Austin, Jr. served in Alabama Volunteer Creek War filed WA 532 September 1, 1892.

S/O Pvt. Austin Beasley, Sr. (a Revolutionary War Soldier & large land owner), and Polly Mary Hollingsworth Carroll Beasley. Maternal grandparents were Hardy and Lydia Eda Hollingsworth Carroll.

H/O Eleanor Reed Powell. They were married Abt. 1836 in Dale County, Alabama. He and Eleanor had 12 children. Emily Frances Beasley, Oct. 19, 1858 - Apr. 1947 is the only one whose resting place has not been found.

The sad part of Austin Jr.'s young family was his first son William Reed was KIA at 25 years old at Spotsylvania in the Civil War, his second son Austin Tobey was killed by a rattlesnake at 7, his third son killed at 5 by the same rattlesnake and his 1st daughter or 4th child had drowned at 3 years old.

At age 26, Austin Beasley, Jr., left home on horseback, traveled to Marianna Florida. He turned back and settled at Barne's Cross Roads, between Ariton and Ozark, Alabama. On Nov 6, 1864 he was crossing a fence on a neighbor's property line and the neighbor had a shotgun set up in a trap to shoot the deer eating their crops. It hit Austin Jr. in the hip and he never was the same but lived to be 77. His father and uncle came from England, his uncle was washed overboard drowned in a storm. His father was a large landowner and operated a Grist Mill in Magnolia, Duplin County, North Carolina.

The family legend was that Austin Jr. got tired of sweeping up around his father's mill and at the age of 26 put his saddle bags on his horse and rode south--across South Carolina, Georgia, the southeast corner of Alabama, he turned back to a pretty place that had stayed in his memory, Ozark, Dale County, Alabama. He had sold all of his slaves in North Carolina to his brother Bass for $500. Accuracy of the legend is sometimes questioned but he definitely left North Carolina between November 1834 and 1836.

The 188 acres sold to his brother Bass on November 19, 1834, in exchange for $403 consideration, is probably the first part of his father's will (legend $500 for the slaves, considered property at that time). The deed for 145 acres for $251 only three years later, may indicate a depressed economy in 1837 and/or that he was eager to move to the Ozark and start to build his own estate.

In addition to the land Austin was to receive at the time of his father's death, he was to receive additional land which included the Beasley Mill between the North side of Alligator Pond and the South side of Wild Cat Pond near Magnolia, Duplin County, North Carolina; one bed and furniture; four cows and calves; the gray horse and riding chair; one negro boy named Jim, and during his life one negro boy named Willie to his use for the term of ten years, at the time of his mother's death.

(Recorded by: K. Ned Beasley of Rural Hall, North Carolina, 4th great-nephew, his son Ned Scott Beasley, and Mark Beasley of Edgewood, New Mexico, 2nd great-grandson)