Surnames: Austin, Longenecker, Ward

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) Thursday, 6 Jan. 1944

Austin, Essie (1 Jan. 1862 - 2 Jan. 1944

Mrs. Essie Ward Austin, 81, passed away at her apartment on East Fifth Street, Neillsville, Sunday evening, January 2, 1944, after an illness of two weeks of pneumonia. Funeral services were conducted Tuesday, January 4, at 4 p.m., at the Lowe Funeral Home. Services were conducted by the Rev. George Longenecker, pastor of the Congregational Church. Burial took place in the Neillsville Cemetery.

Mrs. Austin was born, Essie War, daughter of Thomas and Katherine Ward in Warwick Township, Ontario, Canada, on June 1, 1862. At the age of twenty she came with her parents and a brother and sister to Clark County, Wisconsin, the family settling on a farm in the town of Grant. She has resided in Clark County ever since.

She was married to Charles E. Austin in Neillsville in 1887. Four children were born to this union. One son died in infancy, and a daughter, Beatrice, passed away in 1912. Two children survive the mother. They are Katherine of Chippewa Falls, and Kenneth of Hillsdale. There are four grandchildren, one sister, Mrs. Minnie E. Ward, resides in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Her husband preceded her in death several years ago.

Mr. and Mrs. Austin lived for a time in the town of Grant and at two different times in the town of Levis. For the past several years, she has made Neillsville her home.

Mrs. Austin was an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary. In her youth, she was a first class seamstress, and worked at that trade until the time of her marriage. She lived a noble, cheerful life and had a rare faculty of putting much into life and at the same time of getting much out of life.

Her daughter, Katherine was with her at the last. The son, Kenneth was here on Tuesday to attend the funeral services.