150 years ago today, my Great Great Grandfather Abner Delos Austin, as a newly-enlisted 16-year-old private in the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, marched out of Detroit and into history. At 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 29, 1862, to the cheers of thousands of onlookers, he and his regiment marched out of Camp Barns (located at
+ Read More
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
+ Read More
One of Detroit’s most notable Civil War landmarks, the historic Grand Army of the Republic Hall at Cass and Grand River, is soon to receive a new lease on life thanks to a plan from a Detroit media firm. It took nearly six years, but downtown Detroit’s castle-like building originally used by Union Civil War
+ Read More
“Born Killers: The Iron Brigade” will be presented on the History Channel tomorrow, March 1, 2011 at 7 a.m. EST as part of its Civil War Journal series. Don’t miss it!
Today, a memorial service took place at Clarenceville Cemetery in Livonia, Michigan at the gravesite of my Great Great Grandfather and Civil War veteran, Abner Delos Austin (24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Company I). The ceremony was coordinated by local Civil War living historians and was attended by approximately 40 guests along with my husband and
+ Read More
Today, after singing the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America at the at the Canton, Michigan Memorial Day ceremony, I made my annual trip to Clarenceville Cemetery in Livonia, Michigan to place a flag and memorial on the grave of my Great Great Grandfather Abner Delos Austin, Civil War veteran (Private, 24th Michigan Volunteer
+ Read More
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
+ Read More
After trekking to downtown Detroit today for my initiation into the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War (DUVCW), Jason and I headed over to the intersection of Cass and Adams to photograph the old Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Building, one of the oldest buildings in Detroit, located at 1942 West Grand
+ Read More
This is probably my favorite graphic design project, inspired by the monuments on the Gettysburg battlefield after my visit there during the 145th anniversary of the battle on July 1 – 3, 2008. During the American Civil War, the Iron Brigade of the West, also known as the Black Hat Brigade for the dress Hardee
+ Read More
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
+ Read More
Enter your email address below to subscribe. 
Recent Comments