LONESOME HISTORIC SITE
2006 TN-96 • Burns, TN 37029 • 615-804-5851
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The Austin Family
Like many American families, the Austin family can find their roots in the westward migration from the original 13 American colonies out to frontier lands. The family of William Austin and his bride Ruth Kelly Austin traveled from Orange County, North Carolina with several other families to settle in Dickson County, Tennessee circa 1804.
Their five sons John Austin (1788-1820), William Green Austin (1790-1876), Samuel Demetrius Austin (1793-1876), Philip West Austin (1797-1872), and Charles B. Austin (1798-1850) had large families, and grew to populate much of the frontier lands here and to the West.
One of those sons, William Green Austin (1790-1876) and his bride, Dicy Horner Austin (1800-1884), raised eleven children in the Lonesome Cabin. Like many pioneer families, they knew a lot of tragedy. One son died as a toddler. One son died childless at age 28. In 1855, a typhoid epidemic claimed the lives of three daughters within ten days. However, the remaining six sons and daughters had families of their own. William & Dicy Austin had 40 grandchildren, 94 great grandchildren, 174 great-great grandchildren, and innumerable additional descendants, with some branches of the family into the 9th generation after 200 years.