A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF COE FINCH 
AUSTIN 
Bv SARAH AUSTIN DEMAREST 
Englewood, New Jersey 
Coe Finch Austin, the subject of this sketch, was born June 
20, 1831, at Finchville, Orange County, New York. Grand- 
parents on father’s side were Abraham Austin, English descent, 
and Mehitable Campbell, Scotch, and on his mother’s side, 
William Cortright and Jemima Huff, both Hollanders. He was 
the second of a family of ten children, born to James C. and 
Elizabeth Cortright Austin, thrifty farmers of that period. When 
he was quite young his parents moved to Greenville, N. Y., where 
the lad entered the public school. He made rapid progress in the 
fundamentals. A few years later the family moved to a fine farm 
near what was then called Brookfield, now Slate Hill, Orange 
County, N. Y., where his early life was spent, much the same as 
other boys, assisting on the farm during the summer, and attending 
public school in the winter, where he was generally at the head of 
his class and at the forefront in the various games played on the 
school grounds. 
Early in life he manifested an interest in floriculture, and was 
his mother's constant companion as she cared for her flower garden 
(of which she was extremely fond), this same being often enriched 
by choice specimens which the boy gathered from neighbors of 
like tastes. Nor was he less interested in arboriculture, and the 
lawn of his paternal home was ornamented by trees of many 
varieties collected from forest and field, whose generous shade now 
gives pleasure and comfort to another корите occupying the 
homestead. 
In character he was independent and aggressive, and impatient 
of restraint. When about eighteen years of age, being repri- 
manded by his father for some neglect of duty, he rebelled, and 
as a result was compelled to take the world for his parish; he went 
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