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siblings having signed to her over their ownership interests in the property as heirs of their parents. It is <br />believed that William Austin was never an owner of the house. <br />The following photo shows Jessie and her sister, Kate: <br />William Austin was elected town trustee beginning not later than 1895, and was later elected mayor of <br />Louisville and served from 1905 to 1909 and from 1910 to 1911. Newspapers stated that he ran on the <br />Populist ticket for trustee, then on the Union Labor ticket for mayor. As mayor during the beginning of <br />the 1910-1914 mining strike that took place in the northern coal fields of Colorado, Austin took a pro - <br />union stand. This was evidenced by his protest, along with other area elected officials, to the governor <br />of Colorado to ask the governor to revoke the license of the Baldwin -Felts detective agency, which <br />supplied gunmen to the mine owners during the strike, according to a Denver Post article dated <br />December 5, 1910. <br />According to the 1956 newspaper interview with Jessie Austin, the elections when William Austin ran <br />were "just as hot as they are now." Austin was determined to buy water for the town and finally did so, <br />against opposition. Years later, when the water bonds were paid off, his son (Roy Austin) organized a <br />ceremony in town whereby the bonds were burned in a celebration, according to an article in the 10/30- <br />31/1976 Longmont Daily Times -Call. <br />Beginning in the 1890s, William Austin had a general merchandise store at the northeast corner of <br />Spruce and Jefferson in Louisville. (The address is now 800 Jefferson, but the original building is gone.) <br />He also sold school supplies and candy in this convenient location that was directly across the street <br />from the location of the Louisville grade school located at the northwest corner of Spruce and Jefferson. <br />The following photo shows the store when it was operated by Austin: <br />10 <br />