Ladies’ Protestant Orphan Asylum / Children’s Home of Detroit (1836 – 2007)

The oldest benevolent society in Detroit, the Ladies’ Protestant Orphan Association, has its origins in 1818, when a number of women from prominent Detroit families met at the home of Mrs. Benjamin Larned and organized the Ladies Society of the City of Detroit. Its purposes were charitable, with particular emphasis upon the needs and care
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Charles W. Austin – Company A, 5th Michigan Cavalry

When my Great Great Great Grandparents, John Delos (1807 – 1851) and Anna (1813 – 1851) Austin died during the 1851 Detroit cholera epidemic, their two sons, seven-year-old Charles and five-year-old Abner, were orphaned and separated. Charles was taken in by John and Catharine Osmun of Groveland near Waterford, Michigan, who raised him as a
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Abner Delos Austin – Company I, 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry

The following was written when I was 16 years old, as my final project for the American History class taught by George B. Sparrow at South Lyon (MI) High School: John Delos Austin is the earliest known ancestor in my Austin family tree. Few details of John Austin’s life are known. In a census taken
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