Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. IV, Part 6

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 878

USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. IV > Part 6

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(V) Stephen Thurston, youngest of the ten chil- dren of Dr. John Brown, and only son and third child of his second wife, Martha Jewett, was born at Plymouth, New Hampshire, April 18, 1766, being the second male child born in that town. He bought sixty-five acres of land in what was afterwards known as the Locke neighborhood in Bristol, this state, and there built a log cabin and brought up a family of ten children. Mr. Brown was a man of ability and sterling integrity, belonging to the sect of Quakers in whose faith, and according to whose forms he reared his large family. On December 18, 1788, Stephen T. Brown married Anna Davis, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, and their children were: John, a soldier in the War of 1812, who married Sally Ingalls, and died in Michigan at the age of ninety-two; Anne, who married Isaac Swett and lived in Bristol, New Hampshire; Samuel, who married Susanna S. Dolloff, and lived in Bridge- water, New Hampshire; Joseph, whose sketch fol- lows; Enos, who married Lavina Heath, and lived in Bridgewater; Martha, who married Daniel Simonds, of Bristol, New Hampshire; Sally, who married Jacob Colby, of Weare, New Hampshire; Hannah Locke, who married William Colby, of Bow, New Hampshire; Stephen, who died at the age of eighteen; Mary Ann, who married Jeremiah B. Warner; Michael, who died young; Asenath, who married Calvin Fuller, and lived in New Boston,

New Hampshire. Stephen T. Brown died in the family of his daugliter Martha (Mrs. Daniel Simonds) at South Alexandria, New Hampshire, May 4, 1839, aged seventy-three years. His widow died at the home of his son Samuel in Bridgewater, New Hampshire, May 23, 1851.

(VI) Joseph, third son and fourth child of Sam- uel Thurston and Anna (Davis) Brown, was born March 3, 1796, at Bristol, New Hampshire. He was a lumber dealer and manufacturer. He built the first saw mill the largest establishment of the kind in that neighborhood, at Moore's Mills on the Pemi- gewasset river, five miles above Bristol village. For fourteen years he did a large business at this place, turning out masts, spars, factory beams and the like, which were rafted to Newburyport and Boston by river and canal. He would have acquired a hand- some property, but the location of his business was unfortunate, and freshets persistently carried away his dams. He and his wife surrendered everything to their creditors, giving up all they had, according

to the old fashioned ideas of honor and justice. In 1843 he moved to Campton, put up a sawmill, and for forty years was engaged in lumbering and farm- ing, living on a fine farm in Thornton during the years of this period. Mr. Brown was an early Abolitionist, a man of high principles, firm convic- tions and advanced ideas. He predicted the inven- tion of the telephone more than half a century be- fore it came into use. He was brought up a rigid Sabbatarian, according to strict Quaker rule; and he never diverged from the habits of that sect; but in early life he became a Universalist, and later a Spiritualist. In 1825 Joseph Brown married Relief Ordway, daughter of Stephen and Mary (Brown) Ordway, of Salisbury, Massachusetts. She was born in 1803, and her mother belonged to a promin- ent family in Bow, New Hampshire. Mr. and Mrs. Brown had nine children : Alson Landon, whose sketch follows; Stephen, who served in the Fortieth Massachusetts Volunteers, and died in the army at Folly Island, South Carolina, in November, 1863, aged thirty-four. Mary Ann, who married Hanson S. Chase, and lived in Plymouth, New Hampshire ; Amos, who marriel Annie M. Peebles, and was a prosperous lumber merchant at Seattle, Washing- ton; Warren G., whose sketch follows; Relief, who married Elijah Averill, Jr .; John O .. born and died in 1841; Joseph, who served in the Fifteenth Regi- ment New Hampshire Volunteers, and died August II, 1863, aged twenty-one; Laura Augusta who mar- ried George W. Merrill of Campton, New Hamp- shire. Of these nine children, all lived to adult life except John O. who died in babyhood, and the two soldiers, Stephen and Joseph, who were sacri- ficed on the altar of their country in 1863. Joseph Brown died at Whitefield, New Hampshire, March 26, 1884, having attained the goodly age of eighty- eight years. His wife died at Campton, May, 1867, aged sixty-four years.

(VII) Alson Landon, eldest child of Joseph and Relief (Ordway) Brown, was born at Bristol, New Hampshire, April 9, 1827. At an early age he acquired a practical knowledge of lumbering from his father with whom he served a long apprentice- ship in hard work and exposure to the elements. When twenty-two years of age he received two hundred dollars as capital with which to begin busi- ness for himself. He married that year and bought his father's place in Campton, and a half interest in the mill, becoming manager of the latter. He continued in this work for twelve years, or until 1861, when he resold his share to his father who re- turned to Campton and put up a fine set of build- ings. Alson Brown then moved to a large interval farm across the river where he engaged in argicul- ture till 1872. Meanwhile he carried on lumbering in company with his father till 1864, when Warren G. Brown bought the interest of the latter. From that time the two brothers were associated in busi- ness, which eventually became the great Brown Lumber Company, of Northern New Hampshire. This business is mentioned more fully in the sketch of Warren G. Brown. In 1872, Alson Brown moved to Whitefield, which was his home during the last twenty years of his life. He was a Repub- lican in politics, and represented Whitefield in the legislatures of 1881-2. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1876, and a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago in 1880, which nominated James A. Garfield. He was a delegate to nearly all state conventions after the age of thirty. He became a Free Mason in 1860, and belonged to White Mountain Lodge, Whitefield; to North Star Chapter and North Star

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Commandery, Lancaster ; and to Omega Council, Plymouth. He was also a member of St. John's Lodge, No. 58, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Whitefield. Mr. Brown was a man of integrity and remarkable business ability kind of heart quick to act and faithful in the performance of every duty. He was held in high esteem by his workmen, who presented him with a beautiful gold watch and chain on the occasion of his silver wedding. On Sep- tember 11, 1849, Alson Landon Brown married Mary A. Currier, daughter of William and Sophia Currier, who was born in Ashland, New Hamp- shire, June 27, 1832. They had eight children, of whom five lived to mattirity: A daughter, born and died November 11, 1850; William Wallace, born February 22. 1852, married (first), Louisa Veasey ; (second), Belle Follansbee, and lives in Wentworth, New Hampshire; Oscar Alson, born January 21, 1854, married Ada Page, and lives in Whitefield; Charles Fremont, born September 7, 1856, died August 23, 1863: George Landon, born May 5. 1860, died September 5, 1860; Alice Sophia, born November 14, 1861, married Edward Ray, and lives in Whitefield; Joseph Walter, born May 3, 1864, married (first), Katie Howland, and (sec- ond), Annie Martin, and lives in Whitefield; Etta Condelle, born May 17, 1869. married Emery Apple- ton Sanborn, now deceased, and lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts; married (second), Professor Fred L. Thompson. Alson Landon Brown died at Whitefield, January 28, 1892, at the comparatively early age of sixty-four years. His widow survives him (1907) at the age of seventy-five years.

(VII) Warren G., fourth son and fifth child of Joseph and Relief (Ordway) Brown, was born at Bristol, New Hampshire, July 27, 1834. He was educated in the common schools, and at sixteen he was a rugged lad with great physical strength and a determination to assist his father in caring for the family. He helped to lift the mortgage from the farm by cutting timber, working in the mills and driving logs. From 1855 to 1857 he was employed in various ways in the lumber business, going "on the drive. to Lowell, and working for his father and brother Alson at their mill at West Campton. In 1857, inspired by dreams of the Golden West, he went as steerage passenger to California, and in December of that year arrived at Puget Sound, Washington territory, and began cutting logs for the Puget Mill Company at one dollar per thou- sand. In 1860, after three years' continuous labor, he had saved between five and six thousand dol- lars. Coming back to his native state on July I, 1860, he bought his father's farm of four hundred acres at Thornton. In 1864 he sold his place in Thornton, and in connection with his brother Alson L., formed the firm of A. L. and W. G. Brown, the nucleus of the great Brown Lumber Company. In 1864 the Brown brothers built mills at Rumney, which they operated till 1870, when they moved their plant to Wentworth, constructed large mills at the foot of Orford and Wentworth ponds, and did business there for many years. In 1867 they bought a large tract of timber near Bellows Falls, Vermont, and Walpole, this state, and did a rushing business for two years, or until they had exhausted the supply, when they moved to Littleton. In 1869, Warren G. Brown went to Whitefield to su- perintend affairs. They took the building of the defunct White Mountain Lumber Company, and at once put in machinery for cutting eight millions feet of lumber yearly, and in 1872 enlarged their plant so they could cut fifteen millions feet yearly. In 1869 there was no railroad nearer than Littleton, and the

firm gave Mr. Lyon, president of the White Moun- tain railroad, four thousand dollars to use in ex- tending the tracks from Wing Road to Whitefield. In June, 1870, the firm began the construction of a private railway to transport timber from their land in Carroll. where they owned between eight and nine thousand acres, to their mills in Whitefield. This was called the John's River railroad and was extended from time to time as their business re- quired. In 1878 they obtained a charter for the Whitefield and Jefferson railroad, which was opened to Jefferson Meadows in July, 1879, and has since been extended to Berlin.

On September 1, 1874, Brown's Lumber Com- pany was organized with a capital of half a million dollars. The Browns, Alson L. and Warren G., have always owned a controlling interest, but asso- ciated with them at different times have been Nathan R. Perkins, of Jefferson; Dr. Aaron Ord- way, of Lawrence, Massachusetts ; Ossian Ray. of Lancaster : Charles W. King, of Lunenburg, Ver- mont ; and A. G. Folsom. Their plant is the largest and most complete of the kind in New England. In 1882 a complete system of electric lighting was introduced, enabling them to run at full time the entire year. They put up their own telephone sys- tem in 1881, and they have owned big stores at Whitefield and Jefferson Meadows since 1879. They have factories for the manufacture of mould- ings, floorings and finishings of all kinds, and for the making of fine furniture from birch, ash and bird's eye maple. They own enormous tracts of pine and spruce timber lands, and their annual sales have sometimes reached half a million dollars. To Warren G. Brown must be given the credit of first suggesting the use of the yellow fir of the Pa- cific coast for spars and masts in the Atlantic ship- yards. This fir soon established a reputation, and the Brown firm has furnished masts for the Eng- lish, French and Chinese navies. In 1875 the Brown brothers built a ship of fifteen hundred tons at Newburyport. Massachusetts, which cost one hun- dred and twenty thousand dollars when ready for sea. The next year this ship, the "Brown Broth- ers," brought the first cargo of Pacific spars to At- lantic ports. Six other cargoes were afterwards brought at a cost of over a quarter million. Warren G. Brown has had special charge of this work, and he has been several times to the Pacific coast. He sees great changes in the state of Washington, which, when he first went there in 1857, had seven thousand white inhabitants and twenty-one thou- sand Indians.

Mr. Brown began political life by voting for John C. Fremont, and was connected with the Re- publicans until he became interested in the Green- back party, which made him its candidate for gover- nor in 1878 and 1880. He represented Whitefield in the state legislature of 1872-3, was a delegate to the National Greenback convention in 1880 and was a delegate to the convention that organized the Union Labor party in February, 1887. Mr. Brown is active in temperance work, a strong believer in Spiritualism, and is a Master Mason of the local lodge. Mr. Brown is a man of democratic plain- ness. honesty of purpose, strict integrity and orig- inality of mind. He is now retired from active busi- ness. Warren G. Brown has been twice married. but his first wife lived but two years and a half, and his children are all by the second marriage. In March, 1861, Warren G. Brown married Ruth B. Avery, daughter of Stephen and Hannah (Mitchell ) Avery, who was born in Campton, New Hampshire, and died in Thornton in September, 1863. On

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November 2, 1865, he married Charlotte, daughter of Ephraim and Eliza (Broad) Elliott, who was born in Brownfield, Maine, January II, 1848. Amos Broad, Mrs. Brown's maternal grandfather, was an Englishman, who became quite noted as a hotel keeper and man of affairs in Westbrook, Maine. Her father, Ephraim Elliott, a native of Thornton, New Hampshire, for many years conducted the hotel at Waterville, New Hampshire, one of the choicest spots in the White Mountains. Mrs. Brown is a woman of practical ability, and an able help-meet in every way. Warren G. and Eliza (El- liott ) Brown had four children: Josephine Ruth, born at Campton, June 22, 1867; Dasie A., born at Whitefield, September 22, 1870; Carl Eliott. born at Whitefield, September 10, 1878; Kenneth Warren, born at Whitefield, September 8, 1883: Josephine R. Brown married Milford M. Libby, and lives in Whitefield. Carl E. Brown is located in Idaho. The other children live in Whitefield.

(Sixth Family.)

BROWN There are many families of Browns in this country, and the name is especially numerous in Connecticut, where the little town of Torrington gave to the world the most famous of the family, John Brown, "whose soul is still marching on." The present line has an ancient and honorable record, but it has not been traced to the earliest American ancestor, because of the im- possibility of finding the parentage of Deacon Isaiah Brown, of Stratford, Connecticut, with whom the record begins.

(I) Deacon and Captain Isaiah Brown was born in 1713, and lived at Stratford, Connecticut, where he took the freeman's oath in 1736. He must have been a man of prominence, for titles meant some- thing in those days. He was one of the original proprietors of Stratford, New Hampshire, which was named for the Connecticut town, but Deacon Brown never settled there, leaving the pioneer work for his eldest son to carry out. Many of the river towns in New Hampshire and Vermont owe their beginning to Connecticut enterprise, because it was an easy matter for the inhabitants of the Nutmeg state to push up the river. In January, 1735-36, Deacon Isaiah Brown married Ann Brinsmade, (laughter of Zachariah Brinsmade, of Stratford, Connecticut, and their children were: Hannah, Ann, Sarah, James, whose sketch follows: Betty, Samuel, Rhoda, Nathan, who died young; and Isaac, born March 19, 1755. Deacon Isaiah Brown died in 1793, at the age of eighty, and his widow died in 1788, at the age of seventy-two.

(II) James, eldest son and fourth child of Dea- con Isaiah and Ann ( Brinsmade) Brown, was born in February, 1744, probably at Stratford, Connecti- cut. With seven other men he began the settle- ment of Stratford, New Hampshire, in 1772, and at the meeting of the proprietors in December of that year, each of these men was awarded the sum of three pounds in payment for his pioneer work dur- ing the preceding summer. James Brown called the first town meeting in Stratford, and was one of the leading men in the new community. Being the son of a Congregational deacon, he brought religious books in his saddle-bags, and the early Sunday serv- ices were held at his house. In 1800, when the first church was organized, which happened to be the Methodist, he became a member, and was ever an active worker for the cause of religion. James Brown was a commissary general during the Revol- ution, and had charge of the fort at Stratford, which stood on the land where his great-grandson, Wil- liam Riley Brown, now lives. This fort was built

of logs fourteen inches square, and was situated on the Connecticut, commanding an extended view up and down the river. The early settlers were greatly harassed by the Indians, who came down from the North, and received a bounty of twenty dollars a head for every able-bodied man they captured. This fort had an underground tunnel to the cellar of Mr. Brown's house. Looking out of the door of his home he saw a moose crossing the Connecticut river, and taking his flint lock gun pointed it and shot the moose, killing him with the first shot ; when dressed it weighed seven hundred pounds. On an- other occasion, while fishing in the river where the water was about twenty feet deep, seeing a salmon too large for his hook and line, he attached a man- ure fork (three tines) to the end of the fishing pole and speared the fish, which weighed forty pounds. In 1775 James Brown married Hannah, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Joshua Lamkin, another Stratford pioneer, and they had a family of nine children. This was the first marriage to occur in the new settlement, and their eldest child Anna, born March 17, 1776, was the first baby born in the new settled town. James Brown died in 1813, aged sixty-four, and his widow died in 1836, aged seventy-seven.

(III) Samuel F., son of James and Hannah (Lamkin) Brown, was born at Stratford, New Hampshire, about 1790. He was a man of promi- nence, was selectman in 1818-19-35, and probably at other times, but the town records between 1820 and 1835 have been lost. He was representative in 1835, and also served as sheriff of Coos county. His early death at the age of forty-six cut him off in his prime, and at a period when he was in high favor with his townspeople. Samuel F. Brown married (first) Judith Smith, and they had three children : Samuel C., James B. (mentioned with descendants below), and William R. He married (second), Caro- line Bishop. Children : Helen, Rollin, John H., Loyal, Henry and Alonzo.

(IV) Samuel C., son of Samuel F. and Judith (Smith ) Brown, was born at Stratford, New Hampshire, February 18, 1811, on the farm which the family have owned for generations. He was edu- cated in the common schools, and became a pros- perous farmer. He was a Democrat in politics, and held all the town offices, and represented Stratford in the legislature of 1877-78. He attended the Methodist Episcopal Church. Samuel C. Brown married Sophia, daughter of Thomas Curtis, of Stratford. They had seven children. The three now living are Samuel F., who is a farmer in Strat- ford, New Hampshire; Cora B., married Dewer Rich, of Woodsford, Maine; and William Riley, whose sketch follows. Samuel C. Brown died June 8, 1871.

(V) William Riley, son of Samuel C. and Sophia (Curtis) Brown, was born in Stratford, New Hampshire, in the same house as his father, April 2, 1844. He was educated in the common schools, at the academy at Lancaster, New Hampshire, and at Newbury Seminary, Newbury, Vermont. For eleven years he taught school during the winters and farmed summers. For fifteen years he was a drover, taking cattle to the Boston market. For several years he was in trade at Stratford Hollow, but he now devotes his entire attention to farming. He has been justice of the peace since the age of twenty-one. He is a Democrat in politics, and was selectman for ten years, a member of the legislature in 1887-88, just ten years after his father, and served on the school board for six years. He attends the Methodist Episcopal Church. October 8, 1872. Wil-

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liam Riley Brown married Ella, daughter of John and Caroline ( Richardson) Bishop, of Lisbon, New Hampshire. They have three children: Everett C., born January 18, 1879, who has sales stables at Groveton, New Hampshire; Loyal P., born March 28, 1881, who is a merchant at Orange, Massachu- setts; and Howard B., who is a student at Tilton Seminary, Tilton, New Hampshire.

(IV) James B., son of Samuel and Judith (Smith) Brown, was born at Stratford, in 1818. He was a merchant and lumber dealer in Northumber- land, where he participated actively in public affairs as a Democrat, held all of the important town of- fices and represented his district in the state legisla- ture. His death occurred in 1882. He married Ellen Patterson, of Lunenburg, Vermont, who died in 1881. She was the mother of six children, namely: Eliza, Cora, Rollin J., Gertrude, Maude and Mabel. Of these Cora and Rollin J. are the only survivors.

(V) Rollin James, third child and only son of James and Ellen ( Patterson) Brown, was born in Northumberland, February 14, 1858. He began his studies in the public schools, continued them at the Plymouth (New Hampshire) high school, and concluded his education at St. Johnsbury (Ver- mont) Academy. He was associated with his father in business until the latter's decease, after which he went to Lancaster and entered the employ of the Thompson Manufacturing Company as bookkeeper. He subsequently became a stockholder in the con- cern, and in January, 1907, was elected its treasurer. In politics he acts with the Democratic party, and from 1888 to the present time has served with ability as town clerk. He formerly attended the Unitarian Church, but now worships with the Congregation- alists. In 1888, Mr. Brown married Helen F. French, daughter of Elijah French, of Stratford. They have no children.

(Seventh Family.)

This name has been variously repre- BROWN sented in New England from the earliest colonization of the country ; and in Westminster, Massachusetts, the early seat of the family of this article, the members were 30 numerous, the branches so various, the records 30 fragmentary and heterogeneous, that it has been found impossible not only to trace any one family to its original progenitor, but also to connect the different families with each other to any great ex- tent.

(I) Nicholas Browne, son of Edward Browne, of Inkburrow, Worcestershire, England, settled first at Lynn, Massachusetts, and early removed from there to Reading, where he appears to have owned two places. He was a man of comfortable means as appears from the fact of his sending his son John, in 1660, to England to look after certain property, to which he had become heir. He died in 1673. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and their children were: John, Edward, Joseph, Cornelius, Josiah and per- haps Elizabeth.

(IV) Jonathan Brown was no doubt a descend- ant of Nicholas Browne, and resided in Westmin- ster. He married Mehitable Hay. Her father, James Hay, was an original proprietor of No. 2, drawing in the first division of lands lot No. 106, near Wachusetville.

(V) Jonathan (2), son of Jonathan (I) and Mehitable Brown, probably located on the lot No. 106 mentioned above, occupying a house built some years before by Benjamin Gould. He was first taxed in 1764, and in 1769 a public school was kept in his house. January 3, 1771, he purchased of Joseph

Lynde, of Charlestown, lot No. 105, lying directly south'of the Hay lot, which was long known as the Brown estate, more recently owned by Asaph Carter and his son Edward R. On his way from Reading 10 Portsmouth, Mr. Brown seems to have sojourned a while in Leominster, where he married Huldah Hawkes. He died March 14, 1820, aged eighty years. She died January 1, 1818, aged seventy-five. Their children were: Jonathan, Benjamin, Joseph, died young ; Huldah, Sally, Joseph and John.

(VI) Jonathan (3), eldest child of Jonathan (2) and Huldah (Hawkes) Brown, was born in Reading, August 20, 1765, and died in Gardner, July 24, 1840, aged seventy-five. He removed to and re- sided in Gardner on a farm in the east part of that town, where his grandson Charles ( ?) lately lived. He married Beulah Jackson, daughter of Elisha and Beulah (Taylor) Jackson. She died November 24; 1839, aged sixty-seven. Their children were: Jon- athan, John, Charles (dicd young) ; Elisha, Charles, Sally (died young), Sally, Benjamin B., Lucy and Nancy.

(VII) Charles, fifth son and child of Jonathan (3) and and Bertha (Jackson) Brown, was born in Gardner, Massachusetts, March 12, 1800, and died in Boston. He settled in Boston, where he was for many years successfully engaged in the retail gro- cery business, and took part in the public affairs of the city. In 1847 he served as alderman. He mar- ried Susan Morehead. The children born to them were: Susan, married O. H. Underhill. Mary E., married Edward J. Brown. Abbie, married R. G. Davis. Charles S., mentioned below.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. IV, Part 6

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 878

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 878