contributed this week by Berlin Town Historian Sharon Klein
In 1774, Robert Austin yoked his oxen, loaded his cart with his few household belongings and his sister and headed west. After a 21-day trip from Rhode Island, he arrived in the Little Hoosick Valley. [private]He climbed up past Kendall Pond, found a level plot of ground and settled there.
After the close of the Revolutionary War, Robert’s wheat had increased so he could have it floured. The closest mill was in Hoosick, and on one of these trips, the lady where he was staying said she needed a servant girl. Mr. Austin said perhaps his sister would come to serve her. So, in a few days, Amanda was in the lady’s service. As time passed, Miss Austin made the acquaintance of Roger Birchard, whom she eventually married. She then moved to Brattleboro, VT.
Mrs. Amanda Birchard had a daughter Sophia who married a Vermont storekeeper named Rutherford Hayes, Jr. Rutherford Hayes Jr. died ten weeks before his son, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th President of the United States, was born.
(The Austin farm is now the property of Sally Osterhaut Smith.)[/private]