John S. Austin manuscript autobiography, ca. 1922

MLMSS 6737

fonds

ca. 1922

Textual Records, Graphic Materials

402449

0.13 metres of textual material (1 box)

John Samuel Austin, missionary and Methodist minister, was born in Sydney on 3 April 1841, son of William Austin and his wife Mary Ann, Nee Sweetnam. William and Mary Ann, with their four elder children, emigrated form Kent, England, in 1838. Raised in Sydney City, Redfern and Waterloo, Austin was educated at a private day school run by his mohter and Wesleyan Denominational Schools, before being apprenticed to an ironmonger. After serving his apprenticeship, Austin became a builders' labourer, a gold miner and a clerk. Active in the Methodist Church since childhood, his father being a local (lay) preacher and instrumental in starting causes in Chippendale and Mount Lachlan (Waterloo), and Austin early conceived a desire to enter the mission field. The Methodist Conference accepted him for candidacy to the ministry and he entered Newington College for a year's study in theology. After a short pastorate in the Murrurundi Circuit, Austin was appointed as an unordained missionary to Samoa in 1864, in which field he served twice. Returning to New South Wales in 1872, Austin served in the Nattai and Parkes Circuits and was ordained by the Conference on 27 Januay 1873. He accepted another appointment to Samoa in 1873 then entered into circuit work in Maitland, Singleton, Windsor, Paddington, Bourke Street, Cleveland Street, Wollongong, Newcastle, Katoomba, Hamilton, Waverley and Chatswood. Austin published three books, 'The Golden Age of the World', 'Hades', and his autobiography, 'Missionary Enterprise and Home Service'. A wife was essential to an overseas missionary, so a week before his first departure for Samoa, Austin married Jane Barry (27 June 1841-20 December 1873), a fellow Mount Lachlan Sunday School teacher, on 13 September 1864. The couple had four children in Samoa, returning in 1872 due to Jane's extreme ill health. She died at Parkes. Austin married Sarah Valina Ward (28 October 1852-6 July 1906) at Bowral on 9 September 1874. Known as Valina, she died at Bronte and is buried at Waverley Cemetery. Austin died in 1925 and is buried at Waverley Cemetery.

Manuscript in two volumes of his autobiography, Missionary Enterprise and Home Service. A Story of Mission Life in Samoa and Circuit Work in N. S. Wales, with illustrations