William Clark Austin, of Cottonwood Falls, Kan., state printer for the State of Kansas, is a native-born Kansan, having been born at Cottonwood Falls, Chase county, in 1872. His father, James Austin, was born in Vermont, in 1836, was educated in the public schools of that state and in the academy in Eaton county, Michigan, to which state he had removed with his parents when twelve years of age. After reaching man's estate he engaged in teaching and in the mercantile business for a number of years in the different states of Michigan, Indiana and Tennessee, and at Buffalo, N. Y., and also served as internal revenue collector for two years in Tennessee. In 1867 he married Miss Mary E. Barker, daughter of James and Catharine Barker, of Buffalo, N. Y., and in 1868 came to Chase county, Kansas, where he engaged in mercantile business until 1870, when he purchased the farm east of Cottonwood Falls, on which he still resides. James and Mary (Barker) Austin became the parents of four children, three of whom are living, viz.; William Clark, of this record; Sarah J., born in 1875, and now the wife of W. T. Glanville, of Cottonwood Falls; and Mary E., who was born in 1876 and now resides with her father and mother. James and Catharine Barker, the maternal grandparents of William C. Austin, removed from Buffalo, N. Y., to Kansas in 1870, and located on government land near Cottonwood Falls. On this same homestead, in 1889, was celebrated their golden wedding anniversary—the first celebration of its kind in Chase county—and thereafter they continued life's journey together for seventeen years. Both died in the month of June, 1906, when was closed their remarkable life companionship of sixty-seven years. They were the parents of three children, two sons and a daughter, all of whom are deceased.

William Clark Austin was educated in the public schools of Chase county and at the University of Kansas. He was instructor in the Cottonwood Falls schools for several years and for three years engaged in the grocery business at Strong City. In 1903 he bought the "Chase County Leader," a Republican weekly, and in 1909 bought the "Strong City News" and the "Courant," of Cottonwood Falls, consolidating them as the "Strong City News-Courant," which he still owns. In 1904 he was elected as the Republican candidate for register of deeds and served two years, and in 1910 was elected state printer. Mr. Austin was the author of the uniform blank book law passed by the legislature of 1911, which was the first law for uniform county records passed by any of the United States.

Mr. Austin was married in 1895 to Miss Rose Palmer, daughter of Samuel C. and Mary Palmer, of Cottonwood Falls, and to this union have been born three children: Catharine, born in 1896; James, born in 1899; and William, born in 1902.