Richard Wilson AUSTIN, Congress, TN (1857-1919)

AUSTIN, Richard Wilson, a Representative from Tennessee; born in Decatur, Morgan County, Ala., August 26, 1857; attended the common schools, Loudon High School, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1873; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1878 and commenced practice in Knoxville, Tenn.; clerk in the Post Office Department at Washington, D.C., 1879-1881; Assistant Doorkeeper of the House of Representatives in the Forty-seventh Congress 1881-1883; special agent of the War Department 1883-1885; engaged in newspaper work in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1885; returned to Decatur, Ala., and continued the practice of law; private secretary to Congressman Leonidas C. Houk from Tennessee in 1888; served as city attorney of Decatur, Ala.; unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; delegate to the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892; returned to Knoxville, Tenn., in 1893 and edited the Knoxville Republican; United States marshal for the eastern district of Tennessee 1897-1906; appointed United States consul at Glasgow, Scotland, and served from July 1906 to November 1907, when he resigned; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-first and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1909-March 3, 1919); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1918; died in Washington, D.C., April 20, 1919; interment in the Old Gray Cemetery, Knoxville, Tenn.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present