The Honorable and Mrs. N. T. Brown of Louisa County

Thus far, we have read how, through hard work and three wars, the ancestors of N T Brown have travelled from England, to Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. Through each move, these ancestors have carved civilization from nature and created a land safe for their children. We have read of celebration and tragedy, of new life, lives well lived, and of death. N T Brown will rise to the occasion, yet he will not live the frantic lives of his father and grandfather. His seems a much more relaxed approach, yet he will take us further west and set the stage for his children to arrive at the West Coast. Our branch will take a different path.

Nicholas Turner Brown was born in Boone County on January 6, 1820. Most people, including NT himself, agree that he was born in Kentucky. O.L. Brown, who wrote a section in James Comly Brown's The Brown and Comly Families, tells us that NT was born in Missouri.  NT's next youngest sibling, James Sutton Brown, was born in Missouri.  This fact allows us to date NT's father's Missionary Mission to the then frontier of Missouri.  Further, this brother becomes important to the Brown family in coming generations.   While both Kentucky and Missouri are plausible birth-states, because NT tells us he was born in Kentucky, Kentucky it is. NT's birth in Kentucky is supported by facts.

NT was still a lad when the family settled near Kirkersville, Licking County, Ohio. This small village is near the border with Fairfield County, and before Licking County was formed, was part of Fairfield County. Even though the family owned several farms in the Licking-Fairfield area, the locus of the family was Kirkersville.

Kirkersville's Main Street is the Old National Road or, as it is also known elsewhere, the Cumberland Road. This road provided constant communication back to Maryland and forward to St Louis. Cumberland County, Illinois was named after the Cumberland Road, an older name for the Old National Road. It must have been a source of imagination for young NT at his boyhood home in Kirkersville.  During this time, NT's father and grandfather would travel the road to Illinois to speculate in land.

In Kirkersville, he meet the young Elizabeth Ferree Gibboney. Elizabeth brings a history to the family that rivals the Browns. Her heritage is told in another section. Elizabeth was the daughter of Benjamin and Margaret (Kendall) Gibboney and a descendant of the Ferree, DuBois, and Montfoort families who settled near the Van Cleaves, van Couwenhovens, and Schencks in colonial Nieuw Amsterdam.  These families were Hugenot and founders of New Paltz in New York.   On March 25, 1840, NT and Elizabeth were married in Kirkersville, Ohio.

There was plenty to do in Licking County. NT's father seems to have remained in Licking County until about the same time NT left for Illinois. There was farming to do. NT's cousins were known for both their fine wheat crops as well as cattle and hog herds. The land they stewarded was rich, new farmland carved from primeval woodlands.  As with any farm, there is always work to do.

It has not been firmly established when the Gibboneys and Browns moved to Iowa. N.T. Brown appears on the 1840 Federal Census for Harrison Township, Licking County, Ohio. Family lore tells us they moved to Iowa in 1844. We know that both N.T. Brown and Benjamin Gibboney appeared on the 1847 Census for Louisa County, Iowa, but did not appear on the 1846 Census of the same. Then, in the 1850 Federal Census for Louisa County, Iowa, we find,

Household Sex Age Birthplace

Nicholas G [T] Brown M 30 Kentucky

Elizabeth Brown F 28 Pennsylvania

Bazel Brown         M 7 Iowa

Margaret Brown F 6 Iowa

William Brown         M 3 Iowa

John Brown         M 0 Iowa

If we go by the entry for Bazel Brown, the family was in Iowa as early as 1842.

We get even more information from an assessment of the militia conducted in the late Spring or early Summer of 1844 and found in the History of Louisa County,

The return from Grandview township made by Joseph Burr, assessor, shows that there were the following officers residing in that township at that time: Robert Childers, Colonel; Alex. Ross, Major; Nicholas T. Brown, Lieutenant; Morton Brown, 2nd Lieutenant.

Tragedy struck on June 20, 1850, NT's father-in-law, Benjamin Gibboney died in neighboring Muscatine County, not far from NT's home.  The family buried him in Grandview Cemetery in Louisa County, Iowa.  Benjamin was born in the old family home in Bedford, Pennsylvania. 

On January 10, 1851, The Wapello Times reports on the meeting held to organize the Circle Wolf Hunt. Boundries were set, marshalls assigned, and rules set to drive wolves and other predators of livestock - and people - to a killing zone. N. T. Brown's farm is listed as "Squire Brown's,"

"Marshals — Florence line, John Deihl; Scull's, John Wiser; Wilson's, T. Brogan: McElhanie's, F. Lee; Squire Brown's, H. C. Blake; Jarvis', Z. Jarvis; Virginia Grove, Joseph Marshall; Hope Farm, J. Tinstal and John Marshall; the ford, Joseph B. Nichols; Hill's Mills, Robert Benton; Robinson's, T. Stoddard: mouth of creek, Wiley Gregory, James Blanchard and H. Gregory; Harrison, R. B. Packard; Wapello, J. Bell, Jr., and J. M. Herrick; Squash Bend, S. S. Blackburn and James Wilson; mouth of Otter creek, Samuel Chaney.

N.T. and his father-in-law farmed together for fifteen years. For reasons not fully known, N.T. entered politics. If his eulogies are to be taken as fact - and they should be - N.T. was an honest man with good judgement. What helped N.T. in his election was another factor.

N. T. was serious about farming.  On June 10, 1862, N. T. received approval on his patent application for a rotating divider for a hay rake.  Nothing seems to have come from this patent - US35502A - and the family allowed it to lapse.  The importance here is that it speaks to the industry, intelligence, and savvy of NT.  Although he was a farmer, he was known as 'Squire Brown.'

In 1865, N.T. ran for the position of State Representative for Louisa County. Louisa County histories describe this as a tumultuous time in Lousia County politics with many people switching parties. Unlike today's elections, which seem non-stop, this was a simpler time when people actually knew their neighbors and campaigns did not last long.

Officially, the Civil War was over. General Lee of the Confederate States of America had surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, which formally ended the war. Fast forward through the Summer of 1865, and although hostilities had ended, the war and much of the sentiment behind the war, had not been resolved. On September 2, 1865, the Democatic Party held a "Soldier's Convention" for the county and invited soldiers and those who opposed equality for the freed slaves. The meeting was well advertised and well attended and it was quickly determined that the soldiers favored freed slave equality - the opposite of what the convention desired. When Lieutenant B.F. Wright opened the convention, he had to explain that the call was for soldiers opposed to freed slave equality. Someone should have explained to Lieutenant Wright that these were largely Union soldiers… For the 1865 County Election, the convention elected as candidates James S. Hurley for the Senate and O.H.P. Linn for State Representative. Hurley, who was not present at the meeting, immediately declined the candidacy upon learning he had been chosen. N. M. Letts was subsequently chosen for the "Soldiers Ticket" to replace Hurley.

The Republicans, running on the "Union Ticket," were entirely successful in the election. The Republican State Senator defeated N. M. Letts - Dr. J. M. Robertson received 1,092 votes, and N. M. Letts 860. Likewise, N. T. Brown defeated O. H. P. Linn, 1,142 to 810, a wider margin that the Senate race. N. T. then traveled to Des Moines to begin his service to his county in the Eleventh Iowa General Assemby which convened on January 8, 1866.

 Official portrait of Hon. N. T. Brown of Louisa County. Beards were fashionable then.

N. T. rented a room in a boarding house in Des Moines and left the farm in the hands of his sons and the Gibboneys. Then, in the afternoon of Thursday, March 22, 1866, Nicholas felt ill. The Honorable Mr. McNutt explains what happened next in his address to the Legislature on Monday April 2, 1866,

Mr. Speaker:—The melancholy duty devolves upon me of announcing to this House the decease of one of our number, Hon. N. T. Brown, Representative of the county of Louisa. The seat which he has occupied on this floor, until a few days ago, has been vacated by him forever. Less than two weeks have elapsed since a stranger looking at this body of men would have pointed him out as one likely to outlive the majority of us. But the ways of Providence are mysterious, and the stern messenger, death, singled him out from among us all. His spirit has returned to God who gave it, and yesteray, his remains were consigned to the cold and silent tomb.

Some ten days previous to his death, while sitting at his desk, now vacant before you, he felt so sick and chilly, of what he supposed to be only a bad cold, that he was compelled to leave this Hall and repair to his room at his boarding house; from that room he never returned. It was soon discovered that he was laboring under a severe attack of pneumonia. A telegram of the fact was dispatched to his family, and in the meantime he was carefully nursed by fellow members of this House and friends he had made here, and was attended by the best medical skill. His wife and son arrived several days before his death, and watched by his bedside till the last sad hour. A widowed wife and a large family of children now mourn his loss.

At the time of his death he was but a little over forty-six years of age. Born in Kentucky, his boyhood was spent in Ohio, he emigrated to Iowa in his twenty-second year, and during the past twenty-four years has resided alternately in Muscatine and Louisa counties, only a few miles from my own home. And I state but the simple truth in saying, that as a husband, a father, a devoted Christian, and an estimable neighbor, no man stood higher among those who knew him. He never had the faculty of gathering together much of this world's wealth; but he was known as that noblest work of God, "an honest man," and long since learned to lay up treasures for himself where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves break through nor steal. [Paraphrase of Matthew 6:19-21]

Last year, when the people of Louisa County sought a proper man to represent them in this branch of the General assembly, they passed by the able lawyers, the ambitious politicians, the wealthy owners of princely mansions, in their rich county, and sought the humble cottage of "Squire Brown," a plain farmer who earned his bread by the sweat of his face. They loved him for his goodness, they honored him for his virtues, and they trusted him for his integrity; and their love, their honor, and their trust were well placed.

[…]

Let us who remain, learn so to live, that, when we come to die, we may look back upon a life well spent, and with an unfaltering hope in a happy immortality, meet our end in peace.

Samuel McNutt (R), Representative of Muscatine County, 11th General Assembly

The Honorable Mr McNutt was an immigrant from Ireland who was well-liked in Muscatine County. He was a newspaper editor, school principal, and husband of the niece of Robert Lucas, former Governor of Ohio (1832 to 1836) and later, Govenor of the Iowa Territory (1838 to 1841). Under President Harrison, Mr McNutt served as Consul to Venezula. It is not difficult to believe Samuel NcNutt pulled his neighbor into politics.

Funds were appropriated by the legislature to pay the funeral expenses, as well as the travel expenses, of Elizabeth and her oldest son, Bazel Gibboney Brown. A partial list of expenditures is found in the Senate record: $41.00 for train tickets; $24.30 for medicine and board; $36.00 for the coffin and hearse; $50.00 for Drs. Boomer and Robertson; and $60.00 for other expenses - shroud, coffin lining, and so on. It should be noted that Dr. Robertson was also the Senator for Louisa County and N. T.'s running-mate in the 1865 election on the "Union Ticket." Dr. Albert Boomer, also a Republican, was a Representative from Delaware County, Iowa, and served as a surgeon in the 27th Iowa Infantry during the Civil War.

According to family lore, the Honorable N. T. Brown was laid to rest on the Statehouse Grounds, although the Des Moines newspaper states he was buried in Des Moines Cemetery. The Senate record indicates a plot was purchased "in the cemetery of the State." Elizabeth and her son, Basil, returned home. In 1866, G. H. Crow was elected to replace N. T. Brown, but did not serve. Instead, a new representative was elected for the 12th General Assembly. In 1869, Elizabeth moved to Ringgold County, near Mount Ayr, where she lived out her life. Her children went with her. Her middle son, ASA WHITACKER BROWN, remained in Ringgold County at least long enough to appear on the 1870 Federal Census there before going to Vigo County, Indiana, to farm with his cousins. Elizabeth's daughter Margaret, "Maggie," was married to Z. D. Epperly and lived a couple of houses away. The youngest three sons went to California in the late 1800s, where their families remain. Joseph appears in the Mono County Voter Rolls in 1881 near Bridgeport.

The shattering of the family may have come from a lawsuit filed against the family in 1869 over a property dispute.

Although the family went their seperate ways, they stayed in touch. A picture of Asa and Laura comes from Elizabeth's descendants in Iowa, not Asa's in Indiana. The youngest sons, Oscar and Joseph remained in Ringgold County with their mother and sister until the 1880s before heading to Mono County, California. They did not stay there long before moving to Fullerton, California, today a suburb southeast of Los Angeles.

Four Generations of Brown Women: Elizabeth F Brown, daughter Maggie Skinner, granddaughter Elva Benbow, great-granddaugher Gladys Benbow

The Children of N. T. and Elizabeth Brown

i Basil Gibboney Brown, b 1843, Iowa; moved to Kellerton, Iowa

ii Margaret A. Brown, b 1844, Iowa; moved to Kellerton, Iowa

iii William H.Brown, b 1847, Iowa; moved to Hastings, Nebraska

iv John N. Brown, b 1850, Iowa; moved to Riley Township, Ringgold County, Iowa

v Asa Whitaker Brown, b 1853, Iowa; moved to Pierson Township, Vigo County, Indiana; m Laura Jane Van Cleave; d 1902, Vigo County, Indiana

vi George Brown, b 1856, Iowa; moved to Butte County, California; d March 16, 1932; bur Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

vii Oscar R Brown, b 1858, Iowa; moved to Mono County, California; dsp Fullerton, Orange County, California

viii Joseph Albert "Joe" Brown, b August 27, 1859, Iowa; moved to Mono County, California; m Laura Rachel Parmeter; d June 9, 1935, automobile accident in Tuscon, Arizona; bur Loma Vista Memorial Park, Fullerton, Orange County, California

 

The headstone of Elizabeth Ferree Gibboney Brown, M. Ayr Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa