie Kendall Lowther Wheeling News Litho. Co., Wheeling W.Va., 1911 Pages 583-584 P. S. Austin. — Mr. [Alexander] Lowther's old residence here [in the town of Pullman] consisted of two log houses joined together by an entry; and in this entry, the first store was established by the late P. S. Austin, of Burnt House, near 1848. Mr. Austin, a little later, erected a store-house near the present site of the Frank Pritchard store; and he gave the town its name. Through his efforts the post-office was established in 1849, and he was the first post-master. Near the year 1851, leaving Oxford, he went to Smithville, where he engaged in the mercantile business for a time, and where he met and married Miss Anne Sleeth, daughter of David Sleeth; the marriage taking place on February 8, 1853; and soon afterwards, he settled at Burnt House, where his daughter, Mrs. J. F. Hartmann now lives. He was a typical son of the "Old Dominion," being born in Augusta county, on August 29, 1821; and when the Rebellion came on, his sympathies naturally lingered about the Southern cause, and he went South and took up arms in behalf of the Confederacy, and remained until peace had again been restored. He then returned to his home at Burnt House, and six weeks later followed his wife to the grave. Two of the children, Charles N., and Lucian Alexander, had preceded their mother to the other shore, and taking the other three, aged seven, five, and three years, he went to his old home in Virginia, and entrusted them to the care of his sister, Mrs. Saphronia Donahoe, who reared them to man and womanhood. In October, 1880, the son, Lysander Chapman, returned to the home of his father, and in June following he was laid by his mother in the Smithville cemetery. In December of the same year (1881) the daughters came, and on January 9, 1883, Florilla Floyd, the eldest, became the bride of Dr. J. F. Hartmann, and she, alone, survives. On September 15, 1903, Saphronia Letitia was married to John V. Warner, of Smithville, and in December, 1905, she, too, was laid in the Smithville cemetery, leaving two little daughters, Mary and Nellie. And with Miss Jessie, Karl and Fleet Hartmann, we number the entire descendants of this pioneer merchant. On a beautiful day in Autumn — October 1, 1886, Philander Spillsbury Austin fell asleep at his home at Burnt House, and was borne to the Smithville cemetery and laid away by the side of his wife and children. He was of Scotch-Irish descent — the son of Alexander and Letitia McClannehan Austin, early settlers on the South river, in Augusta county, Virginia. His maternal grandfather, Col. McClannehan, was Colonel of the Seventh Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary war. He was one of a family of fifteen children, all of whom died under the paternal roof, except the following: Dr. Alexander Austin (late father of Drs. Charles and Samuel Austin, of Lewisburg; and William, a pulpit orator of the Presbyterian church of New York), who lived and died at West Milford; Rice, who went to Tennessee; and Mrs. Donahoe, already mentioned, Mrs. Virginia Black, and Mrs. Cornelia Kinsolvin, all of Virginia. ------------------------------------------------------------------- There's a shared tombstone in the Smithville Cemetery, Ritchie Co., WV P. S. Austin (1821-1886) Ann E., his wife (1835-1865) Charles M. (1854-1857) Lucian A. (1856-1857) Lysander C. (1857-1880) ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Ritchie County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/ritchie/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------