Person Page - 9

     Austin Vitruvius Eastman was born on 27 August 1839 at Maine, Broome County, New York; He was named Vitruvius for a noted Roman architect. He Austin was only 2 years old when his mother died. He was sent to live with the Smith family in German, 25 miles from where he was born. He did not have a happy childhood and returned to live with his father when he was 17. in 1841. He was educated in 1856 at Cayuga Lake Academy; and in 1860 he attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He began military service in 1861 as volunteer in Civil War. In 1862 he fought in Virginia in the Battle of Bull Run and later at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He received a commission that year, as Lieutenant commanding Co. H, 1st Regiment, New York State Volunteers. He ended military service in 1863; Austin received a letter of endorsement signed by President Abraham Lincoln dated June 20, 1863. In 1864 he attended Albany Law School. He was employed by where he became general manager. In 1885 he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. in 1866 at the Colonial and U.S. Mortgage Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He married Mary Elizabeth Scoville on 2 October 1866. Austin Vitruvius Eastman lived in 1896 at Lake Charles, Louisiana; where he worked in land management and development. As manager of the North American Land and Timber Company he was responsible for creating arable farmland on 800,000 acres the company had bought from the US government. He installed an irrigation canal, built roads, planted trees, and donated land for schools and churches. A library was built with funds obtained from Mr. Carnegie, and stands as a monuments to his efforts and valuable service to the city of Lake Charles. He died on 15 March 1905 at Lake Charles, Louisiana, at age 65; Austin suffered a heart attack on the train as he traveled to New Orleans on business. He was buried on 20 March 1905 at Oak Hill Cemetery.

     Her married name was Eastman. Mary Elizabeth Scoville was born on 11 October 1840. She married Austin Vitruvius Eastman, son of Nathaniel Webster Eastman, on 2 October 1866. Mary Elizabeth Scoville died in 1911 at Suffern, New York.