USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 72
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113
400
BROWN.
paigns as a worker and speaker. Mr. Brown was married, June 15, 1882, to Mary Rice McElroy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel R. McElroy, formerly of Kansas City, but now residing in Chicago, Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Brown four children have been born: Benjamin, at the present time (1900) a pupil in the Kansas City High School; McElroy, Carrie Belle and Lemuel Brown.
Brown, Egbert Benson, soldier and pension agent, was born at Brownsville, New York, October 24, 1816, and while a child was taken, with his father's family, to Tecum- seh, Michigan, where he received his edu- cation in a country school. At the age of thirteen years he went to work to do some- thing toward making his own living. While still a boy, his enterprising spirit led him toward Toledo, Ohio, where he became so popular that, at the age of thirty-three years, he was elected mayor. After that he went to the coast, and entered service on a whal- ing ship, and spent four years on the Pacific Ocean. In 1852 he engaged in railroad serv- ice, for which he exhibited a high capacity, and rose to the position of superintendent. He was engaged in this business in St. Louis in 1861, when the Civil War began, and he promptly espoused the Union cause, and raised a regiment of infantry in St. Louis, and was put at active work in Missouri. In 1862 he was made brigadier general of Mis- souri volunteers, and assigned to the com- mand of Springfield, a place of great impor- tance, which was constantly in danger of attack from the Confederates, and whose de- fense could be entrusted only to a soldier of approved skill and courage. A few months after his appointment to the command, on January 8, 1863, the place was invested by a large force of Confederates, under General Marmaduke and General Shelby, and an at- tempt made to carry it by assault. Before the action began, and while the Confeder- ates were drawn up in line of battle, General Brown rode deliberately and conspicuously down between the lines in an act of defiance that won the admiration of the enemy. A
Confederate account of the affair says : "Gen- eral Brown made a splendid fight for his town, and exhibited conspicuous courage and ability. He did what no other Federal brigadier general ever did in front of Shel-
by's brigade-he rode its entire length under a severe fire, clad in bold regimentals, elegantly mounted and ahead of all, so that the fire might be concentrated upon him. It was reckless bravado, and General Brown gained, by one bold dash, the admiration and respect of Shelby's soldiers. As he rode along the front of the brigade two hundred voices were heard above the crashing mus- kets: 'Cease firing-don't shoot that man- let him go-let him go!'" The assault was made at I o'clock, and the fighting continued until after dark. General Brown was se- verely wounded about 5 o'clock, and turned the command over to Colonel B. Crabb. The defense was so admirably managed and vig- orous that the Confederates became con- vinced that they could not take the place, and at midnight they retreated, leaving their dead and wounded on the ground. General Brown never entirely recovered from his wound. For his gallantry he was made brigadier general of United States Volun- teers. In October, of the same year, when Shelby made his raid to the Missouri River, it was his purpose to capture Jefferson City, but General Brown had been assigned to the command there, and was so well prepared to receive and repel an attack that the Con- federates turned off to Boonville. General Brown followed in swift pursuit, and over- took and attacked them at Marshall, and in- flicted on them a severe defeat. They barely escaped to Waverly, leaving three hundred dead and wounded on the field. A year later, when the Price invasion of Missouri oc- curred, the Confederate army, ten thousand strong, appeared before Jefferson City, where General Brown was in command, and took position to make an attack; but it was never made, and when the Confederates withdrew General Brown joined in the pursuit of Price, as he had pursued Shelby before, and took an active part in the engagement which nearly destroyed the invading army. He came out of the war with a shoulder almost wholly disabled, and a bullet in his thigh. The Leg- islature of Missouri passed a resolution form- ally thanking him and his troops for the gal- lant defense of Springfield. In 1866 he was appointed pension agent at St. Louis. In 1869 lie removed to a farm near Hastings, Calhoun County, Illinois, and served from 1881 to 1884 on the Illinois State Board of Equalization.
401
BROWN.
Brown, Frank Mullins, lawyer, was born February 26, 1852, in Albemarle County, Virginia. His parents were Bur- lington Dabney and Mary Ann (Harris) Brown, both of whom were natives of Albe- marle County, Virginia, descended from fam- ilies established there during the Colonial period. The father was a physician, and practiced in Virginia until 1853. In the lat- ter year he removed to Missouri, and prac- ticed in Audrain, Callaway and Montgom- ery Counties, and for a short time in St. Louis. He died in Callaway County, in 1886. He was descended from Benjamin Brown, a native of England, who married a Miss Thompson, of Albemarle County, Virginia ; and his descendants were intermarried with the Dabney, Mullins and Michie families, all Virginians of the Colonial period. Mullins was of Welch and English, and Michie of Scotch descent. The mother was a daughter of Ira and Sallie (Lewis) Harris. She was descended from the Lewis, Carr and Dabney families. Her death occurred in 1868, in Cal- laway County, Missouri. Frank Mullins Brown was the fourth son and child of Bur- lington Dabney and Mary Ann (Harris) Brown. He was brought from his native State to Missouri when little more than a year old, and lived in AAudrain and Callaway Counties until 1870. He began his educa- tion in the common schools in the latter county, and afterward attended the Lyon School, in St. Louis, and for one year the High School in the same city. He then entered the University of Missouri, where he remained for three and one-half years, graduating in 1878. While obtaining his edu- cation he worked on a farm, and at intervals taught school in order to defray his expenses. On leaving the university he read law at Mex- ico, under Judge George B. Macfarlane, of the Supreme Court, and J. McD. Trimble, and was admitted to the bar in 1880. In Janu- ary, 1885, he formed a law partnership with Edwin Silver, at Jefferson City, under the firm name of Silver & Brown. In July, 1886, Honorable Jackson L. Smith, Attorney Gen- eral during the administration of Governor John S. Phelps, became a member of the firm, and the name became Smith, Silver & Brown. In 1888 Mr. Smith was elected a judge of the Kansas City Court of Appeals, and withdrew from the firm, which resumed the former name of Silver & Brown. In
March, 1899, Mr. Silver removed to Kansas City, since which time Mr. Brown has prac- ticed alone, building up a large and remu- nerative practice, principally under the civil law. Criminal practice is foreign to his taste, and lie has studiously avoided cases under that head. From January, 1881, to January, 1885, he was assistant in the office of the Attorney General, during the incumbency of D. H. McIntyre. In December, 1884, he was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court of Missouri, and entered upon the duties of that position in January, 1885. His contin- uance in this office was for the unusual period of twelve and one-half years, ending July 14, 1897. Ilis work includes the reports con- tained in the fifty-seven full volumes from the eightieth to the one hundred and thirty- seventh, both inclusive, with the exception of two hundred and twenty pages in the first and one hundred and four pages in the last of these volumes. During his continuance in this position the work of the office was doubled, owing to the increased number of Supreme Court judges and the division of the court. This great labor was performed with the utmost care and accuracy. The full- ness of his head-notes in cases reported is particularly admirable. He has always been a Democrat, but was unable to act with his party upon the declarations of the Chicago platform, and in the presidential contest of 1896 took his place with the sound-money wing, casting his vote for Palmer and Buck- ner. He is not connected with any religious body, but is a regular attendant upon the services of the Christian Church, of which his wife is a member. Mr. Brown was mar- ried, May 15, 1883, at Mexico, to Miss Bet- tie Davis French, born in Callaway County. a daughter of William L. and Eliza Jane (Bullard) French, the former a native of Kentucky, whose father was . Pinckney French, and mother Deborah ( Clark ) French, and the mother descended from a Virginia family, her father being Rich- ard Bullard and her mother Caroline
Amelia (Conyers) Bullard. To Mr. and Mrs. Brown have been born six chil-
dren, of whom the second, Floyd F., and fifth, Frances, died in infancy. The four living are Mary, aged sixteen years; Linn F., aged eleven years; Rose, aged eight years, all attending school, and Paul M., aged three years.
26
402
BROWN.
Brown, George Warren, merchant and manufacturer, was born in the town of Granville, Washington County, New York, March 21, 1853, son of David and Malinda (Roblee) Brown. He was raised on a farm, and received a common school education, supplemented by a course at Bryant & Strat- ton's Business College, at Troy, New York, from which he received his diploma in the late autumn of 1872, and on the 7th of April, 1873, he severed his home ties and started out to seek his fortune, his objective point be- ing St. Louis, where he arrived April 10th. There he was offered a position as shipping clerk with Hamilton & Brown, a wholesale shoe house, which he accepted, and entered upon his duties May 1, 1873. Ten and one- half months later he was given a territory, and started out as a traveling salesman, be- fore he was yet twenty-one years of age. At the end of four years and eight months as salesman he had to his credit with his house something over $7,000, all of which he had saved from his earnings, and his business had become probably the largest of any man selling boots and shoes in his territory.
Quick to perceive the demands of the western trade, he early became impressed with the fact that a line of shoes especially adapted to St. Louis territory should be made in St. Louis, and he accordingly endeavored to persuade his employers to establish a small factory, btit they were not so deeply impressed as he with the idea, and did not look upon the project favorably. So at the end of the brief period mentioned he resigned his sure position and fast growing salary, with an early partnership interest in sight, to embark in shoe manufacturing in St. Louis. The new manufacturing concern was formed in November, 1878, as the firm of Bryan-Brown & Co. Their original capital was $12,000, nearly one-third of which was invested in shoe machinery, lasts, patterns, etc. Their first workmen were a team of five Rochester men, whom they hired in that city, paying their railroad fare to St. Louis, thereby transplanting Rochester shoemaking to St. Louis. In 1881 the business of Bryan- Brown & Co. was incorporated as the Bryan- Brown Shoe Company, they being the first wholesale shoe concern to incorporate in St. Louis. In 1885 Mr. Bryan's health became poor, and he retired, when the corporate name was changed to Brown-Desnoyers Shoe
Company. In 1893 Mr. Desnoyers retired, and the corporation became the Brown Shoe Company, Mr. Brown having been president of the corporation from its organization, in 1881.
Brown, Joseph, mayor of St. Louis from 1871 to 1875, was born in Jedburg, Scotland, in 1823, and died December 3, 1899. When he was eight years of age he came with his parents to this country, and the earliest home of the family was in St. Louis. Later they removed to Alton, Illinois, and the elder Brown died there. After receiv- ing a good academic education, and partly completing a college course, Joseph Brown embarked in the milling business at Alton, his experience in the conduct of affairs be- ginning when he was but eighteen years of age. Being a young man of unusual execu- tive ability and force of character, and, withal, one of the most progressive men of his day, he very early became one of the leading cit- izens of Alton, and was elected to the may- oralty of that city about the time he attained his majority. While serving as mayor of Alton he labored earnestly and successfully to bring the Chicago & Alton Railroad to that city, and contributed in no small degree to the success of that pioneer railway enter- prise. Embarking in the steamboat business, he was for many years thereafter one of the most conspicuous men identified with the river traffic. When the war began he es- poused the cause of the Union with great earnestness and ardor, and subsequently as- sisted in the construction of iron-clads, rams and gunboats for the United States Navy. In 1868 he was elected a State Senator from St. Louis as a war Democrat, and took an important part in the legislation of that pe- riod. The same year he became president of the Atlantic & Mississippi Steamship Company, and a year later of the Wiggins Ferry Company. In 1871 he was made pres- ident of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Com- pany, after endorsing for it to the extent of $500,000, and served that corporation with the same zeal and faithfulness that he always showed when acting in an official capacity. The same year he was elected mayor of St. Louis, and, by subsequent re-elections, con- tinned to fill that office until 1875. As chief executive of the city, he was distinguished for his careful guardianship of all its inter-
403
BROWN.
ests, his progressiveness and public spirit, and his administration was one of the best with which the city has been favored. Dur- ing the financial panic of 1873 one of the banks of the city, which had on deposit $450,- 000 belonging to St. Louis, refused to honor the city's drafts for current expenses, and to meet this emergency, Mayor Brown caused to be issued city "scrip" to the amount of $450,000, for the redemption of which he pledged his own credit as well as that of the city. This currency, which became known as "Brownbacks," passed readily all over the country, and helped to carry St. Louis through the panic. During this cru- cial period he also maintained, for a time, without expense to the city, a soup house, at which as many as twelve hundred desti- tute people were fed in a day. During his administration the Forest Park enterprise was inaugurated, and other public improve- ments date from that period.
Brown, Philip Shelley, lawyer, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, Octo- ber 14, 1833. His father was Henry Brown, also a native of Bedford County, Pennsyl- vania, and his mother was Sarah Shelley, who was of Holland descent. Philip S. Brown was brought up as a country lad, and attended the common schools. Afterward he attended the Hollidaysburg Academy, then under the charge of Rev. John H. Mc- Kinney, a prominent Presbyterian divine. He completed his academic course in 1851, and was engaged in the iron business for three years with the Cambria Iron Com- pany. In 1855 he took Horace Greeley's ad- vice, and came west, and entered the law office of John W. Thompson, in Davenport, Iowa, and was admitted to the bar of that. State in 1857. He practiced at Davenport until March, 1858, when he went to Kansas City, Missouri, where he engaged in a profit- able and successful practice alone until the fall of 1865, when he formed a copartnership with Ermine Case, Jr .. under the title of Brown & Case. He seldom took a criminal case, but confined his practice to civil ac- tions, his most noted trial being the cele- brated Gilliss will case. Mr. Brown is the oldest resident attorney of Kansas City. He was associated in the practice of law with Ermine Case, Jr., E. M. Wright and Leonard Daniels. In 1884 he formed a copartner-
ship with Benjamin H. Chapman and his son, William H. Brown, under the title of Brown, Chapman & Brown, the firm still existing in name, although our subject has retired from active practice. Mr. Brown showed his energy and public spirit in the active part he took in procuring a complete legal library for the use of his fellow lawyers. While he is in no sense a politician, he was a member of the city council for two terms in the early days of the city, and secured the enactment of measures of marked benefit. He was active in promoting the railroad from Olathe to Ottawa, Kansas, and also the Burlington, which has benefited the city so largely. The bridge over the Missouri River owes much to him. He is a fine specimen of a city father, whose indomitable energy has helped to cre- ate a wonderful city. He is a Christian gen- tleman, and an influential member of the Presbyterian Church. He was a Democrat up to 1868, when he became a Republican. He has never speculated in real estate, but lias invested his savings in good lots, which he improved, the property now being very valuable. He married, November 3, 1858, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Miss Julia Ann Shaffer, of Blair County, in that State, daugh- ter of William and Catherine (Hileman) Shaf- fer. She has been a true helpmate, and ex- emplifies the Christian virtues in her family and church. Nine children have been born of this union, three of whom are dead. Of the six living children, he has three sons and three daughters. The daughters are well . married, their husbands being prominent business men. Sarah L. is Mrs. Allen J. Epperson, Julia B. is Mrs. Edward Shillito, and Lula B. is Mrs. Joseph Curd. The three sons are prominent citizens. William H. is his father's law partner, and was graduated from the Missouri State University in 1883. He is a Democrat, and an active Mason, having attained to the thirty-third degree. Philip Sheridan is in the insurance business, and is a prominent Republican politician, who has served two years in the lower house of the city council, and for four years was a member of the upper house. In the spring of 1900 he was the Republican candidate for mayor, but was defeated. Ralph J., the twin brother of Mrs. Epperson, is a physician, who graduated at the University Medical College of Kansas City in 1896, and took a post-graduate course at Bellevue Hospital
A
Jmy. Browning
405
BROWNING.
located in Chillicothe he purchased a hotel property, on the site of the present Henrietta House, and for many years the Browning House was Chillicothe's most famous hos- telry. He, however, gave his personal at- tention to its management for only a short period, perhaps a year, but continued in the practice of law for several years, until fail- ing health and his connection with other business interests prompted his retirement from the bar. During the Civil War he or- ganized a company of United States Volun- teer Infantry in Harrison County, Missouri, and, as the captain of same, participated in a number of engagements. Captain Brown- ing, like most Kentuckians, was an ardent lover of horses, and in his time was the owner of some fine "strings" of race horses. An incident that happened during his con- nection with the turf gave him a sort of national celebrity, and incorporated into the slang parlance of the day the popular phrase, "Get there, Eli." An account of the incident, which we quote from a newspaper article at the time of his decease, is as follows: "Cap- tain Browning was the originator of the ex- pression, 'Get there, Eli.' He once owned a fine string of horses, among them being one named Eli. In a hot finish in a race in the East, Eli was ahead, with the field crowd- ing him hard. The Captain waved his hat and shouted, 'Get there, Eli!' The crowd took up the cry, and it soon became a na- tional saying." Captain Browning was mar- ried to Miss Sarah E. Oxford, daughter of J. B. and Mary Oxford, of Cainesville, Mis- souri, December 30, 1855. To this union were born five children : Mary, now Mrs. B. Craycroft, of Chicago, Ill .; Effie, now Mrs. W. O. King, also residing in Chicago; Wil- liam, now in Kansas City ; Orville H., of Har- risburg, Pennsylvania, and Mabel, who mar- ried Roy Reese, of Springfield, Illinois, and who died March 14, 1899. Captain Brown- ing was a Democrat in politics, but gave his support to the man whom he deemed best fitted to the place, rather than blindly sup- porting mere party measures. He was never an office-seeker, though in his many years of residence in Chillicothe he held many local positions of honor and trust. He was a man of many noble characteristics, and had a host of friends, not only in the immediate community in which he lived, but through- out the United States. During the latter
years of his life lie traveled extensively, and, being a man of wide reading, a keen judge of men and measures, and a man of pro- nounced opinions, he commanded attention wherever he chanced to be, or with whom- soever he was associated. One of his most distinguished characteristics was his love for little children. Every little child in Chillicothe, perhaps, knew him, and they all loved him. A greater compliment could scarcely be paid any man. After an acute illness of two weeks, he passed away September 29, 1899. A touching and eloquent tribute was paid to his memory in resolutions adopted in circuit court by the Chillicothe bar. The resolutions, which were unanimously adopted and made part of the court record, are as follows :
"As a preface to appropriate resolutions, it is deemed not improper that the bar of Chillicothe tender a brief tribute of respect to the memory of one whose last petition has been filed, whose answer is in, whose record is complete. Indeed, his pleadings are made up and submitted to the Court of Last Resort, 'where the action lies in its true nature,' and where judgment is a final- ity. Let the facts be found-and they will be-and those who linger for a moment be- hind need have no fears.
"Two score years ago William T. Brown- ing was a practitioner and a student of the law at Cainesville, Missouri, being associated with Judge McAfee, his life-long and bosom friend, who formerly held high official station in this State. His professional labors were next transferred to Princeton, Missouri, and afterward closed in our city of Chillicothe by voluntary retirement. Success crowned his professional career. Coming as a young man from the borders of a sister State whose sons are cradled in the light of honor and chivalry, he undertook his career accompa- nied only by a courageous will, a clear brain and willing hands.
"Unaided in the beginning of his active life by the power and influence of wealth, a patri- mony inherited from his father's estate he gave without reservation to his sister.
"He marched as a soldier in the Mexican War; he responded to Lincoln's call in the sixties. To his family he gave his heart -- the richest gift of mankind. As a lawyer, we find his success built upon industry and scrupulous integrity.
406
BROWNINGTON-BRUMBACK.
""" No orphan's cry to wound his ear, His honor and his conscience clear '
"Therefore, let it be resolved, by the bar of Chillicothe, that in the death of William T. Browning the profession loses a member who upheld its ancient honor and respect.
"Resolved that this bar tender its . sym- pathy to the members of his family.
"Be it further resolved that these pro- ceedings be spread upon the records of this court, and that a copy hereof be tendered to his family.
"JAMES L. DAVIS, Chairman. "JOSEPH BARTON, Secretary."
Brownington .- A village in Henry County, on the Kansas City, Osceola & Southern Railway, eleven miles southeast of Clinton, the county seat. It has churches of the Baptist and Presbyterian denominations. Its industries are a steam flourmill and coal mines. In 1899 the population was 600. It was platted in 1869 by William M. Doyle.
Brown's Business College, Kansas City .- This college was founded in 1893 by Pierre Soule Brown. It was chartered in 1895. It has a regular attendance of over two hundred students, and its annual enroll- ment is five hundred and fifty. Seven teach- ers constitute its regular faculty. It affords several courses of instruction, such as com- mercial course, shorthand and typewriting, telegraphy, and an English course. This school aims at giving instruction that is thor- ough and honest, and its methods are prac- tical and are adapted to the needs of the day.
Brown's Raid in Vernon County .- See "Vernon County Raided by Kansans."
Brumback, Jefferson, lawyer, was born in Licking County, Ohio, February 7, 1829. His great-grandfather migrated from Germany with his own mother, to America, about 1760, and settled in what is now Page County, Virginia. He married a Miss Kanff- man, a young woman of German descent, who owned 400 acres of land near Luray in the Shenandoah Valley, patented by Lord Fairfax in trust for her, the tract having been surveyed by George Washington, when a youth of seventeen years. They resided on this land till the death of his wife in 1778, and thereafter the tract passed to one of her
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.