Edwin Atlee Austin, of Topeka, is a native of Indiana. His father, Maj. John Austin, was a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, born Dec. 19, 1819, son of John Austin and Mary Pyle. The latter was a descendant in direct line from one of the earliest Pennsylvania settlers, who came from Calne, England, to America, in 1682, the same year that the city of Philadelphia was founded by William Penn, and was a member of that historic colony of the Society of Friends, who founded the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Major Austin was a contractor and builder. During the Civil war he served as major in the Fourth Indiana cavalry of the Union army. He was married Oct. 31, 1850, to Miss Cyrena Fontana Clark, born in Oswego, N. Y., July 19, 1833. She was a daughter of James Freeman Clark, a native of New Hampshire, and her mother was Elizabeth Carter, born in Rhode Island. To Major Austin and wife were born seven children, five of whom—Foster H., Edwin A., Harry, Julia L., and Emma—are living. The mother of these children died at Lafayette, Ind., April 7, 1869, and on Oct. 21, 1871, Major Austin was married to Mrs. Lydia E. Hall. There were no children born of this second marriage. Major Austin died March 4, 1894, his wife's death occurring ten years later, in 1904.

Edwin Atlee Austin was born at Lafayette, Ind., March 22, 1856. He received his early education in the public schools of Lafayette and began the study of law in the office of Hiram W. Chase. Later, he became a student in the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and on Jan. 3, 1879, was admitted to the bar, at Lafayette, Ind. He came to Kansas, in April, 1879, and located in Topeka, where he began the practice of his profession. In 1880 he was admitted to practice before the supreme court of Kansas and, in 1892, was admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court. For a period of five years, from 1883 to 1888, he held the position of assistant in the office of the attorney-general, W. A. Johnston, now chief justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas. Besides his professional work, Mr. Austin has extensive business interests, being a member of the directorate of the Freeholders' Insurance Company and of the Topeka Milling Company, and he is also a director and the secretary of the Prudential Investment Company. In his fraternal relations he is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight Templar and a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States of America.

Mr. Austin was married April 21, 1886, to Miss Augusta Clark, daughter of Joshua M. and Elizabeth (Chambers) Clark, the former a native of Maine and the latter born in Ohio.