Woman of the Century/Helen Vickroy Austin

AUSTIN, Mrs. Helen Vickroy, journalist and horticulturist, born in Miamisburg, Montgomery county, Ohio, in 1829. She is a daughter of Edwin Augustus and Cornelia Harlan Vickroy. HELEN VICKROY AUSTIN. Her family on both sides are people of distinction. Her mother was a daughter of the Hon George Harlen, of Warren county, Ohio. Her father was a son of Thomas Vickroy, of Pennsylvania, who was a soldier in the Revolution under Washington and an eminent surveyor and extensive land-owner. When Mrs. Austin was a child, the family removed to Pennsylvania and established a homestead in Ferndale. Cambria county. There her early life was passed. With an inherent love of nature, she grew up amid the picturesque scenes of the foot-hills of the Alleghany mountains, a poet in thought and an ardent lover of the beautiful. She was married in 1850 to William W. Austin, a native of Philadelphia, at that time residing at Richmond, Ind., in which delightful city they lived until, in 1885, the family went East, taking up their residence at Vineland, N. I. Although Mrs. Austin is a domestic woman, she has taken time to indulge her taste and promptings and has done considerable writing. Some of her best work has been for the agricultural and horticultural press, and her essays at the horticultural meetings and interest in such matters have given her a fame in horticultural circles. As a writer of sketches and essays and a reporter and correspondent Mrs. Austin has marked capacity. She is accurate and concise. Much of her work has been of a fugitive nature for the local press, but was worthy of a more enduring place. One of the marked characteristics of her nature is benevolence. She has given much time and used her pen freely in aid of philanthropic work. She has for many years been identified with the cause of woman suffrage, and the various institutions for the elevation and protection of woman have had her earnest help. Long before the temperance crusade she was a pronounced advocate of temperance and while in her teens was a "Daughter of Temperance." Her philanthropic spirit makes her a friend to the negro and Indian. She is a life member of the National Woman's Indian Rights Association. Mrs. Austin is the mother of three children. One of these, a daughter, is living. Her two sons died in childhood.