Bob Austin, Father of 28, Runs a Tight Ship, May 6, 1922

Father of 28 Bosses Ranch. . . Declares None of His Wives or Off-Spring Were Allowed to “Talk Back”

Greensboro, N.C.—“Uncle Bob” Austin, an old-time darky living near here, is the father of 28 sons and daughters, 26 of whom are living All but seven having gone off to themselves, he has taken three other children to rear.

Uncle Bob’s first wife bore him eight children, the second, 14; the third, still a husky young woman, six Austin is the tenant manager of a farm. He eats three square meals a day and chews tobacco, but does not smoke and doesn’t allow smoking on his premises.

No wife or child of his ever gave him any “back talk” more than once, he says. “If they get uppity, I soon trims ‘em,” he says with a chuckle. “In my house dey must go my way.”

Austin is 71 years old and weas born a slave. He remembers hiding in the woods when Sherman’s army came through North Carolina after its march through Georgia to the sea.

From the front page of The Progress, Enfield, N.C., May 6, 1922