Austin Cemetery

This small family cemetery on the land of Mr. G. O. Little has an iron fence and six markers. The oldest marker is for William Austin who volunteered to defend the Republic of Texas in the fall of 1842. He died 1 October 1866. The last marked interments were his daughter and granddaughter, Blanche Austin Key and her infant daughter in September 1890.

Please contact the Lavaca County TXGenWeb coordinator if you can provide photographs of the Austin Cemetery. Austin family notes provided by Vicki Jones. Information on Joseph W. Stafford provided by Deborah Smith. Links are provided to available obituaries.

Austin Family

The children of William S. Austin and Blanche E. Woolsey:

1. John Augustine Austin, 9 Aug 1847-?
2. Robert Austin, ca 1848/1849-?
3. Thomas Hughes Austin, 1850-?, married Orphia Angelina Byler, 29 Mar 1863-19 Feb 1942, on 13 Mar 1886 in Lavaca County. They had four children. Orphia was married previously to David Monteville Null and had a son from that marriage. After Tom's death she married John Ishmill Mitchell.
4. Edmond Ross Austin, 4 Dec 1852-?
5. Rebecca Lebinda Austin, 26 Jan 1855-14 Mar 1932, married William Riley Nunn, 7 Nov 1847-23 Dec 1922, and they had eight children. Died at Ballinger, Runnels Co, TX.
6. Lucinda Austin, 1858-?, married John Nunn
7. Willie May Austin, married Pat Muckleroy on 18 Dec 1878 in Lavaca Co, TX
8. Kate Carrie Gertrude Austin, 23 Jul 1861-25 Feb 1921, married Samuel David Williamson, 11 Apr 1827-18 Jan 1913, on 24 Jul 1881. Kate died in San Augustine Co, TX.
9. Charles William Tate Austin, 29 May 1863-16 Jan 1889, married Ella A. Black on 16 Dec 1888. No children.
10. Helen "Blanche" Austin, 12 Apr 1865-24 Sep 1890, married Robert N. Key on 26 Dec 1889 in Lavaca Co, TX. One infant daughter who lived one month.

John, Robert, and Edmond are found in the 1850 Colorado County census, but do not appear in later census records.

See statement of pay due to William Austin from the Republic of Texas for participating in the Vasquez Campaign

More information about the Austin family can be obtained from Vicki Jones who contributed this data and the Republic of Texas document.

Stafford

From Bill Stein's "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County":

. . . there was certainly a climate of violence in the county, and indeed across the state, for the new state police force to suppress. In the summer of 1870, there had been several murders and other violent incidents around the county. The west side of the county was shocked by three murders in 1870 and 1871. On May 29, 1870, south of Oakland, Joseph Wiggins Stafford was killed by a man named Milton Allen. Little, however, is known of the particulars, and Allen was never apprehended.

Posted at the Colorado County Rootsweb Message Board by Travis John Allen on 14 Jan 1999:

Bill Stein, of the Nesbitt Mem. Lib.in Columbus, tells me that Milton Allen shot his (Bill's) relative, Joseph Safford [sic.], in 1870. He has not been able to find any record of this event. An Allen family story says Milton hid out down on the Navidad and that his sister brought him food. He left town and eventually settled in Magdalena, NM where he operated a combination bar and hotel. He appears on the Socorro Co., NM 1900 census he with his wife, Lee, b. in Texas, m. 1873 a son b. in TX, and two daughters, one born in Texas.
"Texans and Texans" says he had four children. . . .

Stafford notes contributed by Deborah Smith. Please contact her if you have information about this incident or for more information about the Staffords.

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