I am trying to identify the "Colonel Austin" that the 1881 Missouri Historical Company history of Carroll County cited on page 356. Please excuse my ignorance, but there are a number of Austin households the 1860 census shows in this part of Carroll County to the extent that I cannot determine which one is the man in question. This Austin seemed to take no part in the Civil War, so either he brought his title with him to Missouri before the war or he earned it in an earlier conflict, such as the Mexican War of Blackhawk War. I don't have full access to the entire 1881 Carroll County history (or the 1911 Turner and Clark Carroll County history that copied this from the 1881 one), so I am sort of stuck. Could somebody please give me the full name of "Colonel Austin" and a little of his biography.

As background, this Colonel Austin dissuaded guerrilla chief George Todd on 18 September 1864 from attacking Carrollton, so he must have been a man that people respected. The 1881 history refers to Austin as if the readers know about him already.

Please help.

Bruce Nichols.