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Writer's pictureJo Beth Boyles

Northern girl goes south- part two

With the death of her mother and three siblings, my grandmother and her older sister are living with their father, George Bullard Austin. The 1910 census shows the family living in Rome, Georgia. Family tradition says that George Bullard Austin became a peach farmer. He did remarry to May E Shackley. May Shackley was born in 1874 • Belknap, New Hampshire, and died 10 JUNE 1915.


Evelyn Austin was born in Rome Georgia. My grandmother Brewer would have been about twelve years old when the family were in Georgia.



Name Gertrude Austin : Home in 1910 Rome Ward 2, Floyd, Georgia Street Broad :Relation to Head of HouseDaughter: Father's NameGeorge B AustinFather's BirthplaceNew Jersey

Mother's Name May E Austin , Mother's Birthplace New Hampshire ( Step Mother )

Sewing Industry Overall Factory , Employee

Household Members Name George B AustinAge48 Name May E AustinAge36

**Name Clara Shepard Age33

Name Gertrude Austin Age17

Name Evelyn Austin Age 5

**Note Clara may have been a boarder working in the hospital as a nurse.


I do know that my grandmother attended college in New York City. I do not have the name but I believe it was a two year college. She would later become a social worker. She was friends with the social worker that placed my husband in the Boyles family. I have often wondered if she held him on her lap while he was waiting for his family.



Between 1910 and 1920 census, many things happened to Gertrude Austin. Her father and her family became members of the Salvation Army. A little brother was added to the family. in 1910. Paul Austin would live to 1981. She is holding sister Evelyn on her lap in this picture taken in Rome, GA. I estimate her age about 20 years. She had planned to be a career woman and remain in the Salvation Army.


She found herself in North Carolina in the Salvation Army. She played guitar and tambourine on the corners of Winston-Salem , Greensboro and Raleigh. The Salvation Army needed to purchase furniture and she was sent to do the shopping. William Cleveland Brewer was the salesman.


She would become Mrs. Gertrude Austin Brewer, March 3, 1915


The 1920 census will find the family living on Burke Street in Winston-Salem, NC. Daddy Bill Brewer is working as a furniture salesman and two children have joined the family. Iona Gertrude is 4 1/2 and William Austin is 1 1/2.


Gertrude was christened at Christ Moravian Church, but Austin was Christened at Green Street Methodist. Perhaps because my grandmother was raised Methodist. The rest of the children would be Christened at Christ Moravian and my grandmother would teach Sunday School for over 25 years at Christ Moravian.





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