William H. BROWN, b. 1840
William H. Brown, living on section 16,
Monroe township, one of the successful
farmers and all-around business men of Mahaska
county, is numbered with the veterans of the Civil
war and the old settlers of this part of the
state, where he owns and operates a neat and
valuable farm of three hundred and twenty
acres. He has lived in the county since 1852,
coming here with his parents when a lad of
twelve years. He was born in Morrow county,
Ohio, April 6, 1840, and his father, William
Brown, was a native of Virginia, who in his
boyhood days accompanied his parents on their
removal to Ohio, where he was reared and educated, attending the common schools.
He afterward followed farming there and subsequent to the attainment of his majority he
was married in Ohio to Miss Matilda McMillan, a daughter of John McMillan, a native of
Ireland, who came to America and settled in the
state of New York, whence he afterward
removed to Ohio. Mr. Brown continued to farm
in Ohio after his marriage but becoming
imbued with a desire to settle on the frontier he
sold his interest in that state and with his
family, then numbering a wife and seven children,
came to Mahaska county, Iowa, in 1852. Here
he entered from the government the land upon
which his son William now resides, but the
previous hard work incident to making a home in
a new country undermined his health, and in
1852 he passed away, leaving Mrs. Brown with
an unimproved farm and seven children to
support. She heroically took up the task,
however, and kept her children about her, giving them
a good education. She managed her farm and
later all of her sons engaged in teaching school,
showing the training of the mother as a
preceptor. After attaining his majority William
H. Brown purchased the interest of the other
heirs in the home property and took his mother
to live with him, her death occurring in 1871,
when she was sixty-nine years of age.
On the 1st of November, 1863, William H.
Brown was married to Miss Margaret C.
Ayers, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of
William C. Ayers, who was also born in Ohio
and came to Mahaska county in the early '50s,
remaining here until his demise. Prior to his
marriage Mr. Brown, when in his twenty-first
year, had enlisted at Oskaloosa for service as a
member of Company C, Fifteenth Iowa
Infantry, and with his company rendezvoused at
Keokuk, joining the regular army at St. Louis,
where he went into camp. Later the troops
were at Pittsburg Landing and at Corinth, and
he served in the war for fifteen months, being
disabled at Shiloh by a bullet which pierced his
hand. Because of his disability he was
honorably discharged in November, 1862.
After regaining his health Mr. Brown began
farming and improved and developed a good
farm. He has since erected a good substantial
two-story residence, also commodious barns and
outbuildings and as the years have passed he
has bought more land from time to time. The
farm is now well fenced and tiled and is an
attractive property. In addition to raising the
cereals best adapted to soil and climate he also
raises full-blooded Merino sheep, shorthorn
cattle and Poland China hogs, and the farm is well
watered and equipped for stock-raising, in
which business he is very successful, placing
a large amount of stock on the market annually.
In 1890 Mr. Brown was chosen secretary of the
Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of
Mahaska county, which position he has since filled
in an efficient manner. He is a man of
resourceful business ability, having the power
to coordinate plans, forces and possibilities, so
that success results. In 1900 he was one of the
organizers of the Bank of Rose Hill, and was
chosen its vice-president and also one of its
directors. This institution was capitalized at
fifteen thousand dollars with J. R. Busby as
cashier. Mr. Brown was for six years
treasurer of the township board and was township
clerk for fifteen years and thus his
community has benefited by his labors, for he proved
a most capable and efficient officer. His
political allegiance his long been given to the
republican party although he cast his first
presidential ballot for Stephen A. Douglas, but has
never ceased to regret it.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Brown have been born
eight children: Winfield, who died at the age
of twenty-four years; Anne, who died at the
age of nineteen years; Cora, the wife of Dr.
E. M. Haggard, of Indianapolis, Indiana;
Lena, the wife of Charles Kent, superintendent
of city schools at Charles City, Iowa; Ethel, the
wife of Frank Garrett, both being missionaries
of the Christian church in China since 1896;
William H., who married Lucy Fisher and lives
upon a farm adjoining his father's property;
Justin, who has been a missionary in China
since 1903; and Wirt, who married Lucy Lord
and lives in a separate house upon the home
farm, which he assists his father in carrying on.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown and their family are
members of the Christian church, of Monroe
township, and take a most active and helpful part in
its work. He has witnessed much of the
development of the county and is one of the most
public-spirited and energetic citizens here. He
has always manifested the same loyalty in
citizenship that he displayed when he joined the
"boys in blue" and fought for the defense of the
Union upon the battlefields of the south. In
business affairs he has been found thoroughly
reliable, being straightforward in all of his
dealings yet he has never concentrated his
energies upon his business interests to the
exclusion of those duties which should claim a
part of a man's attention-the duties relating to his
citizenship and to his relations to his fellowmen.
He is spoken of in most favorable terms by all
who know him and he well deserves mention in
this volume as a representative citizen of the
county.
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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy
Iowa Genealogy
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