Irving Merritt Austin was born August 20, 1906 in Port Chester, New York, the only child and son of Irving Mortimer Austin and Katherine Emma Amrhein. He wore glasses from a very early age, the apparent result of neglecting to put silver iodide drops in his eyes at birth, and then a diagnosis, that he needed corrective lenses.
A newspaper article titled "Young Boy Shot and Wounded" appeared in the Daily Item of Port Chester, New York on June 19, 1914. A neighbor's misfired gun caught young Irving, almost eight years old, in the shoulder and embedded there. For some time, there was concern over the boy's health and safety.
Irving Jr. worked for his father during the summers. When he was a teenager, about eighteen or nineteen, he went on a boat trip to Florida with his father to work on some of his real estate ventures. Irving Jr. met Susan Stevens on this boat trip. Shortly thereafter they made plans to marry. Irving Sr. forbade his son to marry Susan (possibly on the grounds that she was seven years older than him?) and ordered him out of the house. He took a room in a White Plains, New York YMCA and was married the next day in a Catholic church in White Plains to Susan Isabel Stevens (born November 2, 1899 in Cliftondale, Saugus County, Massachusetts) in 1926. Irving Sr. also forbade his wife to attend their son's wedding. Despite this, Irving Jr.'s mother, Katherine (Amrhein) Austin snuck out a window and walked to her son's wedding about 10 miles away.
Irving and Susan lived in Port Chester, New York but, their marriage did not last very long. Irving wanted a divorce. His wife, Susan, a devout Catholic would not grant him one. Susan's sisters helped reunite them a number of times. But they continued to have difficulty with their marriage. They separated after the birth of each of their three children: Irving Martin (III) born on August 3, 1928, Donald Joseph born on July 18, 1930 and Elaine Joan born on June 16, 1933, all of whom were born in United Hospital in Port Chester, New York.
Irving Merritt Austin worked as a real estate broker, first for his father (Austin, Knapp & Wakefield Co. Inc.) from December 22, 1928 to May 25, 1931, then for himself until December 15, 1932 and finally for Irving M. Austin Jr. Inc. until October 31, 1933 (see following pages for records). Also, on June 9, 1931, he was granted a patent for an improvement to gas pilots and burners. It had been filed on March 23, 1929 by his attorneys Darby & Darby (also, see following pages).
Sometime after his daughter Elaine was born, Irving said that if Susan would not grant him a divorce, he would not continue supporting her. He quit the real estate business and ran away to the Adirondacks. At some point Susan sued him for nonsupport and had him arrested and jailed.
Susan, and her children, Irving, Donald and Elaine had very little money without Irving's support. They left many places where they had been living because they were unable to pay the rent. Elaine estimates living in twenty different homes in and around the Port Chester, New York area.
When Donald was about six or seven, he became very ill and came close to dying. He needed several months to recover. His brother Irving was very worried about him.
Susan's illness began around 1937. She had problems with allergies. Her mother, Annie MacDougal came to live with her, although she was 78 years old at the time. Irving (9), Donald (7) and Elaine (4) began to be more and more on their own. Irving and Donald especially, and later Elaine became "street kids" coming and going where they wished and frequently only at home to sleep. Because there was very little money in the household, frequently the kids' meals were what they could find. Irving would go around and gather deposit bottles or do little jobs to make money. Usually they would spend their money on candy. Their grades in school were very poor.
For the next five years, until her death of cancer on April 9, 1942. at age forty two, Susan Stevens Austin was frequently ill and unable to work. Susan had breast cancer which spread to her lungs despite a mastectomy. She died of lung cancer.
The children spent a lot of time with their cousins (Dells & Coogans). Irving had two cousins, Charley Dell and Jimmy Coogan, who were less than a month older than he. Donald had two cousins, Joe Dell and Bernie Coogan, the same age as him. All of their sixteen cousins lived in Port Chester, NY.
Shortly before her death, Susan tried to prevent Irving from getting the children by moving as far away as possible to Long Island. When Susan died, her brother Joseph placed Irving in a boarding school on the island.
Irving remarried a few days after Susan's death on April 11 or 12, 1942 to Mary Kathleen "Mae" Morris at St. Luke's Convalescence Hospital, Greenwich, Connecticut. Mae had been the nurse for Katherine (Amrhein) Austin, Irving Jr.'s mother before her death of cancer in 1930. Mae was born May 23, 1909, a Catholic. Her relatives strongly disapproved of her marriage and disowned her. Then, Irving came to get the kids who were in different places, Donald and Elaine were with their aunts and uncles.
They lived in Greenwich (once in a house on Memory Lane (last one on the left) and later in a big stone house on a hill nearby) at first, where Irving went to high school. Their life at home was very different from before. With Mae as their stepmother, the kids had to wash regularly and wear clean clothes, not to mention eat at regular hours and go to bed at a certain time. Elaine ran away to the Dells, but was returned. A few years later, Irving ran away to Mamaroneck to his Uncle Joe's and stayed, not returning until he was in Williams College. Irving graduated from Frederick S. Bellows High School (now an elementary school) June 25, 1945. Later, Donald also ran away also to Uncle Joe's and stayed until returning to their next home in Darien, where he attended high school as did Elaine.
Irving Merritt worked at many jobs, his first in the Merchant Marine for Sun Oil Company, also as a chief petty officer in the Coast Guard. He went to New York University for a few courses in landscaping and then set up a nursery and landscaping business in Greenwich, Connecticut on Riversville Road.
At different times, to make ends meet, he sold Christmas cards, and ran a retail store out of his basement, selling rakes, brooms and things. Later, after moving to Darien, Connecticut, he became a Fedder and Carrier air conditioning dealer. He also occasionally helped his father in real estate and eventually sold him a small plot of land where his father built a small cabin across the street from Irving Jr. on Kelsey Street in Noroton (Darien), Connecticut.
Irving Jr. was also interested in stocks and the stock market and invested seriously in Penn Central stock.
In his early sixties, Irving Jr. and Mae Austin moved from Kelsey Street in Noroton to a favorite spot for hunting and camping in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts on Pine Nook Road. They built a small cabin, painted green, on top of a rock ledge in a pine and hemlock forest overlooking the Connecticut river valley. They had a phone line installed, but power was supplied by a gasoline generator in the basement. Heat was supplied by a Franklin wood burning stove and cooking by bottled gas.
Irving devised a log lift to clear and remove logs from the hillside with a minimum of effort. With a cable, pulley and the rear wheel of their car made it possible for them to clear out a housesite from a fairly steep piece of property. Irving also built and used a small solar water heater on the roof for occasional use as a hot water shower, until a frost cracked one of the copper pipes.
Irving Merritt Austin suffered two heart attacks, one in Darien and the other in Old Deerfield. His doctors and his son, Irving Martin claimed his diet was a contributing factor to his heart attacks, because of a lack of fiber and too much cholesterol. Thereafter, Irving Merritt modified his diet as much as he was able.
After recovering from his second heart attack, Irving Merritt bought a little motorized trail bike which he used on the trails through the woods on and around his property.
In the fall of 1975, while (grandfather) Irving Merritt and Mae were preparing for their annual trip south to winter in Florida in their camper, he suffered a stroke or massive heart attack while clearing some brush off the driveway with Mae. He died on the spot, November 20, 1975, and was buried nearby in the Laurel Hill Cemetery.
A newspaper announcement in the Greenfield, (Massachusetts) Recorder, Friday, November 21, 1975:
Irving Austin
DEERFIELD - Irving Merritt Austin, Jr., 69, of Pine Nook Rd., died Thursday at the Franklin County Public Hospital.
Born August 20, 1906, in New York City, the son of Irving M. and Catherine (Amrhein) Austin, Sr., he was educated in the Portchester School system and served with the Coast Guard in World War II. He was married in 1942 at St. Luke's Convalescence Hospital, Greenwich, Conn. to Mae C. Morris.
He was a self-employed air conditioning mechanic before retirement. He had been a resident of Old Deerfield for the past seven years.
Besides his wife, he leaves two sons, Irving M. Austin III of Watkins Glen, N.Y. and Donald J. Austin of Alaska; a daughter, Mrs. Elaine DeBeauport of Greenwich Conn. and five grandchildren.
Services will be at the McCarthy Funeral Home Sunday at 2 p.m. with Rev. Richard McElevey of Deerfield, officiating. Cremation will follow.
Calling hours will be Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the donors favorite charity.
Mae Austin continued to live in the cabin on Pine Nook Road, by herself until her death at home after a heart attack and in the company of her step daughter Elaine in February 2000. She had also become a Jehovah's Witness. She had moved Irving's ashes to the housesite under the corner of the front porch shortly after his burial. After her death her ashes and her husbands were placed and replaced in the Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Irving had five grandchildren, all boys.
1 pg of xeroxed photos
chart 5 of IMerritt and SI Stevens
17 pgs of xeroxes
Irving "Jack", Donald, and Elaine
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