- BENJAMIN BROWN was born at Farmington, Mass., June 8, 1803,
the youngest of eight
- children. His great-grandfather, Joseph BROWN, born at Watertown,
near Boston, in 1679, and his grandfather, William, were Congregational
deacons. His mother's father, Maj. John NIXON, led a company
at Bunker Hill, was wounded at Lexington, and served with WASHINGTON
at Harlem. Descended thus from a stanch New England ancestry
of military and sea-faring men, merchants, and deacons, Benjamin
inherited a vital and enterprising nature comprising all those
traits. When about twelve years of age he ran away to Boston,
shipped as a cabin boy on a coaster, and after a two month's
voyage to Nova Scotia and to Maryland, returned home in the glory
of a new suit and a successful venture. At about this time his
father, a wealthy mill owner of Saxonville, lost his property,
and the boy had to work in a cotton factory. At the age of fourteen
he was placed in charge of the whole building. His school education
comprised only a few terms and a good grounding in the "three
Rs." When he was fifteen his father died, and Benjamin
lived until his majority on the farm of a brother-in-law, in
Canada. During one of those years he and his next older brother
cleared forty acres of Government timber land, chopping down
trees, burning the logs and brush, and then making the ashes
into pearlash. At the age of twenty-one, being eager foe a seaman's
life, he gave up his farm and went to New York City, took part
in a schooner voyage to Cuba, and back, and then sailed with
his older brother (a sea captain) to Vera Cruz, Mexico. Returning
soon to the United States, at Mobile, Ala., he was taken ill
with the yellow fever. After he had lain eight weeks in bed,
the doctor in attendance remarked to his landlady, "I do
not think that Mr. BROWN can live more than twenty-four hours
longer." The patient, summoning up all of his energy, called
out, "I will live." His physician replied with a laugh,
"If that is your spirit I believe you will."
- In that southern country Benjamin BROWN lived and labored
for the next eighteen years, first as
- master of a yacht ferry across Mobile Bay, then as a trader
in New Orleans, afterward as a teacher three years in Western
North Carolina, but chiefly as a store-keeper and gold dealer
among the mines of that region. His last southern experience,
taking a boat load of sugar up the Mississippi River to Dubuque,
in the early spring of 1839, introduced him to this great Northwest,
in which region he resolved to make his future home. Returning
to Massachusetts in 1840, he married Miss Lucy A. LELAND, and
moving West, came, in October of that year, through Chicago,
a place of 6,000 inhabitants, to the village of Beloit, Territory
of Wisconsin.
- During those first years in Beloit, Mr. BROWN kept a variety
store and carried on a brick yard.
- In 1844 he purchased the lots on which his business blocks
now stand, and soon after built thereon a brick residence. The
growth of Beloit led to his building there also a number of wooden
stores, which, with the old home, were all burned in February,
1871. During the years of 1872-73 were erected the substantial
brick and stone blocks which bear his name, and which his son
has recently enlarged and improved. In the year 1849, at a gathering
of only eleven men met to establish a Presbyterian Church, and
before a single dollar had been raised, Mr. BROWN was appointed
builder. He accepted the position, and within a year the First
Presbyterian Church of Beloit (then called the finest church
building in Wisconsin outside of Milwaukee) was completed. In
the erection of every church building in Beloit Mr. BROWN has
helped, and he has shared also in all public enterprises for
the welfare of that city. His house was a home of generous and
manifold hospitalities. From the very first he was a friend
of every moral reform, and a fearless, outspoken opponent of
slavery. He wrote and voted the first anti-slavery ticket cast
in this district. An old resident recently remarked to him,
"We always knew where to find you."
- Well trained in childhood by an earnest Christian mother,
Benjamin BROWN had all his life
- believed in the Bible, and reverenced religious truth. During
the year 1851 he publicly began his Christian life, and united
with the First Presbyterian Church of Beloit, the Rev. Alfred
EDDY, Pastor.
- Besides his adopted daughter Lucy (died in 1855), Mr. BROWN
has had four children: Anna,
- who died during infancy, in 1850; Ellen (Mrs. E. W. PORTER)
who died at Chicago June 22, 1865; an only son, William F.,
now the Presbyterian pastor at Janesville, Wis.; and a daughter,
Maria K. BROWN, who lives with him at Beloit. His wife, Mrs.
Lucy A. BROWN, a lady of pure and lovely Christian character,
passed away Sept. 1, 1869. Mr. BROWN's natural traits were good
judgment, prompt decision and action, and interesting conversational
powers. Stern to opponents, affable to friends, he has sought
to deal justly by all. He has always loved the children, and
his white hair and erect form are noticed each week in the Sunday-school.
- The Beloit Free Press of June 8, 1889, says: "Our venerable
fellow-citizen, Benjamin BROWN,
- Esq., is to-day eighty-six years old. He came to Beloit
in the fall of 1840, and has been identified with the progress
of this community ever since. In 1849 he was the builder of
the Presbyterian Church, at which he is still able to be a regular
attendant. In the enjoyment of hale old age, the love of his
children and grandchildren, and the respect of his fellow citizens,
he celebrates his eighty-sixth birthday also, by giving a generous
gift to the new College Academy."
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 385-387.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
- Transcribed by Bill
|