James Martin Brown Sr. (1846 - 1923)

Born 7 Feb 1846 in Indiana

Ancestors

Husband of Willomine Lilly (Newbry) Brown — married 6 Sep 1881 in Harlan, Smith County, Kansas

Descendants

Died 9 Feb 1923 at age 77 in Mosca, Alamosa County, Colorado

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Allen Brown [send private message]

Biography

James Martin Brown was born February 7, 1846 to Hance and Abagail Doan Brown in Hendricks County, Indiana. ^[1] He was their fourth child. As a boy, he was called "Martin". Rufus (1836), Eliza (1841), and Melissa (1843) were his older siblings. John was two years younger than James, four when the June 1850 census ^[2] was completed, and another brother, Wilson was one. Abby, his mother, died March 21, 1851. Twin sons were born that day. Sadly, they also didn't live. Abby was buried March 24, 1851 in Friends Cemetery, now White Lick Cemetery, Mooresville, Indiana. The twins were buried March 27, 1851. Wilson died that summer, in July 1851. He was buried July 20, 1851. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Hance married Melinda Love November 25, 1852. Their neighbor, John Hadley married them. ^[7] They buried three more children in Friend's Cemetery, now White Lick Cemetery, Mooresville, Indiana: Cynthia Rebekah (1855), an unnamed child in 1857, and Milton (1858). ^[3]

By 1870, Hance and Melinda Brown had moved their family to Tonganoxie, Kansas. ^[8]

James' brother, Rufus Brown, was one of the first homesteaders in Smith County, Kansas. By 1880, James Martin was listed as the head of the household in Harlan, Smith County, Kansas. His parents and brothers, Rufus, Clarence, and Ira were recorded at the same residence. Alonzo Love was identified as a step-brother. ^[9]

James Martin Brown and Willomine Lillie Newbry were married September 6, 1881 in Harlan, Smith County, Kansas. Their first daughter, Dora Myrtle Brown, was born October 10, 1882. In Dora's story, "Recollections" she shares this information: "My father had been buying cattle, feeding and shipping them to Omaha. In the late summer of 1887, the bottom dropped out of the market. He had no way to feed and hold the cattle so lost everything to a mortgage shark and had to start over again." . . . My 20-year old uncle, "Tom (Edward Thomas Newbry) and my father went to Denver, Colorado to find work. They went from there to Leadville, a mining town where there was work for everybody. " ^[10]

James and Willomine Brown moved their family from Kansas to Colorado in 1889. "In the early summer of 1889, Father had left the mines, bought a team of horses and had gone to work in the woods. He soon sent for us; Mother and us children went to Florissant, Colorado by train – a big change from the level land in treeless Kansas to the high Rockies with evergreen trees. Father met us at Florissant and took us to a small one-room cabin among the pine trees on the edge of South Park, a high mountain valley. There were a few cattle ranches there with native hay for winter-feed. Cattle summered in the mountains and we sometimes saw them. Small sawmills would move into the valley, log out an area, and then move on." ^[10]

"After a while, Father built a one-room house and small barn on the bank of the Platte River. . . ."My Aunt Mollie (Mary Belle Newbry) died of typhoid fever in September 1889, and my sister, Mollie was born November 25 of the same year. The next summer Grandpa and family came to Colorado."

. . . "Soon we moved to a bigger house away from the river; a three room house on a hillside. Father went to work at nearby sawmill, Lowe's Mill on the Platte River. The mill was built over a small stream. The commissary and cookhouse (where the mill workers ate) were on the opposite slope. A few other children lived in the camp. We liked to visit the cook who was generous with cookies. Later father went to work at another mill, Gill's Mill.

"When we lived at sawmills, feeding a family must have been a problem. The commissaries carried some things, flour, sugar, beans, usually potatoes, some dried fruit such as apples, peaches, prunes and raisins and salt pork. No fresh meat, fruit or vegetables as they had no refrigeration. Canned milk and fruit could be had but too expensive for common people.

"There were lots of deer and one young man quit logging and hunted, selling venison at a reasonable price. There were no restrictions on hunting and he had a good market. My father bought a whole carcass and froze it, so it kept fine."

. . . "By the fall of 1891 the timber in the vicinity had been logged out and the mills moved away leaving no work. Father fitted up a covered wagon, loaded our few possessions into it and our family of seven left South Park to go to the San Luis Valley. We had three horses in case one went lame on the trip and we would need to change.

"It was a hard trip. The wagon was not heavily loaded but the roads were rough mountain trails. Often father had to move rocks off the road before we could pass. It was late fall and cold at that elevation. We didn't even have a tent, and often no place to set one up if we had. The days were short and the horses slow on the rough roads. Mother and we four girls slept in the wagon. Father and Mart fixed a bed inside a canvas under the wagon. ^[10]

James Brown's last appearance in the census came in 1920. ^[11]

• Fact: Residence (1860) Guilford Township, Hendricks, Indiana, United States
• Fact: Residence (1870) Kansas, United States
• Fact: Residence (1900) Precincts 8-12 Rio Grande Stanley, Mosca, Zapato, Hooper Hooper town, Costilla, Colorado, United States
• Fact: Residence (1910) Mosea, , Colorado
• Fact: Residence (1920) Mosca, Alamosa, Colorado, United States
• Fact: Burial (12 Feb 1923) Monte Vista Cemetery, Monte Vista, Rio Grande, Colorado, United States

Sources

1. ↑ Kessler, Ronald E., "Descendants of James Martin Brown and Willomine Lilly Newbry By Greatgrandson Ronald E. Kessler" Monte Vista, Colorado; Adobe Village Press (1998)
2. ↑ 1850 Federal Census: Guilford, Hendricks, Indiana; Roll: M432_150; Page: 104B; Image: 216. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original Data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Earlham College; Richmond, Indiana; Burials, 1820-1870; Collection: Indiana Yearly Meeting Minutes Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original Data: • Indiana Yearly Meeting Minutes. Earlham College Friends Collection & College Archives, Richmond, Indiana.
4. ↑ Neidigh, M Maggie Pygman Neidigh, "Abigail Brown Find A Grave Memorial # 52248267" Record added: May 11, 2010, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=52248267&PIpi=28634293
5. ↑ KEW, "Son of H & A Brown Find A Grave Memorial # 74979592" Record added: Aug 15, 2011, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=74979592
6. ↑ KEW, "Infant Son, Find A Grave Memorial# 74979297", Record added: Aug 15, 2011, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=74979297
7. ↑ Indiana, Marriage Records Index, 1783-1899. Dodd, Jordan. Indiana Marriages to 1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997. Original Data: Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individual counties in Indiana.
8. ↑ 1870 Federal Census: Tonganoxie, Leavenworth, Kansas; Roll: M593_437; Page: 546B; Image: 842; Family History Library Film: 545936. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original Data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.
9. ↑ 1880 Federal Census: Houston, Smith, Kansas; Roll: 397; Family History Film: 1254397; Page: 432C; Enumeration District: 307; Image: 0765. Source Information: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Original Data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Harding, Dora Brown, "Recollections", paper written about her memories of her childhood through adulthood., Paper in the collection of Allen Brown.
11. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MX2W-XL3 : 14 December 2015), James M Brown, Mosca, Alamosa, Colorado, United States; citing sheet 6A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,155.

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 29 April 2020, 01:37), entry for James Martin Brown(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:KWJX-Y9N); contributed by various users.