Richard W. Austin

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For other persons of a similar name see Richard Austin (disambiguation).

Richard Wilson Austin was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 2nd congressional district of Tennessee. He was born on August 26, 1857 in Decatur, Alabama in Morgan County. He attended the common schools, Loudon High School, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1873. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1878, and commenced practice in Knoxville, Tennessee.

He was a clerk in the Post Office Department at Washington, D.C. from 1879 to 1881. He was Assistant Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives in the Forty-seventh Congress from 1881 to 1883. He was a special agent of the War Department from 1883 to 1885. In 1885, he engaged in newspaper work in Knoxville, Tennessee. He returned to Decatur, Alabama and continued the practice of law. He was the private secretary of Congressman Leonidas C. Houk from Tennessee in 1888. He was the city attorney of Decatur, Alabama.

He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892. He returned to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1893 and edited the Knoxville Republican. He was a United States marshal for the eastern district of Tennessee from 1897 to 1906. He was appointed United States consul at Glasgow, Scotland and served from Julu 1906 to November 1907, when he resigned.

He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-first and the four succeeding Congresses. He served from March 4, 1909 to March 3, 1919. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1918. He died in Washington, D.C. on April 20, 1918. He was interred in Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee.