1882 History of Linn
County, Missouri
BIOGRAPHIES
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BROWN
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John
BROWN Benton Township, page 759
In passing down the Burlington and
Southwestern Railroad, looking over toward the headwaters of Lotus Creek, the
traveler can but be impressed with the scope of the county which is one of the great beauty and
surpassing fertility. Nature has done
much for this country, but the effect produced by art, such as used by the
enterprising husbandman of the region is most marked. Among the energetic farmers of this section
is one known by the common and unassuming name of John Brown. He was born in the county, July 23, 1849, and
is the son of Henry T. and Susan Brown, both of whom are still living, respected
and honored, and the more so as these representatives of pioneer times become
fewer and still fewer. Mr. Brown has
confined himself for many hears to the improvement of his farm, and there finds
exercise and diversion enough, without seeking either in travel. Though now in the full tide
of manhood, he has but once been outside the boundaries of his native State. He was married to Miss Fannie Runnels, June
4, 1877. Have two children.
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John Hutchinson BROWN Brookfield City and Twp., page 531
This gentleman, one of the first mechanics of Brookfield,
was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1836. His parents were John and Elizabeth Brown,
and he was reared in the city of his birth, receiving
his education in the city schools. At
the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to learn the
carpenter’s trade under J. and W. Wilson, of the “Quaker City”,
with whom he served four years. After
the expiration of his term he worked as a journeyman
in Circleville, Ohio.
He was at that place when the Rebellion broke out, and he enlisted for
three months, in Company C, of the Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At the expiration of that term he reenlisted in
Company I, Second Regular Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served eighteen months
as a musician. He was
mustered out, but again entered the government service and served during
the war as a mechanic in the quartermaster’s department of the Army of the Cumberland. On quitting the army, in the fall of 1865, he
returned to Ohio, and the following spring
came to Missouri and permanently settled in Brookfield, this
county. Mr. Brown has done much to help
build up the town, and has, as a contractor, built some twenty or more of
business houses, besides over one hundred and twenty-five dwelling houses and
barns in this and Chariton counties.
Mr. Brown was married
on August 7, 1867, to Miss Minnie Bullard, of Brookfield,
by whom he has two children, named, respectively, Lorin
and Leonora, both of whom were born in Brookfield. He is now a member of the school-board,
and formerly served on the town-board.
He is a member of Brookfield Lodge number 86, of the Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, and of Linn Chapter number 41, Royal Arch Masons; he also belongs to the Cour de
Leon Commandery number 14, of the Knights
Templar. He is a member of Brookfield
Lodge number 161, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Linn Encampment
of the same order.
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Wm. G. BROWN (DECEASED) Parsons Creek
Township, page 715
The
subject of this sketch was born in Rahway,
New Jersey, July 20, 1810. His ancestors were English Quakers
and came to this country and settled in company with what is known in
history as the “Penn Colony”. From them
he inherited an unblemished reputation and a vigorous constitution. At an early age he
removed to Florida and went into a drug store
as a clerk, serving his employer faithfully and learning rapidly, so that in
1842, he removed to Macon, Georgia, and opened a drug store of
his own. Depending entirely upon his own
resources, he commenced business under difficulties, but with skill, energy,
and agreeable manners, he soon built up an extensive trade. Mr. Brown was also lieutenant of the “Macon
Volunteers”, a company organized for the protection of the inhabitants against
a threatened insurrection of the negroes, they at that
time outnumbering the whites. He
afterwards served in the same capacity in the “Bibb County Cavalry”. Mr. Brown was married to Frances Jennette Jones, an orphaned sister of the late John L.
Jones, one of the most extensive dry goods merchants in Macon.
Five sons and three daughters blessed this union, seven of whom are now
living, and an honor to their parents.
From Macon Mr. Brown removed to New York and settled on the banks of Lake Ontario,
where the town of Fair Haven
now stands, and which owes much of its prosperity to the early enterprise and
public spirit of Mr. Brown. In 1864 he
removed to Red Creek and was there commissioned revenue assessor of the
District of New York, which position he filled with honor and efficiency for
two years, when he decided to make Missouri his future home. Locating at Bottsville
(now Meadville) he was appointed land agent for the Hannibal & St.
Joseph Railroad, where he sold many thousand acres of the then wild land. Mr. Brown was a firm believer in
Christianity, and frequently, in the absence of the minister, preached from the
pulpit himself. During the war three of his sons went to the field and fought gallantly
for their country, and returned home safely.
Mr. Brown was a man of uncommon ability, his intellectual faculties far
above the ordinary, and even to the time of his death, which occurred March 25,
1882, and when he was aged seventy years he was nearly as vigorous physically
and as clear mentally as in his manhood’s prime. When he died the light of a useful, generous,
noble life went out, but the memory of it all remains.
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Transcribed, in total, by kkfitch © 2009. All Rights Reserved.