Leaving Grant City, Missouri, in 1883, George Austin came to Kingman County, 
  where he homesteaded. He moved to Valley Twonship in 1884.
     Two years later he married Emma Strohl, and he built their house near her
  mother. Quoting from Emma's story: "Our home was 14 by 16 feet, had shingled roof
  real siding, was lathed and plastered, had 3 large windows that opened, 2 boughten
  doors, a real hard pine floor (not rought wide boards like most), doors and
  windows cased. It also had a mopboard all around the floor, was painted inside
  and outside, and had a celler under the whole room. The lumber and all material
  cost $87.00, and we hauled it from Attica."
     Concerning her wedding outfit, Emma recalled: "One day in August my brother
  and I pulled 15 bushel of onions and went to Medicine Lodge and sold them at a
  general store for one dollar a bushel. Oh! What wealth! I got me a white pattern
  lawn dress, embroidery and all in the pattern that had sold early in the summer
  for $5, but as it was late in the season, it was selling for $3. My, such a
  wonderful bargin! I got a white corset for 50 cents, some lace and white ribbon
  for $1, a pair of black cotton hose for 20 cents and my outfit was complete. I
  had lots of nice underwear. I made the dress myself. I had a nice pair of black
  toe slippers George had given me in the spring.
     George and Emma had four children - William, Mary, Madge, and Harry. All
  attended Franklin country school and later graduated from Kansas State. George
  and Emma left the farm in 1912, moving to Manhattan, Kansas. Will took over the
  farm. He married Margaret Keys; they had one daughter, Wilma. Mary married Dr.
  Jack Gingery, a veterinarian, and they lived at Muscatine, Iowa. They had one
  daughter, Willodine. Madge married Lester Tubbs, an engineer with Westinghouse 
  in Pittsburg, Pa. They had one son, Austin. Harry practiced Veterinary medicine
  at Letts, Iowa. He married Beulah English; they had one daughter, Charlaine.
     In 1908 George and Emma bought their first automobile, a 2 cylinder Buick for
  $1400. In 1920 they drove their Franklin to California and stayed a year. They
  spent the next two years traveling. Then they settled down in Muscatine, near
  Mary and Harry. George died in 1926 and Emma in 1939.
     After George's death, Emma wrote a short history of their life together. She
  closed with: "Our little home is broken up. But God is good and I know He will
  not forsake me. As I write, George's face and form, as he was younger, is ever
  before me. My thoughts seem to go back in the past and they are the pictures
  that are plainest. And now, as I come to the end of my story, my one thought is
  that God was good to us, all the way."
     To which I say "Amen!"
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 91 
     Submitted by: Wilma Austin Bell