Austin, John R.

John R. Austin, born in Jackson County, Alabama, on February 7, 1851, was a retired pioneer who built a successful career in Fresno real estate and commerce. He was raised and educated in private schools in the South, where he followed the occupation of farming before removing to western Missouri in 1868. Allured by the future possibilities of the West, he traveled to California in 1875 to work on grain ranches in Merced County. After a brief return to Missouri, he drove across the plains with a team, spent time farming in Walla Walla, Washington, and finally located permanently in Fresno in December 1879.

In 1882, Mr. Austin entered the grocery business in Fresno, conducting the enterprise successfully for several years. He later dealt extensively in city real estate, owning the land where the Republican and Edgerly buildings were later constructed, as well as vineyard property south of Fresno. He was married in Stockton on September 5, 1890, to Emma Weaver of Redwood City, who passed away in Fresno on September 30, 1916, leaving behind their son, Lloyd C. Austin. Additionally, he maintained a long-standing membership with the Masons, belonging to the Fresno Las Palmas Lodge, No. 366, F. and A. M., for forty-two years.