Brown sons text pdf

pittsburgh in the seventies by robert stickler Steamer Alice Brown approaches the point in Pittsburgh, pennsylvania - 1870

Brown sons a History of the

Brown Family a dynasty in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania compiled By Rev. Captain William Brown mcCready, jr and Alice brown Painter Thompson, Pat Trimble, Janet Parker Kettering second edition - june 2015

Dedicated To: Alice brown Painter (Mrs. Leroy) Thompson

Copyright 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, June 2015 William Brown Mccready, jr.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

a publication of:

Mc3d Press Mount Pleasant, south carolina

Second edition June 1, 2015

Brown sons a History of the Brown Family - a dynasty in pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania

CONTENTS Page

FAMILY NAME VIGNETTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

-

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

i

BROWN FAMILY TREES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

v

PROMINENT BROWN FAMILY MEMBERS: William Hughey Brown - The story begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

Family Origins and Ancestors - James Brown Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

Henry Brown Family - Lumbermen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

61

Samuel S. Brown - Celebrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

81

W. Harry Brown & Family . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

119

William S. Brown - Gunsmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

151

Alice Winders Brown & Colonel James M. Schoonmaker - Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

219

Elizabeth Smith Brown & James Ward, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

227

EARLIEST BROWNS IN AMERICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

235

BROWN SURNAME AND ANCESTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

261

BROWN FAMILY BUSINESSES, COAL MINES, STEAMBOATS, YACHTS, RACETRACKS, FARMS AND RACE HORSES . . . . . . . . . . . . .

267

BROWN FAMILY TIMELINE Part I - Pre-history to 1799 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

275

Part II - 1800 to 1860 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

309

Part III - 1861 to 1865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

333

Part IV - 1866 to 1899 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

341

Part V - 1900 to 1939 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

371

Part VI -1940 to the Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

395

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

405

SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

407

When a society or a civilization perishes, one condition can always be found. They forgot where they came from.

Carl Sandburg Your Name It came from your father, it was all he had to give.

So it's yours to use and cherish, as long as you may live.

If you lose the watch he gave you, it can always be replaced.

But a black mark on your name, Son, can never be erased.

It was clean the day you took it, and a worthy name to bear.

When I got it from my father, there was no dishonor there.

So Make sure you guard it wisely, after all is said & done, You'll be glad the name is spotless, when you give it to your Son. Author Unknown

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

Helen Keller He who has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning.

Old English proverb I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.

Maya Angelou A man who makes boasts of his ancestors doth but advertise his own insignificance.

Benjamin Franklin - Poor Richard’s Almanac Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.

Mark Twain

HOW THIS CAME TO BE When I was 14 years old my father took my family on an excursion into a remote rural corner of western Pennsylvania very near the border with the West Virginia panhandle. The destination was an old abandon farm slated for strip mining outside Eldersville, in Jefferson township, Washington county, Pennsylvania. It would turn out to be the beginning of a 53 year exploration of my family tree and a love of history, politics and economics that would culminate in several degrees and this and other family histories.

The farm in Eldersville was on McCready Road and had been in the family since 1777. On the farm at that time was the original log cabin built by pioneer settler Robert McCready who was the first person with this surname to come to America in 1754. In succeeding years, I would learn much more about Robert McCready and his descendants but that is a different story and a different book.

What is important is that this little day trip and the stories told that day made me want to know more about who I am and where I came from. And, the results are fascinating.

Fortunately, I found a lot of help along the way. Other family members would relate oral histories at various gatherings, notably at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at my grandparents - one a McCready and one a Brown. Both of my parents were particularly diligent in educating me and my brothers about our roots. A few family members have even collected family memorabilia and fewer still have recorded events and lineage. Most simply are casually interested or not interested at all.

This is understandable as few have the time or energy to pursue an extended search on rather esoteric family lore. I am lucky that my journey connected me with many McCreadys and Browns who are interested and willing to share family stories and provide me with new information.

I never really expected to find a lot. I always thought that the journey would end quickly, especially given the common surname Brown. I expected our Brown roots to be lost in a tangled root ball of too many Browns. But, when you look, really look, you are surprised by what you find. Pathways were mostly clear and doors just kept opening to new information. After years, grinding away researching historical books, journals and articles at libraries and historical societies I was sure that I had found all there was to find about the McCready and Brown families. Then I connected to the internet and for the next 20 years, each year brought an explosion of new information. Even today, I am still surprised to occasionally find something new. But, there comes a time to bring things together and to begin compiling the story of our remarkable Brown family history. So, here we go!

We begin with a surname: BROWN. Along the way other names will be stirred into the pot of our ancestral stew. Smith, Hughey, McCauley, Boyle, Ward, Herron, Oliver, Winders, Schoonmaker, Carson, Lucas, Painter, McCandless, Hay, Thompson, McCready, Miller, Schneider, Isaman, Berkeley, Lawson, Seiber, Black, James, Rister, and Tucker. We will meet some great and heroic personalities that are part of or intersect with our family tree. We will see how the growth of our family is entwined with the development of the city of Pittsburgh, western Pennsylvania and America. We will follow our ancestors along Indian trails, migration routes and most importantly rivers and rail lines. We will meet relatives who are traders, inventors, builders, miners, riverboat captains and captains of industry. We will see fortunes ebb and flow. In the end I hope you readers will appreciate being part of a rich family history that helped to build our nation and society - this is part of who you are.

i

APPRECIATION I mentioned that I have been helped by others who share a strong interest in preserving our family's story. One very special person deserves the thanks and appreciation of all who have an interest in Brown family history: Alice Brown Painter (Mrs. Leroy) Thompson. Alice is the grand-daughter of W. Harry Brown and great-grand-daughter of William Hughey Brown. She also has an avid interest in Brown family history. Alice has spent years collecting and cataloging pictures, memorabilia and stories. I am deeply thankful for meeting her, experiencing her warm hospitality and most of all for her willingness to share access to her collection. Alice, I dedicate this work to you and hope it will meet your expectations.

It is noteworthy that for many years Alice did not work alone. Jane Miller is a dedicated companion who has diligently worked with Alice in research and cataloging family stories, photos and memorabilia. Jane's skills and friendship had an important impact in the compilation of our family history and in editing this book. Thank you, Jane.

Others deserve thanks too. Pat Trimble, the affable Mayor of Dawson PA, scion of the Stockton clan, and genealogist extraordinaire with a seemingly photographic memory of western PA history. Thank you Pat for your important research and memories of Brown history. And then there is my cousin, Janet Kettering, the meticulous archivist of Homewood Cemetery who for years has been collecting information on the Browns, Schoonmakers, and other families buried there. Thank you Janet for your work and for connecting me with Pat and Alice. Together we have been a great team.

Now, back to the beginning. Until I was 3 years old, my family lived in an apartment on Barnsdale Street in Pittsburgh, one block from Homewood Cemetery. Almost every day, my mother would bundle me in the stroller we would wander through the Cemetery while our dog ran wild among the tombstones and mausoleums of Pittsburgh's best and finest. Today, I am sure the ghosts of my family and their friends buried there encouraged that baby to tell their story. I hope that they too will appreciate this work.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES My focus with this work is to be as inclusive as possible in an attempt to create a central repository of Brown family history. While it may seem at times a bit overwhelming, I know from experience how hard this information is to find and also how much of our history has been lost or destroyed over time. The intent of this work is to preserve what I have found for my children and future Browns. In doing so, I have also tried to surround what I have learned with the context of time, historical events and personalities.

A family history should not just be a tree of people. Instead, this work examines the lives of many in our tree and how these people were affected by and influenced the people and life around them.

The choice of people and events related here is for the most part driven by the compelling story lines rooted in our family tree. For example, the Browns, Smiths, Herrons and others presented in our early history are important because of extrapolated connections or their direct support of Browns. Other people are included by my choice to record family connections that are important for my unique branch of the family tree. Given the scope of this work, I do not think this was an unreasonable prerogative. Others are welcome to add details of their own branches and connections. Where possible I have tried to ii

indicate all source materials, however, sometimes I am not as diligent with references as I would like, but this is intended for family and not publication for purchase.

Some may disagree with some elements of this history, and if you do please contact me and express your concerns. With any historical work, an author must select what to include or not, the emphasis given or not and this selectivity can be challenged. I specifically call reader attention to my presentation of the parents and lineage of William Hughey and Peter Brown. Without doubt their father is one James Brown, but of the several James Browns of that time, which James Brown? I have made what I believe to be the most accurate choice based on my examination of historical records. Others may disagree. For all, I have included information about all the James Browns that I could find - draw your own conclusions. Also, some may challenge my Mary McCauley/Molly Pitcher connection. My review of source material has found little other than confusion and disagreement among historians as to who was the real Molly Pitcher or if she really existed other than in myth. It seems that the most recent conclusions are there was a woman who did the things attributed to Molly Pitcher but whether it was really Mary McCauley or someone else is inconclusive. If it was Mary McCauley, (spelled various ways) there is debate over whether she was the Mary McCauley who is our ancestor. What is known about Mary McCauley is that she married a Hays who may have been at the Battle of Monmouth and she may have accompanied him.

Afterwards, they returned to Carlisle, PA and Hays died and she married a John McCauley. Our Mary McCauley was married to John McCauley and they relocated in western PA following the Revolution, a quite common thing as soldiers were often paid in land grants on the frontier. From all this, I can only say there is a chance that our Mary McCauley is the real Molly Pitcher, if there even is a real one. Given the lack of conclusive evidence one way or the other, I have opted to claim her as our own, if only to add a compelling story to our family tree. Such is my approach to our family's history.

Calculations of the historical value of money and products in this document are determined using the website: measuringworth.com. This site offers a variety of calculators to analyze growth rates as well as to determine the relative value of US dollars at different times in history. It can be difficult to determine the "historical" worth of something. The price, even deflated for inflation, is not enough. Was Andrew Carnegie richer than Bill Gates? Did Babe Ruth make more than LeBron James? Was the cost of a loaf of bread more at some historical date than now? These questions all depend on the context and the calculators on this web site enable users to make their own comparisons.

ORGANIZATION We begin with the Brown Family Tree. This traces our roots and connections to each other and other families. It shows the various family names that will appear later as we explore the stories of the more prominent people of our family and the historical timeline. As with any family tree it goes back only so far with any surety. With historical distance, information becomes harder and harder to find and what is found is suspect. I encourage anyone that is interested to continue the journey and to try to trace our roots further into the past, or to expand on the stories I have presented.

Next are stories about Prominent Brown Family Members. This presents details about William Hughey Brown and his sons Captains Samuel S. and W. Harry Brown, their cousin W.S. Brown, and sons-in law, the sisters' husbands Colonel James M. Schoonmaker, James Ward, Jr., as well as other family members.

iii

Following the family member stories are chapters with information about: 

The earliest Browns in America including the merchants, Indian traders and adventurers who are among the founders of America and Pittsburgh. This section discusses the family origins and ancestors of William Hughey Brown and also presents information about every Brown that I could find. This data can help others to draw their own conclusions about our family lineage.



The Brown Surname and Ancestry is more general information about the Brown family without specific connections to our tree. I do think it provides a background that is important at least to understanding the motivations of early Brown ancestors to migrate to America.



Lists of our Brown Family Businesses and Coal Mines; Steamboats and Yachts; Racetracks, Farms, and Race Horses.

Finally, I have included a section that could itself be a small book. This is what I call the Brown Family Timeline. This is a chronological presentation of the noteworthy events and stories that are related in detail in the earlier family stories. The timeline also includes significant events in local, national and world history to give context to the lives of our ancestors. In the timeline, elements specifically connected to our Brown family are highlighted in yellow. Non-highlighted elements show people, events and activities occurring during the lives of our Brown family members. Readers will note that the timeline is presented in sections: Part I - Pre-history to 1799, tracing the roles and migrations of Indian traders and armies in opening a gateway into western America; Part II - 1800 to 1860, the transition of America & Pittsburgh from mercantile to a manufacturing society; Part III - 1861 to 1865, the Civil War; Part IV - 1866 to 1899, Brown family lives as America enters the Industrial Age; Part V - 1900 to 1939, before and during the first World War and prior to the Second World War; Part VI -1940 to the Present, shows us the Brown family in the modern era. This final section is where each of you Brown family members can contribute. Send me your stories to add to our rich family history, or add them yourselves.

A WORD OF WARNING: While the Timeline may be repetitive and perhaps a tedious read, nevertheless it does contain much additional information about Brown family history not included in the primary stories.

The last section contains the SOURCES for the information presented in the earlier sections. I would encourage anyone with an interest to explore this material, much of it is available online.

Finally, thank you for reading this work. Please feel free to send me your corrections, comments, questions or additions. My email is: mc3dinc@yahoo.com.

iv

born: circa

died: 1685

Ayrshire, Scotland

Murdered by

Claverhouse in1685

born: circa 1620

died: circa 1700

of Scotland and Ireland

Captain in the Derry

Regiment of Protestant

Rev. Matthew Brown

1806-1845 president W&J College

died: circa 1777 settled White Deer Valley,

Molly Brown John Brown

Hanover, York county

James Brown

Ann Brown

died: 1771

died: circa 1760

Mary Brown

Brother Brown

died: circa 1845

born: 1732

Northumberland county

born: January 1776

Matthew Brown

born: circa 1700

Dauphin county, PA

Lived in Priesthill, Ayrshire,

Cap. William Brown

settled in Paxtang,

married: Jean Rutherford

Matthew's children

adopts brother

PA Assembly 1776 & 1784

settked Paxtang, PA

died: October 10, 1787

England

Scotland and Henry VII, King of

Denmark and James V, King of

descendent of Halcro, Prince of

married 2: Marian Halcro

married 1: name unknown

died: 1696

born: 1624

Rev. Henry Erskine

Margaret Oliver Brown (above):

grandparents of

Westmoreland county

near New Alexandria,

1801, settled Brown homestead

born: June 30, 1720

born: 1769

Margaret Oliver Brown

married:

died: January 23, 1841

born: July 13, 1758

died: June 26, 1843

born: circa 1700

1720 came to America

died: unknown

1773 came to America

died: circa 1760

born: circa 1700

James Brown

died: November 8, 1839

Mary Elizabeth Brown Monroe

Nancy Brown Seanor

Margaret Erskine Brown Elder born: 1800

married: William Steel married: Nancy B. Brown

Sarah Jane Brown Steel

David Oliver Brown

Martha W. Brown Marshall

Mary Ann Brown Duff

Margaret Brown Duff

died: June 8, 1866

born: February 15, 1800

Thomas Oliver Brown

Margaret Brown Coleman

Elizabeth Brown Galley

Mary Brown Alexander

Peter Brown

Henry Brown Salem twp, Westmoreland County

John Brown married: Mary Sarah Hughey

James Brown

William Hughey Brown died: September 13, 1864

born: May 3, 1787

Andrew Brown

David Brown

Mary Brown

William Brown

County Donegal, Ireland

died: circa 1750

born: circa 1700

Brother Brown

died: circa 1750

born: circa 1600

John Brown

died: circa 1760

born: circa 1680

Brother Brown

Sarah Brown Whitcraft

Samuel Brown

Andrew Brown

saddle maker

1756 killed by Indians

died: 1908 John L. Brown

born: December 1, 1823

Oliver Cromwell Brown

settled at Brown's Fort

married: Mary Early

Larimer Postmaster

married: Sarah Smith

1720 came to America

died: unknown

married: Mary Alexander

born: unknown

died: 1804

born: circa 1695

Scotland

other children unknown

died: 1756

Matthew Brown

brother Brown

born: circa 1680

Brother Brown

died: February 19, 1905, Andara, PA

"numerous & prosperous family"

married 2: Miss Carlisle

born: 1747

Thomas Brown

OR

fighters in the Jacobite War

John Brown

Matthew Brown

born: 1833

blacksmith/horse trader/merchant

married 1: Miss Lucas

William Brown

Oliver Carlisle Brown

married: Elizabeth Painter

farmer - Sewickley township

Oliver Brown

died: 1904

died: July 18, 1877

died: 1858 (93 years old)

Grapeville Postmaster/State Senator

born: June 29,1843

born: June 16, 1806

born: 1765 in Franklin county

Hon. John H. Brown

John H. Brown, Jr.

John H. Brown Sr.

James Brown

SHADING = ANCESTOR CONNECTION

HIGHLIGHT = WILLIAM H. BROWN LINAGE

Chart 1. BROWN FAMILY ANCESTORS

d 12/11/1905

d 9/14/1898

b 4/19/1832

d 2/6/1906

d 12/7/1911

m Claranna Jane McCauley Brown b 1824 d 1912

d 1/22/1832

d 1874

d unknown

b 1754

b 1823

b circa 1750

m Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley

Peter Brown

Col. John McCauley

m Robert Duff 12/22/1846

d unknown

b 12/8/1826

Mary Ann Brown

m Alexander Duff 8/1/1848

Liberty" in Uniontown, PA

Mfgr. Coke. Publisher "Genius of

Res Pgh. Brother Judge Chas. Boyle

b 2/15/1825 d unknown

b 1841

Margaret Brown

m Mary Francis Halstead Boyle

d 3/25/1915

John Dawson Boyle

b 3/24/1831 @ Wittenberg, Germany Timber & lumber merchant, Jefferson county

d 9/3/1938

b 1862

d 5/15/1902 m Rachel Catherine Fisher 6/1/1851

m Margaret Boyle Brown

d 4/28/1921

m/div Sheila Moore

m/div Elizabeth Reed

d 11/24/1972

b 8/9/1901

William Harry Brown, Jr.

d 1/26/1955

m Charles A. Painter, Jr. b 11/12/1891

d 2/12/1953

b 2/27/1893

Mary Alice Brown Painter

d 1/16/1907

b 1/15/1892

Margaret “Marnie” Brown

m

d 9/4/1941

b 1872

William Henry Schoonmaker

d 11/3/1889

b 6/1/1876

Nellie Brown

d 8/20/1872

b 1/16/1872

b 8/11/1856 b 5/21/1821

Henry Brown

m Barbara Dunmire 1/9/1840

1949

1870

Clarance Brown

d

b

William Harry Brown

d 3/14/1885

b 3/3/1819 d unknown

b 4/4/1853

John Brown

Charles Smith Brown

d 12/9/1853

d 12/31/1888 1/20/1842

b 6/6/1850

m Catherine Turner

William Hughey “Willie” Brown

b 3/25/1817

d 10/11/1927

owner steamboat Comet, 2nd on rivers James Brown

b 6/30/1842

Minersville Iron Mfgr, banker & inventor

m Col. James M. Schoonmaker

d 10/7/1881

b 6/15/1791 d 4/10/1866

b 4/24/1848

Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker

d 4/10/1858

b 6/27/1846

Mary Oliver Brown

d 7/9/1882

b 8/4/1844

m Elizabeth Smith

d unknown

b unknown

Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown

d 8/9/1868

b circa 1785

d 7/11/1837

b 9/1/1813

m Sarah Brown

m Mary Smith Brown 9/3/1840

d 10/12/1875

b 5/3/1787

d 9/13/1864

b 1/12/1815

James Brown

James Herron Brown

d 9/24/1919

Town Marshal, Deputy US Marshal, Coroner William Hughey Brown

b 1847

Settled in Keokuk, IA

m Delilah Johnston

b 12/15/1842

b 1/17/1813 m Elizabeth Pollock Brown 1864

Samuel Smith Brown

Andrew Brown

m Grace McGoodwin Brown

d 7/22/1889

b 8/24/1865

5609 Madison Street, Bethesda, MD 20817

Mrs. Constance Brown Berkeley

P.O. Box 5, Sasabe, AZ 85633

Mrs. Elizabeth Brown Isaman

Fox Hill Farm, Sewickley, PA 15143

Alice Brown Painter (Mrs. Leroy) Thompson

1665 Viking Road, Long Beach, CA 92651

Charles A. Painter III

Tucson, AZ

Margaret Brown Painter (Mrs. Donald) Speer

Charlotte Schneider

d 11/4/1892

b 1/10/1879

Elizabeth B. Ward

m Virginia Jenkins Ward

d 4/5/1959

b 5/18/1868

Charles S. B. Ward

b 9/23/1891

m Jonathan B. Warner

d 6/28/1906 Moved from Pyramid

b 1841

d unknown d 1841

b 1870

m Samuel Whitcraft 5/5/1836

Mary Brown Ward Warner William H. Brown

Baby Brown

Baby Ward

b 3/11/1811

b 6/6/1867 d 10/14/1867

b 5/17/1842 d 5/2/1919

William H. Ward

Sarah Brown

Alexander Brown

m James Ward, Jr.

d 2/10/1913

b 1840

Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward

James Ward, Jr.

Chart 2. William H. Brown Line Shading indicates family of a spouse

Roy Isaman

Oliver David Thompson

Leroy Thompson, Jr.

Edward P. Thompson

Charles Painter Thompson

Mrs. William A. Campbell, Jr.

Mrs. Durban A. McGraw

Mrs. Lawrence Parshall

Elizabeth Brown Warner

Rancho El Mirador, Sasabe, AZ

Montavista Road, Lexington, KY

Maryland Road, Sewickley, PA

55-57 Salter Street, Portsmouth, NH

1944-1949

d 4/10/866

d 1/ /1937

d unknown

d 11/ /1939

b 5/21/1821

b 1824 d 1912

b 1754

d 1/22/1832

d 1874

d unknown m Claranna Jane McCauley Brown

b 1823

b circa 1750

m Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley

Peter Brown

Col. John McCauley

m Mr. Cavagna

d 1925

b 1852

Amanda Brown Cavagna

d 1915

b 1856

Edwin Carson Brown

d 10/ 1927

d unknown m Robert Duff 12/22/1846

m Emma Lucas Brown b 1/ 1852

m Jean Jenks McCready

d 5/12/1995

d 4/3/ 1967 m Eve Provonche

m Dr. Paul Rothrock Sieber b 7/14/1922

b 10/ 1893

d 10/1/2006

b 4/8/1922

Emily Jean McCready Sieber

d 12/22/1994

b 7/4/1918

m Margery Lawson McCready

d 7/6/1993

b 4/3/1917

William Brown McCready

d 12/29/2002

b

Samuel Smith Brown

d 1890

b 1889

Frank Miller Brown

d 1892

b 1882

Harry Ward Brown

d 9/28/1959

b 2/18/1882

m Dr. James Homer McCready

d 1/15 /1965

d 9/ /1928 b 12/8/1826

b 3/31/1887

b 10/ /1848

Mary Ann Brown

m Alexander Duff 8/1/1848

Jean Brown McCready

d 1/2/1968

William Smith Brown

d unknown

James Homer McCready Jr

Eric Black

b 9/20/1913

d 10/ /1944

b 3/ /1871

d 1870

b 1847

d

b

m Betty Mueller Brown

Ruth Black

d

b

William Smith Brown II

NY Stage

d unknown

b unknown

Mary Brown

b 2/15/1825

Margaret Brown

m Paul Hay

d 6/ /1962

d 2/6/1906 Margaret Elizabeth Brown

b 1/ /1881

b 3/24/1831 @ Wittenberg, Germany Timber & lumber merchant, Jefferson county

Nelle Brown Hay

m Rachel Catherine Fisher 6/1/1851

d 5/15/1902

b 8/ /1875

Henry Brown

Edwin Lucas Brown

b 3/ /1874

b 3/3/1819 m Barbara Dunmire 1/9/1840

William McCandless Brown

1/20/1842

John Brown

m Catherine Turner

d 12/31/1888

b 3/25/1817

James Brown

owner steamboat Comet, 2nd on rivers

Minersville Iron Mfgr, banker & inventor

b circa 1785

d 7/11/1837

b 6/15/1791

m Sarah Brown

m Elizabeth Smith

d unknown

b 5/3/1787

d 9/13/1864

b unknown

James Brown

Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown

d 8/9/1868

b 9/1/1813

m Mary Smith Brown 9/3/1840

d 10/12/1875

b 1/12/1815

William Hughey Brown

Town Marshal, Deputy US Marshal, Coroner

Settled in Keokuk, IA

m Delilah Johnston

d 9/14/1898

b 1/17/1813

Andrew Brown

m Samuel Whitcraft 5/5/1836

d unknown

b 3/11/1811

Sarah Brown

Chart 3. Peter Brown Line Shading indicates family of a spouse

Richard Brownlee Sieber

Nancy Brown Sieber Tucker

Paul Rothrock Sieber III

James Lawson McCready

Edward Lawson McCready

William Brown McCready, Jr.

Gail Diane McCready James

Susan Brown

William S. Brown, III

Kelly Sieber

Riley Sieber

Drew Tucker

Reed Tucker

Scott Sieber

Lauren Sieber Rister

James Lawson McCready, Jr.

Margery McCready McDonald

Anne McCready Rogel

Andrew Langelier McCready

William Brown McCready, III

Whitney James

Courtenay James Wolfe

Heather D. Brown

Greg A. Brown

W. S. "Rick" Brown IV

d 6/29/1941 m Elizabeth Zeitler

d unknown

d 12/25/1878 m Nancy Jane Doncaster

b 1/17/1813 d 9/14/1898

b 7/14/1859 / d infancy

b 2/6/1861 / d infancy

d 12/3/1949

d 2/6/1906

d 5/11/1922

d 5/24/1902

d 1/11/1880

d unknown

b 1824 d 1912

b 1754

d 1/22/1832

d 1874

d unknown

m Claranna Jane McCauley Brown

b 1823

b circa 1750

m Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley

Peter Brown

Col. John McCauley

m Clara Graffius

d 3/5/1920

b 3/25/1874

Edward Purl Brown

b 2/28/1872 / d infancy

Weight B. Brown

b 12/8/1870

b 12/8/1826 m Robert Duff 12/22/1846

Andrew Barclay Brown

Mary Ann Brown

m Olive Jenks

b 10/21/1869

b 2/15/1825 m Alexander Duff 8/1/1848

Ward Fulton Brown

Margaret Brown

m Ada Wilson

b 10/28/1868

b 3/24/1831 @ Wittenberg, Germany Timber & lumber merchant, Jefferson county

George Cooper Brown

m Rachel Catherine Fisher 6/1/1851

d 5/15/1902

m Jacob Froelich

b 5/21/1821

m

d

b

Jacob Froelich

m

d

b

b 8/7/1867 d

Katherine Froelich

Henry Brown

m Barbara Dunmire 1/9/1840

Sallie Melzena Brown

d

b 3/3/1819 d unknown

b 3/28/1865

John Brown

Peter Lot Brown

b 8/29/1863 / d infancy

d 12/31/1888 m Catherine Turner

Mary Amanda Brown

b 3/25/1817 1/20/1842

d 3/17/1889

m

d

b

James Grube Brown

m

d

b

Louise Brown

m

d

b

Martha Brown

m

d

b

Katherine Brown

m Newell Bidewell

d

b

Madeline Brown

m Ada B. Cottle

d

b 7/20/1889

Ned L. Brown

m Rev. Meade Doughtery

d

b 3/3/1862

James Brown

b

Tirzah Jane Brown

Nellie Brown

m

d

b 10/14/1890

Harry David Brown

m

d

b 7/301884

Irma Rachel Brown

m

owner steamboat Comet, 2nd on rivers

m Henry Wickenhiser

d

b

Laura Brown

m Morris Colter

d

b

Minersville Iron Mfgr, banker & inventor

d 4/10/1866

Andrew Lot Brown

m Elizabeth Smith b 6/15/1791

d unknown

Robert Andrew Brown

b unknown

d 8/6/1905

b 12/5/1857

Henry Washington Brown

m Francis C. Bell

Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown

d 8/9/1868

b circa 1785

d 7/11/1837

b 9/1/1813

m Sarah Brown

m Mary Smith Brown 9/3/1840

d 10/12/1875

b 5/3/1787

d 9/13/1864

b 1/12/1815

James Brown

William Hughey Brown

b 10/7/1856

Town Marshal, Deputy US Marshal, Coroner d 7/26/1928

David Fisher Brown

Settled in Keokuk, IA

m Delilah Johnston

b 7/21/1855

Andrew Brown

James Madison Brown

b 3/13/1854

b 12/17/1875 d

William John Brown b 3/11/1811

G. A. Jenks Brown

m Melissa Anne Canaga

Sarah Brown

m Samuel Whitcraft 5/5/1836

Bertha Brown

m

b 9/12/1852 d 9/21/1914

d

Franklin Pierce Brown

b 9/7/1874

Edna Alice Brown

Chart 4. Henry Brown Line Shading indicates family of a spouse

1/20/1842

m Claranna Jane McCauley Brown b 1824 d 1912

d 1/22/1832

d 1874

d unknown

b 1754

b 1823

b circa 1750

m Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley

Peter Brown

Col. John McCauley

m Robert Duff 12/22/1846

d unknown

b 12/8/1826

Mary Ann Brown

m Alexander Duff 8/1/1848

d unknown

b 2/15/1825

Margaret Brown

Timber & lumber merchant, Jefferson county

d 2/6/1906

b 3/24/1831 @ Wittenberg, Germany

m Rachel Catherine Fisher 6/1/1851

d 5/15/1902

b 5/21/1821

Henry Brown

m Barbara Dunmire 1/9/1840

d unknown

b 3/3/1819

John Brown

m Catherine Turner

d 12/31/1888

b 3/25/1817

James Brown

owner steamboat Comet, 2nd on rivers

Minersville Iron Mfgr, banker & inventor

d 4/10/1866

b 6/15/1791

m Elizabeth Smith

d unknown

b unknown

Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown

d 8/9/1868

b circa 1785

d 7/11/1837

b 9/1/1813

m Sarah Brown

m Mary Smith Brown 9/3/1840

d 10/12/1875

b 5/3/1787

d 9/13/1864

b 1/12/1815

James Brown

m Mr. Stripe, St. Joseph, MO

d

b

Amanda Brown

m

d

William Hughey Brown

b

Town Marshal, Deputy US Marshal, Coroner

m Delilah Johnston Settled in Keokuk, IA

Jennie Brown

m William Frank Wright, 3/29/1892

d 9/14/1898

d

b 1/17/1813

b

Lizzie A. Brown

Andrew Brown

m Samuel Whitcraft 5/5/1836

d unknown

b 3/11/1811

Sarah Brown

Chart 5. Andrew Brown Line Shading indicates family of a spouse

d 8/9/1868

Father could be James or John Brown

m Claranna Jane McCauley Brown b 1824 d 1912

d 1/22/1832

d 1874

d unknown

b 1754

b 1823

b circa 1750

m Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley

Peter Brown

Col. John McCauley

m Robert Duff 12/22/1846

d unknown

b 12/8/1826

Mary Ann Brown

m Alexander Duff 8/1/1848

d unknown

b 2/15/1825

Margaret Brown

Timber & lumber merchant, Jefferson county

d 2/6/1906

b 3/24/1831 @ Wittenberg, Germany

m Rachel Catherine Fisher 6/1/1851

d 5/15/1902

b 5/21/1821

Henry Brown

m Barbara Dunmire 1/9/1840

d unknown

d 1942

b 1844

(cousin of WS Brown)

Annie M. Brown

b 3/3/1819

1/20/1842

John Brown

m Catherine Turner

d 12/31/1888

b 3/25/1817

James Brown

owner steamboat Comet, 2nd on rivers

Minersville Iron Mfgr, banker & inventor

d 4/10/1866

b 6/15/1791

m Elizabeth Smith

d unknown

b unknown

Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown

b circa 1785

d 7/11/1837

b 9/1/1813

m Sarah Brown

m Mary Smith Brown 9/3/1840

d 10/12/1875

b 5/3/1787

d 9/13/1864

b 1/12/1815

James Brown

William Hughey Brown

Town Marshal, Deputy US Marshal, Coroner

Settled in Keokuk, IA

m Delilah Johnston

d 9/14/1898

b 1/17/1813

Andrew Brown

m Samuel Whitcraft 5/5/1836

d unknown

b 3/11/1811

Sarah Brown

Chart 6. James or John Brown Line Shading indicates family of a spouse

d 8/9/1868

1/20/1842

d

d 5/15/1902

b 1824 d 1912

b 1754

d 1/22/1832

d 1874

d unknown

m Claranna Jane McCauley Brown

b 1823

b circa 1750

m Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley

Peter Brown

Col. John McCauley

m Robert Duff 12/22/1846

d unknown

b 12/8/1826

Mary Ann Brown

m Alexander Duff 8/1/1848

d 5/24/1902

b 2/15/1825

Margaret Brown

Timber & lumber merchant, Jefferson county

d 2/6/1906

b 3/24/1831 @ Wittenberg, Germany

of her daughter, Mrs. John H. Null in Sykesville, PA

m

d

b circa 1858

Alexander M. Duff

m

d

b circa 1855

James E. Duff

m

Note: Margaret Brown Duff died at the home

d

d at birth

b

Elmer Johnston

b circa 1853

Sarah Melia Duff

m

d

b circa 1850

Lebana Duff

m Benjamin Harra Johnston, Wilkins twp.

b circa 1848

b 5/21/1821 m Rachel Catherine Fisher 6/1/1851

Rebecca Duff

Henry Brown

m Barbara Dunmire 1/9/1840

d unknown

b 3/3/1819

John Brown

m Catherine Turner

d 12/31/1888

b 3/25/1817

James Brown

owner steamboat Comet, 2nd on rivers

Minersville Iron Mfgr, banker & inventor

d 4/10/866

b 6/15/1791

m Elizabeth Smith

d unknown

b unknown

Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown

b circa 1785

d 7/11/1837

b 9/1/1813

m Sarah Brown

m Mary Smith Brown 9/3/1840

d 10/12/1875

b 5/3/1787

d 9/13/1864

b 1/12/1815

James Brown

William Hughey Brown

Town Marshal, Deputy US Marshal, Coroner

Settled in Keokuk, IA

m Delilah Johnston

d 9/14/1898

b 1/17/1813

Andrew Brown

m Samuel Whitcraft 5/5/1836

d unknown

b 3/11/1811

Sarah Brown

Chart 7. Margaret Brown Duff Line Shading indicates family of a spouse

d 8/9/1868

d

d

d 5/15/1902

b 1824 d 1912

b 1754

d 1/22/1832

d 1874

d unknown

m Claranna Jane McCauley Brown

b 1823

b circa 1750

m Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley

Peter Brown

Col. John McCauley

m Robert Duff 12/22/1846

d between 1870 and 1880

b 12/8/1826

Mary Ann Brown

m Alexander Duff 8/1/1848

d unknown

b 2/15/1825

Margaret Brown

Timber & lumber merchant, Jefferson county

d 2/6/1906

b 3/24/1831 @ Wittenberg, Germany

m

d

b circa 1864

William Duff

m

d

b circa 1862

Mary Duff

m Estella ?

d

b circa 1856 or 1857

James Henry Duff

m

d

b circa 1854 or 1855

Adda Melissa Duff

m

b circa 1852 or 1853

b 5/21/1821 m Rachel Catherine Fisher 6/1/1851

Josephine Duff

Henry Brown

m

b circa 1850

d unknown m Barbara Dunmire 1/9/1840

Sarah Duff

b 3/3/1819

1/20/1842

John Brown

m Catherine Turner

d 12/31/1888

b 3/25/1817

James Brown

owner steamboat Comet, 2nd on rivers

Minersville Iron Mfgr, banker & inventor

d 4/10.1866

b 6/15/1791

m Elizabeth Smith

d unknown

b unknown

Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown

b circa 1785

d 7/11/1837

b 9/1/1813

m Sarah Brown

m Mary Smith Brown 9/3/1840

d 10/12/1875

b 5/3/1787

d 9/13/1864

b 1/12/1815

James Brown

William Hughey Brown

Town Marshal, Deputy US Marshal, Coroner

Settled in Keokuk, IA

m Delilah Johnston

d 9/14/1898

b 1/17/1813

Andrew Brown

m Samuel Whitcraft 5/5/1836

d unknown

b 3/11/1811

Sarah Brown

Chart 8. Mary Ann Brown Duff Line Shading indicates family of a spouse

WILLIAM HUGHEY BROWN - RAGS TO RICHES? Young people today may not have heard of Horatio Alger but they may be familiar with his theme of young men moving "from rags to riches". Alger was a wildly popular author of more than 100 books in the 19th century that repeated themes expressing this "American Dream". In the post Civil War years, known as the "Gilded Age" of America's commercial and industrial revolution, Alger's titles reflect principles driving the United States economy at the time: "Do or Dare," "Sink or Swim," "Fame and Fortune," "Strong and Steady," and "Strive and Succeed." His books inspired many people to work hard and reap economic riches. It also became popular for many other writers to write the histories of prominent people with an Algerian spin. Many of the rich, successful and famous men of this time were promoted as having followed a path from rags to riches based on personal drive and hard work often ignoring important relationships. Curiously, Alger's formula was actually about more than determination and hard work -- good luck often came in the form of a rich benefactor.

William Hughey Brown's legend follows the Alger model largely because it was the dominant theme of the time, but also because it was the spin placed on it by his sons as they told the tale to writers and reporters to honor W. H. Brown after his death.

There is certainly some truth to the tale, but the story was greatly simplified and neglected many details of W. H. Brown's life. Now, we will dig deeper and tell the more expansive and accurate story of his life.

There is no doubt that William Hughey Brown is a pioneer businessman with substantial business interests in Pittsburgh and other American cities connected to it by the western river system. Born in North Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, PA, on January 15, 1815, he was educated in the public schools in his home neighborhood. At an early age he started out to make a life for himself and his first job was working on his family farm just outside the Pittsburgh city limits. He subsequently worked in summer months digging the Pennsylvania Canal. In the winter, Brown would dig coal that he sold to fuel local furnaces. Carefully saving his earnings, he eventually invested in a horse and wagon that helped him to increase the number of his customers and also deliver more coal at one time and faster. Thus began a lifelong career dealing coal. His business quickly grew and prospered and within a comparatively short time he was employing a number of men and wagon teams supplying coal to Pittsburgh homes and industrial furnaces.

In 1840's, when roads between Pittsburgh and his coal source at Minersville (now Herron Hill in Pittsburgh) were in a bad condition, the thought came to him that coal might be floated down the Monongahela River at less cost and toil than to carry it in wagons. Not having the funds necessary to buy a boat, he borrowed the money and purchased a flat-boat on credit. Again he was successful and profitable. A short time afterward he and other Pittsburgh businessmen purchased a mine on the Monongahela River. In 1848, Brown formed a partnership with the owners of an Iron Works in Pittsburgh and together they held interests in the Iron Works, William Brown’s coal mines at Nine Mile 1

Run on the Monongahela, and coking ovens. Mr. Brown had charge of the business and managed it in accordance with his ideas as to when risks should be taken or not and what lines of policy should be pursued. The main part of their coal and coke trade was with Pittsburgh manufacturers, but Brown's plan was that any surplus would be sent for sale down river to Louisville and Cincinnati. The later developed into a business of vast volume.

Mr. Brown’s personal reputation as a leader in coal operations grew along with his business. He became known as one of the most able producers and shippers of the region, a man whose energy brooked no setback, who rarely fell short of the goal to which he aspired.

New expansion came in the mid 1850's, with his purchase of the steamers, Walter Forward, Tempest and General Larimer and in 1858, he began the shipment of coal by boat to New Orleans. Previously, coal had been shipped to the South in float barges, a class of large keel boats. The slowness, hazzards and expense of such transportation made this method unprofitable. Brown's first shipment was twelve boats, carrying 230,000 bushels of coal, with the steamer Grampus on one side and the General Larimer on the other. This flotilla was said to be in the charge of Mr. Brown’s son, Captain Samuel S. Brown. All expectations were exceeded in this successful experiment. The coal was sold for fuel, the floats were sold for the wood to help build the city and the profits were used to purchase rice, molasses, sugar and other southern products that were sold in northern cities along the river on the return voyage. Brown had effectively opened a new outlet for Pittsburgh coal that would steadily increase in tonnage. Brown continued to add steamers to his fleet to meet this growing demand.

Foresight and creative operations of great magnitude like this helped Mr. Brown, develop and maintained a place of leadership on the rivers. During the Civil War, William H. Brown had important contracts with the government to supply coal at Cairo, Memphis, and Pittsburgh. At the same time, he began supplying St. Louis with coal for its gas works. These were often dangerous operations during the Civil War and Brown had many narrow escapes. In one famous incident while returning from delivering coal to General Grant at Vicksburg, he was captured by the Union forces and nearly executed as a Confederate spy. General Don Carlos Buell intervened on his behalf and saved his life. Brown's government and private contracts in the Civil War were very lucrative and allowed him to expand his holdings into many other enterprises whose success benefited him personally and also the Pittsburgh district economy.

With William H. Brown’s growing business success came a growth in his high standing in local business circles with which he would be long identified. His sound judgment and long acquaintance with local conditions enabled him to make valuable contributions to the business interests of others in the region and to the general social welfare. Those who knew Mr. Brown noted: "his outstanding characteristic was his accuracy in the analysis of human nature, his almost intuitive appreciation of men, their standards, and their motives, and this keenness of perception was an invaluable asset in business dealings. He was a man of scrupulous integrity, wedded to high ideals and he was staunch in his defense of these ideals."

This ends the simple summary of the life of William Hughey Brown. The same story is noted in several publications of the late 1800's and early 1900's, many of which simply repeated the narrative first reported in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania,, Genealogy and Biography, Volume 2, 1889; edited by Dr. Thomas Cushing; pp. 226-27.

2

Now it's time to answer many of the questions that linger about the W. H. Brown's life and add some clarity and detail to the life story of this pioneer of American business. Questions like who is the father of W. H. Brown? Can we identify his early family connections? Where in North Huntingdon was he born and raised? Can we find where he lived and worked on farms and on the Pennsylvania Canal?

Were there special benefactors and relationships that helped to propel Brown's success and who were they? What is the historical context of his life - what was life like in western Pennsylvania in his day?

Are there additional details that we can add to his story based on current research?

Let's answer the last question first, "Yes!" Using the vast new archives now available online as well as the more traditional archives preserved by museums, historical societies and universities, our research has found much more about W. H. Brown. We can now present a greatly expanded version of his life story, however, some things are constant.

William Hughey Brown was indeed a pioneer Pittsburgh entrepreneur with substantial business interests in western Pennsylvania as well as in other cities on the western river system.

For many years, he was the most successful owner/operator of coal mines, coke processing interests and commercial shipping in the United States. However, his place in the history and development of Pittsburgh and American industry is overshadowed by the notoriety of great men of more recent accomplishment and greater wealth such as Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Mellon, and Frick. In fact, the story of W. H. Brown, along with much of the beginnings of America’s industrial development languishes in the dust bin of history. The fact still remains that William Hughey Brown and his contemporaries, are among the founders of American industry and the earliest pioneers of the growth and prosperity which we all enjoy today.

In his own times, during the mid-1800s, William H. Brown was widely known for his coal and coke investments and as a shipper of materials, goods and passengers. As his means and influence increased, W. H. Brown widened his interests to include other businesses and industries such as iron foundries and rolling mills across the country. While these certainly added to his prosperity, his career and fortune are rooted in the coal mines and rivers of southwestern Pennsylvania. His commanding presence in the early history of coal and its production and transportation is an important story in the industrialization of America.

RISE OF THE COAL INDUSTRY America's earliest settlers were not aware that there were large coal deposits under the ground. The first coal users, colonial blacksmiths in cities on the east coast, first fired their furnaces with “fossil coal” or “stone coal” imported from England and Nova Scotia.

The first record of coal in America is on the 1681 Jolie and Marquette Map 1681 map of the Mississippi river prepared by Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette labeling coal deposits “charbon de terra.” (red) The first coal “miners” in the colonies were probably farmers who dug coal from beds exposed on the surface and sold it by the bushel. In 1748, the first commercial coal production began from mines in Virginia and during the American Revolution coal was used to manufacture shot, shells, and other war

3

material. By the late 1700s, coal was being mined on “Coal Hill,� now Mount Washington in Pittsburgh.

The coal was mined from the hillside and used by early settlers to heat their homes as well as to provide fuel for the military garrison at Fort Pitt.

By the 1800s, Americans had found a variety of ways to use the coal they were discovering in growing abundance under farm lands in southwestern Pennsylvania. In 1814, coal was used to heat salt brines and evaporate salt. In 1816, Baltimore began to light its streets with a combustible gas made from coal and by 1830s, coal was being used to make glass. Also, in 1830, the first commercially practical American-built locomotive was built. Called the Tom Thumb, it burned coal and soon nearly every American steam engine that burned wood was converted to use coal. The steam shovel was invented in 1839 to meet the increasing demand for coal. Coal was becoming the fuel that powered the industrial revolution. It not only warmed homes and lit communities but it fueled the fires of the steam engines that powered manufacturing and fueled furnaces for making metals.

In the 1870s came the next surge in demand for coal. Coke, a product of heating coal, replaced wood charcoal as the chief fuel for iron and steel blast furnaces. Soon most manufacturing plants, bridges, railroads, ships, tall buildings and other products all depended on steel. Barges and coal fired steamboats traveling the western rivers not only opened the American frontier but carried the coal, iron, steel and manufactured products that helped the early and rapid spread of the industrial revolution across America.

With the rise of iron and steel, coal production increased by 300 percent during the 1870s and early 1880s.

This is a time when William Hughey Brown prospered greatly from his hard work and astute investments in most of these early industries. His active leadership in many business lines helped to forge American industry.

WORK ON FARMS AND THE CANAL Contemporary reports indicate that W. H. Brown rose to wealth and influence simply by taking advantage of everyday opportunities that were close at hand. But, more accurately, he probably had the benefit of additional support in the form of a prosperous family with important connections.

At an early age, as a young man he worked hard during summers on Brown family farms near Pittsburgh.

There he learned to manage horses that would later help him become a teamster at coal mines.

This farm land could be in North Huntingdon or it could also be the parcel owned by James Brown (marked in red) on the north side of Four Mile Run below the land of Captain E.W.H Schenley that would later become Schenley Park. This is very near to Brown's Station. (From: 1872 plot map of the 22nd Ward of Pittsburgh)

4

Curiously, this is also very near to properties owned by family friend Joseph Winders, as well as the future sites of Browns Station and the Mary S. Brown Church. (From: 1872 Map of 22 Ward)

He could also have worked the land outside of Turtle Creek as shown on the 1876 map as belonging to Mrs. James Brown (marked in red).

Later W. H. Brown became a boat man on the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal built to transport people and goods across the state. The canal opened in 1834 and W. H. Brown would have been 19 years old.

In the early 1800s, Pittsburgh's status as the Gateway to the West was in jeopardy. Trade and travel were bypassing Pittsburgh, using the National Road from Baltimore to Wheeling or the Erie Canal across New York state. Most ominously, in 1825, the Ohio Legislature authorized building a canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth on the Ohio River. Pittsburgh could soon be irrelevant as a center of commerce and Pittsburghers had clamored for a canal for years. Philadelphian financiers hesitated but finally gave in because Philadelphia needed the canal as much as Pittsburgh because they were losing business to the ports of New York and Baltimore. In 1826, the state Legislature authorized construction of the Pennsylvania Canal and eight years later in 1834, it was open for travel across the entire length of the commonwealth.

Traversing Western Pennsylvania's mountains and gorges the 395 mile long system was an engineering feat combining railroads and canals: Cutting through the two deepest gorges east of the Mississippi River; building a series of 10 inclines to carry canal boats on rail cars over mountains; digging 1000-foot long canal tunnels; building the first railroad tunnel in the United States; and constructing the first suspension bridge in the United States, designed by John Roebling of Brooklyn Bridge fame. This bridge was an aqueduct, carrying water and canal boats across the Allegheny River into Downtown Pittsburgh.

5

It all worked, Pittsburgh thrived as larger and heavier loads of goods and travelers than could be carried on the Conestoga wagons that traveled via road flowed into the city. It also collapsed the time necessary for a crossstate trip from the twenty-three days that it took by freight wagon to just 4-1/2 days. The introduction of steam locomotives soon shortened the trip to only 3-1/2 days.

Pennsylvania Main Line Canal and Railroad

Horses pulling a canal boat

BEGINNING OF A COAL & SHIPPING DYNASTY During winters, W. H. Brown dug coal that he sold to his neighbors for use in furnaces. He saved his earnings and bought his own horse and wagon and began to dig and deliver coal to residents and factories of the city of Pittsburgh. He could now increase the number of his customers and also deliver more coal at one time more speedily to his customers which truly began his lifelong career in coal dealings. He continued to earn, save and buy more horses and wagons and was soon doing quite well.

Here again, W.H. had a strong and influential benefactor in the form of John Herron a wealthy and successful Pittsburgh lumber merchant. As shown in a later ad (next page on lower right), in 1837, W. H. Brown formed a coal partnership with John Herron to dig coal from Minersville mines at the foot of Pittsburgh's Herron Hill.

His many wagons delivered large quantities of coal to several of Pittsburgh iron furnaces.

The Herron family had settled in the mid 1700s on Herron Hill the highest point in Pittsburgh. The Rev. Francis Herron was an active organizer of Presbyterian churches in western Pennsylvania and the first pastor of Pittsburgh's First Presbyterian church. He was a close friend with James Brown and together they were both active and involved in organizing churches and the community. It is not unlikely that the Brown's connections with the Herron family helped W.H. Brown begin his coal enterprise.

John Herron

John Herron was the son of Rev. Francis Herron and one of Pittsburgh's pioneer business men. He was born April 3, 1792, at Herron's branch, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and died in May, 1863 at Pittsburgh. He was the eldest son of Rev. Francis and Mary McNutt Herron who were contemporaries and friends of James Brown, the father of W.H. Brown. John was well educated for the time and like W. H., he worked on his father's farm and attended school in 6

winter. In 1812, John left the farm and came to Pittsburgh, where he was a clerk for Ephraim Blaine, a large lumber dealer and manufacturer. After a few years, John bought out Blaine and enlarged and extended his operations.

John was confident that the rivers would make distributing his product to locations down river a successful venture. It was and he secured wealth and position in the city. From this base, he invested in a variety of businesses and industries in the Pittsburgh area. He added a brick yard, coal mining and shipping, contracting and building businesses.

In the Herron lumber business, trees were felled in forests up the Allegheny River. Great floats of logs and cut lumber were lashed together and simply floated with the current downstream to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Louisville.

Lumber Raft on the Allegheny River

In 1833 John Herron removed to a tract of land he had purchased and was developing as a coal mining proposition. The tract was at Minersville (now Herron Hill) in the old Thirteenth, now present Fifth, ward of Pittsburgh. At the time Minersville was considered relatively far out in the country.

Center Avenue, Pittsburgh Minersville School in distance

Four years later in 1837, John Herron and W. H. Brown form Herron and Brown Company. Herron, 45 years old, was the senior and principal partner but he must have seen potential in the 22 year old W. H. and he was a willing mentor. The strength of the relationship can be seen in that W. H. would give his second son Herron as a middle name (James Herron Brown).

The Masonic Lodge No. 45 was located at the Masonic Hall in 1851 on Fifth Ave. between Wood and Smithfield streets. After a fire in 1887, it was rebuilt and renamed Freemason Hall. William H. Brown's membership was recorded on January 29, 1840. Samuel S. Brown (August 27, 1865), William S. Brown (March 29, 1876) and W. Harry Brown were all members of this lodge as were most of prominent businessmen of the time. James W. Brown was a member of this Lodge and District Grand Master.

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William H. Brown married in Pittsburgh on September 3, 1840, to Mary Smith, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Smith, of Minersville, PA, but originally from England. Mrs. Brown, was said to be a lady of high education and refinement, possessed cultured tastes and fine sensibilities which became the heritage of her children.

Samuel E. Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown, was a Pittsburgh iron puddler, steam engine builder, engineer and mechanic. He was married to Elizabeth Smith. Samuel Smith was born in Lancashire County England. He emigrated from Liverpool at 30 years old and is a cousin of Pittsburgh founder and pioneer Devereaux Smith, Indian trader and merchant.

Steam boating began on the Western rivers in 1811 when Nicholas Roosevelt, great granduncle of Theodore Roosevelt, piloted a Robert Fulton built steamboat, the NEW ORLEANS from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.

The second steamboat on the western rivers, also constructed at Pittsburgh, was the COMET of 25 tons, built by D. French for Samuel Smith, in 1812-1813. "She had a stern wheel and a vibrating cylinder.

She made on trip to Louisville in 1813; descended to New Orleans in 1814, made two trips to Natchez, and was sold and the engine put up in a cotton-gin." The boat was built by French and the steam engine was built by Samuel Smith.

In 1833, Samuel Smith is on the first board of directors of the Merchants & Manufacturers Bank, beginning business in June, 1833, with capital of $600,000, the par value of shares being $50. (From: Allegheny County's Hundred Years, by George H. Thurston, 1888)

Samuel Smith, James Brown and John Herron were all contemporary businessmen in the city with residences on Herron Hill and Minersville. They were peers, good friends and neighbors who undoubtedly assisted W. H. Brown in his early years.

A map of the Herron Hill/Minersville area in 1872 shows the Herrons, Browns and Olivers were neighbors (marked in red).

This helps to expain the connection of W. H. Brown to the Herron family.

(From: The Historic Pittsburgh Collection).

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Then sometime in the mid 1840s, when W. H. Brown was about 30 years old, the roads in Pittsburgh which were never that good were made worse by bad weather and ruined for hauling coal by wagon. W. H. conceived the idea of using flatboats (essentially unpowered wood barges) to float larger volumes of coal down river from mines along the Monongahela River. His business model was similar to that of the Herron lumber business. This would not only increase his volume but reduce his labor costs.

By 1846, Herron Brown & Company owned an extensive tracts of land on the Monongahela river near Turtle Creek and at Nine Mile Run. From these mines they filled large contracts to deliver coal by flatboat for iron mills, factories and gas-works in Pittsburgh. The venture was very profitable. (From: Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by Erasmus Wilson. 1898)

Flatboats on the river

Their mine near Nine Mile Run on the Monongahela River was bought from Daniel Bushnell who pioneered steam-towing in 1845 when he took three small barges with 6,000 bushels of coal to Cincinnati. His enterprise was wildly successful and he soon expanded his business floating coal to Cincinnati and Louisville. W.H. Brown saw this as the future of the towing trade and positioned himself to reap profits and glory.

In Harris' Directory 1837, Pittsburgh's coal trade was estimated at 11,304,000 bushels, at 5 cents each the value is $565,200 ($14.1 million today).

"A few days ago we went on the Minersville Turnpike and were astonished to see the very large number of carts, two, three, four and six horse teams constantly going and coming on that road alone; and, this is only one of the many roads adjoining, as well as boats engaged in supplying our cities and manufactories.

On consulting with John Herron we were informed that about two hundred loads daily pass on the Minersville Turnpike. This gives employment to a great many poor and industrious men, who, with their carts or wagons, go out twice or thrice a day, purchase a bushel of coal at the pits for 3.5 cents and then sell it for 5.5 to 6.25 cents, a wagonload could generate a profit of $8, thus giving all classes a chance for constant supply at a fair price." (From: Pittsburgh Intelligencer, January 5, 1842; also, History of Pittsburgh) In 1848, W. H. Brown bought out the Herron family interests in the business. John Herron was busy campaigning and was subsequently elected mayor of the city of Pittsburgh, serving from 1849 thru 1850.

His son William Herron who had worked for a time with Herron and Brown from 1846 until 1848, fell ill and withdrew from the firm spending the next few years traveling. It could also be that the Herrons may not have shared W. H. Brown's grand vision for the future of the business and were hesitant to risk further investment particularly in the newly established coke industry. This is understandable as the Herrons by this time had made their fortunes and were widely invested in local real estate as well as 9

factories that manufactured everything from brass to cotton batting (for stuffing quilts and making surgical dressings). W. H., however, had plans to enlarge the business.

In 1848, Brown formed another partnership - the firm of Lloyd, Black and Brown - to buy out the Herron interests in Nine Mile Run and to purchase four ovens for the newly created process of coking coal.

Coke is heat treated coal that was rapidly replacing wood charcoal as the preferred fuel for iron furnaces. Coke had its origins in the upper reaches of the Youghiogheny river in 1841, when two ovens were built on a farm a few miles from Connellsvile, PA. Lloyd and Black wanted coke for their furnaces.

(From: History of Allegheny County Pennsylvania, 1889 )

Lloyd and Black were the owners of the Kensington Iron Works in Pittsburgh that was created in 1824 as the Dowlais Iron Works. William Black was married to Hanna Brown, sister or cousin of W. H. Brown.

Kensington Iron Works was built in 1828 when Henry Lloyd, Son & Co. took over ownership from Dowlais Iron Works. The business continued in operation until 1845, when it was destroyed by fire. In 1846, Alexander Miller & Son conducted the business until 1855, when it passed into the possession of Lloyd, Black & Co where it continued under their joint management until 1873. The mill was located at Second Avenue and Try Street, Pittsburgh; 16 single puddling and scrapping furnaces, 6 heating furnaces, 4 trains of rolls; product, bar, sheet and plate iron, flat rails and T rails from 12 to 30 lbs. to the yard; annual capacity 6,000 net tons.

Lloyd, Black and Brown mined and coked coal and then shipped excess coal and coke to lower river markets as well as Pittsburgh. They met with great success. This was an impetus for creation of an improved coal boat, heavier and more durable than those in use but also lighter and less expensive than the standard flat boat of the day. First shipments were made only to Cincinnati and Louisville but later extended to St. Louis and New Orleans. (from: The Coal Trade, pp 307310)

W. H. Brown had charge of the business, and 10

managed it in accordance with his ideas as to when risks should be taken or not, and what business policies to pursue. The main portion of his trade was still with Pittsburgh manufacturers, but when there was a surplus he disposed of it down river to Cincinnati and Louisville. It was said that Brown's partners did not like the added risk and investment required to market the coal surpluses to down river towns. In actuality, his partners were simply interested in a steady supply of coke for their furnaces. They feared that W. H.'s southern venture was too risky to their own supply. This disagreement with his more conservative partners led to Brown giving up his interest in the Iron Works so he could hold complete charge and control of the coal mining and coke businesses. He also agreed to continue to supply coke to the Kensington Iron Works.

To W. H. Brown's credit, his shipping and selling coal and coke down river would later develop into a business of vast volume on which he made his fortune. Mr. Brown’s personal reputation as a leader in coal operations grew along with his business. He became known as one of the most able producers and shippers in the region, a man whose energy brooked no setback, who rarely fell short of the goals which he set for his business.

Coal tipple at Browns Station (visible today across the river from Sand Castle Water Park)

Until 1850 all the coal exported from Pittsburgh was floated down river in flat boats. These were large wooden boats with flat bottoms. Each boat was "usually one-hundred and twenty-five feet long , sixteen feet wide, and eight feet deep, with a flat perpendicular side, bow and stern. Each boat of this size holds about 15,000 bushels of coal, and they are floated to their destination lashed in pairs." These flatboats usually needed more than 20 men for control and could only run with the current in the high water or flood seasons of spring and fall of each year.

"Towing" of coal by steamboat began in 1850 when the steamer "Lake Erie" made three trips with four barges each time carrying 16,000 bushes. From this point on the number of shipments towed down river by steamboat grew. Still the transport of coal was limited largely to Cincinnati and Louisville. Few would risk crossing the falls of the Ohio river at Louisville except at flood stage. The expense and delay of hauling freight around the falls made that task prohibitively expensive and hazardous.

1796 drawing of the Falls of the Ohio

Early photo of the Falls of the Ohio

The early tows of coal on the Ohio river would soon grow in size to a typical complement of 12 barges and 1 steamboat all lashed together, 1 barge on each side and 10 in front in two columns of 5 barges.

Thus, the whole mass was actually pushed instead of pulled as the term towing might suppose. The total amount of coal in a shipment was from 100,000 to 130,000 bushels. Each of the 20 plus workers was paid about $60/day with employment to Cincinnati lasting four days and to Louisville lasting five

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days. The trip back to Pittsburgh was another two days.

(From: Pittsburgh and Allegheny in the centennial year. by

George H. Thurston, 1876)

New expansion of W. H. Brown's business came in 1854-1855, with the purchase of the steamer, Walter Forward, and in the following year he purchased a one-half interest in the steamer Tempest. The General Larimer was added in 1858. He was now aggressively marketing coal as far south as Louisville. Brown's lucrative towing business to this point was "on a fairly large scale" to Cincinnati and Louisville, selling all he could to those cities. Louisville was still the lower limit of steam towing at the time with only flat float boats carrying light loads further down river past the falls when the Ohio river was at flood stage.

Then in 1858, W. H. pioneered the large volume shipment of coal to more southern ports. He saw that the southernmost markets were less competitive, without the aggressive discounting like in Pittsburgh.

He decided to tie a number of barges together and to attempt to tow them to New Orleans. Previously, Brown and others had shipped coal to the South in float barges without benefit of any steam power.

The slowness and losses due to obstructions, shallows and snags made the expense of such transportation unprofitable. Thus, towing to the lower river ports because of its risky nature was not done by most shippers of coal.

The venture proposed by Captain Brown was considered by most of his peers to be crazy. A local newspaper noted that: "Mr. Brown ventured on still another experiment that the wisest of the coalmen were, in advance, moved to declare would be a failure." When Brown then proposed to send a tow of flatboats, or rather boxes, of light and shallow construction, he was considered to be wild.� But, this project was not done on speculation. Mr. Brown’s steamers operated on a paying basis - having agreed upon contracts prior to shipment. This system would later be widely adopted in the trade.

Lashing twelve barge loads of coal to the steamboats General Larimer and Grampus, W. H. made the journey with his 16 year old son Samuel and his brother Peter, also a riverboat captain. (Legend has it that this venture was in the charge of Brown's son Samuel S. Brown. His age was only 16 at the time so this seems unlikely. It is also questionable whether W.H. Brown was part of the journey as he had important business interests requiring his attention in Pittsburgh. Most likely is that brother Peter, a riverboat captain and veteran in W.H.'s coal business, led the expedition.)

Brown discovered that he had vastly under estimated the profitability of the venture as it proved to be a great success. All expectations were exceeded in the experiment, and this new outlet for Pittsburgh coal increased steadily in tonnage.

There was no loss of cargo and the coal was disposed of at fixed prices. The wood from the barges was also sold for a good profit which was immediately reinvested in returning cargoes of southern products like rice, sugar, molasses and cotton. These products produced an even richer return when sold at northern cities and towns along the Ohio river and in Pittsburgh. Brown "returned home in triumph" and ". . . a new outlet for the growing coal trade of Pittsburgh was opened." Soon others moved to this new way he had opened. "I recall that in one year the Browns alone shipped fourteen million bushels of coal south." (from: Pittsburgh First) This may seem incredible but 14 million bushels equals 392,000 tons that in 1875 had a value of $6.17 a ton for a total value of over $2.4 million ($52.5 million today).

Over the next few years, Brown would buy more steamboats, barges, coal lands, mines and invest in other businesses. He would also continue to grow his trade down river to southern ports. "New Orleans is both the

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exporting and the importing mart of the Mississippi valley."

(From: Historical Sketch Book and Guide to New Orleans and

Environs, 1885)

By the 1870s, W. H. Brown was by far the largest miner and shipper of coal in the Pittsburgh region. Below, the charts for coal production in the first three pools on the Monongahela river show the W. H. Brown's interests were double that of his nearest competitor. Mining more that 7 million bushels a year. (Note that in Pool No. 1, Brown was the major shareholder in Corry & Company.)

(Charts are from: Pittsburgh and Allegheny in the Centennial Year,

by George H. Thurston, 1876)

In shipping of product, Brown likewise excelled at growing his business. After his success with the Grampus and General Larimer, W. H. Brown soon bought other steamers. The W.H.B., Bee, Collier, and Shark were added to the fleet to meet the demands from the South. The first steamer built by him was the W.H.B. and he later built the Bee. Later still he purchased the Collier and the Shark.

In the 1800s, early steamboat pilots learned from experience, and the nation’s western rivers were strict, fickle teachers. Knowing the channel wasn’t nearly enough, pilots had to know the locations of

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snags, rocks, sandbars, and landmarks, the depth of the water, and the strength of the current. As soon as they learned these vital facts, the river could change. From the feel of the boat, the color of the water, and ripples and swirls, they had to deduce new information about what lay ahead. River pilots put this knowledge to use day and night, in all kinds of weather, and in all seasons.

"A pilot, in those days, was the only unfettered and entirely independent human being that lived in the earth."

(From: Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain. 1883)

ORIGIN OF ANCHOR SYMBOL The Little Swan an early boat in the Monongahela river trade was built to run up river from Pittsburgh. This was in the days before the slack water system of locks and dams.

A year or so after the Little Swan had been running, the stern wheeled steamboat Odd Fellow, was placed into service on the river with a competing business. There was considerable rivalry between the crews of the two boats in regards to how fast they could make trips up river.

One day both boats left the city at the same time. When they reached the riffle at Peter's Creek neither of them could stem the current. The river was not high and the engineer of the Little Swan, a tall man named Trimble, picked up the anchor, placed it on his shoulder, stepped off the boat and waded up stream to a point at the head of the riffle. He then planted the anchor and then stood on it. The other men of the crew took hold of the rope attached to the anchor and tugged away at it for some time. Finally they succeeded in drawing the boat up to where the anchor had been placed and the Little Swan got into deep water before the Odd Fellow and beat it in making the trip.

From that time on, a huge decorative anchor symbol was mounted between the smoke stacks on W. H. Brown ships running in the fleet known as Browns Line. (From: McKeesport Daily News, April 3 , 1891) After W. H. Brown's death in 1875, the Anchor symbol was also adopted by the Anchor Line which ran riverboats and ocean steamers.

Steamboat Alice Brown Notice anchor symbol between stacks Also, Brown Line is written on side of pilothouse

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W. H. Brown's coal mining and shipping businesses thrived. Every year that passed saw an increase in his operations. He opened coal and supply depots from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Creative operations like this helped Mr. Brown, maintained his place of leadership on the rivers.

Among the operators who figured most largely in the Western Pennsylvania coal industry prior to the era of big coal corporations were the Browns, Waltons, Woods, Horners and O'Neills. "Practically every large operator and shipper owned his own docks both for loading and unloading, as well as his own towboats and containers. All such property bore either the name of its owner or some other mark of identification. For example, the Wood's boats carried between their smoke stacks an open star, the Walton boats a Maltese Cross, the Brown boats an anchor, and the Horner boats a shield." (From: Pittsburgh of Today, The Pittsburgh Coal Industry; The Coal Trade, Transportation in the Ohio Valley; and, "Transportation on the Ohio River System," U.S. War Department Bulletin, 1927).

The now prosperous W. H. built a beautiful residence at Salt Works Station, on the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad, near his boat yards. When asked why he chose this site, he remarked that "out of the hills, almost perpendicular, directly back of the home, he had obtained black diamonds, enough to enable him to erect the beautiful mansion, and then some, and he wished to pass the remainder of his days close to his first love."

This home was known as the Rock Cottage. (from: Pittsburgh First) THE CIVIL WAR At the opening of the Civil War, W. H. Brown had a fleet of steamboats and barges uniquely positioned to supply the Union Army and Navy fleets along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The coal that he provided was crucial to fuel the Union steamboats of Admiral Porter's blockade of the southern ports. Brown coal also fueled General Grant's important battles on the western front.

All commanders on both sides of the war realized that military movements depended upon transportation which in turn, depended upon fuel supplies. In 1862, Acting Rear Admiral Porter was using 1,600 tons of coal a month and asking for more. His dispatch sent on December 21, 1862 said: "Get me coal and send it to Vicksburg without delay . . . . no matter what the cost may be . . . . I must have coal."

Admiral Porter's fleet shelling Vicksburg

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The Union steamboat Carondelet with a coal barge lashed to its side delivering coal at the Battle of Vicksburg

During the Civil War, W. H. Brown had important contracts with the government at Cairo and Memphis to supply the Mississippi fleet, and at locations on the Ohio and Missouri rivers as well. Brown's service during the siege of Vicksburg was crucial to its success. He also had contracts with private interests to supply coal at Cincinnati, Memphis, St. Louis and Pittsburgh. At St. Louis and Cincinnati, Brown supplied coal for gas works and other city utilities.

The struggle for control of the sea and the inland waterways played an important role during the Civil War and the Merchant Marine was called upon to participate. Brown steamboats also went to war, several were clad with iron siding and serving in Admiral Porter's fleet.

One of the first steps taken by the North against the Confederacy was establishment of a blockade of all southern seaports and river towns, thus cutting off imports of war materiel, medical supplies and household goods. The South, which had very few merchant ships, responded by issuing "Letters of Marquee and Reprisal" to privateers. This effort was short-lived because of the effectiveness of the blockade, the successful capture of privateers by the North, and their subsequent trials for piracy. Confederate privateers captured 40 Yankee ships, but by February 1863 only the schooner Retribution remained in rebel hands.

Hundreds of vessels, both purchased and chartered, were employed by the Army in the transportation of men and supplies. One New York entrepreneur purchased a used ship for $12,000 and earned $833,000 on his Army charters.

Most of W. H. Brown's ships, including the company flag ship, the William H. Brown, served in the war.

This ship was a 200 ton stern-wheel steamer built in Monongahela in 1860 for commercial employment in Brown's coal business and was acquired by the War Department in June, 1861. By 1865, the

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Quartermaster General owned or chartered 719 vessels for use in oceans and lakes, with a total tonnage of 224,984. The Rail and River Transportation division owned 91 steamers, 352 barges, 139 boats.

At the outbreak of the war, the U.S. Navy had just a few dozen vessels-- inadequate to enforce a blockade. The Navy drew six hundred vessels from the Merchant Marine, exceeding one million tons, and manned by about 70,000 seamen, for blockades and armed service.

The William H. Brown was transferred to the Navy in September, 1862. She served on the western river front as a dispatch and transport vessel for the Mississippi Squadron throughout the Civil War. Her only recorded engagement was April 13, 1964, during the Red River expedition when she fired on Confederate shore batteries while assisting the grounded steamer Chillicothe. The Brown was hit by Confederate shelling, disabled and had to be towed back to Cairo for repairs.

Following the defeat of the Confederacy, the Quartermaster General disposed of the major portion of the fleet and increased the use of rail for troop movements. After the war, the William H. Brown was operated as a merchant steamer until 1875.

A large degree of danger attended coal traffic on the rivers during the Civil War. Marauding guerrilla troops on both sides were regular threats. These were exciting times of war with a high level of danger in river traffic supplying fuel to the government forces. These trips were behind enemy lines a considerable part of the time; supplying markets under conditions that put every cargo at risk of capture, confiscation and destruction by armed forces of either side. This is to say nothing of the increased dangers to navigation on the rivers due to wrecks, snags, sunken ships and other assorted obstacles.

Yet, to W. H. Brown this was something he was used to and that he did not fear. Many of his competitors would not take the risk but Brown did and he made it pay.

One of W. H.'s trips south almost ended in tragedy. He had just unloaded a tow of coal at Vicksburg for General Grant's forces and was returning up river. His ship was captured and he was arrested

by Union troops as a suspected Confederate spy. He was about to be shot, when the intervention of Union General Carlos Buell saved him from execution.

Brown and his ships had many narrow escapes and became involved in several delicate complications. Fortunately he survived all of these and emerged with honor and fortune as his government contracts in the Civil War were very lucrative.

Brown's position was often questioned because of his business connections in the south, specifically New Orleans where his coal was used for the manufacture of gas for the city. He retained his former friends in the South and was even accused of entertaining sympathies for the Confederacy.

Major General Don Carlos Buell

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POST WAR YEARS In the post war years , river packet boats, tow boats and barges lined the river in parades almost 100 miles long. The Ohio valley echoed the blasts of whistles and bells delighting watchers on the river side.

Before the Civil War, steamboats captains accepted personal and business mail that was distributed along the way up and down the rivers. After the war, the US government regulated the practice. Shipping lines were made to submit bids to become official "mail carriers" and other boats were warned it was against the law to deliver mail without proper government postage. (From: The Mississippi Steamboat Era in Historic Photographs: Natchez to New Orleans 1870-1920, edited by Joan W. and Thomas H. Gandy, 1987)

W. H. Brown made profits proportionate to the risks he took. He was successful. “Lucky” was the verdict of some, but those who were closest to his confidence testified that there was something more than mere luck in his success. He knew the dangers, he faced them with nerve, handled his affairs with skill and he was original in his plans, refusing to copy what had gone before.

In 1868, the Pittsburgh coal seam was estimated at 8.5 million acres with 54 billion tons of coal valued at more than the estimated output of the California gold fields for 1,000 years. (from: Transportation in the Ohio Valley, p. 310) By this time, W. H. Brown had purchased vast reserves of coal lands throughout western Pennsylvania and was sitting on a fortune still in the ground and mining cash every day.

So extensive did his business become during the war that the impression gained some foothold that all his wealth was made by supplying the government. That by reason of his excellent management, tireless exertion and executive ability he made money from his government contracts cannot be doubted – but these contracts were open to all others in the business to bid for. Even if it were true, there would be nothing either disreputable or dishonorable in it.

But it is not true. He was prosperous before the war. Evidence of this is the fact that when Brown, Reis and Berger bought the rolling mill at New Castle, PA, he gave his check in payment for $100,000. Such an amount in one outside venture leaves no room to question that at this period, 1858 and 1859, he was a very wealthy man, although of more limited means compared with the wealth he left at the time of his death, on October 12, 1875.

REIS, BROWN AND BERGER Reis, Brown and Berger was also known as the Shenango Iron Works after the firm's huge manufacturing plant on Neshannock Creek in New Castle, PA. During the first year the company had no boiling furnaces, and purchased their "muck bar" from other iron works. The firm's original furnace was the "Sophia" furnace built in 1845 by Joseph H. Brown, J. Higgs, and G. Thomas for the manufacture of iron. (From: A Guide to the Old Stone Blast Furnaces in Western Pennsylvania, by Myron S. Sharp and William H. Thomas)

In 1846, other investors were added to the company and plant was christened the "Orizaba" Iron Works. The new firm immediately expanded with a mill for the manufacture of merchant bar-iron, nails and muck bar. The works were successfully carried on until July, 1847, when the plant was entirely destroyed by fire. The plant was rebuilt the same year and a nail factory, with twenty-four machines, and a keg factory were added. In 1848 four additional boiling furnaces were put in operation and a "Burden squeezer" took the place of the trip-hammer. In 18

1853, the "Sophia" furnace was rebuilt and from 1855 to 1859, four additional boiling furnaces and seven nail machines were added to the works.

The design and operation of an old stone iron furnace

The firm prospered until 1859. Due to the lack of adequate transportation, the business failed and it was vacant from 1859 until 1863 and the buildings and machinery decayed.

The closing of such extensive business caused a great depression in business and values in and around New Castle, and many people moved to other areas. During the four years of idleness many efforts were made to dispose of the works, but without effect. The principal reason operating against a sale was the difficulty in procuring coal, which had to be hauled a distance of four miles in wagons, and the fact that the only means of shipment was by canal, and in winter the canal was closed for a considerable portion of the year.

Finally, in 1863, a sale was effected to Reis, Richards & Berger. George Columbus Reis was born Nov. 8, 1823, in Pittsburgh. He and A.B. Berger started out in the grocery business there. Later, Reis moved to Niles, Ohio, where he became involved with James Ward in the iron business. James Ward was the husband of W. H. Brown's oldest daughter, Elizabeth Brown Ward.

The new owners immediately renovated and enlarged the plant with an improved rolling mill, nail factory, and furnace and changed the name to Shenango Iron Works.

In 1864, W. H. Brown bought out Richards and assumed a controlling interest in the company now renamed Reis, Brown and Berger. George C. Reis had charge of the financial department and W. H. Brown had full operational control. During this year, the railroads came to New Castle.

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First, the New Castle and Beaver Valley Railway was put in operation, and soon after it the Erie and Pittsburg Railway. The firm now had excellent access to coal from W. H. Brown mines and ready transportation for delivery. The firm prospered and continued to grow as it added an extensive brick works and new furnaces.

The company also purchased the Hanging Rock Iron Works, in Ohio, and dismantled the machinery which was brought to New Castle to build a new sheet-mill.

Three extensive fire-brick kilns were also built, each with a capacity of 50,000 bricks. In 1865, the firm began to manufacture red brick for their own use and for sales to the general market. In 1868, their own bricks were used to construct a large brick warehouse for the storage of nails and sheet iron.

Brick kiln at Shenango Iron Works

In 1871, the "Moffatt furnace" was purchased, enlarged and added to the works with the name changed to "Little Pet." In 1872, the "Rosena Furnace," was built and the fire-brick plant capacity was expanded by 20,000 bricks per week. In 1874, the original old stone stack "Sophia Furnace" was entirely modernized and enlarged.

In December, 1876, the Shenango Iron Works occupied about twenty acres of ground, located in the Fourth Ward of the city of New Castle, and consisting of three blast-furnaces, with a capacity for producing 50,000 tons of pig-metal per annum; two rolling-mills, with twenty-seven boiling and eleven heating furnaces; five trains of rolls; a nail factory, with fifty-five machines, and a capacity of 10,000 kegs of nails per month; a spike-factory, with three machines; nine steam and three blowing engines; eleven hot-blasts; eight steam-pumps; twenty steam-boilers; five power, and one steam-shears; a stave and keg factory, with a capacity for making 300,000 nail-kegs per annum; two fire-brick yards, with a capacity of 1,000,000 bricks annually, and a red-brick yard, that manufactured yearly several million bricks. The firm also owned and operated about four miles of railway tracks for the delivering of stock and the removal of products.

It was now the largest iron works in the country and the company's vast brick yards made and fired the bricks used in the construction of many buildings of the time. In 1877, the plant was the largest employer in New Castle with a payroll of $45,000 per month.

About 700 men were directly employed, when the works were in full operation. Indirectly about 300 more were employed in mining coal, iron, limestone, etc., making an aggregate of about 1,000 men, and representing a population of at least 3,000 people deriving their livelihood from the Shenango Iron Works. The pay roll of the concern frequently reached $45,000 per month, without taking into 20

consideration the large sums paid out for stock and material of various kinds—coal, iron, limestone, lumber, etc.

W. H. Brown served as president of Reis, Brown & Berger and was its principal and heaviest stockholder until his death. After his death, the business began to grow unprofitable and the plant, except the Rosena furnace, was dismantled shipped to Ward Steel Company in Niles, OH. There was no insolvency; every creditor was paid, the business closed in New Castle simply because it was not profitable. The "Rosena Furnace" later became part of the Carnegie Steel Company.

BROWN & JONES But for W. H. Brown, coal was the fuel that drove his financial empire. It was during this period that the firm of Brown and Jones, composed of William H. Brown and N. M. Jones, was organized. This association continued even after W. H. Brown’s death in 1875, when his sons succeeded him and the new firm retained the old name.

Ad from the 1867 Pittsburgh Almanac "An abundant supply of cheap fuel is an indispensible requisite for the establishment of manufacturers and in this respect no city in the South can be said to possess superior advantages.." Memphis was uniquely positioned on a river transportation system that could deliver large quantities of coal to her industries from Pennsylvania. "Some conception of the immense amount of coal sold in this city can be gathered from the fact that one firm alone handles from six to seven millions of bushels a year. We allude to Messrs.

Brown & Jones." (From: Commercial and Statistical Review of the City of Memphis, Tenn., Reilly & Thomas, 1883)

Brown & Jones, wholesale and retail dealers in coal with offices at 282 Main Street in Memphis, TN, were well respected and appreciated by the city. "It would, indeed, be hard to estimate the immense advantages which have been derived by the city from this firm." "The firm of Brown & Jones is not only the largest and leading enterprise in Memphis, but is, also, the most mammoth concern of the kind in the Mississippi Valley." (From: Commercial and Statistical Review of the City of Memphis, Tenn., Reilly & Thomas, 1883) N. M. Jones, was born in Youngstown, Ohio on June 9, 1836. His father was a brick-mason and contractor, and a native of Ireland, while the mother was a native of Youngstown, Ohio. In 1858, Jones married Miss Ann Pollock, a native of Pennsylvania, daughter of Dr. A. M. Pollock of Pittsburgh and sister of Elizabeth Pollock Brown, wife of Captain Samuel S. Brown and daughter-in-law of W. H. Brown. For many years he was employed by W. H. Brown prior to moving to Memphis. (From: History of Tennessee, Biographical Sketches, Shelby County, TN, 1888)

The firm of Brown & Jones was established in 1865, when Jones was sent to Memphis backed by the investments of W. H. Brown. The focus of the partnership was to expand post-war coal sales south of Cairo, IL on the Mississippi river. Soon the firm would have coal depots at the cities of Helena, AR; Arkansas City, KS; Terrene Landing, MS; and New Orleans, LA. Their business thrived supplying coal to plantations, steamboats, factories and families. They employed several hundred employees, more than 20 tow boats and a large number of barges.

N. M. Jones quickly became well known and he was "highly regarded as a liberal and public spirited citizen" in Memphis. He would eventually become the president of the First National Bank, president of 21

the Memphis Gas Light Company, and president of the Peters & Sawrie Company, and a director of the Citizens’ Water Company. (From: History of Tennessee, Biographical Sketches, Shelby County, TN, 1888) He was also a founder of the Tennessee Southern Railroad. (From: Commercial and Statistical Review of the City of Memphis, Tenn., Reilly & Thomas, 1883)

As president of the Memphis Gas Light Company, Jones oversaw the city's street lighting, home lighting and heating and gas for cooking. The gas was made from coal provided by Brown and Jones. "For getting of the coal is the sine qua non of this business . . . . Our coaling arrangements are beyond improvement. You see the bayou runs alongside the yard, and barges loaded at Pittsburg are floated right up to our coal sheds." (From: Scientific American, January 2, 1892, p. 37) Jones was also a great marketer of coal. One window display is a great sample advertisement. This display was a miniature home living room with a family gathered around the father's armchair as he read a story. Part of the floor is cut away to reveal a coal furnace in the basement providing "warmth, comfort and coziness" to the home. Attached to the display was a sign reading: "Brown's coal makes a comfortable home and a contented family." (From: The Retail Coalman, vol. 27, p 47) Brown followed his innovative coal shipping by developing a number of coal properties along the Mon with his sons. Among these were large operations near Port Perry in North Versailles and Old Eagle in Forward.

Brown mines are highlighted below

With William H. Brown’s growing business success came a rise in his standing among local business circles with which he would be long identified. His sound judgment and long acquaintance with local conditions enabled him to make valuable contributions to the business interests of others in the region and to the general social welfare. Those who knew Mr. Brown said that his outstanding characteristic was his accuracy in the analysis of human nature. He had an almost intuitive appreciation of men, their standards, and their motives. This keen perception was an invaluable asset in his business dealings.

Every person having business with him noted that he was a man of scrupulous integrity, wedded to high ideals and he was staunch in his defense of these ideals. He was also recognized as a bold, untiring and practical man.

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BROWN & COCHRAN Another testament to Brown's character is the story of his dealings with one of his strongest competing coal miners. Originally an employee, the man broke away from Brown at the suggestion of friends and started in business for himself. His partner in time made up his mind to freeze him out, and finally became so bitter against him as to notify him that in a few days he would either "buy or sell," at a price ridiculously low, adding that he preferred to sell. Mr. Brown's friend was still a poor "coal miner," with little financial backing and no relationships in the business community. In stress, he went to W. H., who received him cordially, as though nothing had happened between them. Upon learning of the situation, Brown cheerily said: "If you think you can make a go, buy him out." But the man said, "I haven't any money, or any banking facilities." Brown's response: "Well, I have both and will be on hand with the cash, when you clinch the bargain." For many years both the man and his sons were friendly competitors in coal mining, with Mr. Brown among their most devote friends.

Little Jim" Cochran was another of the pioneer western Pennsylvania coal and coke barons. Along with his brother, Sample Cochran, and uncle, Mordecai Cochran, James began making coke and started an industry that would bring millions of dollars to the Connellsville region.

In 1843, they made the first commercial sale of coke outside of the Pittsburgh area by floating two boatloads of coke down the rivers to Cincinnati and selling it for seven cents a bushel. James later developed coal mines and coke yards in his native Dawson area and became a large coking operator.

Uncle Mordecai Cochran managed the Cochran family farm, which was located at the western outcrop of the Connellsville coking coal deposit. In addition to his farming operations, in 1842 he purchased a tract of land on the Youghiogheny river and built his first four coke ovens Coke is a high-grade, high temperature fuel important for firing steel blast furnaces. Coal is made into coke by burning it under controlled conditions with very little air producing a product that is almost entirely pure carbon. In the 1800s, beehive coke ovens, so called for their shape, provided the controlled conditions required to transform coal into coke.

James and Sample Cochran were born and raised at Dawson Station, PA, a quaint little village along the Youghiogheny River that saw its peak during the heyday of the Coal and Coke Era. James finished his schooling and tried working on his brother's farm but did not like it. With funding from his brother, Sample, James bought lumber and built a flat boat large enough to carry 100 tons of sand for glass makers in Pittsburgh. Next, the Cochran brothers partnered with their uncle Mordecai to make coke in some of the first successful beehive ovens.

Their successful sale of coke in Cincinnati was made with great difficulty as the market simply did not exist. Soon coke markets would develop much closer to home. James Cochran would continue to send coke down river until the 1860s, when shipments began by rail. He continued to expand his mines and

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coke yard holdings in the Connellsville area and founded the Washington Coal and Coke Company and a complex of mines, coke works, a company town at Star Junction, and a service town at Dawson.

James Cochran's coke ovens operated continuously until 1868 when he sold them to his sons James, Alexander and Lutellas Cochran, in partnership with W. H. Brown. The new the firm, Brown & Cochran, acquired even larger areas of coal lands to feed their coke works and until 1873 had the largest coking business in Pennsylvania.

The coal and coke holdings of the Cochrans (many, if not all, in partnership with the Browns) include: Paul Mine & Coke Works, Fayette Co., PA Clinton Mine & Coke Works, Fayette Co., PA Jackson Mine & Coke Works, Dawson, Lower Tyrone Twp., Fayette Co., PA Sterling No. 1 Mine, Lower Tyron Twp., Fayette Co., PA Sterling No. 2 Mine, Jimtown, Fayette Co., PA Spring Grove Mine & Coke Works, Fayette Co., PA The First National Bank of Dawson, was organized 1892, with James Cochran as the largest shareholder.

He became its first president, serving until his death in 1894, when his son, Phillip G. Cochran, was elected to succeed him. Phillip Cochran served in this capacity until he died in June, 1899. He was then succeeded as bank president by Mordecai M. Cochran who had been the attorney for the bank since its organization.

Phillip's passing, followed soon after by the death of their only son, left Philip's wife, Sarah B. Cochran, as the heiress to the Cochran fortune. This included her late husband's interests in the bank (where he was the largest stockholder) and in various coal companies. Sarah was said to be a simple farmer's daughter who had little knowledge or interest in business. She appointed her nephew Mordecai as the managing trustee of the Cochran estate, president of the bank in Dawson mentioned above, president of the First National Bank of Perryopolis, president of the Washington Coal & Coke Company, president of the Juniata Coke Company, and a manager of the firms of Brown & Cochran and James Cochran's Sons & Co. LINDEN HALL Following the deaths of her husband and son, Sarah traveled throughout Europe and Asia for several years.

In 1911, Sara Cochran then used her fortune to commission the building of the imposing English Tudor county manor estate, Linden Hall, for a cost of $2 million (about $50 million today) .

Linden Hall was dedicated in 1913 revealing 8,720 square feet of space on each of four floors, the mansion contains Linden Hall today 35 rooms, 27 fireplaces, 13 baths, and a finished basement.

Throughout there is elaborate use of baroque woodcarving, marble, crystal, and gold leaf. Other features include signed Tiffany windows, an indoor bowling alley, an oval dining room with light fixtures of sterling silver with inserts of wedgewood china, elaborate Victorian furnishings, oriental carpeting, original paintings, and a walk-in clothes dryer. An Aeolian pipe

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organ, one of only three in the world, can be heard throughout the mansion via pipes on the first and third floors.

Sarah Cochran died in 1936, and over the next several decades Linden Hall was occupied by a number of organizations and private owners. The house was in disrepair when this turn of the century heirloom was purchased and restored to its original grandeur by the United Steel Workers of America in 1976. Today, Linden Hall serves as a conference center and retreat and is open to the public for guided tours. It is listed on the National Historic Register and has been featured the A&E Cable network's "AMERICA's CASTLES" program.

Other less spectacular but no less important remnants of the Brown and Cochran Company still exist. The Connellsville area still has a number of slowly deteriorating remains of old bee hive coke works and coal tipples.

Remains of the Nellie Coke Works , built by Brown and Cochran Co. in 1882. These coke ovens are located behind Vanderbilt PA where the Paul and Clarissa coke works were once located.

A SENSE OF HUMOR W. H. Brown was also not without a sense of humor. One story related that W. H. on one occasion, when a captain of his steamer was unable to make a trip to Cincinnati, the boss took his place. Prior to leaving Cincinnati, the mate was directed to fill the larder with supplies for the return trip. Shortly after the boat headed for Pittsburgh, Brown called the mate and clerk up to the Pilot House to review the invoices. There were soap, candles, crackers, cheese, flour, apples along with "one barrel of whiskey and one loaf of bread." When Brown's eye caught the last two items he dryly said to the mate, "What do you want with so much bread?"

HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE Near the end of his life, W. H. Brown suffered a mental breakdown. Whether from causes we know today such as Alzheimer's Disease, or some other cause, all that is known for sure is that W. H. was at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at the end of his days.

Fortunately for W. H., this hospital was unique and well known for its innovative and humane treatment of mental illness at a time when most mental hospitals were more like jails and treatments more like torture.

By the early 1800s, insane patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital outnumbered those with a physical diagnosis by two to one. When Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride came to the hospital as its Superintendent, he was a Quaker and disturbed by current treatments. He became a strong advocate of "moral treatment," a philosophy based upon compassion and respect for the insane. At the Pennsylvania Hospital he sought to create a humane environment where both rich and poor were treated with dignity. He believed patients responded to Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride

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greater freedom with better behavior. Persons suffering from insanity, he insisted "are not disabled from appreciating books...or enjoying many intellectual and physical comforts."

It was believed crucial to place patients in a more natural environment away from the pollutants and hectic energy of urban centers. Abundant fresh air and natural light not only contributed to a healthy environment, but also served to promote a more cheerful atmosphere. Extensive grounds with cultivated parks and farmland were also beneficial to the success of the asylum. Landscaped parks served to both stimulate and calm patients' minds with natural beauty (enhanced by rational order) while improving the overall aspect of the asylum. Farmland served to make the asylum more selfsufficient by providing readily available food and other farm products at a minimal cost to the state.

(From: On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals For the Insane With Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment, by Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride, 1854).

Patients were encouraged to help work the farms and keep the grounds, as well as participate in other chores. Such structured occupation was meant to provide a sense of purpose and responsibility which, it was believed, would help regulate the mind as well as improve physical fitness. Patients were also encouraged to take part in recreations, games, and entertainments which would also engage their minds, make their stay more pleasant, and perhaps help foster and maintain social skills.

Dr. Kirkbride estimated that one in every 500 persons was insane. He identified the most common reasons for patient admissions as: grief, ill health, intemperance and anxiety. But his case records note other suspected causes of insanity at the time: "religious excitement," tobacco use, prolonged lactation, metaphysical speculation, nostalgia and exposure to the sun's direct rays.

In his 1865 report: "of the 4,323 patients admitted into the institution since its opening, 727 appear to have become insane from ill-health of various kinds; 286 from intemperance; 149 loss of property; 5 dread of poverty; 64 disappointed affections; 45 intense study; 94 domestic difficulties; 35 fright; 227 grief, loss of friends, etc.; 35 intense application to business; 146 religious excitement; 12 political excitement; 1 metaphysical speculations; 8 want of exercise; 1 engagement in a duel; 17 disappointed expectations; 6 nostalgia; 2 stock speculations; 37 want of employment; 3 mortified pride; 1 celebacy [sic]; 2 anxiety for wealth; 15 abuse of opium; 6 use of tobacco; 3 use of quack medicines; 169 puerpal state; 12 uncontrolled passion; 1 tight lacing; 54 injuries of the head; 278 mental anxiety; 4 exposure to cold; 38 exposure to direct rays of the sun; 1 exposure to intense heat; 4 in the army."

By occupation, male patients at Pennsylvania Hospital were: "323 farmers; 217 merchants; 176 laborers; 174 clerks; 45 physicians; 41 lawyers; 25 clergymen; 36 teachers; 78 carpenters; 36 machinists; 26 weavers; 29 blacksmiths; 30 hotel keepers; 38 tailors; 75 shoemakers. Female patients were: 205 seamstresses or dress makers; 229 domestics; 99 daughters of farmers, and 180 widows of farmers; 107 daughters of merchants; 40 widows of merchants, and 128 wives of merchants."

Dr. Kirkbride is one of the founders of the Association of Medical Superintendents of Institutions for the Insane, now the American Psychiatric Association.

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While only half of Dr. Kirkbride's patients eventually recovered and resumed their positions in the world, this remains a striking accomplishment in an era when effective medications and other modern treatments were virtually non-existent.

END OF AN ERA W. H. Brown died on October 12, 1875, at the "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane" at 49th and Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was also known as "Kirkbride's Hospital" for the mentally ill. His youngest son, W. Harry Brown, was 19 years old and living nearby as a student at the Pennsylvania Millitary Academy in Chester, PA, now Widener College.

Mary Smith Brown died seven years prior to her husband on August 9, 1868. For more than a quarter of a century she stood at her husband’s side as his constant companion and friend in life’s journey.

She was a noble helper all through his life, aiding him in many practical ways in his early struggles, raising a family and sharing with him in the after years the fruits of years of hard work.

Like too many important women in history, Mary Smith Brown's life took a back seat to that of her husband. Her lifetime accomplishments are not well recorded.

Mary Smith Brown However, while we lack a detailed history of accomplishments, I think much can be deduced from the recorded histories of other family members. While I will leave this work to other family historians, I urge them to begin with the Smiths of early Pittsburgh and their/her emigration from England.

What was life like in England and early Pittsburgh in those days? What could be the major influences on the life of a young girl? We know she came from a prominent family with advantages of education, culture and social status unique for the day. All of this can be used to develop character. Look at the life of her husband for a vision of Mary's maturing life and share success. Imagine the trauma of living with his later mental instability. Also traumatic would be the loss of many children during her life. Future historians should look to her surviving children as well. All were well educated, socially involved and actively engaged in community service, all attributes formed by a devoted mother and the glue that held the family together.

This devotion can be best seen in the memorial of the Mary Smith Brown Church in Squirell Hill.

Perhaps the best reflection of what Mary Smith Brown was like is in the life of her oldest daughter, Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward. Elizabeth, I imagine, was much like her mother. In her married life she not only supported her husband's business ventures but actively managed them following several failures. As a beneficiary of a substantial portion of W. H. Brown's legacy, she had extraordinary resources at her disposal.

Later in this work, we touched on the Wards. More research about Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward could not only shed light on her remarkable life but help flesh out the Mary S. Brown story.

Finally, I suggest that future family historians explore the cultural and social dynamics of Squirrel Hill and Homestead to see if there are not references to Mary S. Brown in the recorded histories of other prominent families of the day. Also, any stories of prominent women of the day may help extrapolations to build a more 27

detailed picture/story of Mary S. Brown. What we do know is that she was a remarkable woman.

The children of William Hughey and Mary Smiith Brown were: Elizabeth Smith Brown, who married to James Ward; Samuel Smith Brown, married to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Pollock, daughter of noted Pittsburgh physician and community leader A. M. Pollock; James Herron Brown; Charles Smith Brown; Mary Oliver Brown who died 1858 at 12 years old; Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker, who died in 1871 at age 33, the first wife of Colonel James M. Schoonmaker; William Hughey Brown, died in 1853 at 3 years old; and W. Harry Brown. The stories of each of these children is related later in this work.

WILLIAM HUGHEY BROWN'S LEGACY At the time of his death in 1875, W. H. Brown had not only became the largest coal operator and transporter in the U. S., but his business had expanded into other industrial enterprises as well.

W. H. Brown also had significant investments in iron works, blast furnaces, iron mines and various other Pennsylvania enterprises. (From: The Coal and Coal Trade Journal, vol. 36) At the time of his death it was the talk of Pittsburgh financial circles, that he had in cash readily available on deposit at banks of more than a half million dollars -- a phenomenal amount of live cash -- and that his vast estate was in such good shape that it could be settled without a hitch. (From: Pittsburgh First) The value of his cash holdings in 2013 dollars is 10.9 million.

W. H. Brown's estate was appraised at more than six million dollars. This is $12.2 billion today.

(From: The Coal Trade, p. 309; Waterways Journal, March 9, 1912.)

An indication of Brown's success is that from 1869 to 1874, the later years of W. H. Brown's life, his firm shipped about 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 bushels of coal per year, for a value of $1 million to $1.2 million a year. This would equal $21.9 million to $26.3 million a year today.

At the year of his death, Brown's coal business, established in 1846 with M. Corey, was among the most extensive works in Allegheny County. The coal enterprise in Pool No. 2 alone was 550 acres, employed 325 people, and produced 4,000,000 bushels. The yearly amount of wages paid were $128,000. They had 150 houses, valued at $37,500; pit wagons, 275, valued at $8,500; and property improvements valued at $45,000. The firm had 8 tow-boats, valued at $200,000; barges, 278, value, $270,000; flats, 47, value, $14,100 and also owned 5 coal hauling railroads and locomotives, used in the transportation of the coal to the works.

Black Diamond Mine coal tipple on Monongahela River below Donora, PA

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Brown also had works in Pool No. 3, established as the Black Diamond Coal Company in 1858, that employed 200 people, and produced 1,500,000 bushels; wages, $48,000; houses, 70, valued at $20,000; pit cars, 150, value $4,500; property improvements, $9,000; mules, 10; and number of acres, 325. Also, in Pool No. 3, the firm owned and operated works established in 1861 by Jenkins & Brothers, which employed 125, and produced 700,000 bushels annually; wages paid, $30,000; houses, 35, value $14,000; number of pit cars, 100, value is, $3,000; property improvements, $10,000; mules, 6; number of acres, 1,000. (From: History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, by Samuel W. Durant, 1876) From an old newspaper article by Mr. Theodore Woods who was 90 years old at the time: "For several year I kept the audited books for coal firms and tow boats and surveyed farms and coal lands. Most of this work was for W. H. Brown, the coal king - surveying the mines and auditing the books in the coal depots in the South, at Cincinnati, St. Louis, Cairo, Memphis and as far south as New Orleans. Then I became private secretary to W. H. Brown and after his death, became an executor of his vast estate, and remained in the employ of the Brown heirs until eleven years ago. I retired on account of my mental and physical abilities being out of commission." Mr. Woods was born in June, 1821 and would have retired at age 79 about the year 1900.

Ultimately, William H. Brown's estate was divided along industrial lines: The husband of his deceased daughter, Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker, Colonel James M. Schoonmaker, received the lucrative family interests in coal mines and coke interests in the Connellsville area. This he would grow significantly through partnerships with H. C. Frick and others. Eventually, he would become chairman of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.

His surviving daughter Elizabeth Brown Ward, married to James Ward, together they assumed ownership of W.H. Brown's foundries and rolling mills in Lawrence County and Ohio. Elizabeth lived until May 2, 1919, when she died at age 77. The furnaces and rolling mills were those operated by Reis, Brown and Berger and included the following: The Juniata rolling mill, the first rolling mill in Allegheny City, built at Robinson and Darragh streets along the Allegheny river, by Sylvanus Lothrop and others 1826. They later sold their interests in 1834. The mill, constructed for the exclusive use of Juniata blooms, was extended to manufacture iron by the puddling and boiling process, and was the first boiling furnace erected in Allegheny county. Here, too, was also erected the first coffee-mill squeezer. The manufacture of iron, nails, and steel of the lowest grade was successfully carried on until the year 1859, when it was sold to Reis, Brown and Berger, and James Ward, and who dismantled the works and removed the machinery to Niles, Ohio. (From: Recollections of Seventy Years, by Judge John E. Parke, who died in Allegheny City on April 22, 1885, aged 78 years.)

Elizabeth Furnace, Niles, Trumbull County OH. One stack 65 x 14 1/2, built in 1850. Out of blast 1874. Owned by James Ward & Co. Neshannock Furnace No.1 (ca.1850-1862) and Neshannock Furnace No. 2, (ca.1872- ? ), New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. One stack, 60 x 16, built in 1872; first put in operation December 1, 1872; closed top; three Whitwell stoves, each 60 x 17; fuel, coke; ore, Lake Superior; product, mill pig iron; annual capacity, 40,000 net tons.

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Rosena, Sophia and Little Pet Furnaces, estate of William H. Brown, New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Three stacks: Rosena Furnace, 77 x 20, built in 1872, and first put into blast in June, 1873 until circa 1880; Sophia Furnace, 65 x 16, built in 1872; Little Pet Furnace, 40 x 9, built in 1853; fuel, coke; combined annual capacity, 40,000 net tons.

Shenango Furnace, W. Middlesex, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Two stacks, each 46 x 10, built in 1859; open tops; fuel, raw coal; combined capacity, 17,000 net tons.

Also, Shenango Iron Works Rolling Mill, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Built in 1848; 27 single puddling furnaces, 9 heating furnaces, 5 trains of rolls, 55 nail machines; product, bars, light T rails, sheets, bands, wrought spikes, and nails; annual capacity, 15,000 net tons.

Clara Furnace, New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. One stack, 69 x 15 1/2, built in 1872; put in blast in Mary 1872; closed top; annual capacity, 20,000 net tons; product, Bessemer pig iron.

New Castle Iron Works, Lawrence Co (From: The Pennsylvania Iron Furnace Source Book A Tribute to the Iron Masters and Iron Workers that built and keep in-blast the old Stone Blast Furnaces of Pennsylvania. by Raymond A. Washlaski, Web Master & Ryan P. Washlaski, Virtual Museum of Pennsylvania Iron Furnaces & Iron Works A Publication of the 19th Century Society of Pennsylvania, Updated Aug. 25, 2001; and: (Directory to the Iron and Steel Works of the United States,. Published by The American Iron and Steel Association, September 1, 1878)

Finally, the firm of W. H. Brown Sons was organized, its members: Captain Samuel S. Brown, James H. Brown, Charles S. Brown, and W. Harry Brown. At the time of the death of James H Brown on July 9, 1882, at 38 years old; Captain Samuel S. and W. Harry Brown purchased the interests of the other brother, Charles S., and carried on the business under the firm name W. H. Brown Sons. Charles S. Brown died 3 years later on March 14, 1885, at 32 years old.

The brothers Sam and Harry continued to grow the business and in 1880, five years after the death of W. H. Brown, they shipped over 12,000,000 bushels of coal with a value of $2.1 million or $46 million today. In 1889, the firm had five tugs and fourteen steamboats to power its fleet of over one thousand boats, barges and flats, and five fully equipped coal carrying railroads.

By the close of the century in 1899, the brothers Sam and Harry merged W. H. Brown Sons with other coal operators to create the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, known as the "River Combine," or simply the "Combine." (from: Inland Waterways Commission, Preliminary Report, 1908, p.115) The "Combine" included the holdings of all former independent owners and operators in the Pittsburgh district except for a few who continued as independents "in defiance of monopolies." Those entering the "Combine" received either stock or cash or both and all agreed to not reenter the local coal business in any form for ten years and not to promote local river interests over "those of local railroads."

Captain Samuel S. Brown became the new firm's Master of Transportation and served in that capacity without ever taking any salary until his death in 1905.

This consolidation was part of a general trend of the time towards industrial integration which was paved in part by destructive competitive practices that had characterized the coal business for decades.

Railroad competition was also a significant factor. (From Pittsburgh of Today, The Pittsburgh Coal Industry) 30

The immediate effect of the "Combine" was to stimulate river coal traffic and stabilize mining in the Pittsburgh district. The river fleet was updated with new ships and barges. (From: Waterways Journal, June 1, 1907) In 1907, Combine towing capacity was over 17 million tons, almost double the annual average for the five years preceding its formation. In 1906, the combine owned and operated 80 towboats and steamers and about four thousand coal boats, barges and other craft representing an aggregate capacity of 2,785,000 tons. (From: Waterways Journal, October 19,1907; and, "Transportation on the Ohio River System," U.S. War Department Bulletin, 1927.)

In less than ten years, the long distance coal trade by way of the Ohio river had virtually ended. The entire output of the Pittsburgh district was needed to fuel the needs at local industries and home factories, mills and furnaces. Lower Mississippi points began pulling fuel supplies from southern and midwest coal mines. Soon the great fleet of the Combine was sold and disposed of and the business merged into that of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. (From: The Coal Trade, Transportation in the Ohio Valley; and, Transportation on the Ohio River System, U.S. War Department Bulletin, 1927)

Finally, we can say with certainty that W. H. Brown was and is an important figure in American history.

His influence on the growth of the coal and coke industry as well as that of steamboat transportation was crucial in the later development of the American industrial revolution and especially the steel industry. He worked hard, invested well and achieve great wealth while maintaining the respect of his peers. Yet for some reason his significant accomplishments are generally overlooked even in the history of his hometown of Pittsburgh. It is now time to set the record straight.

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FAMILY ORIGINS & ANCESTORS - The James Brown Family James Brown, is the father of William Hughey and Peter Brown and a founder of the Brown family in America. He is of Scots-Irish decent with some historical records saying James or his parents came from Ireland, other accounts say Scotland. All note the family's protestant heritage linking them to the historical movement of Scots Presbyterians back and forth between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

James was born on May 3, 1787, by various accounts in either Ireland (McKnight, 1917) or eastern PA (Kate M. Scott, 1888). One account says that he was brought to Pittsburgh, PA in 1792, at the age of five, by his widowed mother (no name given) and that she then married a Mr. McKinney, by whom she had also had two sons, Hugh and Daniel McKinney (more about the McKinneys is presented later). There is no evidence of this and the later births of James Brown's siblings with the last name of Brown refutes this. Mother Brown (actually Margaret Oliver Brown, the wife of David Brown) was probably returning from visiting family in Franklin county in a party led by or including Mr. McKInney and sons who could have been family friends, neighbors or cousins. We know from the genealogical record of Judge Steele that the parents of James Brown were David and Margaret Oliver Brown of New Alexandria, Salem township, Westmoreland county.

James Brown died on September 13, 1864, at the home of his son Henry, in Bells Mills, Jefferson county, PA, where he spent the last years of his life. There is conflicting evidence about James date of death. One source says James died on September 13, 1861. (McKnight, 1917) Another quotes his son, Henry Brown, as saying James died in 1864, at the age of seventy-seven years. (Scott, 1888) Most likely is the 1861 date shown on the headstone of James Brown now in the Brown family plot in Circle Hill cemetery in Punxsutawney, PA. He was 77 years old when he died and was first buried in Mount Pleasant cemetery in Gaskill township, Jefferson county. He was later moved and reburied with the Henry Brown family in Circle Hill Cemetery in Punxsutawney, PA James' wife, Mary Sarah Hughey, was born circa 1785, we know not where. Sarah died on July 11, 1837, at age 52 years and some months when James was 50 years old.

James and Sarah were married circa 1810 and were the parents of nine children: Sarah, born March 11, 1811, married May 5, 1836 to Samuel Whitcraft; Andrew, born January 17, 1813, married Delila Johnston and settled in Keokuk, Iowa; William Hughey, born January 12, 1815, married September 3, 1840 to Mary Smith; James, born March 25, 1817, married January 20, 1842 to Catherine Torner; John, born March 3, 1819, married January 9, 1840 to Barbara Dunmire; Henry, born May 21, 1821, married in 1852 to Miss Catharine Fisher; Peter, born Jan. 3, 1823, married June 21, 1847 to Claranna Jane McCauley; Margaret, born Feb. 15, 1825, married August 1, 1848 to Alexander Duff; Mary Ann, born Dec. 8, 1826, married December 22, 1846 to Robert Duff.

The account of his son Henry, says James was born and raised in eastern PA (Kate M. Scott, 1888). Histories of the families of James' brother, John Brown, place the location in Franklin county, PA (Old and New Westmoreland). This would mean that James came to the Pittsburgh area from there either with his mother at age five, as stated above, or later in life.

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We assume that James and Sarah married in 1810, some time prior to the March, 1811 birth date of their first child, Sarah. We do not know the location of their marriage or where James met Sarah. The meeting and marriage could have occurred in Franklin county or in western PA. We do know that at some time prior to 1815, James and Sarah settled in North Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county, PA. This is confirmed by birth date and location of their son William H. reported in several historical references.

We also know that James and Sarah lived and raised their family on properties primarily in Westmoreland county, PA from at least 1815 until 1823, when their youngest son Peter was born there. We do not know where the family was living in 1825 or 1826 when their daughters Margaret and Mary Ann were born. However, it is most likely that the family is still residing on the farm near Irwin, in Westmoreland county.

Henry Brown places the family farm in North Huntingdon township, near Jacksonville (later Jacktown) in Westmoreland county on Brush Creek (Kate M. Scott). He noted to local historians that his earliest recollections were of Westmoreland county on Brush Creek. Brush Creek runs from Harrison City, where it is fed by Bushy Run, on a winding westerly path through Westmoreland county and the towns of Irwin and Larimer in Huntingdon Township until it links with Turtle Creek at Trafford, Westmoreland county, PA. Land holdings shown on historic maps of North Huntingdon Township in Westmoreland County also place James Brown's land/farm holdings near coal out- crops there. Also, James Brown had land holdings in nearby Salem township in Westmoreland county.

The 1867 Map of North Huntingdon Township in Westmoreland County Pennsylvania shows James Brown properties (marked in RED) on either side of a major coal outcrop just west of Irwin Station with Larimers Station to the north and Jacksonville (now Jacktown) to the south. Later maps show this area as Brownstown and today Brownstown Road runs through this property north-south between Larimer and US Route 30 (the Lincoln Highway) at Circleville.

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North Huntingdon township was one of the original townships of Westmoreland County organized in 1773. It is bisected east-west by early Indian trails: the Nemacolin Trail that in 1755 became General Braddock's Road to Fort Duquesne; the Allegheny-Laurel Hill Trail a part of the road General Forbes' army used in 1758; and other lesser trails and pathways. The principle waterway is Brush Creek that winds across the middle of the township connecting with Turtle Creek at the north. The area has an abundance of bituminous coal from the famous Pittsburgh seam. Until 1852, the chief industry was agriculture. In 1852, the first railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, was built connecting eastern and western Pennsylvania and was routed through North Huntingdon township. (From: Old and New Westmoreland,Vols. 1-4, by John N. Boucher, 1918)

The first McKinney in western Pennsylvania was Alexander McKinney who was born circa 1716 in Ireland. In 1753, Alexander was living in Cumberland, Pennsylvania and married a Nancy Ann Dickey (born in 1722 and died in 1790). Later they were in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland county and likely friends of the Brown family.

Their son, Hugh was born in 1759. It is likely that Hugh traveled east to trade or visit family and returned in a party that included Margaret Oliver Brown, wife of David Brown, of New Alexandria, Salem township, Westmoreland county, the parents of our James Brown. (From: History of Westmoreland County Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III, Edited by, John W. Jordan, 1906)

In 1789, Hugh McKinney warranted 70 acres of land in the area of Ardara on what is now Skellytown Road, Irwin, PA. The parcel was surveyed in 1806 and the deed was then patented to John Kelly. On the left of Skellytown Road is Leger Road which can be followed south to the 'Old Brush Creek' Cemetery. This is where the McKinney's rest. Courtney, PA is the area where Hugh's son, also Hugh McKinney, and his wife Delilah resided, in Union Township, Washington County. They are in the 1850 - 1870 census. Hugh was with the Advance Lodge, No. 697, of the I. O. O. F. as a charter member. This lodge was located in Coal Bluff. Coal Bluff and Limestown are long gone. A coal-fired power generating plant has a large ash dump where the McKinney homestead was located. The 1861 Washington County map for Union Township has H. Mc Kinney on the bluff up river from Limestown. Hugh was in the coal business. There is no reference to Hugh Mc Kinney in the 1870 atlas. The son, Hugh's birth year range was 1800 - 1805. As to the brothers McKinney, at least one brother is at rest in the Monongahela cemetery in Monongahela. (From: History of Allegheny County) Among the first to settle here was Colonel John Irwin of Ireland who was with the British army at Fort Pitt and married the fort commander's daughter in 1766. In 1769, the first year the land of western Pennsylvania was opened to purchase by the Penn government, Irwin bought a large tract of land on the highest crest of land south of Brush Creek that became known as Jacksonville and then simply Jacktown.

Here he traded furs with the Indians. (From: History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, by John N. Boucher, 1906)

Reading Howell's 1792 Map of Westmoreland County shows that Browns also held property (marked in red) on the north side of the Youghiogheny river south of Irwin's property.

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In 1791 with the opening of the Greensburg to Pittsburgh road, Jacktown attracted more settlers, became a village and a stagecoach stop with a hotel. In 1810, crude wagons, Conestoga Wagons, stage coaches, horse and foot traffic rumbled over narrow dirt roads hauling people, freight and the mail. The Jacktown Hotel was popular stopping point. The stage coach schedule shows it leaving Pittsburgh at 5 a.m., stopping at Jacktown four hours later to change horses, load mail and passengers, then on to the next stops all the way to Philadelphia which required 56 hours for the trip and cost $20. The coach drivers were the idols of young boys of the day for their ability to drive their teams with precision and daring. "It is said that the experienced drivers could 'flick' a fly off the neck of the lead horse with their long whip lash, without exciting the horse." (From: The Diamond, The History of Irwin, by Rev. E. M. Dietrich) The modern history of Irwin really begins with the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1852. A rail station was soon built and in the summer of 1864, sixty residents of the area signed a petition for a charter for the town of Irwin, Pennsylvania. James Brown was one of the signers.

James Brown properties, on the 1867 map of North Huntingdon Township, are located outside of Irwin, near the main roadway at Jacktown. These locations also match with son Henry Brown's report of his early life on Brush Creek near Jacksonville. Here W. H. Brown and his siblings were born and raised on his father's farm, working the land and attending school in their early years. These properties also would give W. H. ready access to coal for mining and delivery to Pittsburgh just 18 miles away.

History says that W. H. Brown was educated in the public schools in the neighborhood of his home and that he "had an education sufficient to lift him out of the ranks of the unlettered." It is noteworthy that the first school in Huntingdon Township was established in 1782. On the map of North Huntingdon township, School House No. 1 (marked: S.H. No. 1) is about 1 mile from James Brown's property, just above Larimer Station. This school, also known as the Birch Spring School, is likely where W. H. got his education although after the enactment of the school law of 1834, the number of schools in the county increased rapidly.

The account of son Henry, notes that in 1831, James and Sarah relocated with their family from the North Huntingdon township farm to another property at Warren's Rest or Warren's Sleeping Place (the name given to this area in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784). The place was also known as Warren's Log or simply Warren named after a Native American trader living in the area named Edward Warren. The name was changed to Apollo in 1848. Today, it is the Borough of Apollo, Kiskiminitas township which was then in Westmoreland county and now is in Armstrong county, PA. At that time of the move, the ages of family members were: James, the father, 44; Sarah, the mother, 46; daughter Sarah 20; son Andrew 18; son William H. 16; son James 14; son John 12; son Henry 10; son Peter 8; daughter Margaret 6; and daughter Mary Ann 5.

In the Armstrong County Atlas for 1877, there is a J. Brown residence near the Methodist Church. The plan of lots page for Apollo is pre-railroad (before the Civil War) showing the PA Mainline Canal. James moved his family about the time of the Canal start-up, probably to work on the Canal or in a supporting business. James' wife, Sara Brown died on July 11, 1837 and may be at rest in the old Presbyterian Church Yard cemetery (abandoned long ago) in Apollo.

Other historic map evidence shows that James Brown owned many properties in and around Pittsburgh and Westmoreland counties. In addition to properties in North Huntingdon and New Salem, there are 36

James Brown properties located in the Minersville area of Pittsburgh near Herron family properties; along Four Mile Creek beside the Schenley family property that would later become the city park; and, near Turtle Creek (see maps in previous section on William H. Brown).

According to Henry Brown, his father was still living at the Apollo property when Henry left the family in 1848 and moved to Bell Township, Jefferson county, PA to start in the lumber business. So, from at least 1815 to 1848, James Brown lived and owned property in Westmoreland county, PA. (All of above is from: Jefferson County, Pennsylvania - Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II, by Dr. William James McKnight, 1917, and, History of Jefferson County,

by Kate M. Scott, 1888)

Five years later, in 1836, daughter Sarah married Samuel Whitcraft and presumably move away to independent life. No more is known about the Whitcrafts.

The following year, on July 11, 1837, Sarah Brown, wife of James Brown dies at age 52 and a few months. (McKnight) James is now 50 years old with his surviving children now ranging in ages as follows: Mary Ann 11, Margaret 12, Peter 14, Henry 16, John 18, James 20, William H. 22, Andrew 24, and Sarah now 26.

Over the next 11 years, the children of James and Sarah move on to independent life. Andrew travels west and settles in Keokuk, Iowa; William H. begins to mine and ship coal on the river and marries Mary Smith in 1840; James and John marry in 1842 and 1840 respectively and start independent lives; the history of Henry Brown notes that he remained with his father's family until 1848, when he moved to Bell township, Jefferson county, to haul timber and begin his lumber business; finally Peter, Margaret and Mary Ann all married and moved on.

By 1848, James Brown is now 61 and possibly living alone although the strong family ties of the Brown leads us to believe he is well cared for by his children. In 1850, we find him at age 63 now living with his sons William H. Brown and Peter at Browns Station.

The 1850 census for Pitt Township taken on July 29, 1850, starting at line 29, dwelling Number 108, family number 110, further confirms that James is the father of W. H. Brown and siblings. The W. H. Brown and Peter Brown families along with James Brown and Elizabeth Smith (mother of W. H.'s wife Mary Smith Brown) are in Pitt Township listed as living at the same location in this census report. The census data includes the Thirteenth Ward of Pittsburgh, which was all of Pitt Township except that lying north of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It would also include Minersville and Herron Hill.

Name Wm. H. Brown Mary Brown Elizabeth Brown Sam'l James Mary Alice Wm. James Elizabeth Smith Peter Brown Jane Brown Marg't Wm.

Age 35 35 9 7 6 4 2 7/12 73 60 24 23 2 8/12

1850 Census for Pitt Township Occupation Coal merchant $1500 Real Estate

Laborer Wife Born 1849 ??

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Born Penna England Penna Penna Penna Penna Penna Penna Ireland England Penna Penna Penna Penna

It is not surprising that we find James Brown, the father of W.H. and Peter, along with Elizabeth Smith the mother of Mary Smith Brown, living under the care of the family in their old age. What is interesting on the census report is that James was born in Ireland. This conflicts with other census reports and historical records. Also, his reported age of 73 in the 1850 census is in conflict with other census records which correctly show his place and date of birth at Pennsylvania and 1787 respectively.

This information is also supported by his tombstone and the reports to historians by son Henry. Thus, the correct information for James Brown in 1850 is: 63 years old, born in Pennsylvania.

The 1862 Map of Allegheny County is also the earliest to show Peebles township and Squirrel Hill. Many of the names on the map are people buried in the Turner graveyard at the Mary S. Brown Church. This map shows that Peter Brown has a home at the Browns Station property on the Monongahela river just downriver from the "Rock Cottage" home of William Hughey Brown. We know that James Brown was living with the W. H. Brown family for a time but he is not shown on the 1862 map.

Sometime between 1850 and 1860, James settles for the remaining few years of his life with his son Henry in Jefferson county. In the 1860 US census, James Brown is recorded as living with son Henry's family. At the time his is 73 years old. This census is noteworthy as it shows James' birthplace as Pennsylvania, which would mean that he was born in the eastern part of the State, most likely Franklin County. At the time of this census, Henry has living with him, his wife, his wife's mother Catherine Fisher born in Germany, and five sons. The two others recorded are probably employees.

James Brown ultimately dies at Henry's home in Jefferson county on September 13, 1864. He was 77 years old and surrounded by a loving and caring family .

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James Brown Family - Ancestors We now know from the life of William H. Brown that he came from a good, prosperous and well respected family, with important connections to leading families of the day, which certainly facilitated and may have even propelled his business success. The middle names of his children help identify these families: Herron, Oliver, and Smith. Men from these families would have been the friends, contemporaries, business associates and even family connections of James Brown.

We can now connect and extend the lineage of James Brown to the following other relatives using more complete genealogical records of other relatives. (The following is from: Old and New Westmoreland, Vol. 3, by John Newton Boucher, published in 1918, biographical section, p 247)

Hon. John H. Brown, a Pennsylvania state senator was born on June 29, 1843, in the village of Grapeville, Hempfield township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Hempfield is adjacent to North Huntingdon township. His paternal grandfather John Brown Sr. was born in 1762, in Franklin County, PA. John Brown Sr. was a farmer in Franklin county who married a Miss Lucas (curiously, the wife of W.S. Brown was a daughter of a Rev. Valentine Lucas). Circa 1800, John Sr. and his wife moved to Sewickley township, Westmoreland county where their only child, John, Jr. was born on June 16, 1806. Sewickley township is just below Huntingdon township.

After the death of his first wife, John Sr. married a Miss Carlisle and they raised many children in a prosperous family. John Sr. died in 1858 at the age of 96. His obituary noted that, "One of his nephews was the late William H. Brown, the well-known coal operator on the Monongahela River." (From: Old and New Westmoreland) More correctly, James Brown, the father of William H. Brown, is the nephew of John Brown Sr. This would match with the reports of James Brown living in eastern Pennsylvania before coming west to Huntingdon township.

The map below shows late 1700s Pennsylvania counties prior to divisions that carved out the additional counties we know today. Franklin and Westmoreland counties are marked in red as is the main road

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from Philadelphia and Lancaster west to Pittsburgh. This shows the migration route that would have been followed by James Brown and other family members.

The next map shows the townships of Westmoreland county in 1867 The main road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh is shown in Yellow.

John Brown, Jr., father of Hon. John H. Brown (both cousins of W. H. and Peter), was born in 1806, at Sewickley township. He first learned the trade of blacksmithing and followed that buying horses and sheep and driving them to the eastern markets. In 1854, he abandoned this trade for a mercantile business operating a general store under the name of Brown and Rankin. John Jr., married Elizabeth Painter on October, 23, 1828. Elizabeth Painter Brown was the granddaughter of John Painter of Mecklenburg, Germany, who emigrated to Westmoreland county, PA circa 1778. Elizabeth's father was Tobias Painter who married Elizabeth Lobinger, daughter of Hon. Christofer Lobinger who was a member of the US Constitutional Convention of 1776 and member of Pennsylvania legislature from 1791 to 1793. He was a member of the Reformed Church and was twice commissioned by the Governor of Pennsylvania as captain of the Adamsburg Blues regiment. John Brown, Jr. died on July 18, 1877, at 72 years old.

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Hon. John H. Brown, son of John Jr. and Elizabeth Painter Brown, was born on June 29, 1843 in Grapeville. He worked in his father's store in 1857. In 1867, he established the Grapeville post office and was post master for many years. John H. Brown was also a school director, chairman of the Republican county committee in 1891 and 1893, was elected to the State Senate in 1892 and reelected in 1896. In 1901, he was appointed county controller for Westmoreland county and reelected for one term. John H. Brown married Miss McCartney of Columbus, IN and they had six children: Preston Wayne; Blanche Rose Gordon; Walter; Mary Brown and two who died in infancy.

(The above information regarding the John Brown family is from: Old and New Westmoreland, Vol III, by John Newton Boucher, 1918)

Thus, the lineage would be: 

John H. Brown, Sr. (uncle of James Brown and thus W.H. Brown and siblings) Born 1765, Franklin County, PA Farmer Died 1858, 93 years old Married Miss Lucas, mother of John, Jr. Married Miss Carlisle, mother of several children - "numerous & prosperous family" o

John H. Brown, Jr. (cousin of James and thus W. H. Brown and siblings) Born June 16,1806, Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County Blacksmith/horse & sheep trader/later mercantile business of Brown & Rankin Died July 18, 1877.

Married Elizabeth Painter six children o

Hon. John H. Brown (cousin of W. H. Brown and siblings) Born June 29,1843 Grapeville, Westmoreland County buried Died 1904 in Old Brush Creek Cemetery in Hempfield Township with other Browns, not far from the North Huntingdon-Hempfield border.

He was a PA state senator.

Now to extend our family tree back in time, we must look for Franklin County connections to James and John Brown. Fortunately, we can do this with the family records of another of our relatives, Judge John B. Steel, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, the first president judge of the Separate Orphans' Court of Westmoreland county.

Judge Steel (1861-1920) is the oldest son of William Steel and Sarah Jane Brown Steel whose father is a nephew of John H. Brown, Sr. and James Brown, the father of William Hughey Brown. The family tree of Judge Steel is well documented and was recorded in his biography. (From: Old and New Westmoreland, Vol. 3, 1918; and the History of Westmoreland County Pennsylvania — Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II, Edited by John W. Jordan, 1906)

The family tree of Judge Steel extends our knowledge of our own Brown family tree as follows, beginning with: Matthew Brown, came from Scotland and emigrated to Ireland in the early 17th century as part of settlements that were part of the Plantation of Ulster created by King James I. This was scheme to confiscate the lands of Gaelic Irish nobility in Ulster and to settle the province with Protestant Scottish and English colonists. Under this plan, Matthew Brown settled on confiscated land southwest of Ulster. He was a captain in Colonel George Walker's Derry regiment of Protestants, which served courageously at the siege of Londonderry and at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. These battles were fought between rival claimants to the English, Scottish and Irish thrones. On one side was Catholic King James II and his Jacobite army fighting against the Protestant forces of William III and his wife Mary II who was also King James' daughter. The 41

Protestant forces won. Family legend says that Matthew Brown's sword did service at Battle of Bothwell bridge in Scotland (1679) and at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (1690) where it was last drawn in defense of Protestant liberty. It was preserved as a family relic by Howard and William Brown, of Pittsburgh, two of his descendants.

Battle of the Boyne 1690

A son of Matthew Brown is John Brown of Priest Hill, known as "the pious carrier" or "Christian carrier" of Muirkirk parish, Ayrshire, Scotland. John Brown was captured by Graham of Claverhouse and his troops in 1685, and ordered to take the oath of conformity (allegiance). John Brown refused to make the oath and Claverhouse told him to say his prayers because he had only a few minutes to live. John prayed aloud with such power that when Claverhouse ordered his men to shoot him they refused. Claverhouse then drew his pistol and blew his brains out. He then turned to John Brown's widow and said, "What thinkest thou of thy husband now?" She answered, "I ever thought meikle (much) of him, but never so meikle (much) as I do this day." Claverhouse then said, "It were but justice to lay thee beside him." The widow Brown responded, "If you were permitted, I doubt not but your cruelty would go that length; but how will you answer for this morning’s work?" "To man I can be answerable, and as for God I will take him into my own hand," he replied and rode away. Mrs. Brown then laid down her child, tied up her husband’s head with her apron, stretched out his limbs, covered him Poem engraved on the tomb of John Brown

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with her plaid, and sat down and wept long and bitterly. Without means, without a friend to help, and liable to be persecuted, she was at her wit’s end. But God cared for her and removed her to Ireland, where she found friends, and where she married again. John Brown’s sons were James and John.

This is nice mythology, but in fact Claverhouse had evidence against Brown and legal reason to execute him.

There is no disputing the piety of John Brown. He was a devote and charismatic Scottish Presbyterian preacher who had fought against the government at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. When Claverhouse captured him, his house was searched and "bullets, match and treasonable documents were found. He was offered the chance to take the Oath of Abjuration (allegiance to the King) but refused. At the time, failure to take the Oath was a capital offense of high treason, which John Brown well knew. (From: The History of John Brown of Priesthill: commonly called the Christian carrier, who was murdered by the bloody Claverhouse, by James Brydone, 1839; John Graham of Claverhouse, viscount of Dundee, 1648-1689, by Charles S. Terry, 1905; and, Memorials and letters illustrative of life and times of John Graham of Claverhouse, viscount Dundee, by Mark Napier, 1859)

Next in our family line are James Brown, John Brown and another brother (name unknown). We know that both of James and John came to America about 1720. James settled near Swatara creek, subsequently Hanover township, in the Blue mountains (Brown's Fort). John settled in Paxtang, Dauphin county, PA. James Brown was killed in an Indian attack in 1756 (more on this later). John Brown was the father of William Brown of Paxtang. James Brown was the father of Captain William Brown of Hanover.

William Brown, of Paxtang in Dauphin county, PA, must be distinguish from Captain William Brown, of Hanover, a cousin who is the son of James Brown. William of Paxtang was born on June 30, 1720, and was zealous Covenantor and a prominent leader on the provincial frontier and in the Revolutionary times. At his own expense, he visited Ireland and Scotland to procure a supply of ministers for local congregations. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1776, and during its sessions proposed the gradual emancipation of slaves within the Commonwealth, a measure not very favorably received at the time, but which four years afterwards was enacted into a law. He served again in the Assembly in 1784, and was a member of the Board of Property in 1785. In 1786, he was appointed one of the commissioners for the donation land lottery. The Donation Land program was used by the Commonwealth to induce men to stay in service during the Revolutionary War. Each Pennsylvania Line soldier and officer who served in the Continental forces until the end of the war was to receive a bounty, or donation, of a tract of land consisting of 200, 250, 350 or 500 acres, the size of the tract to be based upon his rank. The Donation Land area was located north and west of the Allegheny River, including parts of the counties of Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, Mercer, Venango and Warren. The tracts were distributed by a lottery system. William Brown died on October 10, 1787, and is buried in the Paxtang church graveyard. He was not only an active, earnest and public-spirited Christian of unquestioned piety, but as a neighbor and citizen he was generous and kind-hearted, which insured his respect and won friendship. William Brown had no children, but adopted and cared for his distinguished nephew, Rev. Matthew Brown, LL.D., the future president of Washington and Jefferson College. (From: Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County Pennsylvania, 1898)

Captain William Brown was born in 1733, on the Swatara, in what was subsequently Hanover township. The name of his father was James Brown who came with his brother John from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1720.

Captain William was educated at the school of Rev. John Blair, became quite prominent on the frontiers, and was an officer in Rev. Colonel Elder’s battalion of rangers during the French and Indian war. He was one of the developers of the Hanover Resolves of June 4, 1774, protesting the actions of Great Britain toward the colonies and forming a revolutionary committee. He recruited a company of men, and was in active service during the New Jersey campaign of 1776, as well in and around Philadelphia in 1777 and 1778. In 1779 he commanded a company of rangers in the expedition to the West Branch of the Susquahanna river against the Indians and Tories, who were threatening the exposed frontiers. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania 43

convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, but did not sign the ratification. He was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90, and under that instrument represented his county in the Legislature in 1792 and 1793. He was chosen one of the Presidential electors in 1797, voting for Mr. Jefferson.

Captain Brown died July 20, 1808, at the age of seventy-five. The 1771 will of Captain William Brown of Dauphin County/Hanover County/York County, PA, indicates that he had six children: Mary, Ann, Molly, William, John and James. (From: Abstracts of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Wills) Matthew Brown was the great grandson of Matthew Brown of Ireland mentioned above. He was born in January 1776 in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. His father, also named Matthew Brown, was born in 1732 and was an early settler of White Deer Valley in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania and was a soldier in the American Revolution. After his father's death, young Matthew and his brother were adopted by their father's brother, William Brown, of the Paxtang settlement on the Susquehanna river in what is now Dauphin County, PA. (From: Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1893)

Matthew Brown graduated from Dickinson College in 1794 and taught in a classical school in Northumberland county. In 1796, he began to study Rev. Dr. Matthew Brown theology and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Carlisle on October 3, 1799. He was a prominent Presbyterian minister serving in churches in Mifflin, Pennsylvania and Lost Creek in the Presbytery of Huntingdon. In 1805 he was the first pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Washington, Pennsylvania. From 1806 to 1817 he was the president of Washington College and from 1822 to 1845 he was the president of Jefferson College serving at both for 40 years. Next to John McMillan, Matthew Brown was the most important figure in education in Western Pennsylvania. (From: Banners in the Wilderness: The Early Years of Washington and Jefferson College, by Helen T. W. Coleman, 1956)

A second Matthew Brown of the same time period was also a great grandson of Matthew Brown of Ireland mentioned above. This second Matthew Brown is the great grandfather of Judge Steel, William H. Brown and Peter Brown. He is also the grandfather of James Brown and the cousin of Rev. Dr. Matthew Brown president of Washington and Jefferson Colleges. His father, name unknown, was a brother of James Brown of Brown's Fort, and William Brown of Paxtang. Matthew left County Donegal, Ireland, with his family sailing for America and landing at New Castle, Delaware, December 13, 1773. Matthew Brown settled at Greencastle, Franklin county, Old Brown's School Pennsylvania. Greencastle’s first settlers were mainly Scotch-Irish who Greencastle, PA made their way to the Conococheague Settlement in the early 1730’s.

The area was considered part of Lancaster County until 1741, and included all of present-day Franklin County.

John Allison, a colonel in the Cumberland County militia, founded the town of Greencastle in 1782. The Old Brown’s Mill School in the village of Kauffman stands as a monument to all the one-room schools dotting Franklin County in its early years. The residents of the Brown’s Mill area, raised $400 to build the school in 1836. It served the community for 85 years. The schoolhouse later fell into disrepair until in 1934, the Old Brown’s Mill School Memorial Association was formed to restore the building. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission acquired it in 1962. The Old Brown’s Mill School Museum is open to the public and houses pictures, furniture, books, records, relics, and other mementos of the school’s history. The adjacent cemetery contains the graves of many of the area’s early settlers including 17 Revolutionary War veterans.

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Matthew Brown died and was buried in Greencastle, leaving five children who survived him including: John Brown, Sr., mentioned above.

Andrew Brown, lived first in Butler county, Pennsylvania; sold his farm there and bought a mill at Nicholson Falls, at the Allegheny river, then moved to Kittanning, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, where a part of his descendants reside.

Samuel Brown, said to have moved to Virginia.

Mary Brown, married with James Watt of Greencastle, Franklin county, Pennsylvania.

David Brown (great grandfather of Judge Steel, father of James Brown who is the father of William H. and Peter Brown) was born July 13, 1758, and died January 23, 1841. He came to this country with his parents from Ireland and took the oath of allegiance before Humphrey Fullerton, a justice of Franklin county, the original certificate of which is still in the possession of the family. In 1801 or 1802, David Brown purchased a farm, now known as the Brown homestead, at the mouth of the White-Thorn run, near New Alexandria, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, owned in 1909 by his descendant John Oliver Brown.

Margaret Oliver Brown, wife of David Brown (above), and mother of James Brown who is the father of William H. and Peter Brown, was connected with other members of the Oliver family in York county and western Pennsylvania. Margaret's mother was a daughter of the Rev. Henry Erskine, of Cornhill England, one of the founders of the Secession church, and Marian Halcro, of Orkney, Denmark.

James V, King of Scotland

Marian Halcro's father was descended from Halcro, Prince of Denmark. Her great-grandmother was Lady Stewart, daughter of Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, and son of James V, King of Scotland from 1513 to 1542. James wife and queen was Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, King of England.

Henry VII, King of England

Marian Halcro, great grandmother of James Brown who is the father of William H. and Peter Brown, was also the heroine of a true family story (still told by her descendants and well authenticated) of an escape from premature burial. Marian apparently died and was sent to an undertaker for preparation for burial. He noticed that she was wearing a valuable ring. Ultimately, Marion was saved from a horrible death, because of the greed of the undertaker, who opened her grave the night of the burial to get the ring. Finding it could not be removed from the finger, he took his knife and attempted to sever the finger. To his horror and surprise blood flowed freely from the cut, and he fled in terror from the graveyard. Marion, awakened from a trance mistaken for death, regained consciousness, freed herself from her coffin and grave and made her way to her home. Here she was received indeed “as one from the dead”.

Rev. Henry Erskine (1624–1696), husband of Marion Halcro and great grandfather of James Brown who is the father of William H. and Peter Brown, was a Scottish Presbyterian minister whose actions, along with those of his sons, were the roots of the Secession Church which withdrew from the Church of Scotland and would eventually evolve into the United Presbyterian Church that exists today. Those who took part formed the Associate Presbytery 45

and later the United Secession Church. They were often referred to as "seceders." Henry Erskine was born at Dryburgh, a village on the eastern edge of the Scottish Borders region in the parish of Mertoun, Berwickshire. He was a grandson of Ralph Erskine of Shielfield, a member of the family of the Earl of Mar. Henry Erskine was ordained in the Church of England in 1649 and his first church was at Cornhill-on-Tweed, in Northumberland, the most northeastern district of England on the border with Scotland. He was ejected from this church by the Act of Uniformity 1662. This was an Act of the Parliament of England that prescribed the form of public prayers, administration of sacraments, and other rites of the Established Church of England. Adherence to this was required in order to hold any office in government or the church, although the edition of the Book of Common Prayer prescribed by the Act (1662) was so new that most people had never even seen a copy.

Henry, having not been paid, went to London to petition the king; but after a delay he was told that unless he would conform he would get nothing. Henry next lived for awhile with his brother and from time to time he exercised his ministry in a quiet way, until arousing the suspicion of one Urquhart of Meldrum, a soldier who scoured the country to put down conventicles. A conventicle is a small, unofficial and unofficiated meeting of laypeople, to discuss religious issues in a non-threatening, intimate manner. Conventicles were banned by an act of parliament which aimed to discourage non-conformism and strengthen the position of the established Church of England.

Henry was summoned to appear before a committee of the privy council. Being asked by Sir George Mackenzie, Lord Advocate, whether he would agree to preach no more in conventicles, he refused to answer. He was ordered to pay a fine and to be imprisoned until he would promise to preach no more. Being in poor health he petitioned that the sentence might be changed to banishment from the kingdom. This was allowed, and he settled in Scotland on the border with England. Apprehended again, Henry was imprisoned at Newcastle, but after his release in 1685, the king's indulgence enabled him to continue his ministry without molestation. He was the minister of Chirnside, a hillside village in Berwickshire on the coast of southeastern Scotland when he died in 1696, at the age of 72. It is said that when he could not feed his children a dinner he would give them a tune on his zither.

Henry Erskine married twice: first, in 1653, to a lady of whom little is known, and again to Margaret Halcro. Sons, Ralph and Ebenezer, were children of the second marriage.

Ebenezer Erskine

Ebenezer Erskine (22 June 1680 – 2 June 1754), son of Henry Erskine, was a Scottish minister ordained in 1703 whose actions led to the establishment of the Secession Church. Ebenezer was profoundly affected by the Church of England's punishment of his father. At the General Assembly of 1722, a group of men including Ebenezer were rebuked and admonished for defending the doctrines contained in the book The Marrow of Modern Divinity. In 1733, a sermon he preached led to new accusations against him. He was compelled to defend himself from rebuke by appealing to the General Assembly, but the Assembly supported his accusers. After fruitless attempts to obtain a hearing, he, along with other ministers were suspended from the ministry. In protest against this sentence, the suspended ministers constituted themselves as a separate church under the name the "Associate Presbytery".

Ebenezer Erskine was an uncle of Margaret Oliver Brown. Erskine College, South Carolina's first private Christian college located in Due West, South Carolina, is named for Ebenezer Erskine. Through this Erskine branch we can

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extend our family tree back to the 1200s and find many more remarkable connections and family stories. But, for now, back to our Brown family tree.

David Brown and Margaret Oliver Brown had six children, three sons and also three daughters: Mary Brown Alexander (Mrs. Nathaniel Alexander) Allegheny township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; Thomas Oliver Brown born February 15, 1800, and died June 8, 1866; married (first) Nancy Beattie, born 1800, died November 8, 1839, a sister of Maria Beattie, wife of David Brown mentioned below.

Elizabeth Brown Galley (Mrs. Thomas Galley) Clarksburg, Pennsylvania; David Brown, married Maria Beattie, Salem township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; Margaret Brown Coleman (Mrs. John M. Coleman) Elders Ridge Pennsylvania; James Brown, the father of William Hughey Brown and Peter Brown.

David Brown and his wife Margaret Oliver Brown are buried in the New Alexandria church-yard, where he and his family were members; and his property was divided between his sons. Thomas Oliver and James Brown.

New Alexandria is in Westmoreland County, PA on US Route 22 (William Penn Highway) midway between Pittsburgh and Johnstown. It was settled in 1800 as a stagecoach stop. (From: History of Westmoreland County Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III, Edited by, John W. Jordan, 1906)

Thomas Oliver Brown is the father of Sarah Jane Brown, the mother of Judge Steel and the niece of James Brown. Thomas Oliver Brown was married to Nancy Beattie Brown and their children were: Martha Welsh, married to Major D. P. Marshall, Arkansas: David Oliver Brown, married Mary Stewart, Saltsburg, Pa.; Sarah Jane Brown, married William Steel; Margaret Erskine Brown, married with John Elder, Derry township, Westmoreland county, Pa.; Nancy A. Brown, married Henry Seanor, of Winfield, Kansas; Mary Elizabeth Brown, married James Monroe, of Saltsburg, Pa.; Thomas Oliver Brown is buried in the Reformed Presbyterian churchyard at New Alexandria, Pa. William Steel, the father of Judge Steel, was born October 1, 1833, and was married to Sarah Jane Brown, April 3, 1860. He was an owner of valuable real estate and coal lands, was identified with farming and stock raising. He was a pioneer in the rearing of shorthorn cattle, and one of western Pennsylvania’s foremost importers and breeders of pure bred draft horses. William and Sarah Jane Brown Steel lived at a Hannastown farm, in Salem and Hempfield townships, Westmoreland county. Their children are: Hon. John B. Steel, of Greensburg, Pa.; Mary Herron Steel, married George Coleman, East End Pittsburgh; Eliza Martha Steel, married Samuel C. Patterson, New Alexandria, Pa.; Agnes Beatty Steel, married George S. Barnhart, Greensburg, Pa.; Helen Milligan Steel married Samuel C. Hugus, New Alexandria, Pa. ; Margaret Elder Steel, married Samuel B. Moore, Latrobe, Pa.; Clara Malinda Steel, unmarried; William Oliver Steel, deceased; Joseph Walker Steel; Sarah Jane Steel, unmarried; and Henrietta Marie Steel, married L. A. Nichols, of Wilkinsburg, Pa.

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Judge John B. Steel was a self-made man, worked on the family farm, and attended district schools during his early life, and later entered Geneva College as a classical student and graduated in 1885. He read law with Judge James A. Hunter and was admitted to practice in the courts of Westmoreland county in 1888. In 1889, he formed the law firm of McCullough and Steel with former congressman Welty McCullough. He was always a staunch Republican, and for many years was a leader of his party. He was the chairman of the Republican organization in 1894 and was the candidate of the Republican party for president judge of the court of common pleas in 1899, but was defeated. Later he was a candidate for congress and was also elected by the Republican state convention as a delegate at large to the Republican national convention that selected McKinley and Roosevelt.

On the creation of the Separate Orphans’ court in Westmoreland county in 1901, Judge Steel was appointed president judge. In 1902, he was elected to this judgeship for a ten year term. Judge Steel was a trustee of the First Presbyterian church of Greensburg, Pennsylvania; he also helped to organize and was a director in a number of the leading banks in Westmoreland county; and, he was the owner of coal lands and mines in Washington and Westmoreland counties.

Now, based on the information presented above, we can extend our Brown family tree back in time. This tree is presented on the first page of Brown family trees at the front of this book.

James Brown - Solving the Mystery Despite all we now know about our family tree, there is little recorded family history about the life story of our ancestor in the middle, James Brown. We have found evidence of his family connections but lack a specific historical record about other aspects of his life: his business accomplishments, social activities, engagement in the community, or his friends and acquaintances.

Part of the problem is that the southwestern Pennsylvania area of the late 1700s and early 1800s had several James Browns. Some can be ruled out because of known genealogies outside of our family line. Others James Browns are only casually mentioned by name in historical texts without any real detail about their lives.

This still leaves a number of James Browns whose orphaned stories could belong to our James Brown. There is, however, sufficient circumstantial evidence reported in historical and genealogical records to build a profile of the life story of our ancestor James Brown.

First, we know that James Brown is descended from prominent Scots-Irish Presbyterians traced back to the 1600s and beyond, connecting to the Kings of Scotland and England. His ancestors were educated, courageous, compassionate, and leaders in their communities. These are traits in the genes of our James Brown.

We know James' ancestors were active in the American revolution and development of American government.

Many of our relatives served in the opening of the western frontier of Pennsylvania and fought in 48

Washington's army for independence. Two relatives were participants in the US Constitutional Convention of 1776 and many others served in local and state government positions. James would certainly be a man who cared about principles and the affairs of his community and country. Given the hostile environment in the western frontier, he most certainly was a rugged, brave and adventurous individual. Roving bands of Indians were a danger for many years and the War of 1812 added threats of British attacks.

We know that the Brown family came to America and owned multiple land holdings across Pennsylvania.

They followed the historic roads and paths that travelers and settlers took as they migrated west across Pennsylvania in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Like other early Scots-Irish pioneers, Browns were prodigious property developers across the territory, buying, improving and selling properties and then buying cheaper lands further into the wilderness until many appear in the areas surrounding Pittsburgh. James would have learned this lesson of hard work bearing rich fruit from his father and ancestors.

We know that James' father, David Brown, came with his parents from Ireland to America circa 1773, at age 16, taking the oath of allegiance in Franklin county. David married Margaret Oliver Brown and they had six children. David's son James was born in 1787 in Franklin county. In 1801 or 1802, when James was 14 or 15 years old, David Brown migrated with his family to Westmoreland county, settling on the Brown homestead, at the mouth of Whitethorn Run, near New Alexandria, PA. Whitethorn Run, also known as Whitethorn Creek, floes into Loyalhanna creek and then on to merge with the Kiskiminitas River at Apollo, PA. From here the Kiskiminitas flows into the Allegheny river. New Alexandria was settled in 1800 as a stage coach stop on the Forbes Road, one of the main routes from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh (now US Route 22 also known as the William Penn Highway). The town is strategically positioned midway between Pittsburgh and Johnstown. In addition to the Brown farm, David Brown may have operated a tavern/rest stop for travelers across the state. (From: History of Westmoreland County Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III, Edited by, John W. Jordan, 1906)

David may also have raised, cared for and supplied horses to stage line. This is a skill that would have benefited his son James as well as his grandson W. H. Brown who handled teams of horses and mules on the Pennsylvania Canal and transporting coal to Pittsburgh. Horses and mules later figure prominently in the lives of James' grandsons, Captains Sam and W.S. Brown.

The Brown family homestead is located on, or next to, land where historic Hannastown existed.

Hannastown was the original seat of Westmoreland county but the town was burned and destroyed twice by the British and their Indian allies. Hannastown was also where Devereaux Smith was imprisoned (see historic timeline). The land of Hannastown is now a designated historic landmark, the William Steel Farm. William Steel married Sarah Jane Brown, daughter of Thomas Oliver Brown, son of David Brown and brother of James Brown. On David's death the farm passed to Thomas Oliver and James, with James either selling or surrendering his interest and moving on.

Circa 1812, James, age 25, married Mary Sarah Hughey. Mary Sarah could be a daughter of Dr. Samuel Hughey whose family appears in the 1790 US census in Franklin county, PA. After their marriage may be the time when James and Sarah Brown left the Brown homestead but for sure he was gone sometime prior to 1815. We know this is when their son William H. Brown is born on the James Brown farm near Jacksonville (now Jacktown) and Irwin in North Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county. James farm is located approximately 15-20 miles from his father's homestead near New Alexandria. His farm is about 25 miles from another property owned by James near Apollo, in present day Armstrong county. We know this from James' son Henry Brown's recollection of the family moving there in 1831. We also know that the farm holdings owned by James Brown were rich in coal and timber. This is an indicator that James could have prospered not 49

only from farming and property development, but also from the business of providing Pittsburgh and the surrounding area with essential raw materials for heat and construction.

Between 1813 and 1826, James and Sarah had nine children. All survived to adulthood, married and were successful in their own right. More on the lives of these children will be reported later in this work. On July 11, 1837, Sarah Brown dies. She was 52 years old and James was 50.

In 1841 and 1843, respectively, David Brown and his wife Margaret Oliver Brown die. James would have been 54 and 56 years old at the times of their deaths. Shortly after the passing of their parents, James and his brother Thomas Oliver Brown inherited equal shares of the Brown homestead in New Alexandria. We also know that Thomas stayed and kept the farm while James most likely used the value of his share of the farm to stake other investments. These investments could have included expanding his property holdings as well as supporting the coal and timber businesses of his sons William H. Brown and Henry Brown.

In 1848, James' son, Henry Brown, leaves the family homestead moving to what is now Bell's Mills, Bell township, Jefferson county, PA. James and Henry would be ages 61 and 27 respectively. Henry begins his career in the lumber business hauling timber. The original name of Bell's Mills was Brown's Mills.

In the 1850 US census, James Brown, age 63, is listed as living with his son, William H. Brown at Brown's Station. Ten years later in the 1860 US census, James, now 73, is living with his son Henry and family in Bell's Mills. Four years later, James Brown, now age 77, dies at his son Henry's home.

The locations of James Brown's properties as well as the properties of his relatives and children are on the map below in red. This shows a natural diaspora in the movement of family members along the historical roads and waterways of Pennsylvania. This is characteristic of early Scots-Irish pioneers who were prodigious property developers, buying, improving and selling property and then buying cheaper lands deeper into the wilderness surrounding Pittsburgh. However, it is important to notice that the Brown family almost always located on creeks, streams and rivers that ultimately flowed to Pittsburgh.

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Important to Brown family history is Browntown.

Browntown (or Brownstown) is the name given to an area in North Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county, at latitude 40.334 and longitude -79.733 with an elevation is 1,115 feet. It is located between Circleville/Jacktown to the South and Larimer to the North with the town of Irwin to the East and Stewartsville to the West. Browntown is bisected by Browntown (or Brownstown) Road that today runs from Old US Route 30 north to Brush Creek in Larimer.

Browntown was founded in the early 1800s by ScotsIrish pioneers moving from settlements in eastern Pennsylvania. Among the earliest settlers who gave the area its name were the family of James Brown.

The Reading Howell map of 1792 shows the Browns were already established in North Huntingdon township in a settlement bearing their name on the Youghiogheny river at the ferry site on the road north to Irwin. Along this road we find various Brown family settlements that would over time follow this road extension north to Apollo in Armstrong county and on to the Henry Brown family in Jefferson county.

But the hub for our family is the Browntown area. Here we find James Brown, scion of our lineage, as well as his uncles and brothers and nearby are parents and other siblings. Both the Brown and McKinney families would settle on properties in North Huntingdon township in Westmoreland county. James Brown's farm was located where Browntown is marked on the North Huntingdon map above. Other family members who settled in the Browntown area are: uncle John H. Brown Sr., cousins John H. Brown Jr., John L. Brown and two Oliver C. Browns.

John H. Brown Sr. and descendants were discussed earlier in establishing our lineage. Another cousin, Squire John L. Brown (a Justice of the Peace), was born in Circleville in 1817 and ultimately owned a substantial farm along Brownstown Road between Larimer Station and Jacktown/Circleville in Westmoreland County.

In 1855, General William H. H. Larimer, purchased the coal rights then sold the rights to the Westmoreland Coal and Coke Company (December 8, 1855, Deed Book Vol. 37, page 224). Four Larimer mines were operated by the

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Westmoreland Coal Company. Larimer Mine #1 is under the Brown farm.

Squire John Sr. died in 1892 and gave the farm property to his son (either William or John L. Brown). This son passed away on July 26, 1898. He did not leave a will and his wife had passed soon before him. The son and his wife had 10 or 12 children many were under age. John Taylor Larimer of Stewartsville was the guardian to the underage children. John T. Larimer was born in 1853, the son of Hamilton Larimer. Hamilton is a brother of General William Henry Harrison Larimer, the founder of Denver, Colorado. The General and his wife Rachel McMasters Larimer are at rest in the James Mellon mausoleum at the Homewood Cemetery.

In 1904, the Brown farm estate of 60 plus acres was sold by John T. Larimer for $90 an acre with proceeds used to benefit the John Brown children. Gottlieb Kim (from Switzerland) and his wife Caroline purchased the land and it became known as the Kim family farm (July 5, 1904, Deed Book Vol. 360, page 149). Their son, Joseph Kim, started selling off building parcels after WWII in the "Kim Plan" of building lots that is off of Brownstown Road.

The Long Run Cemetery is not far from Jacktown/Circleville. Among those buried at Long Run are many of the children of Squire John Brown: (From: Long Run Church burial records) Jane Brown, wife of Richard Brown, died April 4, 1858, age 24 years.

John Brown, born July 23,1817; died January 16, 1892.

Margaret Brown, wife of John; born September 15, 1817; died August 31, 1888.

George W. Brown born April 28, 1842; died August 12, 1861.

Joseph M. Brown born 1848; died 1916.

Anna L. Brown, wife of Joseph M., born 1853; died 1924.

Margaret Brown died July 13, 1872, age 25 years.

John L. Brown, born October 9, 1854; died July 27, 1895.

Lida Jane Brown, wife of William, born May 25, 1853; died March 27, 1897.

Elizabeth McQuaid Brown, wife of Addison; died June 19, 1888.

Curiously, there are two Oliver C. Browns in North Huntingdon, Westmoreland county in the 1800s, Oliver Carlisle Brown and Oliver Cromwell Brown. No hard connection has been established between these Brown families, but there is strong enough circumstantial evidence to speculate that they are cousins, including that Oliver is an important family name in our lineage. It does seem odd to have 2 Oliver C's in the same area.

Oliver Carlisle Brown was born in 1833 and was the Postmaster at Larimer. His father was a cousin of James Brown, scion of our Brown line. His children are: Oliver Carlisle Brown who married Sarah, daughter of Edward and Mary Smith of North Huntingdon Henry married a Miss Lauffer Amanda David married a Miss G. James married a Miss Clark William married a Miss Burns Samuel married a Miss Horkness Elizabeth married a Mr. Lusk and later a Mr. Eckles Oliver Cromwell Brown was born in 1823 or 1825 in Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. This is the same town from which James Brown, age five, migrated across the Allegheny Mountains with his mother in 1792. They would also settle in the same Circleville/Jacktown area of North Huntingdon township,

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Westmoreland county area in Western Pennsylvania. Oliver Cromwell Brown of Jacktown Hill is a cousin of James Brown.

Oliver Cromwell Brown's mother died when he was very young and his father was murdered by a neighbor.

This Oliver C. Brown was raised by a cousin or uncle, Jimmie Davidson, and learned a trade as a saddle maker.

Oliver Cromwell Brown had a brother named Hugh who settled in Ohio. Oliver came on horseback to Jacktown around 1843. He liked the area and so brought his young wife and they lived in the Jacktown Ride & Hunt Club house along what is now Old Trail. They had 4 children: John Davison Brown (the first name may not be correct) is the oldest child, M. Jane, Sara (called Sadie, later married J. L. Ridinger), William Brown.

Oliver and his son-in-law (J. L. Ridinger) bought and sold many properties in the area. Oliver Cromwell Brown died in 1908 and is buried in Irwin's Union Cemetery along with many descendants. Also in Union Cemetery is a large boulder like headstone just beyond the Brown's central headstone. Engraved into the boulder is Ed Brown. Ed Brown ran the Central Hotel in Irwin for years. Ed is the son of the other Oliver, Oliver Carlisle Brown. (Note: The History of the Oliver Cromwell Brown Family has been chronicled by Kathy Klaus and her cousin Paula Werber. Their document contains information that Oliver Cromwell Brown dictated to their grandmother about his youth and arrival here, as well as many pictures and newspaper clippings).

Now we must leverage what we know to uncover what we do not know about James Brown. This begins with some assumptions: 

that family characteristics of courage, drive, determination, and leadership could drive his successful involvement in multiple opportunities and activities;



the proximity of prosperous family members and friends might have helped to shape his life and helped him get his start;



that he prospered from farming, and the coal and timber resources on his properties;



that he had sufficient funds to invest in additional lands and businesses;



that he would have followed a path along a major routes and waterways in his travels;



that the strength of his family's religious heritage could mark his trail.

This now leads us to the orphaned stories of several of the James Browns who were in southwestern Pennsylvania at the same time as our James Brown. (For a more comprehensive list of all the James Browns alive at the time, please see the Chapter: Earliest Browns in America.) From these, I have eliminated those who cannot be our James Brown because other genealogical studies show they are 53

outside our family line. Next, others are eliminated for lack of information or because they do not meet the assumptions mentioned above. Some or all of those eliminated could be cousins or uncles of our James Brown and I will leave it to others to continue to research those connections.

Next, we apply a geographical screen to those in the accepted timeframe to further refine our list.

Using the historical maps with known locations of our Brown family members, we confirm whether the locations of orphaned Browns in southwestern Pennsylvania indicate a link to our family; looking most closely in Westmoreland County, Armstrong County and Pittsburgh. As we look for our James Brown's story, it is important to remember that from 1773 until 1781 Westmoreland county encompassed a very large portion of southwestern Pennsylvania. In 1781, Washington county was created from Westmoreland county followed in 1783 by the creation of Fayette county and then 1788-1789 Allegheny county and in 1800 Armstrong county. Until 1839, the lower third of Armstrong county remained part of Westmoreland county.

Finally we will look for connections to known family and friends as well as to family characteristics to find our man.

In the minutes of October 6th, 1812, at the Synod meeting at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, James Brown and Rev. Francis Herron of the Presbytery of Redstone are listed as present. (From: Records of the Synod of Pittsburgh: from its first organization, September 29, 1802 to October

Also circa 1812, James Brown was an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh along with John Herron, James Irwin, William Hays, William McCandless and Daniel Bushnell. Rev. Dr. Francis Herron is listed as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh at Wood Street, between Sixth Street and Virgin Alley (now Oliver Avenue) and The second First Presbyterian Church built over the original log church.

Dr. James Brown is listed as an elder and ordained in 1811, 1812.

In 1811, James Brown and John Snowden were elected elders. (From: The Iron City: a compendium of facts concerning 1832 inclusive, by, Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A, Synod of Pittsburgh, 1852)

Pittsburgh and vicinity, for strangers and the public generally, 1867; and, Early Pittsburgh Presbyterianism: tracing the development of the Presbyterian church, United States of America, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1758-1839, By: William Wilson McKinney, 1938)

Sometime before 1815, our James Brown married Mary Sarah Hughey, and they settled on a farm in North Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county. The farm was located slightly southwest of the town of Irwin, near Jacktown on the path of Forbes' Road, then the major route into Pittsburgh, 20 miles away.

Several things are noteworthy about James Brown's connections to the Presbyterian church in Pittsburgh: First, in 1811, 1812 and 1815, our James Brown was 24, 25, and 28 years old respectively and, until 1815, he was a single man open to travel and out to make a life for himself. Men of the time regularly traveled back and forth between Pittsburgh and Westmoreland county for business and other reasons.

First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, 1857

Next, all the men listed as elders of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh had interests in Westmoreland county or Fayette county.

Rev. Francis Herron, scion of this prominent Pittsburgh family, was sent to the city by the Redstone Presbytery. This presbytery was based in 54

Brownsville, Fayette county and for many years was responsible for promoting and extending this faith throughout western Pennsylvania. It more often than not relied on traveling lay ministers for this task.

The strong Presbyterian heritage of the Brown family could have led to a calling for James. The others mentioned above all have not only connections to Westmoreland county, but also directly to the Brown family.

John Herron, son of Rev. Francis Herron, will later play an important role in the development of the coal mining and shipping business of James Brown's son, William H. Brown. This original partnership was known as the Herron and Brown Coal Company.

James Irwin came to America in 1783. He not only had active interests in the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, but was a justice of the peace in North Huntingdon township. He was known as Squire Irwin.

James Irwin's brother, Col. John Irwin first bought land here in 1769 and built a fur trading post that was later burned by Indians. He then purchased a piece of land named Brush Hill and built another house.

After Col. John Irwin's death and the death of his brother James Irwin, James' son, also named John Irwin inherited the land on which the one square mile town was built. The younger John Irwin was the founder and developer of the borough of Irwin, PA, on the main road to Pittsburgh. James Brown, whose property was adjacent to the Irwin homestead, was one of the signers of the 1864 petition for a town charter to create Irwin, PA. William Hays, William McCandless, John Snowden and James Brown were all among the founding directors of The Bank of Pittsburgh, chartered in 1813-1814. Curiously, William McCandless Brown was the great grandson of James Brown. David Bushnell owned the original coal mine purchased by Herron and Brown and was a pioneer settler and coal miner on the lands near Browns Station on the Monongahela river. Finally, John Snowden was originally from Greensburg in Westmoreland county where he would have known the Brown family. He relocated to Pittsburgh and brought with him his newspaper business which purchased the Pittsburgh Commonwealth which he renamed the Mercury and continued to edit and publish in Pittsburgh until 1831.

In 1818, James Brown was listed among those organizing a campaign to build the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Here he partners with Dr. Francis Herron and others to create this church on the road from Westmoreland county to Pittsburgh. It is noteworthy that these church connections to the Herron family will later have a great influence of the life of William Hughey Brown. (From: East Liberty Presbyterian Church with historical setting & a narrative of the centennial celebration, April 12-20, 1919, by Georgina G. Negley, 1919)

As early as 1820, Presbyterian services were conducted in a grove of trees near Turtle Creek not far from James Brown's farm in Westmoreland county. Later, in June, 1829, Rev. James Brown formally helped to organize the Turtle Creek Presbyterian Church. (From: History of the Allegheny Presbyterian Church, by Thomas Conley, 1889) On October 21, 1823, at Sawickly church, the Redstone Presbytery met and heard the appeal of William Clark of a decision of the Sawickly church, in which he accused James Brown with malicious lies, and attempting to cause his brother John Brown to perjure himself. The Presbytery confirmed the church decision in favor of James Brown. It is noteworthy that there are many different spellings of Sewickley before it was finally standardized. Sewickly church is located on West Newton Road, just off of Route 136 and about 3 miles from Hermine, in Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County. This is only a few miles south of North Huntingdon and Irwin where James Brown owned a farm. The Redstone Presbytery covered a large territory extending almost to Pittsburgh from Fayette County. (From: Minutes of the Presbytery of Redstone, of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A: from the organization of Presbytery, September 19, 1781, to December, 1831, by Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A, Presbytery of Redstone, 1878)

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In the spring of 1828, James Brown helped to organize the Bible Society in Armstrong County. The final border between Armstrong and Westmoreland counties is not far from the James Brown homestead in North Huntingdon township. Even a trip to Kittaning in Armstrong county would have been a short journey for James. Also, his uncle Andrew Brown was an early settler of Armstrong county. (From: Early History of Armstrong County And South Bend's Neighboring Townships, Edited by Maury Tosi)

An Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature on April, 1827 and March 1844, conveyed all rights and title to the land of the Western Theological Seminary to James Brown, John Hannen and Hugh Davis as trustees. (From: Recollections of seventy years and historical gleanings of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, by John E. Park, 1886) In 1829, James Brown was again noted as one of the original trustees of the Western Theological Seminary. Dr. Francis Herron was the president and Dr. Matthew Brown was a director. Again we find the Herron connection and also that of James Brown's cousin Matthew. (From: Alumni Re-union of the Western Theological Seminary: held April 16-18, 1872.)

James Brown was the pastor of the Mingo Creek (later Peters Creek) Presbyterian Church form 18401843). (From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, by Earle R. Forrest, Vol. 1, 1926 and History of Washington County: from its first settlement to the present time, first under Virginia as Yohogania, Ohio, or Augusta County until 1781, and subsequently under Pennsylvania : with sketches of all the townships, boroughs, and villages, etc. and to which is added a full account of the celebrated Mason and Dixon's Line, the Whiskey Insurrection, Indian warfare, traditional and local historical events, by Alfred Creigh, 1871; and History of the Associate and United Presbyterian Presbytery of Chartiers, by John T. Brownlee, 1877)

In 1841, on the death of their father, James and his brother Thomas Oliver Brown inherited equal shares in the family farm in New Alexandria. James later took his interest in this farm and used it to stake other investments in the western Pennsylvania area, including potentially the business of William Hughey Brown.

In 1837 and 1841, James Brown is reported to be the proprietor of Bedford Springs, "celebrated for restorative and healing medical properties." (From: Harris Business Directory for 1837 and 1841) In 1836, James Brown published an advertisement welcoming people to his establishment at the Bedford Mineral Springs, Pennsylvania. (From: The Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, May 7, 1836)

It is also curious that the 1798 Will of John Woods a founder of the city of Pittsburgh mentions two properties with connections to Browns.

First, a large parcel along the Monongahela river that would become Brown's Station and a second property including a house and grounds at Bedford Mineral Springs. Both properties were bequeathed to his brother Henry Woods.

In 1846, a Dr. James Brown was acting pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.

(From: The First United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa: a historical and anniversary sermon, preached April 2d and 9th, 1876 , by William Reid, 1876; and, History of the First United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1801-1901, by William J. Reid, 1901]

In 1848, James Brown sold property to build the Presbyterian Church in Greensburg, PA.

(From: The history of

Greensburg, 1799-1949, by the Westmoreland County Historical Society, 1949

Several other James Browns are listed in the Appendix section, Earliest Browns in America. There is James Brown the baker, James Brown the cutler and maker of edge tools and cutlery, James Brown the shoemaker, 56

James Brown the brewer and James Brown the community leader and activist. Any or all of these could also be our ancestor James Brown, or a related in some way.

As a prosperous land owner, James Brown may have simply been content to be a citizen farmer who was later able to exploit his coal and timer holdings. Likewise, James could have leveraged his prosperity to acquire any or all of the additional business interests mentioned above while still finding time to pursue his religious activism. I will leave it to others to determine which, if any, are correct.

The map on the right shows in RED some important locations relevant to the story of James Brown and other Browns in Pennsylvania.

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The children of James and Sarah Brown and their stories are presented below.

W. H. Brown's siblings Little is known about his sisters other than what is mentioned below. We leave it to others to search for more information about them.

Sarah Brown, the oldest child, was born on March 11, 1811, and married Samuel Whitcraft on May 5, 1836.

Samuel Whitcraft (spelled Witcraft) appears in the 1840 US census as living in Kiskiminetas, Armstrong county, PA. No additional information is available about Sarah or Samuel Whitcraft.

Andrew Brown, the oldest son, was born on January 17, 1813, and married to Delilah Johnston. Andrew and Delilah settled in Lee county and Keokuk county, Iowa. They lived there for almost 50 years.

Andrew was a prominent member of the community, serving as the town Marshal, a deputy US Marshal for the area and coroner of the county for several terms. Andrew Brown died on September 14, 1898, with his wife preceeding him in death by a few months. They had three daughters: Lizzie A. Brown married to William Frank Wright, Miss Jennie Brown, and Mrs. Stripe of St. Joseph, MO.

Statue of a Frontier Marshal. at US Marshals Service

Andrew and family appear in the 1850 US census as living in Keokuk, Lee county, Iowa, as follows: Andrew Brown, M, 37 years old, born in Pennsylvania; Delilah (spelled Deleta) Brown, F, 28 years old, born in Pennsylvania; Mary A. E. Brown, F, 3 years old, born in Iowa; Amanda Brown, F, 1, year old, born in Iowa.

Andrew and Delilah (now spelled Dililah) are also listed as parents in the March 29, 1892 marriage record of William F. Wright and Lizzie A. Brown in Keokuk, Lee county, Iowa. In this record, Lizzie is listed as being born in Bonaparte, Iowa.

A report in an unknown Lee county, Iowa newspaper reported on September 14, 1898, that Andrew Brown died.

ANDREW BROWN KILLED The Well Known Old Man Falls Down a Flight of Steps After an Attack of Heart Failure.

Thursday afternoon Andrew Brown, one of the best known men in the county met a tragic fate at his residence, 118 Concert Street. He was coming to the street at 2:20 o'clock and when just at the top of the flight of steps leading down from his lawn to the sidewalk he had an attack of heart failure. As he fell he plunged headlong down the steps and when he was picked up he was dead. A physician who was summoned was of the opinion that his neck was broken. The sudden death of this pioneer will come as a shock to all who hear of it. He had been a resident of this part of Iowa for about a half century, coming from Pennsylvania, where he was born eighty-eight years ago last January. His wife died a few months ago, and he leaves three daughters, Mrs. Frank Wright, Miss Jennie Brown and Mrs. Stripe of St. Joseph, MO. Andrew Brown was highly honored by his fellow citizens during his eventful life, having been marshal of Keokuk for many years, deputy United States Marshal for a time, and coroner of the county for several terms. He retired from active life but a short time since, and leaves to his children the legacy of a useful life and the deep respect of the thousands who knew him.

(From: Lee county obituaries)

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William H. Brown, the story of the third child of James and Sarah Brown was presented in the previous chapter of this work.

James Miller Brown, born March 25, 1817 and married Catherine Turner (incorrectly spelled Torner) on January 20, 1842. He died on December 31, 1888, at his home on 4108 Fifth Avenue, in the 14th Ward of Pittsburgh, Allegheny county, PA. He was age 71. This is the first listing of his middle name, Miller.

His occupation is listed as a banker. (From: Pittsburgh City Death Records, 1870-1905) The middle name of Miller is interesting as it matches with the middle name of Frank Miller Brown, the son of W. S. Brown. James also appears as a property owner in McCalmont township, Jefferson county, PA. Ads for the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh show James M. Brown is an officer from at least 1850 to 1860. This may or may not be our James M. Brown. No additional information is available about James or Catherine Brown.

Ad from: Fahnestock's Pittsburgh Directory for 1850, by Samuel Fahnestock.

Ads also appear in the Directory of Pittsburgh & Vicinity for 1857-1860, by George H. Thurston.

John Brown, was born on March 3, 1819 and married Barbara (Margaret) Dunmire on January 9, 1840. John Brown and his family appear in the 1850 US census as living in North Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county. John is listed as 31 years old, born in Pennsylvania in 1819, all of which is correct for our John Brown.

His wife is listed as Margaret Brown, F, 31 years old. John and Margaret have three daughters and two sons: Madison, F, age 11; Jane, F, age 10; George, M, age 8; and Joseph, M, age 5. All were born in Pennsylvania.

John and Margaret and five of their children are buried in the Long Run Cemetery in North Huntingdon township. The birth dates for John and Margaret do not match with other sources but the date listed for their son George is correct in each case. The other children were all born after 1850. No additional information is available about the family of John or Barbara/Margaret Dunmire Brown.

Henry Brown, the story of the sixth child of James and Sarah Brown, is presented in the next chapter of this work.

Peter Brown, the seventh child and youngest son of James and Sarah Brown, was born on January 3, 1823 and married Claranna Jane McCauley on June 21, 1847. Peter worked for most of his life with his brother William H. as a steamboat captain and manager of coal mines on the upper Monongahela river, most notably at Port Perry at the mouth of Turtle Creek. This important facility supplied coal and coke to the blast furnaces of Andrew Carnegie's Edgar Thompson steel works across the creek. Peter also owned 504 acres and a tannery in Cowanshannok township, Armstrong county, PA, in 1862. More information about Peter and his family in presented the the chapters about William Hughey Brown and W. S. Brown.

Margaret Brown, born on February 15, 1825 and married to Alexander Duff on August 1, 1848. Alexander and Margaret Brown Duff and their family appear in both the 1850 and 1860 US census. In 1850 the family is living in Loyalhanna, Westmoreland county and in 1860, they are found living in Gaskill township, Jefferson county, PA. In the 1860 census, Margaret is listed as 35 years old, born in Pennsylvania in 1825, all of which is correct for our Margaret Brown.

Alexander Duff is listed as M, 41 years old, born in Pennsylvania circa 1819.

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In 1860, Alexander and Margaret have 3 sons and 2 daughters: Rebecca Duff, F, 12 years old; Labana Duff, M, 10 years old; Sarah Melia Duff, F, 7 years old; James E. Duff, M, 5 years old; and, Alexander M. Duff, M, 2 years old. All the children were born in Pennsylvania. In 1863, Rebecca Duff, 15 years old, a daughter of Alexander and Margaret Brown Duff, married Benjamin Harra Johnston of Wilkins, Allegheny county. They had one child, Elmer, who died with his mother during birth sometime prior to 1867. She is buried in Old Brush Creek Cemetery with an infant son. From 1874 to 1896, Alexander Duff is listed as an elder at the Bethel United Presbyterian Church in Irwin, PA. Margaret Brown Duff died at the home of her daughter Mrs. John H. Null in Sykesville, PA on May 24, 1902, at the age of 78. She is at rest in the Ridgemount cemetery in Punxutawney.

Mary Ann Brown, born on December 8, 1826 and married to Robert Duff on December 22, 1846. Robert Duff was a successful farmer in Franklin township, Westmoreland county. Sometime prior to 1860, the family relocates to Jefferson county, PA. Robert and Mary Ann Brown and their family appear in the 1860, 1870 and 1880 US census. In 1860, the family is living in Bell township, Jefferson county, PA. In the 1860, Mary Ann (spelled Ane) Duff is listed as 37 years old, born in Pennsylvania in 1823, Her age and birth year are close but incorrect and should be 34 years old and born in 1826. This type of discrepancy is common in census records as seen in the different errors in 1870 and 1880.

In 1860, the family is: Mary Anne Duff; Robert Duff, M, 37 years old; Sarah Duff, F, 10 years old; Josephine Duff, F, 8 years old; Adda Melessa Duff, F, 6 years old; and James Henry Duff (listed only as Henry), M, 3 years old. Also living with the family in 1860, is Robert's mother, Sarah Duff, F, 83 years old. All were born in Pennsylvania.

In the 1870 census, the family is: Robert and Mary Anne Duff are recorded as aged 49 and 43, respectively; Josephine Duff is now 17 years old; Ada Duff is 15 years old; James Henry (now listed only as James) Duff is 14 years old; Mary Duff is 8 years old; and, William Duff is 6 years old.

In the 1880 census, the family is still living in Bell township, Jefferson county. Robert Duff, is listed now as widowed, a farmer and 53 years old, born in 1827. Robert is now living with his son and daughter-in-law, James Henry and Estella Duff ages 23 and 24, respectively. No additional information is available about the death of Mary Ann or what happened to their other children.

Unfortunately, nothing more is now known about the family of James Brown other than what is presented in later chapters of this book. I hope family researchers will continue to pursue the missing elements of our family story.

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HENRY BROWN FAMILY - Lumbermen Henry Brown, the sixth child and fifth son of James and Sarah Brown, was born on the May 21, 1821, on Brush Creek near Jacksonville (now Jacktown) and Irwin in North Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county, PA. Henry was the sixth in a line of nine children born to James and Sarah Brown. His earliest recollections were of having the usual experiences of country boys growing up on the family farm in Westmoreland county, PA. Henry had little schooling, only attending school when there was no work to be performed on the farm. In 1831, when Henry was 10 years old, the family moved to Apollo, Armstrong county, PA. Henry stayed with his family until 1848, when at 27 years old he moved 50 miles northeast to an area just east of Punxsutawney, PA, that is now called Bell's Mills in Bell Township, Jefferson county, PA. Here Henry Brown began a long career in the timber and lumber business. First, he began hauling timber but would soon expand his enterprise.

In 1854, Henry purchased an old water mill on the Big Mahoning Creek and tore it down to build a large gang mill, with a capacity for 60,000 board feet per day. A gang mill is a machine saw used in lumbering that has a heavy frame supporting numerous saw blades. Henry soon found that his mill was too large for the transportation capacity of the area and he was forced to abandon it. Next, Henry constructed a circular saw-mill near to the gang mill site. The volume of production was more proportionate to the area's shipping facilities.

Besides these mills, Henry Brown had a large square timber business on both Redbank and Mahoning Creeks. Redbank and Mahoning Creeks are both tributaries of the Allegheny River that flow across Jefferson county. Square timbers are typical 4 inch, 6 inch or larger square cut timbers of various lengths. In this business, Henry often averaged from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 board feet each year. In his busiest times, Henry employed two hundred men and sixty teams of horses and mules.

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Henry also engaged in farming since he was a young boy and first able to wield a hoe. In 1888, he owned and managed seven farms containing 1,500 acres as well as 2,500 acres of timber land. In the 1800s, farmers would clear land and put in small crops during the summer season, and in the winter would work one or two teams of horses or mules in the woods, hauling timber. Henry Brown, leveraged his work hauling timber into ownership of many farms. He cleared the land after first cutting choice timber in large quantities. This wood was beautiful native white pine, cherry, oak, chestnut, hemlock, poplar and other valuable woods which then was abundant in Pennsylvania's heavy primal forests. The pick of the cuttings would be sent to market, the remainder cut and piled up into huge log heaps, which had to be burned before agricultural operations could begin. The ground was then plowed with a shovel plow. The work of developing his lands went on slowly at first, but Henry was a capable farmer as well as lumberman, and managed as much as fifteen hundred acres under cultivation (seven farms) at one time, besides his other interests.

Old growth Pennsylvania forest

On November 15, 1884, his saw-mill, including a large amount of machinery and lumber, was destroyed by fire, and Henry suffered a loss of about $11,000, without having any insurance. But, Henry had the financial resources to weather this set back. The next year, in 1885, Henry built a larger mill with a capacity for 40,000 board feet per day, and at an expense of $10,500. At the time, it was one of the most modern and best equipped in the county.

Henry also owned 2,300 acres of coal lands with two or three large veins of coal, and for which he is said to have refused an offer of $90 per acre. That amounts to $207,000 or, a value of $52,700,000 today.

Henry also owned 650 acres of timber and mineral land in Tennessee, which was also rich in coal, iron ore and limestone depoits. (From: History of Jefferson County, by Kate M. Scott, 1888) It is interesting that Bells Mills was first known as Brown's Mills, named for Henry Brown's sawmills. The first post office was designated Brown's Mills with Henry Brown appointed Postmaster on February 4, 1859. The name was changed to Bell's Mills on October 24, 1863 when James H. Bell was appointed Postmaster. This post office closed on March 15, 1907 and all mail went to Punxsutawney. (From: Jefferson County Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, 1800-1915, by William J. McKnight, 1917)

The first election in the township was in 1857. At that time, Henry Brown was elected one of three auditors of township business. (From: Jefferson County Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, 1800-1915, by William J. McKnight, 1917) In 1863, Henry Brown was listed among the county officers as the Prothonotary, Register & Recorder, and Clerk of Court.

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In 1828, the Associate Presbyterian Church (Seceder) was organized in Clarion township, Jefferson county and in 1831, Henry Brown was on the church board.

On June 1, 1851, Henry Brown married, Rachel Catherine Fisher in Pittsburgh, and proceeded to their home at Bells Mills via steamboat to Kittanning, thence by horseback and buggy across country to Punxsutawney. At that time he was carrying on the lumber business and a store, the latter in a building still standing near the Henry Brown home, to which he brought his bride. For Catherine it was quite a change from city life to the settlement among the tall timber. When he and his wife settled at their home in the beautiful forests in the wilds of Jefferson county, only a potato patch had been cleared, and the woods were so dense the sun could hardly shine through. But their work was well rewarded, and they acquired a handsome home, substantially built and well furnished, at Bells Mills. There Henry Brown also built one of the largest bank barns ever constructed in Jefferson county.

Henry Brown farm (From The Atlas of Jefferson County Pennsylvania 1878, by J. A. Caldwell, 1878

Catherine Fisher was a native of Wittenberg, Germany, born on March 24, 1831. When seven years old she came to this country with her parents, Frederick and Catherine Fisher, the family settling at Pittsburgh. Frederick Fisher was a cattle buyer. Returning home late one summer evening with his shepherd dog that helped him drive his cattle, he had to cross a ford in the Allegheny river. Missing the narrow shallow crossing, his horse plunged into a deep pool and threw him from the saddle. Although Frederick was an expert swimmer he drowned, having been struck on the head by the horse's front foot. The dog and horse swam out, and when the dog arrived home alone the family knew something had gone wrong. After a search, Mr. Fisher's body was found in a deep hole just below the ford. His widow then went to live with her daughter Catherine in Bells Mills, were she resided until her death at 64 years old on April 30, 1865.

Henry and Catherine Fisher Brown were happy in their work and their family, and they had a long and prosperous married life on the Brown farm in Bells Mills where they raised a large family of 16 children. Henry Brown lived and died in this home, passing away on May 15, 1902, in the same room where 63

Tombstone of Henry and Catherine Fisher Brown at Circle Hill Cemetery

all of his children had been born. Catherine Fisher Brown died February 6, 1906.

We have the following record of the large family of Henry and Catherine Brown: Franklin Pierce Brown, born September 12, 1852 and died September 21, 1914, at Big Run, PA, where he was engaged in the coal business. On December 25, 1873, he married Melissa Anna Canaga, of Scio, Ohio, and they had four children: Edna Alice Brown, born September 7, 1874; G. A. Jenks Brown, born December 17, 1875; Irma Rachel Brown, born on July 30, 1884; and, Harry David Brown, born on October 14, 1890. Franklin Pierce, also known as Frank P., and Melissa Ann Brown were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He died at age 62year and 9 days. He was employed in the family lumber business. (From: The Punxsutawney Funeral Register; Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People Vol. II, by William J, McKnight. 1917; and, The Pennsylvania Department of Vital Records-Death Certificate Number-85784)

William John Brown, born on March 13, 1854 He was educated at the public schools of the area and later at Scio University, Scio, OH. He then worked in the lumber business in Pittsburgh for two years until returning to Jefferson county and joining his father's lumber company until 1885, when he became a tax collector for ten years. During this time he was also elected the mayor of Punxsutawney. In 1910, William J. Brown became the founding president and CEO of the County National Bank in Punxsutawney, PA. His brothers, Peter Lot and Ward F. Brown were also directors of this bank. William married Elizabeth Zeitler, daughter of pioneer Punxsutawney merchant George Zeitler. William and Elizabeth had one daughter, Bertha, who married Morris Colter, the chief engineer of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company of Punxsutawney.

William J. Brown passed away on June 29, 1941 in Punxsutawney.

James Madison Brown, born on July 21, 1855 and died on December 25, 1878, at the old Brown homestead at Bells Mills. James married Nancy Jane Doncaster, daughter of Daniel and Susie Doncaster, of Punxsutawney.

James and Nancy Brown had only one child, Laura, who married Henry Wickenhiser, of Coraopolis, PA. Laura and Henry had three children, one son and two daughters as of 1916.

David Fisher Brown, born on October 7, 1856, about whom more is mentioned below.

Henry Washington Brown, born on December 5, 1857 and died on August 6, 1905. He died on the Brown homestead, in the room where he was born. His business operations were in the oil fields of western PA. Robert Andrew Brown, was born on July 14, 1859 and died in infancy.

Andrew Lot Brown, was born on February 6, 1861 and died in infancy.

Tirzah Jane Brown, was born on March 3, 1862 and died at age 27, on March 17, 1889, at Newhall, California.

Her brother David was with her at the time of her death and brought her home for burial.

Mary Amanda Brown, was born on August 29, 1863 and died in infancy.

Peter Lot Brown, was born on March 28, 1865, about whom more is mentioned below.

Sallie Melzena Brown, was born on August 7, 1867 and married Jacob Froelich of Evansville, Ind. For a time they lived in Evansville and later in Denver, Colorado and finally in Eskota, North Carolina (sometimes spelled Escota). Eskota was the location of the Brown Brothers Lumber Company sawmill and logging operation.

Sallie and Jacob Froelich had two children: Katherine and Jacob.

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George Cooper Brown, was born on October 28, 1868 and married Ada Willson, of Punxsutawney. George and Ada Brown had two sons: Henry W. Brown and Donald Brown. George C. Brown died on December 3, 1949. Little is known about George Cooper Brown although he is obviously a well respected man in the Punxsutawney community as the community swimming pool is still named after him today (2014).

Ward Fulton Brown, was born on October 21, 1869 at Bells Mills. He attended public school and the Edinboro State Normal school (now Edinboro University). After graduation, he joined the lumber business of his father.

In 1906, he married Olive Jenks, daughter of John Jenks of Punxsutawney and the two moved to West Virginia where Ward engaged in the lumber business. In 1911, Ward and Olive Brown moved to North Carolina, where Ward became the half owner, president and manager in the Brown Brothers Lumber Company in Eskota.

Ward F. Brown died on May 11, 1922, at Jefferson Medical Hospital in Philadelphia. He had been in ill health with Hodgkins disease while traveling in Europe on a extended trip abroad and was previously a patient at the American Medical Hospital in Paris.

Andrew Barclay Brown, was born on December 8, 1870 and died on January 11, 1880 at 10 years old.

Weight B. Brown, was born on February 28, 1872 and died in infancy.

Edward Purl Brown, was born on March 25, 1874 and married Clara Graffius, of Punxsutawney. They had one son, who died young. Edward died on March 5, 1920, at 46 years old. ___________________________________

The sons of Henry Brown who attained maturity have been, in their turn, among the most capable business men of Jefferson county. Some of them have extended their business interests beyond the family lumber and timber enterprise into wider fields, with equally favorable results. All have shown the initiative, self-reliance, clear judgment and confidence that are distinguishing traits of all Browns. The following are some excellent examples.

David Fisher Brown, the third son of Henry and Catherine Fisher Brown, was born on October 7, 1856, to a family whose lumbering, milling and agricultural operations in western Pennsylvania were extensive and continued to grow throughout his life. David was born and raised on his father's farm at Bells Mills and was educated in the local public school system.

David spent early his years working the land on his father's farm as well as gaining experience in the family lumber business. In 1879, at age 23 and now experienced with wood and mill work, he relocated to Clearfield county east of Jefferson county and hired out in the lumber woods, receiving sixty cents a day wages.

It was not long before David decided that he could be more successful elsewhere and, in the early 1880s, he decided to try his fortune in the burgeoning oil industry of western Pennsylvania. The oil industry began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1858, when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck "rock oil" there. While petroleum oil was known prior to this, there was no appreciable market for it. Samuel Martin Kier of Pittsburgh discovered an economical way to produce kerosene (lamp oil) and was the first person in the United States to refine crude oil into kerosene. He also invented a new lamp to burn his product creating a new and expanding market for petroleum oil to replace whale oil, which was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. Kier called his product "Rock Oil" and later "Seneca Oil". The first shipment of oil from Drake's well went to Kier's refinery.

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Soon oil wells in Titusville and other western Pennsylvania towns proliferated as refineries shot up across the region. Oil quickly became one of the most valuable commodities in the United States and helped to drive railroad expansion in Western Pennsylvania so that oil could be shipped to the rest of the country. This first oil boom in the United States was from 1859 to the mid-1870s. After 1875, the oil industry was well established, and the "rush" to drill wells and control production slowed. Pennsylvania oil production peaked in 1891, and was later surpassed by western states such as Texas and California, but some oil industry still remains in Pennsylvania today.

Oil Boom, Titusville, PA

In the early 1880s, David Fisher Brown moved to Bradford, PA, where he was first employed in the manufacture of oil machinery. Bradford was created as a wild oil boomtown around 1880 during the Pennsylvania oil rush. The area's Pennsylvania Grade crude oil had superior qualities, free of asphaltic constituents and containing only trace amounts of sulfur and nitrogen with excellent characteristics for refining into lubricants. Today, world-famous Kendall racing oils are produced in Bradford. In Bradford, David drilled a number of successful oil wells and became one of the earliest operators in the oil fields of that area.

From there, David expanded his operations, drilling wells in other oil fields in every part of the United States where oil is found. In over thirty years in the oil industry, he would travel the country, grow financially successful and gain tremendous business experience. Finally, in 1914, at age 58, David sold his last oil holdings in Oklahoma to the Standard Oil interests and returned to the Brown homestead in Bells Mills.

From 1914 on, David's partnered with his brothers Ward F., Peter L. and George C. Brown in the lumber business founded by their father Henry Brown. The firm name was now known as Brown Brothers Lumber Company. David's chief investment in the firm was to expand the family's lumber business and timber holdings with a large tract of land near Eskota, NC, on the slope of Mount Mitchell the highest mountain in the eastern US. The headquarters and center of Brown Brothers business activities remained in Punxsutawney and Bells Mills, Jefferson county.

During the years 1915 and 1916, David directed the building of a beautiful and famous residence in the East End of Punxsutawny borough at the intersection of Dinsmore Avenue and East Mahoning Street. The house is one of the most interesting homes in the country from an architectural standpoint and was equipped with all the modern conveniences and comforts known at the time. David did all the design work himself and he used unique materials of natural beauty. The stones and marbles he employed were gathered from all parts of the world and many with special historical connections.

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Henry L. Wilson, of Los Angeles, was the architect, and local stonemason John Quincy Adams, of Albion, Bell township, assisted by Zeke Carsi, an Italian stonemason, completed the work. David Brown worked with them handling and deciding on the placement of every stone. The result is an extaordinary house of the Spanish Mission style of architecture. For many years, people from across the country traveled out of their way to view the building. The stone for the mantels was chosen especially for each, and shows rare taste in texture and color as well as use.

A House Built of Stones from Everywhere.

The "crazy patch" house of David F. Brown, in Punxsutawney, PA, is composed of stones from all parts of the world, says Popular Science Monthly.

There are stones from every State in the United States, stones from Italy, Ireland, China, Japan, South America and other places innumerable.

Grindstones, millstones, stones from the Mammoth Cave, from Pike's Peak, from the home of Patrick Henry, from the spot on which General Lee surrendered and from every historically famous place in this country, go to make up the "crazy patch" house. Over the fireplace is a piece of gold quartz from South America.

It required two years to build the house, but Mr. Brown and his friends and relatives who knew of his hobby for collecting odd stones, spent much more time than that getting the necessary number of stones of which no two are alike.

(From: The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 90, January, 1917; and, Stone, devoted to the quarrying and cutting of stone for architectural uses, Vol. 38, January-December 1917)

Stone house of David F. Brown in Punxsutawney, PA

David Brown traveled widely, and during 1909-10 he made a tour of the world, leaving New York City Oct. 16, 1909, on the "Cleveland,"' of the Hamburg-American Line, the first ship to make the trip completely around the world.

Mr. Brown' married Frances C. Bell, of Bells Mills, who was born June 7, 1879, daughter of William E. and Hannah (Barclay) Bell.

Frances Bell Brown died at 33 years old, on March 14. 1913, at her mother's home in Bells Mills, and is buried in the Brown plot in Circle Hill Cemetery in Punxsutawney.

David and Francis Brown had no children.

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David F. Brown was highly regarded as one of the Punxsutawney's most influential and public spirited residents whose judgment on all matters of importance was sought and valued.

On Aug. 5. 1916, his barn, the largest in Jefferson county, and filled with about seventy-five tons of hay and other grain, was struck by lightning, and was totally destroyed in the ensuing fire.

David Fisher Brown passed away on July 26, 1928 in Punxsutawney. He is buried with his wife and family in the Brown plot in Circle Hill cemetery. On his death, ownership of the old Brown homestead farm in Bell township next passed to Ward Fulton Brown, the 12th child of Henry Brown. ________________________________

Peter Lot Brown, ninth son of Henry and Catherine Fisher Brown was born on March 28, 1865, on the family homestead at Bells Mills.

Peter Lot Brown attended the public schools of Bell township and worked from his earliest years in the lumbering and farming businesses of his father. In 1903, at age 38, Peter and his brother Ward F. Brown partnered in family lumbering operations in Jefferson county. Then in 1905 until 1912, they turned their attention and energies to similar work in West Virginia, where they had extensive operations. Next, the brothers, in partnership with their brother David F. Brown, turned their attention to timber lands in North Carolina. Here they operated as the firm of Brown Brothers, composed of David F., Ward F., Peter L., and George C. Brown.

Brown Bothers saw mill Eskota, NC

Peter Lot Brown at one time owned a farm in Bell township adjoining the old Brown family homestead, but he later moved into the new stone house of his brother in the borough of Punxsutawney. Peter was a director of the County National Bank where his brother William J. Brown was the president.

Peter was also active in many local activities, belonging to the Odd Fellows lodge and the Country Club and also served as a member of the borough council.

Peter Lot Brown married Margaret Grube, daughter of John R. Grube, of Bell township, and they had seven children: Nellie, wife of Rev. Meade Dougherty, a Methodist minister, of Cloe, Bell township (they have one 68

daughter) ; Ned L. (see below); Madeline, wife of Newell Bidewell; Katherine; Martha; Louise; and, James Grube Brown. _________________________

Ned L. Brown, eldest son of Peter Lot Brown, was born on July 20, 1889, in Bell township, Jefferson county.

He attended public school at Cloe and at Elkins, WV, and graduated from the Reno business college in Pittsburgh.

Ned subsequently clerked for his father and uncles at Eskota, NC, where he stayed four years. He had charge of the store owned by the Brown Brothers Lumber Company. Next, Ned moved to Punxsutawney and on December 1, 1916, bought out the store and business of well-known local clothier, M. H. Morris. The store was then operated under the name of Ned L. Brown & Co. The business carried a full line of men's wear.

Socially Ned Brown was an active Mason, affiliating with Burnsville Lodge, No. 192, F. & A. M., of Burnsville, NC; with the chapter and commandery at Minneapolis, NC; and, the Kerbela Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Tennessee.

Ned married Ada B. Cottle, daughter of George Cottle, of Harper, West Virginia. ____________________

Brown Family in Jefferson county, PA The property holdings of Henry Brown and his family in Jefferson county were significant. Their farm, timber and coal lands put them among the largest land owners in the county.

A review of the Jefferson county township maps shows that the Brown lands were in eight townships: Bell, Gaskill, McCalmont, Oliver, Winslow, Warsaw, Eldred and Union townships.

The 1867 map of Jefferson county on the next page shows these townships outlined in RED. Included is a list of the Brown family properties that are shown on the individual township maps which are presented at the end of this chapter. __________________________

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Bell township

Henry Brown Henry Brown Henry Brown Henry Brown

Saw Mill 140 acres 170 acres 160 acres

Gaskill township

Henry Brown Andrew Brown

400 acres 26 acres

McCalmont township

David F. Brown David F. Brown David F. Brown George Brown J. H. Brown T. J. Brown Henry Brown North & Brown

Saw Mill 70 acres 167 acres 87 acres 2419 acres House 2912 acres 38 acres

Oliver township

James Brown

Winslow township

Henry Brown Henry Brown Henry Brown Henry Brown Walker & Brown Cochran & Brown Mrs. Brown

.

Warsaw township

165 acres Farm 660 acres Land Land & house Land 100 acres House

Eldred township

James Brown Mrs. M. Brown J. Brown

20 acres 88 acres 100 acres

Union Township

Mrs. M. Brown

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112 acres

HENRY BROWN - HISTORY OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY IN PENNSYLVANIA To best understand the lives of Henry Brown and his sons, we need some background on the timer and lumber industry which was such a large part of their lives.

Prior to the arrival of colonists to Pennsylvania in 1682, it has been estimated that up to 90% of Pennsylvania was covered with over 20 million acres of woods that consisted of a variety of white pine, Eastern hemlock, and a mix of hardwoods. Over 300 years later nearly all of the old-growth forest is gone. The forests near the early settlements on the east coast were the first to be harvested. Early settlers here used readily available timber to build homes, barns and ships as they cleared lands for farming. Demand for lumber increased slowly until, by the time of the American Revolution, the lumber industry had move into the interior and mountainous regions of Pennsylvania.

The tall and straight trunks of white pine and hemlock were lashed together on rafts and floated down rivers to Baltimore and Philadelphia for use as masts on all sorts of sailing ships. Some of the early pioneers recognized there were business opportunities in the central and western forests surrounding their new homes. Opportunists like Henry Brown opened water powered sawmills along the banks of creeks to turn timber into lumber as they and their neighbors cleared their farm lands.

Lumber soon became one of the leading industries in Pennsylvania. In addition to constructing homes and ships, Pennsylvania trees were used as fuel to heat homes, provide tannin for the many tanneries spread throughout Pennsylvania, wood for furniture and barrel making. Large areas of trees were harvested to make charcoal to fire early American iron furnaces. Also, rifle stocks and shingles were all made from local timber as were a wide variety of household utensils. The first Conestoga wagons were built using the abundant supplies of lumber that were growing on the hillsides and in the valleys of Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania lumber industry became a massive enterprise beginning in the middle part of the 19th century aided by the development of the "lumber boom." A boom is a chain or line of connected floating timbers extended across a river, lake, or harbor to obstruct passage or catch floating objects. Lumber booms would catch timbers floated downstream. The introduction of the steam train to the mountains of Pennsylvania brought about another change in Pennsylvania's lumber industry. The white pine forests had been largely harvested by this time and the lumbermen now sought to gather the vast stands of hemlock.

Railroad companies opened and built tracks into parts of the mountains that had been previously impossible or too difficult to access. The railroads were able to remove more trees faster than the old system of floating logs downs creeks and rivers. In addition to rapidly removing timber, the sparks and embers tossed out by steam engines would often set off huge forest fires that devastated saplings that had grown to replenish the old growth forests.

Pennsylvania lumber was crucial to the development and growth of shipping, mining, metals and railroad industries. Pennsylvania wood built the ship for the Lewis and Clark "Voyage of Discovery" and thousands of steamboats and barges. Wood piers held up coal mine shafts and tunnels and provided ties to hold down railroad tracks. And, before coke, wood charcoal fueled furnaces to smelt iron and steel. Before iron and steel wood was also needed for bridges, pilings, telegraph poles and fences.

The lumber boom in Pennsylvania did not last. By the 1920s most of the valuable trees were gone. As the trees disappeared, lumber operations moved to western and southern states. Pennsylvania was left with a depleted landscape that would be devastated by erosion and wildfires and would take years to recover. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought thousands of acres of deforested and burnt out land from the lumber 71

companies and then began massive projects to reforest. Now, the old growth forests of hemlock and white pine have been replaced by a thriving second growth forest of hardwoods. (From: The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2005; and History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania: including its aboriginal history; the colonial and revolutionary periods; early settlement and subsequent growth; organization and civil administration; the legal and medical professions; internal improvement; past and present history of Williamsport; manufacturing and lumber interests; religious, educational, and social development; geology and agriculture; military record; sketches of boroughs, townships, and villages; portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, etc., 1892)

In Pennsylvania, no county in the State had more select timbers than Jefferson county when it was first settled. The fame of the county's lumber was well known, but it was not until about the year 1836 or 1837 that the lumber trade was pushed with any kind of vigor. Soon with the help of major investments in new mills the lumber business bloomed and did not decline until the supply of timber was exhausted. Acts were passed Pennsylvania government declaring the principal streams highways, and the spring and fall floods found them full of lumber rafts steered by teams of raft men. In 1854, the lumber trade of the Redbank Valley of Jefferson county was estimated at over 20,000,000 feet; on the North Fork there were twenty-two saws cutting 10,000,000; on Sandy Lick and its branches, twenty saws, cutting 10,000,000; on Redbank and Little Sandy, fifteen saws, cutting 3,500,000; the total estimate was 23,500,000 feet. Additionally, at least 5,000,000 shingles were produced in Jefferson county.

Before the passage of the acts creating the Redbank and Mahoning Navigation Companies, rafting of timber was very difficult because of obstructions in the channels. These new companies spent large sums to remove obstructions, straighten channels, and otherwise improve the streams. Before this was done board rafts sent out from Redbank contained from 20,000 to 25,000 board feet; after improvements to the waterways, they grew to 50,000 board feet. In the spring flood of 1869, seventy-four board, and three hundred and fifty timber rafts were run out of Redbank by Jefferson county lumbermen, containing over 2,500,000 feet of boards, and 600,000 feet of square timber. In 1872 these increase to 917 timber, and 570 board rafts. These comprised the shipments of one hundred and fifty individuals and firms, averaging from one to one hundred rafts each. In 1873 eight of the principal lumber firms sent to market 428 board rafts, containing from 30,000 to 50,000 feet per raft, and over 100 timber rafts. The lowest price paid for timber in Jefferson county was $0.0267 per cubic foot in 1846; the highest price was $0.27 per cubic foot, in 1863; the lowest price paid for boards was $3.50 per thousand, in 1826, and the highest was $30.00 per thousand, paid in 1864.

The Redbank and Mahoning Navigation Companies were incorporated by acts of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1854 and 1858. These acts gave the companies power to clean and clear the Red Bank, Sandy Lick, North Fork and Mahoning Creeks "from all rocks, bars, and other obstructions; to erect dams and locks; to bracket and regulate all dams now erected; to regulate the schutes of dams; to control the waters for purposes of navigation; to levy tolls not exceeding one and one-quarter cents for each and every five miles of improved creek, per thousand feet of boards or other sawed stuff for every fifty feet, linear measure, of square or other timber." The result was that the streams were greatly improved, and during the first three years the tolls collected were for the most part expended improving the channels. The importance of the acts were vital to the lumber trade in Jefferson county. Prior to creation of the Mahoning company, the Mahoning and its branches meandered through an almost unbroken wilderness from its source to near its mouth. Every storm felled trees, and every flood washed up new bars and rocks and destroyed dams.

The lumber trade of Jefferson county dwindled with the timber. With the end of the lumber boom and the depletion of an adequate supply of feed stock, the mission of the navigation companies ended and they soon disappeared. (From: History of Jefferson County, by Kate M. Scott, 1888)

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Brown Brothers Lumber Company In 1913, when the Black Mountain Railroad reached Eskota, NC, near the base of Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountains, access was opened to the forests of this region and lumber production boomed.

The Brown Brothers Lumber Company quickly became one of the largest timber and lumber producers. The Brown Brothers controlled 13,000 acres in the Black Mountains on the slope of Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell is the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains, and has an elevation of 6,638 feet.

Eskota is about four miles as the crow flies from the summit of Mount Mitchell. The Brown's Eskota, NC saw mill marked the southernmost community served by the Black Mountain Railroad. The Brown Brothers Lumber Company also built and operated a narrow gauge railroad in support of their logging operation which timbered the lower slopes of Mount Mitchell.

Using switch backs, the Browns build their rail line halfway up the north slope of Mount Mitchell to feed their large saw mill operation in Eskota, which is located in Yancey county, NC, approximately 37 miles northeast of Asheville, NC in the Black mountains of the Blue Ridge mountain range. The Browns also had a double band saw mill farther south in Murchison, NC. The Black mountains are the highest in the eastern US. They take their name from the dark appearance of the Red Spruce and Fraser Fir trees on the upper slopes which contrasts with the brown (during winter) or lighter green (during the growing season) appearance of the deciduous trees at lower elevations. The Eastern Continental Divide, which runs along the eastern Blue Ridge crest, intersects the southern tip of the Black Mountain range. The Black Mountains are home to Mount Mitchell State Park, which now protects the range's highest summit and the adjacent summits in the north-central section of the range. Much Snow storm on top of Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountains, NC

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of the range is also protected by the Pisgah National Forest. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes along the range's southern section, and is connected to the summit of Mount Mitchell by North Carolina Highway 128. The Black Mountains are mostly located in Yancey County, although the range's southern and western extremes are part of Buncombe County.

Tourism and logging The revelation that the Black Mountains were the highest in the Appalachian Range made them an immediate tourist attraction. By the 1850s, a lodge had been established in the southern part of the range, and locals built several rustic cabins on the higher mountain slopes and were thriving as mountain guides. The Civil War brought a temporary halt to the tourism boom, but by the late 1870s, the industry had recovered. In the 1880s, a large game preserve was established in the Cane River Valley.

Shay locomotive at Brown Brothers Lumber operation on Mt. Mitchell

As forests in the north were cut down to meet the growing demand for lumber in the late 19th century, logging firms turned to the virgin forests of Southern Appalachia. Between 1908 and 1912, northern lumber firms, like the Brown Brothers bought up timber rights to most of the Black Mountains and began a series of massive logging operations in the area. Between 1909 and 1915, much of the forest on the upper slopes and crest was cut down. An increase in demand for red spruce during World War I led to the rapid deforestation of much of the spruce-fir forest in the higher elevations. As forests were removed, forest fires (caused by the ignition of dried brush and slash left by loggers) and erosion denuded what was left of the landscape.

Logged slope of Mount Mitchell in 1923

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Many North Carolinians were alarmed at the abusive logging practices that were stripping bare the Black Mountains. After the North Carolina state legislature rejected an initial attempt to create a state park at the summit of Mount Mitchell in 1913, Governor Craig began negotiating (and may have threatened) lumber firms to preserve the forest atop Mitchell while he and Holmes lobbied for the creation of a state park. The state legislature finally approved the purchase of a stretch of land which became the core of Mount Mitchell State Park. The Pisgah National Forest, established in 1916, also began buying up and replanting lands that had been logged over.

In 1922, the Mount Mitchell Development Company completed the first automobile road to Mount Mitchell, connecting the summit with the Swannanoa Valley. NC-128, which connects Mount Mitchell with the Blue Ridge Parkway, was completed in 1948.

(From: The History of Railroading in Western North Carolina, by Cary F. Poole, 1995; and , Mount Mitchell & the Black Mountains, by Timoth Silver, 2003)

________________________________ The information above is all that I have discovered to date about the story of the family of Henry Brown, son of James Brown and brother of William Hughey and Peter Brown. I hope this information is helpful for future family historians. Certainly more work can be done to uncover more details about the many lives of this branch of our family tree as well as discovering new connections. Good luck to all who may undertake the task.

The following maps of Jefferson county townships show Henry Brown family properties.

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CAPTAIN SAMUEL SMITH BROWN - CELEBRITY Captain Samuel S. Brown was a celebrity equal to the major entertainment and sport heroes of today. His name and accomplishments were known and talked about across the country. In the two years preceding his death, after it became known that he was ill, newspapers regularly reported on his health and activities. In the month before he died, newspaper reports on his status were published weekly and as he neared the end, on a daily basis.

Why was this man so famous? Why was he one of the most noted celebrities at the turn of the century from the 1800s to the 1900s? The answer is that Captain Sam had what people envy: astounding wealth, business success, economic power, personality, integrity and high standing in the most popular sporting activity of his time.

Known to all as "Captain Sam," a title he earned working as a Ohio and Mississippi river steamboat man, he was also a coal and coke operator, turf magnate, hotel proprietor, larger than life personality, a true "citizen of the world," and he was one of the financial pillars of Western Pennsylvania. (From: All Sorts of Pittsburgers Sketched in Prose and Verse; Burgoyne, Arthur; Pittsburg, PA; The Leader; 1892. Note: The correct spelling of Pittsburgh in 1892 was Pittsburg. The spelling Pittsburgh was officially restored in 1911.)

He was described as: "A big - physically big and mentally big - fellow of infinite humor" with a tendency to think of other people. "Six feet tall, broad shouldered, loud and genial of voice and manner. Every line on his face denoted strength of character, and his personal magnetism won and held his friends." He is a genial gentleman, affable and courteous and is a popular man and a favorite everywhere.

By any measure Captain Sam's worth as established in his estate in 1905 is amazing. At $20,000,000, the actual worth of Sam Brown's estate was among the largest in American history. The economic power value of his estate in 2013 dollars is more than $11.6 billion. To put this in perspective, Captain Sam's worth would rank him #36 among Forbes list of America's wealthiest people in 2013, right after the heirs of Steven Jobs ($11.7 billion) and well above the worth of Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Jones (owner of the Dallas Cowboys), and David Rockefeller. In his day, Captain Sam's worth was exceeded only by a few others such as Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller.

His wealth began with an inheritance but was also a measure of his business acumen. While he inherited wealth and the coal mining and shipping business built by his father, he also managed and grew his family's businesses to even greater success.

Known as the "King of Coal", Sam was also a legendary riverboat pilot and captain as well as a master of logistics. The legend is that as a young man, he trained to be a river pilot on his father's fleet including the steamboat the Alonzo Child where Sam served with Samuel Clements (who would later be known as Mark Twain). At age 16, he and his uncle Captain Peter Brown made history by taking 2 steamboats, the General Larimer and Grampus, lashed together with 12 wooden barges loaded with 230,000 bushels of coal, down Old King Coal

Young Samuel S. Brown

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the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and returning loaded with rice, cotton, molasses and other uniquely southern products. The coal alone was worth $40,000 (valued at $850,000 in 2013 dollars) and the barges were sold and the wood used to construct buildings in the city. The southern goods were then sold at a premium in the north. This was the first shipment of this type and the trip sparked the growth of two way trade north and south along the Mississippi and Ohio river systems.

Mark Twain was a Special Friend From September 19 to November 18, 1860, Sam Brown was a co-pilot on board the 493 ton steamer Alonzo Child built in 1857. On this ship he served with co-pilots: Horace Bixby, William Bower and Samuel Clemens (later Mark Twain).

The captains were: David DeHaven and James O'Neal. (Recorded in Way's and Waterways Journal)

Ad for the steamer Alonzo Child

Clemens ran the boat a ground in 1860, noting in a letter to his brother: "I grounded the "Child" on the bank, at nearly flood-tide, where we had to stay until the "great" tide ebbed and flowed again (24 hours) before she floated off."

In a letter to William Bowen, (from San Francisco) on August 25, 1866, Clemens reminisces: "Why in the mischief don't O'Neil die? Is that damned old Fenian going to live forever? You ought to have seen him & me bring the (damn the boat's name, I can't think of it now - Alonzo, or Child, or something like that) up the river through the ice, drawing all the water. He was the whitest Captain I ever sailed with, & in this stiff "earthquake cobbler" I drink present joy & final salvation to him!"

At Vicksburg at the Start of Civil War The War between the States was provoked by Confederate troops firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina in April of 1861, but they were not the first shots fired.

Earlier in December, 1860, the state of South Carolina seceded from the union prompting other southern states to do the same. The United States Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, known southern sympathizer, sent an order to the Allegheny Arsenal in Pittsburgh for shipment of 124 cannons down river to New Orleans.

When word of this leaked, Pittsburgh citizens protested the action knowing the guns would be used to build up southern arsenals. The guns and their military escorts, were stopped on city streets by an angry crowd on Christmas Eve, though no violence occurred. Finally, the orders were countermanded.

Southerners were enraged by these actions in Pittsburgh. In January, 1861 Louisiana seceded followed by Mississippi.

Louisiana in order to build up its arsenal used state troops to capture the federal arsenal at Baton Rouge without bloodshed. The Governor of Mississippi believing that the north was sending an expedition down river to reinforce Federal forts in the south responded by sending artillery and troops to Vicksburg and ordering that they "prevent any hostile expedition from the Northern States descending the river." (Message of the Governor John J. Pettus to the Senate and House of Representatives of Mississippi, Jan. 15, 1861, Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi, Jackson, 1861, p. 6.)

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At Vicksburg four guns were placed at the "foot of the bluff, a quarter of a mile above the wharf." Reports differ as to whether blanks or real shot was fired at passing steamers to force them to land.

(Memphis Appeal and Memphis Avalanche, Jan. 17, 1861).

New Orleans papers reported that all "foreign" boats must stop and give an account of themselves. At northern river ports it was believed that real reason for using cannon was a deliberate attempt to harass northern vessels. (Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 23, 1861, Missouri Republican, Jan. 25, 1861).

It is interesting that Sam Brown, Sam Clemens and all on board the Alonzo Child were witness to these events.

"With your own eyes you saw it all. Do you recall the first gun of the war directed at you from the Vicksburg Fort, expecting to capture the Boat that had Floyd’s Pittsburg armament, going to Baton Rouge. You were on watch on the Alonzo Child." (From: Will Bowen letter to Samuel Clemens, December 10, 1889) Sam Brown had studied at different normal schools and at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, PA . He entered Jefferson College at age sixteen, leaving the college three years later in his junior year and enlisted in Company "D" of the 10th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Reserves serving through the early part of the Civil War in the Army of the Potomac until its occupation of Fredricksburg, VA. But, malaria forced Sam to relinquish his post and return to Pittsburgh. Later he served in the battles and sieges of Memphis and Vicksburg as the War Department made use of his background and placed him in charge of its coal and hay transport business at Memphis, TN. There he served the Federal government at the beginning of Gen. Grant's campaign against Vicksburg. He would later join his father's business supplying Union forces throughout the remainder of the War. After the war Sam worked hard to learn all aspects of the business by thorough study of its vast details and by actual service in its several departments. In 1875 after the death of his father, Sam took charge of the business with his brothers. (From: The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 6, 1898) He then grew his family's wealth through judicious investment of steamboat money in Pennsylvania coal, land and iron manufacturing businesses. He was a director in the Union Trust Co., the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Co., the National Bank of Commerce of Pittsburgh (later PNC Bank) and the First National Bank of Dawson, Penn., and President of the Ohio Valley Railway Company. He was the sole owner of the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company as well as several railroads and other businesses.

He was twice a member of Pittsburgh City Council from the 23rd Ward. He was a thirtysecond degree Mason, a member of the Order of the Elks, the Manhattan Club of NY, the Pendennis Club of Louisville, the Tennessee Club of Memphis and the Americus Club and Duquesne Clubs of Pittsburgh.

In river transportation, he headed the Pittsburgh & Morgantown Packet Co., was an officer in the Arkansas River Packet Co., and a major shareholder in the majestic and world famous luxury steamers Kate Adams and J. W. White and others.

In 1877, famous American song writer William Shakespeare Hays dedicated his song Early in de Morning to Captain Sam Brown. Hay's songs were very popular in the post Civil War years. One of his songs sold over a million copies. (A full copy of this song appears later.)

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The name Sam Brown regularly traveled up and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In addition to the luxury packet steamboat S.S. Brown, three other tow boats named for him were built in 1866, 1881, and 1896. Captain Sam was also well known along the rivers for his personal steam yacht Troubadour.

Two of the steamboats named for Captain Samuel S. Brown

Troubadour

In 1890, when Monongahela House Hotel fell into difficulties, Captain Brown bought the establishment and infused new life into the management, with such excellent results as to make it one of the best paying hotel properties in Pittsburgh. He was now a renown hotelier. The Monongahela House was one of America's finest hotels with five stories and 180 rooms and a world class black walnut staircase. The ballroom held 1,500 and was considered the best west of the Allegheny Mountains. Its guests included eight presidents: John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, William H. Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Royals such as Edward VII stayed there as did artists such as Mark Twain, Ralph Emerson, and Horace Greeley. Scientist and inventor Nicola Tesla lived at the Monongahela House for over a year enjoying its gourmet foods, fine decor and cosmopolitan atmosphere.

He also was an owner of the trolley company connecting Homestead, PA with Squirrel Hill and on to the city of Pittsburgh. This trolley service traveled over a privately financed bridge across the Monongahela River built by Captain Sam and known as Brown's Bridge.

Brown's Bridge 1902

Perhaps his greatest business achievement was working to engineer the 1899 consolidation of the Monongahela River coal, coke and river transportation businesses with Henry Clay Frick.

In this he converted the great wealth locked in the mines, coke ovens, boats and railroads of W. H. Brown Sons into cash and stock which was in turn reinvested in a wide range of businesses across the country. When the River coal "Combine" was organized, Sam and his brother's interests were among the largest holdings transferred to this new corporation.

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Monongahela House Hotel - 1890s

Captain Sam would also stay on with the "Combine" as a founding member of its board of directors and served until his death as the company's Master of Transportation, but refused to take any salary.

In 1903, Captain Sam engaged Pittsburgh construction firm of John Eichleay, Jr. to move his 24-room mansion built in 1868 on the bank of the Monongahela. The home stood in the way of oncoming Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks. So, at a cost of $40,000, the house was elevated 160 feet (as shown here) and moved it 600 feet back onto what is known as Brown's Hill.

This remarkable feat of engineering was reported in newspapers across the country.

Moving the Brown Mansion

Captain Sam was an imposing figure - well over 6 foot tall, well built and large of structure for most of his life (at one point he was reported to weighed 360 lbs.) and he sported either a stylish goatee or a bristling moustache. He was a true "bon vivant", outspoken and more than willing to share his thoughts with friends, foes and the newspapers. He was born with the spirit of adventure and he was a natural public figure.

But, these things were only a part of what drew America to him. The real basis for his celebrity was that he was among the greatest sports figures of his day.

Today, we think of major sports as football (professional and collegiate), baseball, basketball, hockey and NASCAR. In Captain Sam's day the most popular sport was horse racing.

In the years before 1905, hockey existed only on frozen ponds, rivers and lakes in northern states and Canada. Basketball was an intramural game invented by Dr. James Naismith in 1891 at the YMCA and did not even become an Olympic sport until 1939.

The first ever intercollegiate football game was played between Princeton and Rutgers University in 1869. The sport was so violent in succeeding years that there were hundreds of deaths which put people off and limited popularity. It was not until 1906 that President Theodore Roosevelt demanded that colleges create rules to make college football safer. When college officials could not agree, it was decided to create an external governing body that would become the NCAA. Years later, legendary coaches Pop Warner and Knute Rockne would help to build the popularity of college football. Yet, Pop Warner would not coach his four national championship teams until 1915, 1916, and 1918 with the University of Pittsburgh and in 1926 with Stanford. Knute Rockne did not begin his coaching career at Notre Dame until 1914 as an assistant coach and did not become head coach until 1918.

The first record of an American football player receiving "pay for play" came in 1892 with William "Pudge" Heffelfinger's $500 contract to play in a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. But, the National Football League was not formed until 1920. (Curiously, the 85

1892 game may have included Edwin Brown, the son of Captain Sam's cousin W. S. Brown, who played for the PAA - circled in red.)

In Captain Sam Brown's time there was no car racing and in fact the birth of the modern automobile was only in 1886 - by German inventor Karl Benz. Until 1908 when automobiles became affordable, with Henry Ford's introduction of the Model T, cars were mostly used as motorized wagons to replace animaldrafted carriages. The first great motor car race in the U. S. was in 1904, with the running of the Vanderbilt Cup Race on Long Island, NR. In Captain Sam's time people did not race cars, but they did race horses.

In the late 1800s and the years before 1905, America's most popular past-time was horse racing. Most towns had racetracks. Some were stand alone race tracks and others were part of local fairgrounds. The horse was the ubiquitous method of transportation and almost everyone could appreciate a fine race horse. Adding to the popularity of the "Sport of Kings" was that while not every man could field a thoroughbred and actually participate in racing, anyone could follow the sport in the newspaper, make a wager at a race track or the local street corner and win money. In this sport Captain Sam was a master at both.

Horse racing in the 1890s

Captain Sam loved horses. He rode them, owned them and raced them from a young age. After assuming leadership of his family's businesses, he certainly had the means to expand his interests and influence in the sport. It is unknown when his involvement in horse racing began. He was, however, a well known horse man in his youth, famous for his ride through a blizzard with S. Sutton in 1861 that saved the Delta Tau Delta fraternity from extinction.

The first record of his involvement in thoroughbred racing was in the 1st running of the Kentucky Derby in 1875. This was certainly not Captain Brown's first venture in horse racing but the earliest on record.

The idea to create a race track at Louisville and then the Kentucky Derby came to 26 year old Colonel M. Lewis Clark while traveling in England and France in 1872-1873. Clark devised the idea of a Louisville Jockey Club for conducting race meets. He toured and visited with a number of prominent English and French racing leaders. Upon his return from Europe, Clark began development of his racetrack which would serve to showcase the Kentucky breeding industry.

The track would eventually become known as "Churchill Downs" because it sat on eighty acres of land, approximately three miles south of downtown Louisville which were leased from Clark's uncles, John and Henry Churchill. Surprisingly, the track was not incorporated as Churchill Downs until 1937. Before then, it was known simply as the Louisville Jockey Club. To fund construction of the track, Clark raised 86

First Clubhouse at Churchill Downs

$32,000 by selling 320 membership subscriptions to the track at $100 each. A clubhouse, grandstand, porter's lodge and six stables were all eventually constructed on the site for the opening of the track.

Captain Sam was an early member.

For his inaugural race meet, Clark designed three major stakes races: the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks and the Clark Handicap. These events have each been held continuously at Churchill Downs since their debut when the track formally opened May 17, 1875. An estimated 10,000 people watched Bonaventure win the track's first race, however the winner of the day's featured race, the Kentucky Derby, was a three-year-old chestnut colt named, Aristides. A Captain Sam Brown owned horse named Ascension finished 10th in this 1st running of the Kentucky Derby.

From 1875 until 1896, the Kentucky Derby was run at a distance of 1 1/2 miles, the distance of today's Belmont Stakes. In 1896, the distance was shortened to 1 1/4 miles. the reasoning being that the longer distance is too hard for 3-year-olds so early in the spring.

While Captain Brown owned, bred and raced horses in Kentucky, he was also very influential behind the scenes at Churchill Downs. He was a member of the track's board of directors almost from its beginnings in 1875 and he would eventually become the track's controlling stockholder from 1894 until his death.

Another record of his involvement is in 1882 when Runnymede finishes 2nd and Harry Gilmore finishes 4th in the KY Derby and Babcock finishes 2nd in the Belmont Stakes. Harry Gilmore is owned by Captain Sam Brown and the other horses are owned by Captain William Cottrill and later would be acquired by Captain Brown.

In 1884, Captain Sam Brown bought a half interest in all the horse breeding operations, stables and race tracks of one of the legendary founders of American thoroughbred racing, Captain William Cottrill.

Cottrill was a Confederate Army captain, who after the war, imported English race horses to the Kentucky area and began many famous blood lines. He was also a successful owner of southern race tracks and a promoter of horse stakes racing in America. The Alabama Stakes race in Saratoga, NY was to be named in his honor but he refused it, requesting that it be named after his home state of Alabama.

The partnership of Captains Brown and Cottrill owned Buchanan winner of the 10th Kentucky Derby. Buchanan earned $3,990 ($100,000 in 2013 dollars) for his work that day and he was the first maiden (non-winner) ever to win the Derby.

Following Captain Cottrill’s illness and death in 1886, Sam Brown acquired full ownership of all Cottrill interests.

Now, in addition to many farms, stables and race horses, Captain Samuel S. Brown owned the Bascombe Downs racetrack in Buchanan - 1885 Mobile, AL that he used as the winter training track for his race horses.

He also owned Magnolia race track in Baton Rouge, LA, the Kentucky Racing Association race track at Lexington, Kentucky (now known as Keenland), the City Park Racetrack in New Orleans, Montgomery Park Racetrack in Memphis (now the location of the Mid-South Coliseum), Latonia Racetrack in Covington, KY across the river from Cincinnati, OH, and he was a part owner of the Saratoga race track 87

with the Belmont brothers and he owned all or part of several other smaller racetracks along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Gulf Coast.

The racing colors of Sam Brown's stable were always cherry and blue with tan pants, but in early years his silks also had a blue sash across the front (see picture of Kimball below).

Eventually, his jockeys wore a bright solid cherry colored silk shirt without any other pattern or color and a deep blue hat and tan pants.

In 1886, Blue Wing finishes 2nd and Masterpiece finishes 10th and last in the Kentucky Derby. Both are owned

by Captain Sam Brown.

Sam Brown's Racing Silks

Also in 1886, Troubadour wins the Suburban Handicap, and is named American Champion horse of the year – owned by Captain Sam Brown. The Suburban Handicap was a major thoroughbred horse stakes race run annually at the New York's Sheepshead Bay race track. Since 1916 the Suburban Handicap has been run at Belmont race track. Open to horses age three and older, it was run at the classic 1¼ mile distance on dirt until shortened in 1975 for a $400,000 purse (almost $10 million today).

Named after the City and Suburban Handicap in England, th the Suburban had its 135 running in 2014. The Suburban is the final of the three races that compose the New York Handicap Triple series of races, following the Metropolitan Handicap and the Brooklyn Handicap. While 11 horses have won the Triple Crown, only four horses have won the NY Handicap Triple: Whisk Broom II (1913, sired by Captain Sam Brown’s horse Broomstick), Tom Fool (1953), Kelso (1961), and Fit to Fight (1984).

Troubadour, owned by Captain Brown, was described as a dark bay colt with a crescent-shaped star, a snip on his nose, and with four white feet, his head was said to be plain, and his shoulders, splendid.

At two he won the Barrett, Criterion, Kimball and Sensation Stakes.

At three he won the Charles Green, Palmer House and St Louis St Leger Stakes. At four he won the Suburban Handicap and beat the legendary filly Miss Woodford in a match race. At five he won the Monmouth Cup and Ocean Stakes. In stud he bred the Kentucky Derby winner Lookout and sired many other stakes winners.

In 1889, Buddhist, owned by Captain Sam Brown and ridden by G.B. Anderson wins the Preakness Stakes. George B. “Spider” Anderson was considered one of the greatest African American jockeys in horse racing history.

Troubadour

In 1893, Lookout wins 18th Kentucky Derby - sired by Troubadour, owned by Captain Sam Brown.

In 1894, Captain Sam Brown makes two major investments that increase his prominence in thoroughbred horse racing.

Lookout

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First he buys a horse farm in Lexington, KY and names it Senorita Stud Farm after his favorite brood mare. There he designs and creates an innovative automatic disease free watering system for his horses. This farm is known today as the Kentucky Horse Park.

Senorita Stud Farm - today's Kentucky Horse Park

Next he saves the Kentucky Jockey Club from ruin. Despite the success of the first Kentucky Derby, the track was not financially successful and on November 24, 1894, with the track on the verge of bankruptcy, the New Louisville Jockey Club was incorporated and took control of the racetrack. Captain Sam Brown was the controlling stockholder. William F. Schulte was appointed president and M. Lewis Clark was retained as presiding judge for the track.

Under Brown and Schulte's leadership, a new View of the Louisville Jockey Club 1890s grandstand was constructed during fall 1894 and spring 1895 on the opposite side of the track for a reported cost of $100,000. The grandstand was complemented by two spires constructed atop the roof. These twin spires, a simple architectural element, would become the symbol of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby.

By now Captain Brown's adventures and accomplishments were known far and wide. Newspapers regularly report on his business ventures as well as his racing interests.

Captain Brown is "one of the best known and most popular turfmen in America."

(From: The Lexington Herald,

July 9, 1906)

Thoroughbred racing was his greatest pleasure. "He always supported any effort to introduce the sport in the State of Pennsylvania, and always regretted that he could not race his horses in his home city."

(From: The New Orleans Times Democrat, December 12, 1903)

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"It may be doubted if there is a turfman in this country more universally respected than Captain Brown.

Generous, sportsmanlike and strictly honorable in the conduct, not only of his racing stables, but in that of his extensive business interests." (From: The New Orleans Times Democrat, December 12, 1903) ”He was never known to bet much on races, devoting his time to enjoying the performance of his stock, but his horses have won many large stakes." His real racing pleasures were at the large eastern tracks especially in New York at Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, and Saratoga where the stakes were bigger. He often told his trainer to take his lesser horses out to western or southern tracks "and see if you can't get something out of them." (From: The Kentucky Farmer and Breeder, March 5, 1905)

Many people noted his "liberality" with his horse trainers and jockeys. He certainly had the quality of giving or spending freely but he was also open to new ideas and free from prejudice. "He was a man of sterling integrity, kind almost to a fault." (From: American Turf, by John H. Davis, 1907) In June of 1901, the New York Times reported on Captain Sam Brown buying yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Auction. “The largest buyer of the sale was the Pittsburg coal millionaire, Capt. Samuel S. Brown, who paid the top price, $10,000, for the Sir Dixon-Bonnie Blue II colt, brother to the sake winners Blues and Blue Girl. Capt. Brown bought in all six head for a total of $26,400.” Included in this lot was Broomstick who would become a legendary sire of winners including: Whisk Broom II, and Kentucky Derby winners Regret (the first filly to win the Derby) and Meridian. Broomstick was a good, but not great runner, but he later became one of the cornerstones a great breeding program, and as a son of Ben Brush, carried on one of the strongest American sire lines of the 20th Century.

Captain Sam Brown

In 1905, Agile wins 31st Kentucky Derby – owned outright by Captain Sam Brown. The win brought Capt. Brown great joy as he lay in his sick bed 7 months before his death.

Later in this same year, Auditor, owned by Captain Brown, wins the Huntington Selling Stakes race at the Jamaica Racetrack on Long Island, NY, while Capt. Brown was in the New York Post Graduate Hospital following serious surgery and could not attend the race. Auditor was bought at auction after the race by one of the owners of a losing horse.

Another horse of Captain Brown, Ascot Belle, won the last race of the day.

Statue of Agile Louisville Hyatt Regency

Finally, on December 11, 1905, Captain Samuel Smith Brown dies at his home just 4 days short of his 63rd birthday. His health had been slowly deteriorating for a period of two years. His disease is variously reported as "stomach trouble," cancer of the bladder or stomach, but his symptoms point more likely to pancreatic cancer.

Newspapers had been following his health for many months. The NY Evening Telegraph in November, 1905 reported that a friend of Captain Sam's said: "Capt. Brown is making a gallant fight for life but it is 90

a hopeless fight." A later article noted that Capt. Sam's personal physician, Dr. Foster, said: "The Captain insisted on leaving his bed. A invalids chair was procured, and for several hours he was wheel around the second floor of his home."

On December 9, 1905, it is reported that physicians of Captain Sam "have had to resort to oxygen several times during the week to keep their patient alive." "They told the Captain his condition was "hopeless and he will never leave his bed." Captain Sam said: "As you go out, Dr. Foster, please telephone for my attorney, my business manager and my brother. I would set my worldly affairs in order." With this, he made a new will disposing of his many millions.

His death was reported in newspapers across the country, in cities and small towns. Such was his fame and esteem.

Little did anyone expect the storm of scandal and confusion that would be the talk of the country within days of his death.

On December 17, 1905, Captain Samuel S. Brown's family gathered at the Brown mansion at Brown's Station along the Monongahela River. The purpose of the gathering was to hear the reading of his will by his attorney. Within minutes and before the reading was complete, Elizabeth Brown Ward, the Captain's oldest sister, ran from the room in tears exclaiming, "Oh Samuel, how could you have done this thing!"

The Brown Mansion

The "thing" was Captain Sam's death bed change to his will disinheriting his daughter-in-law beloved by all in the Brown family and the person who had long lived with and cared for him.

The apparent change to Sam's will was simple but for the family and society it was shocking and confusing. Daughter-inlaw Grace McGoodwin Brown was to have inherited at least $1 million as the wife of Sam's deceased son, but largely as an expression of his appreciation and deep affection for her years of companionship. Instead, a new will written shortly before his death bequeathed to her only a life-time income from the interest on $30,000 worth of bonds in a local Pittsburgh brewery. This slight was further compounded by Captain Sam's generosity to another young woman who in recent years had competed with Grace for the affections of the old man and control of his household.

Captain Sam's only son William Brown and Grace McGoodwin were married in Princeton, Caldwell County, Kentucky on May 15, 1889. The young bride was the daughter of Edwin Pendleton and Agnes Love McGoodwin. At the wedding were her uncle, prominent physician and a founder of Cumberland College, Dr. Preston Beauford (P.B.) McGoodwin and sisters Margaret and Lilly McGoodwin.

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Within days of the wedding, William fell ill with typhoid fever and was dead within a week. The new bride-widow, almost ill with her grief, brought him home to Pittsburgh in a coffin. There she first met Captain Sam her new father-in-law and she went straight to his heart. �You must stay here with us, my dear, and be my daughter, too. I know Will would have wished it so." were the words of the great man morning the loss of his only son. So Grace stayed with her husband's family, and year after year endeared herself to him and all who knew her.

Tragedy struck Captain Sam several times in his life as he lost all of his children. Two did not survive their first year. The last was in November of 1889, when his only surviving child, his daughter Nellie died while traveling in Florence, Italy. (From: Pittsburg Dispatch, November 27, 1889) She was 14 years old. "I am afraid my poor old heart will break," said Captain Sam, now childless. There was no one to turn to except his daughter-in-law now. He called Grace to him one day soon after the funeral and said: "Stay here with me, for I am left alone. Be the head of my household, and when I die you will be the same in my will as if you were my own daughter. And why not? Are you not the wife of my dead son, my only boy?" Without Grace, Sam was alone.

For 50 years, Brown's Station, the expansive family estate along the Monongahela River, was the center of Brown family life. Sam's father, William Hughey Brown, not only raised his family there, but so did Sam's uncle Peter Brown as well as others. The family was close and even those who move away would regularly stop by. Everyone of them worked in various Brown family businesses. With the passing of his father and uncle, Sam became the family patriarch. Most importantly, Sam assumed responsibility for his young brother who was just 19 years old and a cadet at the Pennsylvania Military College at the time of their father's passing.

Sam's older sister Elizabeth married James Ward in 1863, and she, her husband and their son would later assume leadership of Brown family iron and steel foundry and mill businesses in Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania, most notably the famous Shenango Furnace in New Castle, PA. W. Harry Brown, his younger brother and business partner, married in 1890 and built a resplendent mansion of his own on Pittsburgh Fifth Avenue, known as Millionaire Row. His friends and neighbors included H. C. Frick, the Mellons, General Howe, Philander Knox (future US Attorney General and Secretary of State and then Pennsylvania's senior US Senator) as well as others of Pittsburgh's elite.

Sam's closest cousin W. S. Brown, son of uncle Peter, raised at Brown's Station and for years a senior manager in Brown family businesses, married and moved to a new home between Schenley Park and the new Homewood Cemetery in upper Squirrel Hill. In 1883, W. S. Brown purchased the largest gunsmith and sporting goods establishment in the city, famous for manufacturing Pennsylvania Long Rifles and a major arms supplier to police, National Guard as well as the public. W.S. Brown, Inc. Sporting Goods & Enterprise Gun Works, operated at buildings on Wood Street and Virgin Alley (now Oliver Avenue) until circa 1960.

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As family members married and moved on, Sam became more alone at the Brown mansion. Including the loss of his children, his wife Lizzie Pollock Brown had left him in 1879. They finally divorced in 1895 on the grounds that she had deserted him due to the influence of others. The Philadelphia Inquirer on November 30, 1895 reported on the divorce decree whereby Captain Sam alleges desertion. "He claimed his wife left him four times. The last was in 1878 or 1879, when she went to Europe. The couple have lived apart since." The NY Times of the same date, added that Capt. Sam "claims his wife was influenced by outsiders who caused her to leave him." As part of the divorce settlement, Mrs. Brown received $300,000. (From: NY Times, December 20, 1905) Without the companionship of Grace, Sam would have no family living with him at Brown's Station. To his good fortune, Grace stayed for 15 years, until she suddenly returned to her former home in Princeton, KY. Some say it was to visit her sister. Others rumored that the cause of her departure was that Captain Brown wished to marry her and that she objected. Others still speculated that she was fed up being undermined by another young woman who had entered the household. What is known for sure is that Captain Sam begged her to stay and strongly protested her leaving against his will.

Martha Lewis was the daughter of an employee at Sam's boat yard. She was born, raised and educated at the school on the Brown estate. It is said that as a child, she reminded Captain Sam of his dear daughter Nellie. Several years before his death, Sam began inviting the precocious young Martha to activities at the mansion and encouraged the young girl's development. As a teenager, he involved her in his charitable work and he later gave her full charge of distributing his charitable gifts in the community. When Martha was 20 years old, Sam made her Secretary of the Sunday school at the Mary S. Brown Church that he had built in honor of his mother and endowed with $70,000 (an income value of $10.7 million).

A year before the Captain's death, Grace was visiting her family back in Kentucky. While she was gone the young church worker, Martha Lewis, slipped in to the place which Sam had created for his daughter in law. Captain Sam had invited Martha to live in the mansion as his protĂŠgĂŠ and to tend to and enjoy his library renown as one of the most complete in the city. Upon her return, Grace was asked to help polish Martha's rough edges. "Grace, just take Marty and buy her some things, and show her how to wear them" were the Captain's instructions. Now in her 30s, Grace did as she was asked, but refused to introduce the younger woman to her friends or involve her in social matters.

Soon Grace found that she was being undermined by Marty in the household and with the Captain. She returned to Kentucky to visit her sister, over the protestations of Captain Sam. This time while Grace was gone, Martha ultimately got control of the household to the chagrin of Sam's brothers, sisters, cousins and nephews. They all complained to Sam about Martha's new status and said that she should at the least should be sent to live outside the home. They also begged for Grace's return. Sam's response to these demands was, "Not for a minute. Grace has chosen to live away from me and I will not trouble her."

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Maybe he never did trouble her but at his end, surrounded by family as he died, there at the foot of the bed in a true show of affection sat Grace who had returned.

But by then Sam had changed his will to reward Martha. She was bequeathed full ownership of $30,000 worth of bonds in the same Pittsburgh brewing company, given a solid gold racing trophy plate worth in excess of $10,000 and allowed to select any books amounting to one-half of the library and valued at $50,000.

That young Marty ended up getting over $250,000 by the will was the least of the public scandal. Far more significant was the slighting of Grace, the efforts to keep the will secret, the shame of the family and the disgrace of one of America's most distinguished figures.

Pittsburgh officials were instructed to quietly file Captain Sam's will and to keep it sealed and secret.

Newspapers were only given a summary by the family's attorney and this omitted any reference to the young girls. "That's all we care to give out to the newspapers" was the reply when asked for details.

But, these were the days of "yellow journalism" that fed the public's love of sensational stories. Secrets were hard to hold from a hungry reporter from the New York World newspaper published by Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer was a founder of sensational journalism. The World was the first to use four color printing and the first to produce a color supplement with cartoons. Curiously, one of Pulitzer's most famous reporters was a young girl from Pittsburgh, named Nellie Bly. Her exploits included spending 10 days undercover in an insane asylum and traveling around the world to discover whether there was any truth to Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Ultimately it was the hectoring of a New York World correspondent in Pittsburgh that finally uncovered and made public the entire contents of Captain Sam's Will.

The newspapers of the day then began to speculate whether an old man's fickle fancy changed in his final days or if a designing girl succeeded in a plot to secure wealth at the expense of his reputation and standing in society.

What is known for sure is that after the will was made public, things happened quickly as the family took action. Martha was removed from the house. Grace was invited by the family to again become the mistress of the mansion and to stay for as long as she desired. Captain W. Harry Brown, Sam's younger brother who inherited the bulk of the estate said that he was against Miss Lewis' claim. Martha Lewis then resigned her Sunday school position as demanded by the officers of the Mary Brown church (including prominent members of the Brown family).

In all of this Grace McGoodwin Brown stands above all as a lady of refinement and . . . . grace. Asked by a newspaper reporter whether she would contest the will, she replied: "I have neither the power nor the inclination to do so. I was very fond of Captain Brown, and he was very fond of me. I admit that I was disappointed in the will, but there will be no contest so far as I am concerned." (From: NY Times) She had every reason to contest the will. For 15 years she was idolized and pampered by her father-inlaw following the death of her husband. Together they mourned their mutual loss and together they recovered from grief. Captain Sam surrendered his home and household to her leadership.

Everywhere they went he would introduce Grace as his daughter. He taught her to consider herself his heiress and in his original will promised her $1,000,000. And, she had the complete support of the 94

family who said that Captain Sam's will, executed on his death bed, was unjust, unfair and made under the undue influence of Martha Lewis.

But Grace did not contest the will. She stayed on for awhile at the mansion to mourn with the family and manage the household. But, her real desire was to return home to her own family in Princeton, Kentucky, which she did after sometime. There Grace lived until her passing in 1949 at age 79. Some say she was a school teacher but no record is known.

Reporters noted a strange feature of this strange case - that Captain Sam provided for Grace after her death by reserving a place for her in his ornate marble mausoleum at Allegheny Cemetery. This is a doll-sized chapel, angular and hard in its variety of granites. There she could rest with the Captain, her husband and others of the family's dead.

Whether Grace chose not to or Samuel S. Brown Mausoleum whether her surviving family Allegheny Cemetery - Pittsburgh was unaware of this option, she was ultimately buried in a simple grave surrounded by her own family at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Princeton, Kentucky. She now lies not far from the streets were she live out her days McGoodwin Street, McGoodwin Court, Grace Street and Grace Court.

Ownership of the expansive Brown estate along the Monongahela River below Squirrel Hill near the city of Pittsburgh soon was passed to the family of Captain Sam's older sister, Elizabeth Brown Ward and then to her son James Ward, Jr. Ultimately, the stately home built by Sam's father and for decades the center of Brown family life was destroyed by fire in 1913 with an estimated loss of $200,000 in heirlooms and art.

Martha Lewis, said the reason she "retired" from the Church was that she intended to marry William Arthur Porter, a race track employee of Captain Sam, and that they had loved each other well before Sam became ill. If they ever actually married or not is unknown and she disappears.

Whether there were actually personal failings late in the life of Sam Brown we cannot know for sure. Were his thoughts and emotions compromised as he suffered through a lingering illness, we cannot say. In this story there was much speculation driven by the yellow journalism of the day. It is hard to tell what is real and what flows from a reporter's interpretation and imagination in an effort to please a publisher's desire to feed sensation to the masses.

Captain Samuel S. Brown In the National Encyclopedia of American Biography

Whether true or not, we only have to look at the rehabilitated reputations of many of today's celebrities. Entertainers, politicians and Presidents regularly show us that great deeds and accomplishments can overshadow personal peccadilloes.

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What can be said for sure: Captain Samuel S. Brown was a great man of sterling reputation until his death. He was a successful businessman who actively served his community through service and generous charitable giving. As a young man, he had some remarkable adventures. He was friends with the some of the most famous and powerful people of his day, and he was himself one. His horse racing exploits gathered wide interest and attention and won people money. In many publications before and after his death, Captain Sam is praised and accounted as one of the most outstanding men of his time.

In the end, this is all we need to know.

Some final comments regarding the scandal and Captain Sam's will Many of the quotes above and much of the detail for the scandal story comes from the expose published by the New York World and subsequently reprinted in other newspapers across the country.

Other than this report and a few others from that time there is no real evidence of any earlier will giving Grace $1 million. This could simply be one reporter's speculation, or, it could be true. One way or another, Sam Brown certainly had the means, if not the will, to grant Grace more.

Also, what Sam did bequeath to her in his will was very generous in the day. The $30,000 in brewery bonds paid 10% interest. These bonds would have a current value of $819,000, giving Grace an annual income worth $81,900 today. Over Grace's remaining life span she would have received the equivalent of more than $3.6 million today. Even if these estimates are cut in half, the amounts are not insignificant. The bonds that Sam left to Grace and Marty Lewis were from the Pittsburgh Brewery Company, founded in Pittsburgh in 1861. In 1899, sixteen Pennsylvania brewers merged into the Pittsburgh Brewing Company and the new brewery immediately became the nation's 3rd largest brewery. It brewed many famous beers but the most famous is the brand, Iron City Beer.

It is noteworthy that when Captain Sam's will is read in its entirety, one finds the amount left to Grace was comparable to other family members benefiting from the will. Sam's obvious intent was to direct the bulk of his estate to his only surviving siblings, his younger brother and older sister and their heirs.

Captain Samuel S. Brown's Will Captain Sam's will recognizes several others beside Grace, W. Harry, Lizzie B. Ward and Martha Lewis.

A bequest goes to Lizzie P. Brown, his "former wife" (noted in Capt Sam's hand writing on the will) to pay off the mortgage on her home in Asbury Park, NJ. David S. Johnson of Uniontown, listed as "a friend" received $4,000.

Captain Sam's cousin, W.S. Brown received $25,000 personally and another $25,000 in trust for his son and "my namesake, Samuel S. Brown."

Max A. Samuelson of Louisville, KY received "all my lands in Oldham County, KY known as Wildwood Farm along with all horses, cattle and other stock, vehicles, farm implements and contents of the houses and buildings there on." He also received $5,000. (More on Wildwood Farm later.)

W. Harry Brown was given a first edition copy of the famous and colorful Audubon's Birds of America.

Melville L. Stout of the City of Pittsburgh received $2,000.

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Samuel B. Gray of Scottdale, PA was loaned up to $3,000 to pay for his medical school expenses and free to pay this back at his convenience.

Mary Ward Warner, Captain Sam's niece and daughter of his sister Lizzie Ward was given $10,000. $1,000 each was directed to the missions of the Presbyterian church and Methodist Episcopal church, but curiously, if Sam died within 1 month of the date of the will (which he did) all these funds would revert to W. Harry.

Harry was recognized as his partner and given the remaining 1/2 interests in the racing stables and interests and the lands in Luzerne Township (above Bridgeport - the Oak Hill Farm) and free to sell all at public auction.

All of the remainder went to W. Harry, who was named executor with the Union Trust Co, with the understanding that the estate would not be settled for 5 years and accrued earnings after estate taxes would be equally divided between W. Harry and Lizzie Ward. It was further stipulated that Browns Station would be sold or disposed of within 10 years of Captain Sam's death and proceeds divided among Harry and Lizzie.

Finally, we must recognize that Captain Sam did shower Grace with expensive gifts and was very generous to her during his life. When she returned to Kentucky, Grace retained these gifts. Also, her life in Kentucky was with a well established and prominent family. Captain Sam probably believed that he treated Grace well and was generous to her. While perhaps Grace could have and should have fared better in Captain Sam's estate, the fact is that she lived a good life and never suffered for lack of means. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Mrs. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Pollock Brown, the wife who Captain Sam divorced, was from prominent Pittsburgh stock. Her father was noted Pittsburgh surgeon, Dr. Andrew M. Pollock. Dr. Pollock was one of the founding doctors of Mercy Hospital and a president of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania. Her mother was Eleanor Sterrit Pollock. The family residence was on Wylie Avenue, Pittsurgh, PA. (From: The Standard History of Pittsburg, by Erasmus Wilson, 1898)

Finally, Elizabeth Pollock Brown, former wife of the late Samuel S. Brown of Pittsburgh, PA., died at her sister's home, 515 Sunset Avenue, Asbury Park, New Jersey on September 23, 1919, of a complication of diseases .

She was 67 years of age. Her sister, Mrs. Eleanor "Ella" Pollock Bidwell survived her. Lizzie Brown was buried in a mausoleum in the Butternut Section of the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, Plot 140/141. She did not leave a will but her estate did go into probate.

Elizabeth Pollock Brown's home was at 508 Fifth Avenue across a lake from her sister Ella's nearby residence at 515 Sunset Avenue. Lizzie acquired the house through a mortgage in her name to purchase this property.

The mortgage was taken out and paid by her husband Captain Sam Brown. The mortgage was settled on April 4, 1905, through a bequest in Captain Sam's will. The property was purchased from Lucinda Bennett and Abram Russell Bennett, her husband. Lizzie sold the property on May 12, 1917, to Carrie A. Young and Ethel W. Royce both of Asbury Park. Today this is an apartment building. Lizzie and Ella's mother was Miss Eleanor Sterrit before her marriage to Dr. Alexander M. Pollock. Dr. Pollock's family residence was on Wylie Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA. (From: Asbury Park Evening Press, September 24, 1919) Ella Pollock Bidwell was a noted artist and sculptor.

Her statues, Girl Knitting and Girl with Butterfly are in the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, FL. 97

Captain Samuel S. Brown's estate When Captain Samuel S. Brown died on December 9, 1905, he left substantial holdings and a remarkable record of achievement.

At his death, he was the principal partner or owner of the following: W. H. Brown Sons - Coal mining Brown & Cochran - Coke manufacturing Brown & Jones - Mining and Shipping - Memphis, TN Pittsburgh & Morgantown Packet Company Brown Hoisting Machinery Company Captain Sam Brown was a major stockholder in the following companies: Anchor Steamboat Line Pittsburgh Coal Company Pittsburgh Coal Exchange Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (serving on the executive committee) Erie Valley Coal & Mining Company Ohio Valley Coal & Mining Company Ohio Valley Railroad Illinois Central Railroad Homestead & Pittsburgh Bridge Company Electric Mining Machine Company Greenville & New Orleans Packet Company Pittsburgh & Morgantown Packet Company Arkansas River Packet Company (vice president) (owners of luxury steamer J.M. White) Memphis & Arkansas City Packet Company (vice president) (owners of luxury steamer Kate Adams) Memphis, Helena & Rosedale Packet Company He personally owned: 6 coal mines; 15 steamboats; 1,000 barges; Retail coal yards in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Cairo, Memphis, Arkansas City, Helena, Terrene, Greenville, Natchez, MS; St. Louis and New Orleans; Several hotels across the country, including the Monongahela House - Pittsburgh's luxury hotel; Controlling interest in a southern railroad.

He owned or was the principal partner in a number of racetracks: Churchill Downs (Louisville Jockey Club); Kentucky Racing Association Racetrack at Lexington (now Keeneland); Bascombe Racetrack in Mobile, AL; Magnolia Racetrack in Baton Rouge, LA; City Park Racetrack in New Orleans, LA; Montgomery Park Racetrack in Memphis, TN (now the location of the Mid-South Coliseum) Latonia Racetrack in Covington, KY (across the Ohio river from Cincinnati) Saratoga Racetrack (in partnership with his close friends August and Perry Belmont) He was the namesake for the Captain Samuel S. Brown Division of The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

He was an officer and/or director of: Union Trust Company First National Bank of Dawson, Pennsylvania President, Ohio Railway Company 98

Founding director (1864), Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce (along with Henry Clay Frick, Charles Lockhart, James Walton Mellon, and Philander C. Knox.)

President of the Memphis Jockey Club; Member of the board of control of the American Turf Association; Captain Sam was also a member of: Select Council of Pittsburgh for the 23rd Ward (twice) Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce; Duquesne Club Manhattan Club of NY Pendennis Club of Louisville, KY Tennessee Club of Memphis, TN Americus Club of Pittsburgh Masonic Lodge No. 45, with a 32nd degree Scottish Rite; a Knight Templar and a Mystic Shriner Order of Elks He owned the following: Senorita Stud Farm, Donerail, KY; Wildwood Farm, 3901 Axton Lane, Goshen, Oldham County, KY; Oak Hill Farm, Bridgeport-Uniontown, PA (999 1/2 acres of farm and coal land) Linger Longer, above Uniontown in Chalk Hill area, near Fort Necessity.

He owned more than 100 horses, thoroughbred racers and standardbred trotters, either owned with Cottrill or acquired after his death when he assumed full ownership of Cottrill’s stables including: Agile (KY Derby winner 1905) Ascender Ascot Belle Audience Auditor Babcock (2nd in Belmont Stakes 1882) Banneret Billy Williamson Blue Wing (2nd in 1886 KY Derby) Bonaventure Bonnie Lass Broadcloth (Winner Manhattan Handicap 1904) Broomstick (America's leading sire 1913-1915, 25% stakes winners) Buchanan (KY Derby winner 1884) Buckden (from England, sire of Buchanan) Bucktie Buddhist (Preakness winner 1889) Carrie Fish Colonel Sprague Conjuror Harry Gilmore Jennie C. Jim Guest

Kimball (2nd in 1880 KY Derby) Lamplighter Lookout (KY Derby winner 1893) Maggie G. Maggie Mitchell Magnolia Masterpiece (finished last in 1886 KY Derby, was the speed horse that setup Blue Wing win) Meta H. Minaret Pauline Sprague Proceeds (KY Derby favorite 1904 finished 5th & last) Sally Watson Reckon (a famous brood mare) Regret (First filly to win the KY Derby & US Horse of the Year 1915) Runnymeade (2nd in 1882 KY Derby) Senorita (Captain Brown's favorite brood mare) Troubadour (Winner, Suburban Handicap Stakes 1886) Whisk Broom II (First New York Handicap Triple Crown Champion & US Horse of the Year 1913) And many other winners and losers.

Captain Sam's racing colors: Cherry Silks, Blue Bonnet, Tan pants

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BROWNS STATION Captain Sam was born in 1842 at Brown's Station in Pitt Township along the Monongahela River less than 9 miles upriver from the city of Pittsburgh where it joins with the Allegheny river to create the Ohio river. The land of the Brown homestead is on the left ascending bank of a great U-shaped bend around Hazelwood and on the border of Nine Mile Run, a creek flowing from upper Squirrel Hill, that empties into the Mon.

2011 aerial views of Brown's Station

The property today brackets Browns Hill Road and includes what is known as Glen Hazel Heights, part of Calvary Cemetery and the Jewish Home for the Aged. Directly across the river is the Sand Castle Water Park and the Pittsburgh Waterfront Mall

1876 Map of Pittsburgh and Browns Station

The land of Brown's Station was about 150 acres and included many homes and businesses: the original home of William Hughey Brown, known as the Rock Cottage; the large 24 room mansion built

by Captain Sam in 1868; a Saltworks that existed on the property from the 1700s; a school, known as Brown's School (among the earliest of Pittsburgh public schools - the school building still exists as an apartment building today on the heights overlooking the river); a boat works; a coal tipple; foundry; machine shop; saw mill; and, homes for many of Brown company employees. Running through the property along the river were the tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. W. H. Brown acquired the property from the family of the original patent holder Colonel George Woods who laid out the original street plan for the City of Pittsburgh in 1784. Woods was the pioneer owner of the tract known as "Scotch Bottom" that included Hazelwood, Glen Hazel and Browns Station.

Boat works and landing at Browns Station looking toward the Glendale Bridge

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BROWN'S SCHOOL Browns School located at Browns Station opened in 1888. It was built by the 23rd Ward School Board on ground presented for school purposes by the Brown family. An earlier school operated there for Brown employees.

The school was intended for the children of residents of the large settlement that the Browns had built up along the Monongahela river.

The Brown family owned all the houses at Browns Station and rented them only to their own workmen. While this settlement existed, the enrollment at the school was normal; but after all the houses along the river were destroyed, school conditions changed.

Browns School in 1915

This school had two classrooms each having two grades in it. One had grades one and two, while the other classroom had grades three and four.

The school was practically an ungraded school. In 1927, the enrollment was 56. There was a playground space around the building, approximately 2,000 square feet in area; but it was very hilly.

Browns School in 2011

Brown Elementary School was closed September 1, 1932 and the property reverted to the Brown family heirs in 1936. The Browns School building still stands today on Desdemona Avenue in Pittsburgh.

Aerial view showing the Browns School Building 2014

BROWN'S BRIDGE On April 15, 1895, the new Homestead and Highland Street Traction Railway company began running cars from Homestead, PA to Schenley Park over a new bridge and across the land owned by Captain Sam. The fare from Homestead to Schenley Park was 5 cents. The trolley line and bridge over the Browns Bridge - 1902 Monongahela river were privately financed and owned by Captain Sam. The bridge, while officially named the Homestead-Highland Bridge, was popularly called Brown's Bridge and connected with Browns Hill Road which rose from the river to Squirrel Hill. The bridge carried two lanes for passenger vehicles and also the street railway line. The bridge was the predecessor to the 1936 Homestead High Level Bridge, know today as the Homestead Grays Bridge, named to honor the famous Negro League baseball team.

Homestead Grays Bridge viewed from Browns School 2011

Browns Bridge - 1926

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THE BROWN MANSION Captain Samuel S. Brown built what became known as the Brown Mansion in 1868. The home sat at the base of a steep, almost precipitous incline, a short distance back from the Monongahela River at Browns Station alongside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks running to Pittsburgh. It was originally twenty-four rooms in a three-story brick building measuring 44 feet x 85 feet. For almost fifty years, the Mansion was the center of Brown family life until the death of Captain Sam in 1905.

Photos of the Brown Mansion prior to the move of 1903

In 1903, the mansion house was directly in the pathway of one of the new main lines being built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It had to be torn down, or moved. The mansion had great sentimental value to Captain Sam. Many family members had been born and raised there. Also, the house was a fine old structure. Artists, sculptors and artisans were brought from Europe to embellish its walls and wood work, all of which would be destroyed forever if the old house had to come down.

In the Fall of 1903, in one of the most remarkable engineering feats of the day, the mansion was moved back and up the hillside. At a cost of $40,000, the John Eichleay, Jr., firm of Pittsburgh elevated the structure 160 feet and moved it 600 feet up Brown's Hill.

The mansion was then improved and enlarged after the move.

“Probably the most difficult and dangerous job we ever undertook was the raising and moving of the residence of the late Capt. S.S. Brown, at Brown’s Station, Pittsburgh in 1903. This was one of our first really big jobs, and it attracted considerable attention all over the country.” said John P. Eichleay in the American Magazine of April, 1925. “We studied the situation, and finally concluded that it would be possible to raise the house to the top of the bank, though the height was a sheer 168 feet. Once at the top it would be necessary to move the house 500 feet inland. ‘You may be able to do it,' agreed Captain Brown doubtfully; ‘but if you fail, I won¹t hold it against you.’”

The project took three months and 35 men to accomplish. "The bank was somewhat irregular, receding upward in a series of roughly outlined rock ledges. We worked from ledge to ledge, first raising the house by jacks, then cribbing it up, raising and cribbing again, until at the level of the ledge above, we were able to slip the house onto it.”

“The main danger was in the character of the rock, which was treacherous.

The least slipping or crumbling of the ledges under the unaccustomed weight would have meant disaster, and possibly the death of a number of men. But we proceeded cautiously, testing our way, and finally gained the 102

top of the bank. From there it was an easy matter to move the house 500 feet back onto its new site."

From 1875 to 1925, John Eichleay, Jr. Company had moved over 10,000 structures, averaging 200 to 300 residential and commercial building per year. The move of the Brown Mansion was considered to be its greatest feat of building moving. Many believe it to be among the greatest ever accomplished.

Eichleay Company float showing the Brown Mansion move seen by thousands at Pittsburgh's Sesqui-Centenial parade

In 1908, the Eichleay Company joined in Pittsburgh's sesqui-centennial (150 year) celebration parade. To show their pride of accomplishment, they entered a float depicting the Brown residence move up the sheer cliff.

James Ward, Jr., son of Lizzie Brown Ward and nephew of Captain Sam, came into possession after Captain Sam's death and the mansion house was destroyed by fire 1913.

THE BROWN MANSION FIRE "James Ward, Jr., Saves Wife and Maids as Famous Brown Home Burns. Family Heirlooms are Lost."

Brown Mansion shell after the fire

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"Four women were rescued from the flames—Mrs. James Ward, Jr., and three maids, all in their night clothing—when the historic Brown mansion at Browns Station was destroyed by fire early on December 9, 1913. The loss of the house and heirlooms, paintings, and jewelry was estimated at $200,000.

In the early morning, Mrs. Ward awakened to a crackling of flames and aroused her husband. James Ward first tried to telephone for help but the wires had been burned. He then escaped across an ice covered porch roof, slid down a supporting pillar and got a ladder to save his wife. He and the chauffeur then returned for the servants and clothing.

Mrs. Ward said she thought the fire may have originated from an overheated furnace, explaining that because of the cold weather the fires had been increased. The fire is thought to have started in the billiard room and had made considerable headway before it was discovered with halls and stairways filled with smoke and flames.

The Homestead Fire Department crossed the river to aid the Pittsburgh firemen to no avail. A high wind fanned the flames of the already fully on fire home and hampered the firemen. The extensive wood paneled interior burned so intensely that it was impossible for firemen to enter and save any of the paintings, bric-a-brac or furniture. The house was a total loss. Only blackened walls remained of what once was one of the finest homes in Pittsburgh.

Since the death of Captain Brown in 1905, the mansion has been occupied by Mr. Ward and his family.

The loss of the old mansion is estimated at $100,000 and the heirlooms, paintings, jewelry and furniture is valued a like amount." (From: The Pittsburgh Gazette, December 10, 1913) Today, the site of Browns Station is largely overgrown with little trace of the mansion or other structures except for the school house and the remains of a coal tipple. Slightly up river from the site of Browns Station on the left ascending side of the Monongahela river is an inland navigation beacon and mile marker 8.2, known as the Sam Brown Light. This is the only monument to a great man and great family in Pittsburgh history.

Sam Brown Light at mile marker 8.2

Abandon coal tipple at Browns Stattion

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CAPTAIN SAM BROWN PROPERTY IN UNIONTOWN Captain Sam Brown had a 1,100 acre horse farm named Oak Hill in Fayette county, PA. The farm was above the Mon river and included the site of the future Alicia coal mine. Several historical references state the Alicia mine property was first owned by Captain Sam as a horse farm.

Maps in the Fayette County Atlas show the farm on Rush Run at the intersection of Luzerne, German and Redstone townships. Nearby is the village of Oak Hill in Luzerne township on the road between McClellandtown and Merrittstown. The site also has roads leading to a variety of river landings and to the National Road. Finding this property was difficult because Captain Sam owned several large properties in Fayette county (shown in RED on map) and the historical records do not specify a location.

Oak Hill was also the name for a farm in the center of Fayette county about a mile west of Uniontown on US Route 40 now known as Mount Saint Macrina, a monastery of the Byzantine Catholic Order of Sisters of Basil. Today only 261 acres remains of what was a larger estate.

Records show this was the homestead of the Boyle family (Mrs. Harry Brown) and later was the luxurious estate of J. V . Thompson a wealthy Uniontown banker. Thompson bought the property in 1903 from Captain Sam Brown. Thompson attended Washington and Jefferson College about the same time as Captain Sam. His father was the president of the First National Bank of Uniontown and when he died the younger Thompson succeeded him as president. Thompson and his bank were very active buying and selling coal properties and were well connected to the Brown family.

Alicia Mine

Mt. St. Macrina Monastery

Captain Sam also owned a summer mountain retreat on the National Road (US Route 40), high on top of Laurel Hill mountain southeast of Uniontown near the Fayette Springs resort in the Chalk Hill area of Wharton township.

Known as Linger-Longer, the property was one mile east of the Summit Inn near the Fort Necessity and Jumonville battlefields and the 5 Star Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. Captain Sam put together Linger-Longer in 6 separate parcels of land starting in October, 1861 and completing his purchases May, 1895. Local banker, J. V. Thompson, bought Linger-Longer from Sam's estate circa 1910. After the failure of his bank, Thompson sold Linger-Longer to the E.C. Ricks family who developed the Covington Coke pulling machine. Years later, part of Linger-Longer was bought back by Thompson's youngest son, also named John Thompson. On October 8, 1938, the son died at Linger Longer. Among the many famous visitors to Linger-Longer during the time of Captain Sam were Lillian Russell and "Diamond Jim" Brady, also a young local fisherman who later became General George C. Marshall. An ad in the September 19, 1956 issue of "The Morning Standard" of Uniontown describes the property: "Several hundred acres having a 17 room residence, 2 cottages, barn, recreation building, garage and a greenhouse full of flowers.

All located in a beautiful landscaped cove surrounded by timbered hills."

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SENORITA STUD FARM - KENTUCKY HORSE PARK

In 1902, Captain Sam S Brown, purchased the Ashland-Wilkes Farm, now the Kentucky Horse Park, for approximately $38,000. He renamed his farm Senorita Stud, after his favorite mare. Brown was associated with many Kentucky Derby runners and two winners, Buchanan (1884) which he co-owned, and Agile (1905) which he bought outright. He also raised excellent trotting horses at his Oak Hill farm in Pennsylvania.

A Colonel Milton Young, owner of McGrathiana Farm (now Spindletop and Coldstream Farms) was leasing the land from Louisville bankers. Young sent several of his Standardbred yearlings raised on the property to a New York auction, where an agent for Captain Sam saw them. Sam liked their looks so much that he purchased their home in order to raise horses of a similar caliber.

Captain Brown rebuilt the farm. He also bought and rebuilt the nearby old Kentucky Association Racetrack in Lexington, which was eventually moved to Versailles Road and renamed Keeneland. Brown built water towers around the farm to pump fresh water to his horses from a spring that never ran dry.

He had a theory that horses contract many of their diseases from commonly used watering ponds. He spent over $5,000 installing two artesian wells that fed a series of raised water towers. Pipes ran from the towers to steel water troughs in each of the farm's paddocks, providing a daily supply of fresh water. By 1904, Senorita Stud had the most modern waterworks system of any breeding farm in Kentucky. The existing tower at the Kentucky Horse Park is one of two surviving elements of Captain Brown's elaborate watering system.

Brown stabled good stock at Senorita, with a Kentucky Derby winner, Buchanan in 1884. His health soon began to fail, and he died shortly thereafter. The farm was then sold at public auction.

The Big Barn at the KY Horse Park was built in 1897 along with a 1/2 mile training track. It is 476 ft. long x 75 ft. wide with 52 stalls 13 ft. x 16 ft. It is one of the largest horse barns in the world.

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WILDWOOD FARM Captain Sam Brown owned a large stock farm and boat landing on the left descending river bank of the Ohio river near Westport and Goshen, KY. The property was known as Wildwood Farm and still exists today. It is located at Wildwood Farm, 3901 Axton Lane, Goshen, Oldham County, KY. This property was bequeathed in Captain Sam's will to Max A. Samuelson of Louisville, KY, who received "all my lands in Oldham County, KY known as Wildwood Farm along with all horses, cattle and other stock, vehicles, farm implements and contents of the houses and buildings there on." He also received $5,000.

Satellite image of Wildwood Farm today

MONONGAHELA HOUSE HOTEL The Monongahela House was situated on the bank of the Monongahela river at the corner of Smithfield Street, the main thoroughfare to all the railroad stations in the city. It was for many years one of America's finest hotels.

In 1840, the Monongahela House was built to be a first-class hotel on a par with the finest known at the time. It was five stories tall, 155 feet x 160 feet with 180 room capable of housing between 600 and 700 guests. It was famous for its world-class black walnut staircase. The ballroom could hold 1,500 and was considered the best west of the Alleghenies.

Monongahela House guests would include eight presidents: John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, William H. Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

The guest list also included notables such as: Generals William Sherman and Philip Sheridan, and King Edward VII. The aristocrats of Pittsburgh tended to be well educated and loved the theater and the arts, 107

Lincoln Room at Monongahela House

View of the Monongahela House at the end of the Smithfield Street Bridge

so visiting artists stayed at the Monongahela House including: Mark Twain, Ralph Emerson, Horace Greeley, Jenny Lind, Sarah Bernhardt and others. Scientist Nicola Tesla stayed there for over one year.

Henry Clay Frick had his own room at the hotel which he personally decorated.

Charles Dickens wrote of the Monongahela House after he had lodged there in 1842: "We lodged at a most excellent hotel and were admirably served. As usual it was full of boarders, and had a broad colonade to every story of the house."

(From: The NY Times, December 6, 1889)

The hotel bar served only hard Scotch-Irish whiskey, those who drank beer had to go to a nearby German beer garden. The dining hall was the scene of many notable gatherings and fresh oysters and sea fish were always on the menu, and horseradish was a natural condiment.

Monongahela House Christmas Dinner Menu 1897

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Captain Sam Brown's Fleet The luxury steamboat named "S. S. Brown" in honor of Captain Sam, was 228 feet x 50 feet x 8 feet deep. It was built at the RiterConley Company shop at Leetsdale, PA and completed at the James Rees & Sons plant at Pittsburgh for the Memphis-Vicksburg trade.

The Brown's main cabin had 24 rooms in the gentlemen's cabin and 12 in the ladies'. The "texas" deck (the second deck housing the cabins) had an observatory forward, rooms for crew and a Freedman's Bureau with 10 rooms and a dining room. A Freedman's Bureau was a section of the texas reserved for colored passengers travelling first-class usually found on boats in southern trades and sometimes quite elaborate.

Top - S. S. Brown at the Pittsburgh levee Below - a trade caard for the S.S. Brown

Later, in 1915, the "Brown" was converted to an excursion boat and renamed the "Majestic" (curiously, this was the first ship of that name on the rivers, now the modern day "Majestic" tours Pittsburgh waters). On her main deck was a miniature scenic railroad and a merry-go-round.

The S. S. Brown ran from New Orleans to the upper Mississippi.

The Legend of the "Brown's" Bell Late in his life, Captain John David Holmes recounted to Louise Haynes Lewis how the ringing of the ships bell on the S. S. Brown changed his life.

"A game of poker and the charm of a bell! The bell first hung on the S. S. Brown in the days of the river packet's glory when the symphony of silver played on the polished tables as the mellow grace of old Kentucky bourbon kept spirits high."

Holmes related how he was never a big gambler, but in 1914 found himself in a game of poker on the S. S. Brown. Reckless and lucky from the start, Holmes believed it was the ringing of the ship's bell that cast a good luck spell on him. Despite his reservations, the bell ringing caused him to wildly play on.

Playing "dogs and tigers," a simple game turned into a betting frenzy. The opening bet was $250 and was called, next came a raise of $500, this was called by all except two players who folded their hands, then another raise of $100. Cards were drawn. Check, check, a bet of $250 more, a raise of $500 more 109

and Holmes sat stunned. "Nothing but ruin stared back from the cards I held - ace, king, ten, five and two." Then the sound of the bell rang out and in a crazy move, Holmes pushed all his remaining chips, about $400, into the pot. Two more folded their hands. Only "old man Dresdaw," a New Orleans packet captain remained. "Dresdaw looked at me for fully two minutes, a crazy stare in his eyes."

"I don't believe you've got it, Holmes, but that blame bell has my nerves! I wish the guy that had hold of that bell-rope would drop dead." Dresdaw then threw in his hand. "I thought for a minute he was going to die - he was shaking like a leaf. I raked in the pot as the bell ceased ringing, and from that day to this I have never played another game of poker." Holmes believed to his final days that the ringing bell was a signal from heaven."

According to Captain Holmes, the "Brown's" bell was on the renamed S. S. Majestic when she burned at Havana, Illinois. "In trying to save the bell, it fell through the boat and cracked." Later, it was salvaged, sold and now, "it hangs in an iron frame, on a Crittenden County plantation on the shore of Horseshoe Lake, and is sending out it vibrant tone to unbelievable distances. I feel sure it's whispering still its tales of adventure, romance and mystery to the understanding ear."

Out of the blue, Holmes listened intently and muttered something about "hearing the rustle The first steamboat named Majestic of an angel's wing and the tinkle of a bell."

He then slumped over in his seat. "A heart attack," was the doctor's verdict. (From: The Charm of an Old Bell, by Louise Haynes Lewis, printed in an unknown old newspaper)

Three other towboats named for Sam Brown were built in 1866, 1881, and 1896. The Sam Brown would eventually be destroyed when its boiler exploded.

Above - Safe from steamer Sam Brown Found in a corn field after an explosion destroyed the ship

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Left - Steamer Sam Brown

Captain Sam's personal yacht was, Troubador, built in Pittsburgh in 1893. It was 74 feet long x 10 feet wide x 4 feet deep with an iron hull, steam driven propeller system and 10 staterooms, all "handsomely appointed." After Captain Sam's death, the estate sold the boat for "$1.00 and other considerations" to Captain William B. Rogers, Sr., owner of Rogers Sand Company in Pittsburgh.

In the summer of 1887, when the locks on the Monongahela River were declared free, his boat, the Mariner, was the first to go through the locks without paying toll.

These ads show Captain Sam as the vicepresident of the Memphis & Arkansas City Packet Company (owner of luxury steamer Kate Adams) and Arkansas River Packet Company (owner of luxury steamer J.M. White).

He also was a part owner of these companies as well as the Greenville & New Orleans Packet Company, the Pittsburgh & Morgantown Packet Company, and the Memphis, Helena & Rosedale Packet Company.

THE LUXURY STEAMBOAT J.M. WHITE The architecture, furnishings and decoration of the cabins of the J. M. White was beyond compare. "The style of the architecture of the cabin will have to be seen to have any idea of," reported Col. Hays, " as it was not taken out of the books; nor was it got up to be like anything that has ever been built before."

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The White's fantastic style included stained glass skylights and doors; veneered sunken panels laid in the finest rosewood and walnut burl; large French mirrors in the Gothic style, very massive, with gold carving; a bridal chamber paneled in mahogany and satinwoods; gold-gilt chandeliers of "Egyptian design, acknowledged the most costly and elegant on any vessel in the United States"; silverware with the monogram " J.M.W."; Haviland table china, and two concert grand pianos.

The Mail Salon on the steamer J. M. White

The "White" was ultimately destroyed by fire while moored at a landing in Louisiana in 1886 with several lives lost. Gunpowder stowed in the boat's magazine exploded sending large parts of the boat flying.

Right - The Ladies Cabin & Water Fountain on the steamer J. M. White

STEAMBOAT BILL As Captain Sam neared his end, he remarked to Broomstick, his faithful butler and man servant, that he was ready to go. Sam said his children were gone that many of his favorite horses had died and he was sad that he could no longer attend races. He particularly missed old friends on the river like "Steamboat Bill."

Steamboat Bill was a unique character in the history of the Western rivers. Most Steamboat-men of the late 1800s believed that he had more years of active service on the rivers than any other man. His feats on the river were legendary and spawned movies and cartoons. Walt Disney's first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie, was loosely based on Steamboat Bill. Years before the Disney cartoon, movie comedian Buster Keaton starred in the title role of the famous silent film Steamboat Bill.

Born in 1829, William Rodney Massie, would become a master pilot and captain in the 1850s. Even as a teenager he was heroic. Massie and his brother were rowing a skiff towards the steamer Big Hatchie when it exploded.

They rescued many people and were the first to board the burning wreck after the explosion. Later he would pilot or captain more ships than anyone else on the western rivers. He was one of the few men who ever held a pilot's license from Fort Benton, Montana to New Orleans, Louisiana and most rivers between. He was so respected that other pilots would often pay Massie to follow his course.

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Steamboat Bill's own words give us a glimpse of life on the rivers: "The lower Missouri was alive with boats from 1850 to 1865. There were between two and three hundred. You were never out of sight of a boat, and they were loaded with freight and passengers like a bush with blackberries. Indians? Well, I guess so! I knew all the great western chiefs, Sitting Bull, Rain-in-the-Face, and Red Cloud. I knew 'em before Bill Cody did, and I was in that country when he came up there and got to be a scout."

Steamboat Bill Massie

In 1860, Massie entered the history books by delivering the first Pony Express pouch to St. Joe, Missouri.

After gold was discovered in 1874 in the Black Hills, the government was unable or unwilling to enforce the prohibition of white men moving into the sacred Sioux Indian lands. Hundreds of prospectors flooded the area, with Massie making frequent trips from St. Louis to the Black Hills on boats loaded with supplies and gold seekers.

The center of commercial activity for the mining community was Deadwood, Dakota Territory, a town filled with saloons and brothels. Whenever Massie would dock at Deadwood, he would play poker.

While Massie beat the odds as a pilot on the river, he was only an average poker player. Most of his peers said he often lost money to river town card sharks.

One day his luck took a strange twist at the card table. On August 2, 1876, at Saloon #10 in Deadwood, Massie was seated at the table with famous law man and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickock and two other men. Wild Bill's custom was to sit with his back to the wall so that no one could sneak up on him. On this day, however, Captain Massie twice refused to change seats with Hickok and he was sitting directly across from Hickok as the games progressed.

Wild Bill Hickok Steamboat Bill was winning big that day and Wild Bill was losing. In what would be his final game, Hickok didn’t notice a man move in behind him. As Massie laid down his winning hand, Jack McCall murdered Wild Bill shooting him in the back of the head. The bullet passed through Hickok exiting from his cheek and lodged in Captain Massie's left wrist. In those days it was too risky to remove the bullet from his wrist so it remained there for the next 34 years.

Wild Bill's final poker hand - two pair of aces and eights - was known from that day as a "dead man's hand." Legend says that Hickok's final words were, "The old duffer (Steamboat Bill), he broke me on that hand." It is said that Massie lost interest in poker after the incident.

In 1879, Massie docked his boat at Bismarck, North Dakota. Riding to a hotel in a horse-drawn wagon, the wagon flipped crushing both of Massie’s legs. After years of recuperation, Massie returned to service on the steamboat Montana and in 1884, he crashed the Montana into a railroad bridge near Kansas City. He then retired as a steamboat captain. Of all his trips, he only had this one wreck.

Finally, in 1910, the bullet that killed Wild Bill Hickock was buried with the remains of Captain Massie.

And, like Captain Sam Brown, another legendary riverboat captain was gone.

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Captain Samuel S. Brown's Master Mason Certificate All Brown family men were members of the Masonic Order in 1865. His father, W. H. Brown (1840), as well as his brother Harry, uncle Peter and cousin W. S. Brown (1876). It is interesting that on his membership certificate below, Captain Sam's grandfather, James W. Brown, signs as an officer of the Order.

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When the River Coal Combine was organized, Sam and his brother's interests were among the largest holdings transferred. From that time until his death he held the title of Master of Transportation of the corporation but refused to draw a salary for his services.

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Old King Coal

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"Early in de Morning" (1877) Song & Chorus by William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907 Dedicated To Captain Sam Brown, Pittsburg, PA. 1.

(Solo) When de good ole Gabriel gwine to blow de horn, You'd better be dar sure as you are born, For he gwine to wake you early in de morn,

3.

(Chorus) He's a gwine to wake you early in de morin',

(Chorus) Kase he's gwine to meet you early in de mornin',

(Solo) He done seed ole Peter and he aint a gwine to wait, You'd better be dar 'fore it gits too late, Kase dar aint a gwine to be no scrougin' 'round de gate,

(Solo) Dis world am too full ob sinful things, Come go over dar whar de angel sings, You'd better git ready for to put on wings, (Chorus) Kase he gwine to call you early in de mornin'.

(Chorus) He's a gwine to meet you in de mornin'.

(CHORUS) Den rise, chil'ren sing around de door, We'll gadder early on de golden shore, He's a comin' right now, an he'll come no more,

(CHORUS) Den rise, chil'ren sing around de door, We'll gadder early on de golden shore, He's a comin' right now, an he'll come no more,

(Chorus) Kase he gwine to call you early in de mornin'.

(Chorus) He's a gwine to meet us early in de mornin'.

2.

(Solo) Come join in de army 'fore dey close de door, Ob de big white house on de todder shore, You'll nebber get a chance like dis no more,

(Solo) You'd better take a front seat in de golden car, Kase Gabriel an' de debbil gwine to hab a war, Come an' gine de army and let him see you dar, (Chorus) He's a gwine to meet you early in de mornin', (Solo) Got up a shoutin', don't be found asleep, De road is pretty rough, an de hill am steep, An' when you hear the horn its a gwine to make you weep, (Chorus) He's a gwine to meet you early in de mornin'.

(CHORUS) Den rise, chil'ren sing around de door, We'll gadder early on de golden shore, He's a comin' right now, an he'll come no more,

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August 14, 2014, marked the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal.

Construction of the 48-mile long ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama a century ago transformed international trade, greatly reduced travel time between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans and marked a huge achievement in US engineering prowess. Ships now no longer had to travel around the tip of South America and the "big ditch," termed by President Theodore Roosevelt, became a key conduit for maritime trade.

It was one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. The project was completed by the US in ten years after it took over the project in 1904 from France. The French had quit work due to engineering difficulties and high mortality from disease.

Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914 to almost 15,000 ships today. The Canal is also a key link to nations in and around the Pacific ocean and helped to integrate these places into the world economy.

The front page of the December 2, 1910, Washington Post, carried the headline "First Vessel on Canal". The newspaper reported that on November 23, 1910, the yacht Visitor II, owned by Commodore W. Harry Brown, became the first vessel to travel on the Panama Canal, which was completed as far as the GatĂşn lock.

W. HARRY BROWN In Pittsburgh and American business circles W. Harry Brown was a prominent member. Locally and in world affairs, he held important positions and high standing until his death on April 28, 1921, from a heart attack from which he did not rally.

He had been in a period of failing health for six weeks.

His friends and neighbors were leading citizens of the highest caliber and they regularly sought his company. His opinions and his influence bore great weight among the local and national business and political leaders of the day and his name appeared on a long list of official connections.

On New Year's Eve 1920, Harry Brown hosted a dinner party for a few friends and neighbors. One guest, Andrew W. Mellon, had just received a startling telegram that afternoon from US Senator and prominent Pittsburgher Philander Knox.

Knox said that President-elect Warren Harding was favorably considering Mellon for the post of Secretary of the Treasury.

Knox urged Mellon to enlist his friends as boosters to which Mellon responded that nothing further should be done to encourage Harding in this matter. Mellon was a shy, very private man and knew that he would be bidding goodbye to privacy if he went to Washington. But, Knox was an enthusiastic supporter of Mellon for the job having himself been Secretary of State. He was also one of a group of Duquesne Club luncheon friends that included W. Harry Brown. When Mellon arrived for dinner that evening, he was surrounded by this group of men offering, somewhat prematurely, their congratulations and encouragement. All urged him to become an active candidate. Despite his misgivings, 119

Mellon did become Secretary of the Treasury and served from 1921 until 1932, the third longest tenure of a Secretary of the Treasury. His service continued through the Coolidge and Hoover administrations. (From: Judge Mellon's Sons, by William Larimer Mellon and Boyden Sparkes, 1948)

W. Harry Brown was proud of his heritage and he represented Pittsburgh well in national and world affairs.

His was a gilded life in a gilded age. He was a life-long leading figure in the coal and coke industry operating in Pittsburgh and Connellsville. He was also an active owner of national riverboat and railroad shipping operations. Under his leadership, the businesses begun by his father and expanded by his brother continued to grow and prosper.

He had retired two years before his death from most of his important business associations, but one cannot retire at will from such a place as Harry held in the life of the city and he continued to make his presence felt until his last breath.

William Harry Brown, youngest of the eight children of William H. Brown and Mary Smith Brown, a native of Manchester, England. He was born at the Rock Cottage at Brown’s Station, PA, on August 11, 1856. This home sits on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad, 5 miles from Pittsburgh and now within the city limits.

He enjoyed excellent educational advantages, after finishing the public school in Pittsburgh, he attended Ayres Latin School, Duff’s Business College, Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, and the Pennsylvania Military College at Chester, PA, now Widener University.

While a student in the last named institution, he was first sergeant of the second company of cadets of the college. Harry Brown and his company was the military escort for President/General Ulysses S. Grant and the presidential party at the Philadelphia Centennial of American Independence Exposition, on May 10, 1876.

After the death of his father William H. Brown in 1875, when Harry was 19 years old and away at military school, the substantial holdings that were accumulated in his father's firm were reorganized as the firm W. H. Brown Sons, the world's largest miners and shippers of coal and coke and also the largest owners of steamboats. The company’s members were William H. Brown’s sons: Captain Samuel S. Brown, James H. Brown, Charles S. Brown, and W. Harry Brown. At the time of the death of James H. Brown in 1882, Captain Samuel S. and W. Harry Brown purchased the interests of Charles S. Brown, their other brother.

Under the tutelage of his older brother, Captain Sam, Harry began to take a more active leadership role in the business and the firm prospered. Harry threw himself into learning all aspects of the business both in the field, underground, on the rivers and rails of the company. He went beyond his brothers, studying every detail about coal mining, coke making and shipping products to consumers in the national and world wide markets. He was soon recognized as one of the most knowledgeable leaders of the industry. He also increased coal operations each year and expanded the firms area of distribution. Soon the Browns were shipping coal and coke in every valley that 120

flowed into the Mississippi river. From the head waters of the Monongahela to those of the Missouri, Arkansas and Red rivers as well as other tributaries Brown coal and coke fueled fires of American industry and warmed homes.

The firm of W. H. Brown Sons and N. M. Jones was dissolved in 1897.

In 1899, Henry Frick began the formation of the Monongahela Consolidated Coal and Coke Company and made the brothers an offer they could not refuse. At that time, the Brown's coal mines, coke ovens and ships were sold to Frick’s new corporation and the future Consolidated Coal Company, CONSOL, began with Captain Samuel S. Brown as the Master of Transportation.

For W. Harry Brown, the sale of the company to Frick did not abate his interests in the coal and shipping businesses. Instead it stimulated and financed his work in a number of other ventures. Harry, in partnership with the Cochrans of Dawson, Fayette County began on a huge scale to build railroad bridges over rivers and creeks to open up access to new mines and build new coke ovens on an increasingly greater scale. Many of these coal properties were outside of the traditional Connellsville area in Washington and Fayette counties.

In many instances these were coal lands acquired years ago by W. Hughey Brown and left for future development with a strategic outlook to the value of the coal deposits and ease of mining and shipping.

Some of this work was begun prior to the death of Captain Samuel S. Brown, which occurred before the intended developments were completed. The Alicia mines, near Brownsville and at Gray's Landing, the Nellie mines, near Connellsville, owned by Brown & Cochran, and other mines in the counties previously mentioned, comprised the bulk of their operations.

Coal tipple at Alicia mine The huge conveyor and tipple were torn down in 1970

Captain W. Harry Brown was the sole owner and operator or the Alicia mines, which were his most cherished interest. He had personally supervised the installation of the mines equipment that included the most modern electrical operating machinery, safety appliances and other features never before used in the mining industry. Alicia mines were frequently visited by noted engineers and other interested parties from the United States and European nations.

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W. Harry Brown stationary letterhead

Alicia mines consisted to two operations. Mine Number 1 was located at Brownsville, PA and Mine Number 2 at Gray's Landing, near Lock Number 7 on the Monongahela river. Also, at the Brownsville mine, was a coke plant of 400 ovens, the most modern and up-to-date of their kind. To these ovens, coal was transported 25 miles downriver from the Gray's Landing mine for coking. A mute reminder of W. Harry Brown’s extensive holdings exists today near Brownsville, PA. On an old and immense cement coal barge dock facing the river, large time worn letters are cast into the wall reading: ALICIA MINE #1, W. HARRY BROWN 1914 The Alicia Mine #1 opened circa 1910 and was operated

by Captain W. Harry Brown for about nine years. The mine property consisted of about 700 acres of Pittsburgh Seam coal in a vein 7 foot high that was about 80 feet below the surface at the bank of the Monongahela river.

It is estimated that close to 6.5 million tons of coal were mined and coked her. (From: Brownsville Telegraph, November, 1942) Coke ovens at Alicia mine

In 1919, the Alicia mines were acquired by the Pittsburgh Steel Company through a subsidiary, the Monessen Coal and Coke Company. Mining operations at Alicia #1 concluded in 1934 and the shaft was sealed but the coke ovens were maintained in operating condition and from 1937 to 1941, they were operated by US Fuel and Iron Company and later by Hillman Coal and Coke, Co., under contract with oven owner Pittsburgh Steel Co. On December 22, 1942, the Pittsburgh Steel Company sold Alicia Mine #1 and Coke Plant at public auction. Hillman Company acquired the property in its entirety. It was listed as having "539 acres of land and the coal beneath it, 400 Mitchell rectangular coke ovens with operating equipment, having a monthly capacity of 27,000 tons, which have been and are now producing coke, and also all buildings, dwellings, structures and equipment, including the following: One steel coke barge (1400 ton capacity); two brick warehouses; stables; powder magazine; pump house; blacksmith, machine and carpenter shop; hoist house and hoisting equipment; tipple and bin; supply building and office; steel coal bridge of 355 ft. span; truck scales and scale house; five dwellings; and sundry water tanks." (From: Brownsville Telegraph, December, 1942) 122

Some people may be aware of the decline of the coal industry in western Pennsylvania: coal production that peaked at 177 million tons during World War II was only 58 million tons in the 1990s and coal industry employment dropped from 117,832 to 14,083. Coal patch towns disappeared or became ghost towns after their mines closed. In the 1930s, the once thriving coal town built by Captains Sam and Harry Brown did become a ghost town. "Hardly any scene around Brownsville fills the onlooker with as much sadness as Alicia," wrote Harry Thatcher in the Brownsville Telegraph, May 10, 1930.

People remembered the days of Capt. Sam Brown when "the site of Alicia was a beauteous garden spot, a place for sylvan peace." This was the land of his famous summer training track for race horses and a frequent landing spot for his yacht “Troubadour.” Then, almost overnight it became a hive of industry. In 1909, W. Harry Brown, brother of Captain Brown, sank a shaft 80 feet deep to the coal bed. The bottom of the shaft was 30 feet below river level. However, high water in the river didn’t affect the mine. The whole peaceful scene was changed to one of mining buildings, coke ovens, slate dumps and engine houses. Houses for about 80 families at one time made the town. The houses were kept in good repair and the patch was neat and clean. The village, being a small distance from Brownsville, miners and their families did much of their business here. But, after a period of prosperity, Alicia then entered a period of slow decay, ending as "merely another dismantled mine, with even the houses removed to avoid taxation." And here, in brief, is the tale of Alicia.

(From: Brownsville Telegraph, by Harry Thatcher, May 1930)

In addition to his connections with family business interests, W. Harry Brown was a partner in the firm of Brown & Cochran, a vice-president and director of the Washington Coal and Coke Company and was president and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Washington Run Railroad Company. He was also vice president and director of the Pittsburgh Coal Exchange, vice president and director of the Marine National Bank, director of the First National Bank of Pittsburgh (later PNC Financial), director of the Union Trust Company, a trustee of the Dollar Savings Bank of Pittsburgh and was a member of the Board of Managers of The Homewood Cemetery. (From: The Story of Pittsburgh,) He was active in all of these businesses until the spring of 1919, when he disposed of his more important interests and retired from active life. Harry Brown died on April 28, 1921.

The Washington Coal and Coke Company owned mines and coke ovens, operating 1,000 ovens with a daily output of 6,000 tons.

Mr. Brown is credited as the pioneer in the use of steel barges for the coal caring trade.

He also is credited with devising and perfecting a crane for use in transferring coal from barges that is now in general use.

In the early 1900s, Harry Brown originated and patented in the United States an articulated double trailer truck "road train" now increasingly in use on roads today. After opening a new brick road to the Alicia mine, he perfected a design coupling a second car to a lead truck to haul coal and supplies in anticipation of state road improvement. (From: the Uniontown Herald Standard,) A Frenchman Colonel Charles Renard invented the "Renard Road Train" displayed in 1903. The design was later developed in England by Daimler. The leading

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motor unit generated the power transmitted by a continuous shaft united between the trailers by a universal joint to the driving wheels of each trailer. Each trailer was six-wheeled, a central drive pair and the other wheels using springs and rubber tires to mute any road-shock. Each vehicle is steered by its predecessor through a series of rods and linkages and when a road train would round a corner each vehicle followed precisely in the track of its predecessor.

Harry was also an innovator on another project in 1894 when he was one of five members on a Chamber of Commerce committee to advise on the building of a ship canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio river. Using the Beaver river to the Shenango river to its head waters then use an excavated canal and the Conneaut river to Lake Erie. The total distance was 130 miles of which only 46 miles would be by canal. Some of the natural waterways would be deepened and widen as necessary. (From: Handbook of Greater Pittsburgh,) The committee recommended creation of a larger group to press for Federal incorporation of the Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal. In 1896, W. Harry Brown was one of the incorporators.

W. Harry Brown in his office

Harry Brown was an ardent sportsman and enthusiastic yachtsman. Yachting was by far his most enjoyable recreation. He was owner of may famous ships that were among the largest of his day. He held a captain's license, was skilled in navigation, and had interests in eastern coast-wise coal carrying vessels.

(From: "Veteran Coal and River Man, Dies," Pittsburgh Gazette, April, 1921) The first Visitor may have been a flat boat built in Brownsville in early 1800s and floated down river to Cincinnati or Louisville, its owner is unknown.

In 1904, the George Lawley & Sons shipyard in Neponset, MA (near Boston) built Visitor I, a high speed steam powered yacht built for W. Harry Brown. The vessel was build of steel and had twin screws driven by two triple-expansion steam engines developing about 600 horsepower each. Visitor I was one of the fastest boats on the east coast, attaining a speed of 21.5 knots (25 mph) over a measured course. Her fast speed was comparable of racing boats and is remarkable considering the date and steel hull. (From: Forest and Stream, Vol. 66, by C. Hallock, April 21, 1906, and The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, September 20, 1908)

Captain Brown wanted a boat similar in design to earlier torpedo boats but with significant improvements designed for pleasure. The final vessel when launched had a long, low sheer line with a deep, sharp bow, a tapered stern, and great speed. The upper deckhouse held the pilot room. Staterooms and berths provided accommodations for eight people and a crew of six.

Photo and design drawings of Visitor I

The aft deck held a good sized cockpit with access to two quarter staterooms, a head and bath, a large storeroom and 124

closet and forward of these the full width owner's cabin.

Steel bulk heads separate the aft cabins and forward living area from the mid-ships engine room. The forward living area held an ample salon, another toilet room, galley and servant rooms. The ship's finished interior was entirely Flemish oak upholstered in velour. The exterior upper deck was finished in teak. The engine room had bunkers for 15 tons of coal and tanks for 7 tons of water as well as her state of the art engines. The boat was fitted with complete electrical lighting, an exhaust fan to provide constant air flow through the accommodations below deck, a steam windlass and steam heat, a Cory telegraph and electric searchlight. (From: Forest and Stream, Vol. 66, by C. Hallock, April 21, 1906, and The Motor Boat, Vol 1, April 10, 1904) The boat was designed for cruising in Long Island Sound and for coastal trips north to the St. Lawrence river, south Chesapeake Bay and southern ports and cruising the Great Lakes via canal.

Engine room - Visitor I (From: The Motor Boat, Vol 1, April 10, 1904)

On April 17, 1917, the US Navy took possession of this boat and placed her in service as USS Rivalen (SP63) during World War I for coastal patrols. On May 5, 1919, the boat was returned to Harry Brown. He later had the ship refurbished by John G. Alden shipyard and sold the boat to S. S. Crocker, Jr. of Cambridge, MA. The ship was renamed Tremont in 1921 and it remained in use as a pleasure craft into the 1930s. Its ultimate fate is unknown. Visitor I / Rivalen / Tremont was 98 feet long with a 14 foot beam and a draft of 4 feet 3 inches. During her wartime service she had a complement of seven with a one-pound cannon. (From: Forest and Stream, Vol. 66, by C. Hallock, April 21, 1906, and, NavSource Online, US Naval Historical Archives, and Power Boating Vol. 22)

Sailing was the sport of the elite conducted with elite ships. The most grand and famous race was and is the America's Cup match race with a trophy known simply as the "Auld Mug". The trophy was originally awarded in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron for a race around the Isle of Wight in England, which was won by the schooner America built by a six-person syndicate from the New York Yacht Club. The trophy was renamed the America's Cup after the winning yacht and was donated to the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) under terms which made the cup Schooner America available for perpetual international competition. The first cup defense was in 1870. Early matches for the Cup were raced between yachts 65-90 feet in length and owned by wealth sportsmen. Curiously, it was the New York City shipyard of William H. Brown that built the yacht America.

George Lawley and Son, established in 1866, was probably the most widely known shipbuilding firm at the time. It had built two of the most successful America's Cup defenders; the Puritan in 1885 and the Mayflower in 1886. Another cup defender, Volunteer was finished and rigged at the Lawley yard. By 1908, the firm had built over 800 ships including legendary schooner, sloops, steam yachts and motor launches. The firm had 400 employees including skilled mechanics and wood workers.

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Americas Cup

In September, 1908, the Lawley Shipyard launched another boat for Captain Harry Brown. The vessel, named Visitor II, was designed by Swasey, Raymond & Page, the firm that also designed Harry Brown's fast steam powered yacht. While Harry loved motor cruising with his family, he also wanted an ocean cruiser for a possible cruise around the world. He also wanted to race his other prominent sailing friends who owned yachts in the largest class.

(From: Pittsburgh Post Gazette, September 20, 1908, and The Rudder, edited by Arthur Aldridge, 1919))

Visitor II

At the time, this 198 foot long, three-masted ship was the largest auxiliary schooner yacht in American waters. Her beam was 32.5 feet with a draft of 15 feet. She was built of steel and had an auxiliary steam engine of 750 horsepower and one Scotch boiler. The ship is capable of cruising at 11.3 knots (From: "The Largest Ocean-going Schooner Yacht", Scientific American, Vol. 103, October 8, 1910)

The new schooner was built at a cost of over $300,000 with no expense spared by Lawley's best craftsmen. The crew used the finest materials to luxuriously outfit the spacious accommodations "with every up to date convenience conducive to comfort." The ship is heated with steam and lighted by electricity and has a refrigeration plant, special Visitor II underway ventilation system, and all manner of modern appliances.

In addition to the seven guest staterooms and an owners suite, each with their own lavatories and bathrooms, there were lounging and smoking rooms, and a well stocked library with an adjoining reading room. The main salon is the full width of the ship and finished in white and mahogany. All staterooms were connected by telephone. A stand of small arms was provided by Brown's cousin and legendary Pittsburgh gunsmith W. S. Brown. Lifeboats and two steam launches are carried on the yacht. Naval architects of the day said Visitor II was the finest creation of a pleasure yacht ever turned out. (From: "Will be added to the New York Yacht Club Fleet," New York Herald, January 13, 1908.)

In 1909, on her maiden cruise, Visitor II sailed from Boston to southern and Caribbean waters, bound for New Orleans and the Mardi Gras. She spent three month in the south cruising about 6,000 miles before returning to New York. During this initial cruise she encountered all sorts of weather and rode out some of the worst winter storms on the east coast without incident. The ship was serviced

by Lawley and then again sailed for the south.

(From: Forest and Stream, Vol. 72, by Charles Hallock and William A. Bruette, January-June, 1909) Deck of Visitor II from above

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Visitor II anchored at Boston Harbor

Visitor II was the hit of the Mardi Gras fleet in New Orleans in 1909 arriving in the harbor shortly after 4 pm and dropping anchor in the center of the channel at the foot of Lafayette Street. The ship was all dress out for the party and ready to participate in the naval parade.

More than 700 people lined the wharf along the Mississippi river to view Visitor II and the rest of the fleet. Visitor II was under the command of Captain Edward Holm, an experienced deep sea navigator and the engine room was in charge of Captain E. D. Prior. In addition, the ship had a crew of 36. Also traveling on Visitor II all dressed for Mardi Gras the sip were Harry and Margaret Brown and their children, other relatives and guests. Despite the luxury of the yacht, the party disembarked and settled in apartments at the St. Charles Hotel for the time they were in the city.

After the Carnival, the Browns and their party toured the Southern waters including Havana Cuba and other Caribbean island destinations. It was reported that from there they would begin a two year cruise around the world, but this cruise did not happen for another two years. (From: "Visitor II joins the fine Carnival Fleet, New Orleans Times Picayune, 1909) W. Harry Brown center, W. S. Brown far right in Havana 1909

In 1910, Visitor II was again spending the winter sailing in the south on her way to Panama. Later in the year, Commodore W. Harry Brown with his family and guests were on board Visitor II as it became the first private vessel to ever enter the Panama Canal to Gatum Dam on Tuesday, November 22, 1910.

W. Harry Brown at fort in Panama 1910

Visitor II on Panama Canal

Word of this accomplishment was brought back to the US by the United Fruit Company's steamer Zacapa. The news spread rapidly through the press.

Among the guests included on the voyage were George W. Goethals, the US Army's Chief Engineer of the Canal project, Captain Scott of the US Steel Corporation, William Diehl, former Mayor of Pittsburgh and others including Harry's son, William H. Brown, Jr. and his cousin, W. S. Brown. William H. Brown, Jr., was born in 1901 and from an early age shared his father’s passion for sailing. Both father and son held ship

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captain’s licenses and were skilled navigators and yachtsmen.

(From: "First Vessel On Canal", Washiington Post, December 2,

1910, p. 1)

Visitor II underway

The next summer, in 1911, Visitor II would cross the Atlantic and finally begin to cruise around the world, a project that lasted two years.

On June 6, 1917, Visitor II was acquired by the US Navy and commissioned for service in World War I on July 20,1917. She served in patrol and escort duty but ran aground and sunk of the coast of southern France and northern Spain on January 26, 1918, with no loss of life. (From: Motor Boating, January, 1927 and Power Boating, Vol. 22.

January, 1920)

The yacht Visitor III was owned by William H. Brown, Jr. This 68 foot steel hull twin screw diesel luxury ocean going yacht was built and launched by a shipyard in Bremen, Germany. It's initial voyage was crossing the Atlantic ocean. This was another Brown family ship that was taken over by the government during World War II and became a permanent Coast Guard vessel. Later in the 1950s, William H. Brown, Jr. had built a solid mahogany motor yacht called Visitor IV. This ship had a 14 knot cruising speed.

In the historical collection at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, MA, is a brass sextant with a silver inlaid scale and an ivory handle all held in a dovetailed mahogany case w/brass fittings of English manufacture used on the schooner Visitor II. (From: Mystic Seaport online) 128

During his whole life, W. Harry Brown was closely identified with the business and financial interests of the Pittsburgh community. "Quietly, steadily, patiently and persistently he labored in the development of the enterprises to which he devoted his time and attention; and, possessing as he did sound discrimination and judgment, his career was one of marked success. Personally modest and unassuming, he was at the same time a man of firm character and strict integrity." (From: Minutes of The Union Trust Company of Pittsburgh, May 31, 1921.)

He was an alert, progressive business man, given to careful thought and decisive action. A more upright man never lived, and his word held weight equal with a signed document in even the largest affairs. Into the business world, with all its pressure and impersonal coldness, he brought a warm humanity and an unfailing consideration for the rights and welfare of others. It is legend that nothing so quickly owned his recognition in substantial form as faithful service in an employee, regardless of their social standing or capacity. Many men now holding responsible positions owe their early opportunities to Mr. Brown’s friendly, kindly proffered assistance.

For one term he was a member of the Pittsburgh Council, an office that came to him unsolicited and but he accepted because he believed it his duty to give whatever service was within his power. He also served on the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh in 1896 and 1897. He served on the Marine Committee of the Pittsburgh General Sesqui-centennial Committee and was instrumental in organizing the day long river historical parade. His private charities were many and were always performed quietly, known only to him and to the beneficiary. His death disclosed many gifts wisely and generously bestowed, the expression of a sense of stewardship and brotherhood that in many forms was a guiding influence throughout his life. To his family he was the personification of lavish generosity, counting no effort too great for their happiness, no service so arduous as to be unreasonable if for their best good, no gift adequate to express his tender love.

He was a member of the Duquesne, Americus, Union, and Pittsburgh Country Clubs, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, the New York Yacht Club, the Adirondack League Club of New York, the New York Athletic Club, the American Universities Club, of London and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. of Boston.

(From: Prominent Families of Pittsburgh, 1911)

He was a devoted member of the Free and Accepted Masons Pittsburgh Lodge 484 for nearly forty years and a member of various Masonic bodies including, the Syria Temple and the Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In the Masonic order he held the thirty-second degree, and was to have received the thirtythird degree in September, 1921.

His benevolences in behalf of the Masonic Order were constant and consistent during his life. Before his death Harry Brown gave a substantial gift to accomplish the building of the "W. Harry Brown Home for Boys" also known as the "Industrial Home for Boys" at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, Lancaster county, PA. The gift made in 1919 was $50,000 in securities earning 6% annually.

The principal donation plus interest earned prior to completion of the Home would have totaled almost $65,000. When Harry learned that the approved plans could not be completed for this amount of his donation, "He requested that entire cost of the building should be ascertained, and he would increase his donation to an amount necessary to complete the building which was then estimated at $80,000."

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This home is for ". . . the physical, mental and moral education of dependent orphan sons . . . under the age of ten years " of members of the Masonic order. This fine building was completed in 1923 and formally dedicated by the officers of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on May 25, 1923 with impressive ceremonies.

Mrs. W. Harry Brown and her two children, Mrs. Charles A. Painter, Jr. and William H. Brown Jr., a student at Princeton University, along with Harry Brown's cousin W. S. Brown, himself the Imperial High Treasurer of the Shrine, all were interested spectators. A part of the ceremonies was the reading of a letter from Hon. George Orlady, Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and a lifelong friend of Harry Brown depicting his personal life and character with great eloquence. All noted that this splendid philanthropy was made possible through his wisely bestowed generosity and the services that it will daily render will stand as a symbol of his unselfish, fruitful life. The tower on top of the Boys Home contains a replica of a bell from the Great Mosque of Damascus Syria that was converted into a Christian Church in the Fourth Century and now installed in the tower of the Mary S. Brown Church. (From: Masonic Homes News, by David G. Mason, Friday, May 4, 1923)

He was a member of the Third Presbyterian Church and its board of trustees and brought to its affairs the experience of years in business. There were few benevolent organizations in Pittsburgh with which he was not connected or of which he was not a benefactor. (From: Minutes of the Board of Directors of Dollar Savings Bank, May 20, 1921) Among his charitable contributions was a donation for the building of a new Brownsville Hospital in 1914. (From: Uniontown Morning Herald, July 4, 1914) On the death of his brother, W. Harry Brown became the owner and president of the Kentucky Racing Association at Lexington, KY. (From: Kentucky Farmer, 1906) Harry did not share his brother's love of breeding and racing thoroughbed horses. In the next few years he liquidated Brown horses, racetracks and farms.

W. Harry Brown married Margaret Boyle on November 25, 1890. She was the daughter of the wealthy pioneer family of John Dawson Boyle and Mary F. Halstead Boyle of Pittsburgh. Margaret Boyle Brown was born in 1862 and died in 1938, seventeen years after the after the passing of Harry Brown. Her father J. D. Boyle was a resident W. Harry Brown President, Kentucky Racing Association of Pittsburgh and another conspicuous figure in Pennsylvania industrial and business enterprise, including the manufacturing of coke and journalism.

For years, he was the owner of the newspaper, Genius of Liberty published in Uniontown, PA. Harry and Margaret established their residence on 5742 Fifth Avenue, known at the turn of the century as Pittsburgh’s fashionable “Millionaire’s Row.” Through the years, the stone mansion they built was expanded to 50 rooms. It was exquisitely finished with inlaid mosaic tile floors, ornately carved wood work and paneling, cast plaster and cement moldings, hand painted ceilings and gold leaf patterned walls and Tiffany stained glass windows. No expense was spared in decorating the home with the finest art works and furnishings.

Margaret Boyle Brown

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The stone mansion was the site of many elegant, “spare no expense” parties in early 1900s extending to the 1930s. Guests ate from gold service and were treated to costly exotic foods served by head butler, Rollo.

In its heyday, the mansion and grounds were maintained by a staff of 15 employees, some of whom lived in the 10 room servants’ quarters above the carriage house. This structure, now a garage with apartments above, is located off of cobblestone Murray Hill Avenue, is all that remains of the glittering Brown showplace estate. Supposedly there was an underground tunnel connecting the mansion house to the garage. (From: The Pittsburgh Press, September 26, 1951)

W. Harry Brown Mansion 5742 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh

Pictures on the following page show the gilded age luxury of this lost Pittsburgh landmark.

The Brown's also had a summer residence, "Sunset Hill," in Beverly, MA outside of Boston, as well as a fashionable residences in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Palm Beach. (From: Prominent Families of Pittsburgh, 1911) Following the deaths of Harry Brown (1921) and Margaret Brown (1938), the Brown mansion on "Millionaire's Row" became the residence of their son William H. Brown, Jr., until 1951 when he moved into a nearby apartment.

Carriage House, now apartments located on Murray Hill Avenue, Pittsburgh

The time of huge mansion houses had passed and many along what had been fashionable Fifth Avenue were being torn down and replaced by large apartment buildings. The house on one acre of land built for a quarter of a million dollars was offered for sale for $75,000 and ultimately would be demolished and replaced by an apartment complex. The only vestige of the original estate is the stone carriage house still visible on Murray Hill Avenue.

The entire contents of all 50 rooms were auctioned off to the public on October 4 and 5, 1951. Included were some 800 pieces of furniture, art objects and incidentals. A 10 foot high Chinese palace vase, a wicker pony cart, a whaling spear, harpsichord, billiard cues, elaborate mirrors, silver wall sconces, Tiffany chandeliers and lamp shades, desks, grandfather clocks, oil paintings, antique tables, chairs, bedroom sets, and trunks of clothes, all fell under the auctioneer's gavel. The press promoted the unique opportunity that the auction presented for Pittsburgh residents, if only to view what life was like in the gilded age.

Hundreds attended the sale and prices were so high that even the auction house was surprised. In the end, all was gone.

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Harry and Margaret Brown had three children: two daughters, Margaret “Marnie” Brown, Mary Alice Brown (Mrs. Charles A. Painter, Jr.), and a son, W. Harry Brown, Jr. These children received every advantage from their adoring father, who was lavishly generous and considered no effort too great for their happiness.

Far left and top center: Margaret Boyle Brown with her daughters Marnie (on right) and Mary Alice (on left)

Pictures bottom center and upper right: Marnie and Mary Alice Brown

The first child, Margaret “Marnie” Brown, was born in 1892 and died the day after her fifteenth birthday in 1907, from heart disease resulting from scarlet fever.

Hotel Gamatan

Marnie was a resident at the Hotel Gramatan in Bronxville, an affluent suburb of New York city, when she died. She was staying here while her mother, father and sister were traveling in the Holy Land and Egypt.

The Gramatan was a luxury Marnie Brown resort hotel only 15 miles north of midtown Manhattan near all the advantages of the city. The 300 room hotel was one of the most exclusive suburban hotels in America and a fashionable vacation spot for travelers from all over the world including famous guest such as Greta Garbo, the Barrymore theatrical family and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Importantly, the town was also home for a high quality community hospital and Sarah Lawrence College.

While confined to bed during the last years of her life, she organized the Shut-In Society. Financed by her father, she exchanged books and pen-pal letters with other shut-in children throughout the country.

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A second daughter, Mary Alice, was born in 1893.

A third child, a son, William H. Brown, Jr., was born in 1901.

Four photos of Mary Alice Brown

The Brown family believed in the educational value of travel and often took their children along on their worldwide journeys. A tutor always accompanied the children. On one such trip they visited the pyramids of Egypt, the inspiration for the family mausoleum at The Homewood Cemetery.

W. Harry Brown Family in Egypt

With her coming of age, a gala debutante ball was held in honor of Mary Alice at the mansion.

At the ball, the female guests received as favors sterling silver candlesticks monogrammed with her initials. Many years later, Helen Frick, daughter of family friend and neighbor Henry Clay Frick, many years later returned her candlestick to her friend Mary Alice.

As an engagement present for Alice, Harry Brown took his wife, son, daughter and her fiancĂŠ, Charles A. Painter, Jr., along with maids and man servants, a party of eleven in all, on a trip to Europe in the summer of 1914. While in Switzerland, the Brown party and hundreds of other Americans were marooned in Lucerne by the declaration of hostilities later known as World War I. They were stranded for three weeks because all trains were being used to transport soldiers to the front lines. Captain Harry Brown rose to the challenge and chartered a special train from Lucerne to the French coast and then a ship to Dover, England. The rescue party totaled 700 Americans desperate to return home. Along the way, the tourists saw the effects of war. "We saw houses torn down, trees were uprooted and Mary Alice, Margaret and Harry Brown others shot clean off." Harry managed all aspects vacationing at Palm Beach, Florida of the trip and eventually safely secured all in London. Both the British and American press marveled at the feat and touted Captain Harry Brown as the hero of the hour. Weeks later the Browns sailed home aboard the Mauretania of the Cunard Line. When they arrived at lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, Harry Brown was greeted with cheers for his remarkable rescue.

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Above from left: Margaret Boyle Brown, W. Harry Brown, Mary Alice Brown

Harry Brown was a generous benefactor who endowed many public and private charities. In 1905, his brother Captain Sam Brown died leaving a dream of building a church in honor of their mother who died in 1868. Harry Brown took charge of this project and in 1907 the dream was realized. Known today as the Mary S. Brown Memorial United Methodist Church, it is located on Beechwood Boulevard atop Brown’s Hill Road which is also named for the family. The church was built with funds from both brothers and Harry bequeathed an endowment to the Church of $50,000.

Despite his tremendous business and community accomplishments and his high standing in regional and national economic and social circles, W. Harry Brown has become best known for the pyramid-shaped mausoleum of his family that has become a landmark in The Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA. While coal baron W. Harry Brown was proud of this diminutive (35 foot) adaptation of the pyramids of ancient Egypt, he would probably be surprised to find that it has become a landmark.

Brown pyramid bronze doors with detail of doors below

Curiously, Harry Brown died at his mansion while making preparations for the second modification on the pyramid. He was entombed in a cast bronze sarcophagus (casket), reserved for the very wealthy, which was appropriately embellished with symbolic Egyptian motifs Harry Brown's bronze sarcophagus matching the architectural details of the pyramid.

Weighing over 1,300 pounds, the ponderous sarcophagus was rolled on a specially constructed wooden platform from the roadside to the mausoleum.

The design of the pyramid, attributed to the prestigious architectural firm of Alden and Harlow, had been modified in 1917 when the entire surface of the structure was recut to produce a smoother finish. For the new modification designed by the same architectural firm, foundations had already been poured for the addition to the front of the building of a forecourt with benches and massive flower urns. The granite for this project was shipped from a quarry in New Hampshire six days after Harry Brown’s burial.

"If F. Scott Fitzgerald's timeless truism that 'The rich are different from you and me' was meant to apply to lifestyles, the same sentiment is carved in granite about 'deathstyles' of the wealthy."

And a tour of Homewood Cemetery's 200 acres shows how true this can be. Mellon, Heinz, Frick, Baum, Benedum, Herron, Mueller, Jenkins, Schoonmaker and Brown families - prosperous 135

Marble urn - above Pyramid detail carving - right

neighbors in life and death are all buried in elaborate mausoleums with stained glass windows or graves with distinctive markers of bronze or the finest marble. These are eternal homes that few if any could afford today. (From: "The rich are (eternally) different from you and me" by Larry Slater, Pittsburgh Business Times, October 11, 1999) The loss of W. Harry Brown was hard felt by family and the community. His loss was mourned by friends, employees and businesses. "He was one of Pittsburgh's most conspicuous citizens; warmhearted and generous, not only a friend in need and a friend in deed." He was one whose friendship could always be trusted and counted on no matter how difficult the situation. (From: Minutes of the Board of Directors of Dollar Savings Bank, May 20, 1921) Harry Brown was a progressive, successful business man, whose worth went far beyond material terms. His work for his day and time reached far beyond the affairs that came to his office desk. His employees appreciated him as a man of great ability and knowledge and recognized his ability to clearly communicate his plans and his forceful and energetic determination to overcome obstacles in his way. They considered Harry to be "a good friend." (From: Memorial of Former Employees of W. Harry Brown, April 28, 1921) There is a bronze bust of W. Harry Brown on display with other notable figures of his day at the Ohio Library and McKinley Memorial in Niles, Ohio.

In 1883, the most famous composer in America and a great friend of the Brown family, William Shakespeare Hays, dedicated a song to W. Harry Brown.

"God Bless the Loved Ones at Home" Dedicated to my friend Capt. Harry Brown, Pittsburgh, Pa. ( March 15, 1883 copyright) Song and Chorus by William Shakespeare Hays 1.

Lonely and sad is my poor heart tonight, Loved ones are thinking of me.

O! how I long to be with them again, And their loved faces to see.

Years have rolled by since I bade them adieu, Crossed o'er the ocean's blue foam.

Nightly I utter my heart's loving prayer God bless the loved ones at home O God bless the loves ones at home.

3.

How oft in my dreams can I see the old house As it stood on the side of the hill.

The scenes of my boyhood he friends of my youth, And fresh in my mem'ry still Each letter I get from the dear ones I love Brings the message O! why don't you come?

Each one that I send takes a tear and the prayer God bless the loved ones at home O God bless the loves ones at home.

CHORUS God bless my mother at home, God bless my father at home.

Would I could see their dear faces again O! God bless the loved ones at home.

(CHORUS)

2.

O! well I remember my mother's sweet face, The morning I bade her "farewell" Tears filled her eye when she told me goodbye, Her face on my young bosom fell; My father stood by and he wept like a child, With sad heart I started to roam.

And the angels record my same prayer ev'ry night God bless the loved ones at home O God bless the loves ones at home.

(CHORUS)

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MARGARET BOYLE (MRS. W. HARRY) BROWN In proceeding centuries, women traditionally had been regarded as inferior to men physically and intellectually. Both law and theology had ordered their subjection. Women could not possess property in their own names, engage in business, or control the disposal of their children or even of their own persons.

In North America, Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren pressed for the inclusion of women's emancipation in the Constitution but this did not happen. The feminist movement really dates from 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902), a leader of the woman-suffrage movement, Lucretia Mott (1793–1880), an American feminist and reformer, and others, meeting in a women's convention at Seneca Falls, N.Y., issued a declaration of independence for women, demanding full legal equality, full educational and commercial opportunity, equal compensation, the right to collect wages, and the right to vote. Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.Anthony (1820– 1906), an American reformer and leader of the woman-suffrage movement , the movement spread rapidly and soon extended to Europe.

Little by little, women's demands for higher education, entrance into trades and professions, married women's rights to property, and the right to vote were conceded. In the United States after woman suffrage was won in 1920, not all women agreed on the question of equal standing with men but many women and particularly those of means flexed their wings.

Prior to the death of W. Harry Brown, Margaret Brown was already very active in community and social affairs in Pittsburgh, New York and at their summer home in Massachusetts. The couple had for years been among society's elite. Following Harry's death, Margaret became more widely known as a hostess than a guest.

After mourning the death of her husband, Margaret Brown traveled extensively, spending the majority of her time in London and the French Riviera. She became prominent in the exclusive, fashionable social circles that centered around the royal courts. Competing with other American women of means, the imposing widow reportedly “hit her stride” and customarily sailed to London each spring for the height of the social season.

Margaret soon became the reigning American favorite in London's exclusive social circles. The international hostess, who introduced the breakfast dance to London society, she was a "grand dame" of the European social set. Margaret was described as “a lavish but never gaudy entertainer.” Her parties were the social highlights of two continent. Each year, her brilliant social affairs in historic London townhouses attracted large groups of English nobility and sociallyprominent Americans. At different times she occupied the Norfolk House, owned by the Duke of Norfolk; the Spencer House and a residence in Grosvenor Square.

Spencer House, London, England

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In 1924, she leased the splendid villa, "Corne d'Or" at Canne, on the French Riviera where she welcomed a house full of guest to keep her company. The villa commanded a spectacular view of the old town, the bay and the picturesque harbor. One of the features of "Corne d'Or" was a great outdoor pool, that runs the entire length of the villa and was lined with azure blue glazed tiles, the color of the Mediterranean.

(From: "Cholly Knickerbocker Says":, The New York Journal-American)

Invitation to Buckingham Palace

Margaret's stay on the Riviera was just the beginning of her time abroad that year. She next moved on to stay her first London summer season at Norfolk House, where she soon had all the great ladies of London society dining at her home. Her parties at Norfolk House were praised for their subtlety, perfect hospitality and good taste. One feature often commented on were the lovely flowers which transformed the rooms of the stately mansion with shades of rose and pink. Among Mrs. Browns twenty servants was a typical English butler praised as the best in the world.

In 1924, Margaret was accompanied on her European travels by her son, William H. Brown, Jr., and her new daughter-in law. The couple were married three months previously and this was a kind of honeymoon trip. After their stay on the Riviera and in London, they all traveled north for a motor tour of Scotland. Later, the newlyweds were off to spend time traveling on the Continent. (From: "London's Latest American Hostess", The Evening News, London, England, July 22, 1924)

Margaret Brown dressed to meet the King and Queen of England

She was presented to the Queen of England on several occasions. The first time gave her the unique distinction of being the only American-born woman to be presented to the Queen in such an informal spot as a box in a London theatre. More formal invitations to meet the King and Queen at the court of St. James followed as Margaret was welcomed to Buckingham Palace in 1923, 1924 and 1926. English royalty and society appreciated Margaret as "a delightfully emphatic contradiction of the popular English conception of Americans . . . She has a wonderful faculty for the making of friends." (From: "London's Latest American Hostess", The Evening News, London, England, July 22, 1924; "Cholly Knickerbocker Says":, The New York Journal-American; and, Margaret's Letter of June 12, 1926 to her daughter)

Margaret was also a frequent hostess to Edward, Prince of Wales, prior to his becoming king and then abdicating the throne, to marry Wallace Simpson and becoming the Duke of Windsor. In fact Margaret's London parties were instrumental in drawing the controversial royal couple together. (From: "Cholly Knickerbocker Says":, The New York Journal-American) (Author's note: The "Cholly Knickerbocker Says" was a daily society/gossip column published until 1966. The name was trademarked by the Hearst newspaper chain and syndicated to other newspapers across the county. It was one of the most widely read features in the Journal-American and other papers. Several writers wrote the column using the pseudonym "Cholly Knickerbocker" but the focus was always to chronicle the social life of the elite "Four Hundred", the members of the New York Social Register.)

After the London season, Margaret Brown usually traveled throughout the continent staying at fashionable and luxurious estates. She particularly enjoyed the town of Biarritz, on the Atlantic coast of France, where she rented the Villa Bogona, owned by Belgian financier Alfred Loewenstein. (From: "Cholly Knickerbocker Says":, The New York Journal-American)

Loewenstein was the subject of a mysterious disappearance on the evening of July 4, 1928. He was flying from England to Brussels on his private aircraft, a Fokker trimotor, along with six other people. While the aircraft was crossing the English Channel at an altitude of 4,000 ft, Loewenstein went to the rear of the plane to use the 138

washroom. On this plane, a door at the rear of the main cabin opened on to a short passage with two doors: one on the right led to the washroom, while the one on the left was the aircraft's entrance door. When Loewenstein did not reappeared after some time, his secretary went in search of him and discovered that the bathroom was empty, and the aircraft's entrance door was open and flapping in the wind. Everyone on the plane asserted their belief that Loewenstein had fallen through the plane's rear door and plunged several thousand feet to his death in the English Channel. His body was discovered two weeks later and an autopsy revealed no foul play.

(From: "Suicide hinted in strange death of europe's croesus". The Evening Independent, St Petersburg, FL, July 1928 and "Fall From an Aeroplane" The London Timesy, July 6, 1928)

Many theories have been put forward as to exactly what had happened to Loewenstein in the back of his plane; some suspected a criminal conspiracy in which his employees murdered him. The New York Times hypothesized that a growing absent mindedness, noted by many of Loewenstein's acquaintances, may have caused him to walk out the wrong door of the plane. Some said that corrupt business practices were about to be exposed and that Loewenstein, therefore, committed suicide. None of these theories was ever proved.

During one of her stays at Cannes on the French Riviera, Margaret was dining with friends at a large cafe/night club. Seven hundred people were at the restaurant, some dining and some dancing and others watching the entertainment. Included in the party were Lord Mountbatten, Count Salm, Lord and Lady Fermoy, Sir Geoffry Archer, a famous big game hunter, and Margaret Brown. In the middle of the evening, a performing lion broke out of its cage and ran amok among the guests causing a stampede for the exits. Clothing was torn, tables were upset and screams of fright were everywhere. Among those who firmly stood their ground without fear and who worked to calm the crowd were Margaret and her party. Through it all, the orchestra played on as loudly as possible. (From: "Society Folk Prevent Panic as Lion Roams Riviera Cafe," The New York Times/Associated Press, 1932)

Margaret Brown, second from left between Baron Sclwef and Marquis de St. Ware and Lady Davis at the Cannes Polo Ground

In Washington, DC, she entertained Presidents, cabinet members and ambassadors. Likewise, Margaret was also a frequent dinner guest at The White House.

In Pittsburgh, her entertainments were beyond compare and she was a leader in the social life of the city. (From: World Telegram, September 3, 1938) Every year for the two weeks before Christmas, Mrs. Brown welcomed guests to elaborate dinner parties. The massive onyx sideboard said to have cost $1,000 per square foot, was piled high with delicacies and sumptuous dishes. After dinner, the 14 x 38 feet oriental living room rug was rolled aside for dancing. All her social events attracted extensive press attention. (From: "Another Pittsburgh Showplace Passes," by Don Oresman, The Pittsburgh Press, September 26, 1951) Dinner with the President and Mrs. Coolidge

Mrs. Brown was active in civic and charitable organizations in the US and Europe. She supported numerous local Pittsburgh charities but is most recognized for her work during and after World War I. 139

Her first charitable work was with Mrs. William Herron on the board of managers for Pittsburgh's Kindergarten College. On November 30, 1892, Mrs. Herron, a prominent figure in religious, social and philanthropic work, brought together a group of women to establish the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Kindergarten Association, more simply know as the Kindergarten College. The Association was formed to create free kindergartens for Pittsburgh area children.

Margaret was also a strong supporter of the American Field Service (AFS) Fund. The Margaret Brown on Board of Managers, AFS was founded after the outbreak of World War I. As German troops stormed into Kindergarten Association France in the summer of 1914, young Americans living in Paris volunteered as ambulance drivers to transport the wounded from the front lines to the American Hospital of Paris. Margaret Brown was influential in organizing donors to fund hundreds of AFS ambulances, all fully equipped and she personally funded many herself, including one named "Billy Brown of Pittsburgh."

AFS participated in every major French battle with the French Armies, and the 2,500 American volunteers carried munitions and supplies as well as more than 500,000 wounded. AFS ceased to exist as an independent ambulance organization in World War I when the United States entered the war in 1917.

Ambulance Billy Brown of Pittsburgh in service during World War I

(From: Interim Reports regarding the accounts and the administration of the Fund from its inception, September 18, 1915 to September 18, 1917)

Even before the war began, Margaret founded an organization of 400 local women who made and sent comforts to French troops. This group later became the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Pennsylvania Women's Division for National Preparedness. This was a patriotic movement to organize women to be ready to work in the event of war. Margaret hosted many meetings in her home to organize working units in fields where women could most effectively provide service, such as: nursing, first aid, cooking, hospital service, clerical assistance, sewing, and other personal services including fund raising for the cause. At a time when women's suffrage was controversial, these women made clear that they were not affiliated with any political group.

This group of women later merged their activities with the American Red Cross and Margaret became an aggressive fund raiser and organizer for the local chapter. She was credited with doing much to systematize the work of the Red Cross in Pittsburgh. She held numerous luncheons and dinners to promote Red Cross war time programs among the city's elite. At her call, local debutantes would slip out of party frocks into uniforms and hurry to make coffee for transient troops. Other women already over worked would make an extra effort to finish five hundred sheets in an afternoon for an emergency hospital. Local women did not hesitate to join with Mrs. Brown in her Red Cross uniform and she was remembered as one "who gave not only money but all her time and ability to the service." (From: "Women Organize for Preparedness", Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, February 26, 1916 and "Mrs. Harry Brown Pays Tribute to Local Women, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 1930)

During and after the war, Margaret was particularly concerned about rescuing and providing for the thousands of children orphaned or crippled by the hostilities. Through the Fatherless Children of France, she personally adopted thirty French war orphans and saw that they were fed, clothed and educated. She also secured the support of many other wealthy patrons for this cause. The French were not the only beneficiaries of 140

Margaret philanthropy, she also gave assistance to children and adults in other European nations. In 1923, Bakulova Druzina (The Bakule Institute) of Prague, Czechoslovakia, recognized Mrs. Brown for her work with the American Red Cross helping crippled war refugee children. Today, this organization in the Jedlicka Institute for Disabled and provides specialized medical and educational care of disabled children and adults.

(From: World Telegram, September 3, 1938 and a letter from Father Frantisek Bakule the first director of the Institute, October 22, 1928)

In recognition of her work for the Red Cross and her efforts on behalf of French soldiers and orphans following World War I, Mrs. Brown was the first American woman to be made an officer of the French Legion of Honor. The National Order of the Legion of Honor is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. The Order is the highest decoration in France. Technically, membership in the Legion is restricted to French nationals. Foreign nationals who have served France or the nation's ideals may, however, receive recognition. The Legion of Honor is awarded for excellent civil or military conduct, upon completion of a thorough official investigation.

Margaret Brown receiving the Legion of Honor from General Dubail at the Grand Chancellory of the Legion

Margaret Brown was personally decorated with France’s highest honor in 1930, by General Dubail, the grand chancellor of the Legion. "Because of your great service to France", General Dubail said, "I have led you before the portrait of the great founder of our National Order, where with this Cross of an Officer of the Legion of Honor I present you with a testimony of the gratitude of my country." The Grand Chancellory of the Legion ofatHonor ceremony the historic Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor palace in Paris was attended by leading French and American diplomats. Until that time only Margaret and Empress Eugenie had been given that honor. Eugenie was the wife of Emperor Napoleon III and was the last French empress. In her acceptance of the honor she paid tribute to local women, "Without the cooperation of the women of Pittsburgh who worked with me so faithfully during the war, I could have accomplished little."

(From: "Mrs. Harry Brown Pays Tribute to Local Women, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 1930)

Margaret Brown wearing her medal

Margaret Boyle Brown was born in Pittsburgh and she was educated at the Bishop Bowman Institute in the city and finished her education at Madame des Essart's School for Girls in Montreax, Switzerland.

Mrs. Brown was a member of the Calvary Episcopal Church, Colonial Dames of America, the 20th Century Club, the Women's Club of New York and the Daughters of the American Revolution. (From: Prominent Families of Pittsburgh, 1911) When Margaret Brown died her estate was variously estimated to be valued at between $495,000 and $10,000,000. The bulk of her estate was divided between her children, William H. Brown and Mrs. Mary Alice Brown Painter.

Young Margaret Boyle Brown

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MARY ALICE BROWN PAINTER The engagement of Miss Mary Alice Brown and Charles Albert Painter, Jr. was announced at a dinner followed by dancing at a friend's home filled with American Beauty roses and white lilacs. Sixteen friends and relatives attended the celebration and the newspaper society writers were well pleased with the match. In noting that the couple have been lovers almost since childhood, the paper noted they were "a good combination of money and ancestry."

Following adventurous engagement travels in Europe interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities of World War I and an ocean cruise home, the young couple married on November 4, 1914, at Third Presbyterian Church.

The large church was made more cozy and intimate by closing off the side pews in the nave with screens of ferns and palms and the remaining two aisles were outlined with great French baskets mounted on white standards and filled with white chrysanthemums. White chrysanthemums formed a hedge around each gallery and across the front of the church in front of the rail that screens the choir loft.

An improvised raised platform was placed in front of the altar for the ceremony. The effect was artistic and beautiful, praised by the newspaper society reporter as "quite the handsomest thing Third Presbyterian Church decorated for the wedding of seen here in church decorations in Mary Alice Brown and Charles A. Painter, Jr. long time." A musical celebration played for a full hour before the ceremony for the early arrivers.

When the time came, the bride entered the chruch leaning on the arm of her father, William "Harry" Brown, who gave her away.

After the ceremony in the church a small reception followed at the Brown residence on Fifth Avenue, almost directly across the street from the church. Many of the guests just walked over enjoying the warm clear evening weather. The drawing room where guests were received, was decorated with large vases of American Beauty roses and a wall of cibodium ferns that were the style of the day. In all 26 sat at the bride"s table that was placed in the billiard room.

Bridal table at the Brown home

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The young married couple left the same evening for a honeymoon in Hot Springs, Virginia. They could now enjoy some peace and quiet following a week of social activities leading to the big event.

The couple lived for a few years in the east end of Pittsburgh. In 1920, W. Harry Brown gave the couple the funds needed to build a country home in Sewickey Heights. The estate, known as "Sunnymeade" (old English for "sunny meadow") was completed in 1922. Together the couple would raise their family and lived here the rest of their lives. The couple had three children: Alice Painter (Mrs. LeRoy Thompson), Charles A. Painter, III and Margaret Painter (Mrs. Donald B. Spear).

Fox Hill Farm

In 1921, the Fox Hill Farm was landscaped by the prestigious design firm begun by Frederick Mary Alice and Charles Painter, Jr. at Palm Beach, Florida Law Olmstead. This firm designed the new company town of Vandergift, Pennsylvania, 40 miles from the city, for the Apollo Iron and Steel Company. The company later designed the Schenley Hotel, now the William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh and the Cathedral of Learning. Other prominent clients of the Olmsteads included: Allegheny Cemetery, three members of the Mellon family, H.J. Heinz and others.

In Sewickley, Mary Alice rapidly became a prominent leader in society. She was a board member of the Women's Industrial Exchange, a member of the Women's Club of Sewickley, the Sewickley Child Health Association, Allegheny Count Garden Club, Pittsburgh Golf Club and Allegheny Country Club.

In the 1930s, there was a quickening interest in hunting and in all "horsey" events and fox hunting in America gained in popularity among socialite sportsters.

Mary Alice and children: Alice, Charles III and Margaret

Mary Alice Painter and her daughter Alice were great lovers of horses and avid riders.

Mary Alice was unique in that she was one of the few remaining sidesaddle riders. Both regularly rode in the autumn hunts of the various clubs in the Pittsburgh area. These included: the Sewickly, Rolling Rock, Indiana, Westmoreland and Chestnut Ridge Hunts.

Mary Alice and Alie on Gaiety and Flirt

Mary Alice Painter was a charter member of the Sewickley Hunt. She was well known for her enthusiasm for hunting and shooting.

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Mary Alice sidesaddle on Gaiety

Twice a week, riders would follow the foxhounds through autumn farm fields, jumping fences, sometimes four horses clearing the same fence together, and often riding as much as 25 miles over the countryside. (From: "When autumn comes, sportswomen - and sportsmen - take to fox hunting," by Patricia Pitt, The Sunday Sun-Telegraph, October 27, 1935)

Mary Alice was a graduate of Masters School in Dobbs Ferry. The couple had winter homes in Tucson, Arizona and Laguna Beach, California.

Mary Alice Brown Painter died in her home at age 59, on February 12, 1953, She was survived by her husband, Charles A. Painter, Jr., and her children: two daughters, Mrs. LeRoy Thompson and Mrs. Donald B. Spear, as well as a son, Charles A. Painter, III, nine grandchildren and her brother, William H. Brown, Jr. Mr. Painter was the senior member of the brokerage firm of Painter, Scully & Beach, of Pittsburgh, New York and Chicago and a millionaire iron manufacturer. (From: "Society Leader dies at home in Sewickley", The Pittburgh Press, February 13, 1953) Photos left and right: Mary Alice and Charles Painter, Jr.

Mary Alice Brown Painter - 1951

Mother-in-law's Adventure On summer afternoon in the 1920, adventure entered the life of Ettie Morrow Speer Painter, the mother-inlaw of Mary Alice Brown Painter, and she responded with a calm resolve.

Answering a knock at her front door, she was confronted by a wild-looking man with a gun pointed at her. "I am starving and desperate and must have some money or I will kill you," declared Ernest Davis and eighteen year old from Toronto, Canada.

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Temporarily stunned by her perilous position and the tone of the desperado, Mrs. Painter, Sr. soon regained her composure and began display her resourcefulness, bravery and diplomacy that probably save her life.

She calmly invited the young man inside and induced him to tell his troubles. He said he came to Pittsburgh looking for work, but was unable to get any employment because of his weak physical condition. For days, he had walked the streets, applying for jobs, once calling at the Painter home. He said he was driven to action by fear of death from starvation.

Mrs. C. A. Painter, Sr.

"Young man, don't be foolish," she said to the intruder. "Put up that revolver, or give it to me and I will give you some money. You must be very desperate to act in this manner." But the man refuse to surrender his gun. "I'll not give you the gun, but if you give me money I'll do you no harm. All I want is money to keep me from starving."

Realizing that only her maid was in the house, Mrs. Painter could see the need to disarm the stranger. "Well, then take the shells out of your revolver. It is loaded and may explode before I can give you some money."

"I'll take the shells out but I won't give up the gun," the young man said and proceeded to eject the cartridges but one stuck in the cylinder. No matter how hard he tugged, it refused to eject.

"See here - give me the revolver!" demanded Mrs. Painter. "I don't believe you know how to handle it." This unexpected demand completely surprised the desperado, and before he could realize it, Mrs. Painter had snatched the weapon from his hands. Taking the gun to a rear room, she calmly worked out the cartridge with a crochet needle, and returning, handed the gun back.

"Wait here," she said, "and I'll go upstairs and get you some money." She returned in a moment and handed Davis a silver dollar, exclaiming: "This is all the change I have in the house - but you are welcome to it." Davis took the dollar and departed.

After the man left, Mrs. Painter instructed the maid to telephone for the police.

Pittsburgh police officers responded quickly and arrested Davis at his boarding house and took him to jail. At his preliminary hearing before the Magistrate, Davis' landlady testified that he had broken open the trunk of another resident and stolen the gun and a gold watch. Davis admitted the theft and that he had threatened Mrs. Painter.

"I came here from Toronto to get work five weeks ago," he said to the Magistrate. "I couldn't find work, and being penniless, starving and desperate, I took a chance of getting money by going to the Painter house and acting the way I did. I was there the day before asking for work, but they told me they had no place for me.

That's what they told me everyplace I went. I was hungry and desperate, and didn't care for the consequences."

Mr. and Mrs. Painter called at police headquarters and declared the they did not care to prosecute if it can be shown Davis is not a bad character and became desperate because of hunger. The police held him until they could check his record.

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WILLIAM H. BROWN, JR. William H. Brown, Jr., son of Harry and Margaret Brown died at 71 years of age on November 24, 1972 at his residence, Rancho el Mirador in Sasabe, Arizona. He also had a residence apartment on Negley Avenue in Pittsburgh.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Brown Isaman and Mrs. Constance Brown Berkeley.

He also had three grand children.

He is buried in the Brown pyramid at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

He was a graduate of Princeton University and served as a lieutenant in naval intelligence in World War II. He was a member of Rolling Rock Country Club, the Princeton Club of New York and the Princeton Alumni Association. (From: "Millionaire W. H. Brown Dies at 71", The Pittsburgh Press, November 26, 1972)

Rancho el Mirador was a cattle ranch he owned and operated near Sasabe, Arizona that is home today to his daughter Elizabeth Isaman and her son Roy. Both Elizabeth and Roy know the reality of living so near the US border with Mexico carries a dubious distinction: their Southern Arizona ranch sits on the busiest crossing point for illegal entrants from Mexico.

(From: "Ranchers confront surge in entrants", by Michael Marizco, Arizona Daily Star, August 29, 2005)

When Elizabeth Isaman leaves the El Mirador Ranch smack on the Mexican border, she can see a tall metal tower, packed with cameras, radars and sensors about a quarter-mile away. It’s one of nine towers creating a so-called virtual fence stretching along a 28-mile segment of the Arizona-Mexico border, dubbed Project 28, straddling the Sasabe port of entry – part of the federal government’s effort at deterring illegal immigrants and drug smuggling. “It’s like Big Brother is watching you. I don’t like that part of it,” said Isaman, whose son Roy runs the El Mirador. The ranch, three miles west of Sasabe, has been in the family since 1929. Sasabe is about 80 miles southwest of Tucson.

“I think it’ll help the Border Patrol round up people that they catch,” Roy Isaman said. “But I would rather see boots on the ground and have them confront drug smugglers that are coming across, and bandits. I would like a real fence here, to cut cross-border traffic and real cows,” he said.

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With the exception of a few miles of X-shaped, welded steel-rail vehicle barriers, the only border fencing on this section of the border – if it’s still standing – consists of rusty, twisted five-strand barbed wire.

“I think everybody’s pretty much scratching their heads about what the heck the government’s up to,” Isaman said, referring to uncertainty whether Congress will pass heavily criticized proposed comprehensive immigration reform legislation. “I’d rather see people here with guns, so if there are any problems with smugglers with AK-47s, at least they’d have a little backup.”

Other neighbors have similar concerns: “Our driveway, which was where we used to walk for measured hikes, is now like a highway,” Schultz said. She said one recent guest remarked that “between the helicopters, the towers and the fence, we could be in a war zone.” (From: " Border towers make some feel ‘Big Brother’ is watching", by Arthur H. Rotstein, Tucson Citizen, June 6, 2007)

(The following is from: "The Journey to Border Monument Number 140", by David Taylor, published online, December 18, 2012)

In 2007, I began photographing the monuments that mark the border between Mexico and the United States. My intent was to document each of the 276 obelisks installed by the International Boundary Commission following the Mexican/American War. The monuments locate the land-boundary as it extends west, from El Paso/Juarez to Tijuana/San Diego, through highly populated urban areas and some of the most remote expanses of Chihuahuan and Sonoran desert. The contemporary survey became reflective of a survey conducted by the photographer D.R. Payne between 1891 and 1895 under the auspices of the Boundary Commission. It also functions as a geographic cross-section of a border in the midst of change. Responses to immigration, narcotrafficking and the imperatives of a post-9/11 security climate prompted more change along the border in the early 2000's than had occurred since the boundary was established. Thus, the completed project exists as a typology, with the incongruous obelisks acting as witness to a shifting national identity as expressed through an altered physical terrain.

Border Monument No. 140 Photographing the monuments that mark the U.S./Mexico border has required driving and hiking through difficult desert terrain, camping out in remote areas, and interacting with whomever I meet along the way. While I've become good at anticipating the landscape, it's impossible to predict how encounters with people will unfold.

The border monuments describe an invisible cartographic line that traces the international boundary. They are, in fact, situated in both Mexico and the United States simultaneously.

Getting to them can require permission if the monuments aren't located on open federal lands. Some are on limited access public land. Others are on private land; thus, one has to cross through private domains to reach those monuments. Border Monument No. 140 is located just west of the Sasabe Port of Entry at 31° 29.780' north latitude and 111° 35.206' west longitude. Accessing the monument required approval from the El Mirador Ranch.

The "No Trespassing" signs that mark the road leading to the El Mirador ranch were weathered to the brink of illegibility and the gate to the property didn't look like it had been closed in years, but experience has taught me that I shouldn't assume anything. David Garcia

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was traveling with me as we pulled up in front of one of the half dozen buildings that make up El Mirador. He waited while I got out to find someone.

I was immediately set upon by an assortment of dogs -- heelers and terriers all barking their heads off. I paused a few minutes by my truck figuring that the dogs would cause enough commotion to attract attention. That didn't happen so I approached the closest house, a small place with a rough looking porch, deteriorating paint, patchwork repairs and a wire fence surrounding the yard. After a few minutes a man came to the door, obviously irritated, and asked what I wanted. As he walked to his front gate, I explained that I was looking for the border monuments in the area and wanted permission to cross his property in order to access some of them.

"Yeah there are some of those old monuments on my property," he said. "What do you want with them? Who do you work for?"

I replied that I was making a survey of the monuments and added that I work as professor. 
 "A survey -- what for?" he replied.

"I'm photographing all of them to create a visual record of the land boundary with Mexico."

"Didn't somebody already photograph those things?"

"There was an extensive survey made when they were installed in the 1890s and they've been photographed by several people over the years but there hasn't really been a full documentation done in over 100 years."

"What's the point - what are you trying to prove? Are you gonna tell me that the border is in the wrong place?" he retorted.

"No, that's not my intent," I said.

"Well what is it you want to do?" he interjected. "If you are here to prove that the wall is in the wrong place and that it has to be torn down then you can just get hell out of here. What side of the border is that wall on?"

"The U. S. side," I answered.
 "Yeah, so we gave away a bunch of land to Mexico didn't we?" he inquired.

"Not really," I replied, "the border hasn't moved -- the fence is on the U.S. side because it wasn't built under the terms of our treaty with Mexico. It was a unilateral act by the United States so it has to be on our side of the line."

"So that's our land on the other side of the wall?" he interrupted. "If it's our land, can I climb over and walk around? I pay taxes, so that's my land and I should be able to walk around over there."

I tried to respond. "Technically, yes, but..."

"OK then, if that's the case, those border monuments you want to photograph are on my property, right? If those monuments are on my property then I own them and I want to know about it." He paused and then said, "Who's paying for this project you're working on?"

"I was awarded a grant."

"A grant," he said with a dismissive laugh, "You can get a grant for that? Who cares about those monuments?"

"People who care about history," I replied.
 "Nobody cares about those monuments," he interrupted.

"I care about them, it's important to make a document at this moment since there's been so much change along the border over the last decade."

"You're damn right there's been a lot of change. Before all the illegal immigration this was a nice, quiet place to live. I used to go to Mexico right over there in Sasabe for lunch or a drink. Now I can't do that. There are Border Patrol Agents all over the place tearing up the roads and driving too fast. People like you are always coming onto my land. All because of the border. Who gave you a grant to come out here anyway?"

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"The Guggenheim Foundation in New York," I answered.

"Guggenheim? So that's a big deal, they pay history professors to drive around on the border?"

I said, "I'm an artist, not a historian," knowing that I was opening up a totally new line for interrogation.

"AN ARTIST! YOU'RE AN ARTIST? That wall is like a big piece of art. What's his name? Christo! It's like a Christo. Now you're talking. Get your umbrellas and lets make a splash in New York. How much did they give you to make pictures of those monuments?"

"About $40,000."

"You're kidding, my ex-wife is an artist. She'd love to know that. If she'd ever gotten a grant like that I'd probably still be with her. So where are these monuments that you want to get to exactly?"

I explained the topography as I understood it from maps and the other information I had and gave my best estimate of where I thought the monuments were located.

"Yeah there's one just over that ridge to the south of us," he replied. "I like you so you can cross my land. It's late and it'll be a long hike.

Do you have water?"

"Plenty," I said.

"Drive up the dirt road, park near the bulldozer and walk up past the washout. There's a stone house at the top of the ridge. You should be able to see the monument from there. It's a big white one. Can't miss it. I'm not sure about the other one so you better check your facts. If you need to, you can camp up on the flats near the bulldozer because it's getting late and I don't think you can make it today. I have to drink a half gallon of water for every half mile I hike out there in this heat."

David Garcia and I reached the monument after hiking the ridge line for about an hour. It wasn't visible from the stone house. One of the six-foot tall cast iron obelisks, deep brown with rust. Number 140. By the time I had finished photographing it was close to 5:00pm.

The trails we had hiked to reach the monument had lots of fresh foot sign and many of the water bottles we saw were new with moisture still clinging to the inside. We could see monument 141 about two miles west of us on a south facing ridge but decided that we wouldn't have enough light to get to there, photograph and make it back to my truck before dark. With all the evidence of recent activity it seemed better to come back on another day.

On our way out, I stopped at the house to say thank you. The greeting was much more relaxed the second time around.

"Did you find them?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, "but we only made it to 140. It didn't seem like a good idea to be out there after dark."

"You're right about that."

I walked up to the fence and said, "I didn't get your name before."

"Roy," he said while extending a hand.

"Do you mind if I come back later this month to photograph the other monument?"

"That fine, you're welcome to it."

"Thanks very much for helping me," I said.

As I was walking back to my truck Roy called out, "I want one of those pictures and when you come back don't forget those umbrellas."

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WILLIAM SMITH BROWN William S. Brown, president of the W. S. Brown Sporting Goods Store and Gun Manufacturing Enterprise, was during his life: a gold prospector, coal operator, captain of a river fleet, business man, county government official, clubman, and a prominent Mason. To friends and relatives alike he was known as the legendary “Uncle Bill.”

He was born at Brown’s Station, near what is now Glenwood, PA, the son of Peter and Clara Jane "Jennie" McCauley Brown.

As a boy he was filled with the spirit of adventure. Before he was 18 years old he had trained and served as a steamboat pilot and captain on the rivers working on boats of his uncle and father, both riverboat captains and coal operators.

When he was 17 years old he left the area and headed west to carve out his fortune as a prospector for gold. On this journey he would fight Indians side by side with a young and not yet famous William Cody, Buffalo Bill, as well as the wild west’s legendary Pecos Bill. He would travel through the Indian country of the great plains, across the deserts of New Mexico. There he had little luck as a gold miner and worked his way back to Pittsburgh.

On his return, he immediately started working in the coal mining operation of his uncle William H. Brown, at the old town of Saltsburg on the Monongahela river, above Braddock, PA Thanks to his business acumen and family connections, W. S. soon rose to manage his uncle’s wholesale coal business at Cincinnati, OH. Ultimately, he returned home to Pittsburgh and became superintendent of the mines of his uncle William H. Brown until 1881, several years after the latter's death and following the division of his assets to the Brown heirs.

W. S. married Emma Lucas, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Valentine Lucas of Allegheny, PA. They had five children: two daughters, Nellie W. Brown (Mrs. Paul Hay), Jeanette "Jean" Brown (Mrs. James Homer McCready) and three sons, William McCauley Brown, Edwin Lucas Brown and Samuel Smith Brown, all of Pittsburgh, PA. In 1881, several years after his uncle’s passing and as his cousins Captain Sam and W. Harry Brown took greater control of the business, Bill Brown left the family firm and established his sporting goods store on Wood Street in Pittsburgh which he operated for the remainder of his life. W. S. Brown Sporting Goods and Enterprise Gun and Machine Works was a renown importer, manufacturer and dealer in guns, rifles, revolvers, cutlery, camping and sporting goods of all types.

The business was located at 520, 522 and 523 Wood Street, Pittsburgh, PA. 151

If the first part of his life was filled with adventure, then the latter part was filled with business success and civic honors.

After his new business was firmly underway, he began to become more active in club and civic affairs. In 1894, he was elected Allegheny County Treasurer, his only public office. He also served with his cousin Harry Brown on the committee for Pittsburgh’s Sesqui Centennial Celebration. He was also president of the Americus Republican Club, a founding member of the Duquesne Club, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association and served many other charitable causes.

He became a Mason on March 29, 1876 and since 1891, he was the Imperial Treasurer of the Shrine in the United States. He was also treasurer of the Shriners’ Hospitals for Crippled Children that are maintained in several states. William S. Brown’s Masonic career was filled with achievement. He was made a Master Mason in Braddock Field Lodge No. 510 and later its Master and its Trustee. He was raised to the Degree of Royal Arch Mason, and became High Priest. He joined the Knights Templar and was elected Emminent Commander, Treasurer and Trustee. He was a member of Pittsburgh Consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the Northern Jurisdiction, becoming Sovereign Grand Inspector-General of the Supreme Council. He joined Syria Temple and became Potentate for two terms and was also Imperial Treasurer of the Shrine. He was also Royal Director of the National Court, Royal Order of Jesters.

William Smith Brown died September 8th, 1928 at his home on Aylesboro Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA and he was buried in The Homewood Cemetery.

After the death of W.S. Brown, the sporting goods firm was continued under the same name by his sons, Ed Brown, William M. Brown and Sam Brown. The business was sold in the 1950s to Pittsburgh National Bank to make way for the development of Oliver Plaza a multi building complex spanning Oliver Avenue (the former Virgin Alley) between Wood Street and Liberty Avenue.

The Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America honored his memory upon his death with the following message, read by life-long friend and companion Alex Gilliland, president of Standard Steel Specialty Company: Here lies an honest man at rest, As ere God with his image blessed; He was a friend of man, the friend of truth, The friend of age, and the guide of youth.

Few hearts like his with virtue warmed, Few heads like his with knowledge so informed.

In another world, he lives in bliss And then, too, he made the best of this.

All present remarked how beautifully the sentiment fit the life and character of Bill Brown.

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W. S. Brown - The Early Years William Smith Brown was born on October 18, 1849, at Brown’s Station, near what is now Glenwood, PA, and Browns Hill Road in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The son of Peter and Clara Jane "Jennie" McCauley Brown, he was born into a family of substantial fortune and wide business interests. This gave him every advantage of education and experience.

His early years were spent with his family at Brown's Station and then at other homes along the Monongahela River as his father moved to oversee family mining and shipping interests in Saltsburg, Mingo Landing and finally in Braddock, PA. W. S. grew to manhood along the river learning to swim, navigate and shoot. All skills that would benefit him in later life. He also forged lifelong friendships with other young men in these river towns. One was Al G. Fields, a young man from Brownsville, PA, who would become a famous American comedian and producer of minstrel shows of the time.

W. S. Brown was educated in the public schools of Pittsburgh and at Waynesburg College, California Normal School and Duff's Business College. At these institutions he honed his skills in words and numbers that would later serve him well in managing family business interests, in his own business and in his civic service. He was a writer of journals and carefully recorded his life's adventures and logged every penny spent and earned.

His start in the workaday world began in his late teens with a job learning to working on and learning to pilot steamboats in the family business of his uncle William H. Brown. He worked closely with his cousin Captain Samuel S. Brown and the two were fast friends from a very young age. Together the cousins would later work with and shared friendships with other famous river men like "Steamboat Bill" and Samuel M. Clemens, who would later assume the name of a river term - Mark Twain.

Trip out West Whether driven by a desire for adventure or to expand the family's mining interests into gold and silver or a mix of both, in 1867, W. S. Brown journeyed west, across the plains and deserts of America to California and Nevada in search of mineral riches.

He was 17 when he left Mingo Landing on a steam driven packet boat bound for Pittsburgh. Mingo Landing is near New Eagle (Monongahela) PA. Here he met his uncle William who set the business goals for the journey. He was to explore and get samples of quartz, gold and silver with a view of next sending out a stamp mill. The partners in the venture in addition to W. S. and his uncle William, were Alex H. Tait of Pittsburgh and St Louis investors H. T. McCarthy, A. H. Hart, a Mr. Garrison and a Mr. Peck.

With his uncle, they went out to Brown's Station on the Monongahela river. Here he met his mother and other family members staying only

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for dinner and over night. The next day he left by train for Cincinnati and St. Louis but not before his uncle William gave young Bill an Allen's revolver for protection.

The gun "looked like death to stand in front of it." 1867 was the first year that Hopkins & Allen manufactured revolvers in a variety of calibers and the weapon given to W. S. would have been purchased at the James Bown & Son gun shop on Wood Street that W. S. would later own. Also noteworthy is that Jesse James carried a Hopkins & Allen 44 caliber revolver.

Above: 1867 Colt 5 shot revolving rifle Left: 1860s Bowie knife

In St. Louis, W.S. purchased a Colt revolving 5 shot rifle, a large "dagger to be used in scalping Injuns if need be" (actually a 15 inch Bowie knife that could be slipped into a boot), as well as cartridges for both of his weapons. In St. Louis, Brown and Tait also met with H. T. McCarthy, who was an assayer and geologist and who would be in charge of the expedition. Two others would accompany the party but had no business interests, they were Ben McCarthy (brother of H. T.) and Fred Westmeyer.

While in St. Louis, Brown and Tait met Bill's father, Peter Brown, at the river landing. Peter was the Captain of the steamer Sam Brown and was delivering a shipment of coal to the St. Louis Gas Works. After a brief visit, Peter accompanied the men to the train station and the party set off for Kansas City and then Junction City, Kansas. Junction City was as far west as a train could travel and the extreme western end of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The Levee at St. Louis, Missouri 1800s (notice two Brown steamerboats with anchors between smoke stacks)

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At Junction City they equipped themselves with more supplies including a tent, several covered wagons, provisions, a team of oxen and a team of mules, guns and provisions. Junction City, located on the Kansas Pacific Railroad line, was a secondary shipping point for the cattle trade, however, the city got its start long before the cattle trade was booming in Kansas. The first settlers arrived in the area in 1854, soon forming a town called Pawnee on the military reservation of Fort Riley. The first Kansas Territorial Capitol was built in Pawnee in 1855, but later that same year, Pawnee ceased to exist. Soon after, Junction City, KS - 1867 another settlement was built to the south of the fort, called Manhattan and several other names before finally changing Junction City in 1859.

In November, 1866, the Kansas Pacific extended its line to Junction City, opening the settlement for more people. In the late 1860's Junction City was a secondary shipping point to the more popular cowtown of Abilene, some 20 miles away. Today, Junction City is located along Interstate 70 and is home to almost 20,000 people. Nearby Fort Riley is still an active military post.

After three days waiting for their shipment of goods from Pittsburgh to arrive by train, the men left the hotel and set up camp along the Republican river where they would hunt for food, play cards, tell stories, attend prayer meetings, write letters home and wait. It turned out that the rail bridge at Fort Riley sank into quick sand and the party would be stuck in Junction City for almost a month. Rain and cold made for difficult times as wood for a fire was very scarce and the men often had to resort to capturing logs floating down the river.

Occasionally, pairs of the men would go up to the town saloon. One evening W. S. participated in a local "shivaree" at the saloon. A shivaree (also spelled charivaris), called "rough music", is the term for a French folk custom in which the community gave a noisy, discordant mock serenade to newlyweds often pounding on pots and pans. American Midwest charivaris were used as "unifying rituals" in which the couple was brought back into the community after what might amount to a minor hazing. In some communities the ritual served as a gentle spoof of the newlyweds, intended to disrupt for a while any sexual activities that might be under way.

An old west shivaree at a saloon

The next morning, W. S. awoke hung over from his late night outing. He sat down to read a novel when he heard a loud roaring noise. He ran out of the tent and "saw everything shaking -- the trees looked as though they would shake every limb off." Also, the horses started to stampede which had to be run down and caught. "The shake proves to be a small earthquake some distance off -- it broke nearly all the glass in the houses up town." This was the 1867 Manhattan earthquake that measured 5.1 on the Richter scale with an epicenter at the town of Manhattan near Fort Riley, KS. Minor damage occurred throughout the geographical region and some injuries were reported as well. The earthquake fractured walls, downed chimneys and effected the stability of many structure. Waves were observed on the Kansas River, 2 feet high.

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During their stay, W. S. also bought a pair of goggles to keep dust out of his eyes, coaxed a dog to go along with them and convinced a black man named "nigger George", the hotel porter to be the party's cook.

Finally on May 5, 1867, they "packed up our fixings and hitched up our cattle and made a start." The party was: W. S. Brown, Alex Tait, H. T. McCarthy and his wife, Ben McCarthy, Fred Westmeyer, "Nigger" George, and the dog. They had three Conestoga wagons and an "Ambulance" (a wagon much like a box truck), 2 mules (later traded for 2 horses), 10 oxen, a few head of cattle, a tall old gray horse "whose feet are like coal buckets and whose back is like a poker" and a poney. Captain and Mrs. McCarthy resided in the Ambulance, Brown and Tait each were responsible for a wagon and the other men handle the last wagon and rotated their service.

An Ambulance of the 1860s

The Conestoga wagon was the utility vehicle of the prairie, often call the "prairie schooner." The Brown party wagons were custom built for the 2,000 jolting mile journey, light enough to not wear out the oxen or mules that pulled them, yet strong enough not to break down under full loads. Made of maple, hickory or oak with minimal metal parts only for wheel tread, axles and cross members to provide rigidity for the undercarriage. The only passenger comfort was a cloth cover that protected travelers from rain and dust. In summer heat, the cover would be rolled back allowing air circulation. There was little sitting room in the 4 ft wide by 10 to 12 ft long wagons as most space was filled with the cargo need to survive the trip and in the case of the Brown party, tools and equipment to prospect for gold and other minerals. The party often walked more than they rode as the wagons lacked springs and were uncomfortable. Also, oxen and mules regularly had to be led by hand and were often double teamed when the wagon trail hit a rocky stretch or steep slope.

The Brown party had a choice of routes to the West, each leading through great open spaces with few inhabitants other than Indians. The chief route west was the Oregon Trail that ended in the Northwest with offshoots called the California Trail that climbed the Sierra Nevada mountains and ended in Sacramento. Another route, the Mormon Trail led to the Salt Lake Valley. The main route to the Southwest was the Santa Fe Trail from Grand Junction to Santa Fe in the New Mexico Territory (marked in green on the map on left). There the trail branched into two routes to southern California, the Gila River Trail to San Diego and the Old Spanish Trail to Los Angeles. The 156

Brown party would follow the Santa Fe Trail and then the Old Spanish Trail through what is now parts of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Their destination was Pinos Altos, New Mexico.

The Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a transportation route opened by the Spaniards at the end of the 18th century and used afterwards by the Americans in the 19th century. It crossed central North America connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico.

American pioneers retraced the Trail in 1821, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. The town of Santa Fe was the northern end of the El Camino Real de Tierra which led south to El Paso, TX and then on deep into Mexico. The Santa Fe Trail crossed the territory of several Indian tribes and Indian attacks happened often until the end of the Indian wars in the 1880s.

After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest ending the Mexican–American War (1846-1848) and the Gasden Purchase (1853) which extended south the borders of New Mexico and Arizona, the trail helped open the region to U.S. economic development and settlement, playing a vital role in the expansion of the U.S. into the new lands it had acquired. Winding through Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico the Trail would later be used as the route of railroads into the southwest.

Travelers faced many hardships along the Santa Fe Trail. Lack of food and water made traveling the trail very risky. The trail was a challenging mix of arid plains, deserts, and mountains. The climate could range from very hot and dry in summer to long and bitterly cold winters. Spring rains can be days long and cause flash floods and huge lightning storms, gave the travelers even more difficulty. If a storm developed, there was often no place to take shelter and livestock could get spooked and stampede.

The general lack of precipitation in the Southwestern high plains and deserts makes fresh water scarce nearly treeless. Water flows in the Pecos, Arkansas, Cimarron, and Canadian rivers that drain the region vary by 90 or more percent in their flows during an average year.

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Rattlesnakes often posed a threat, and many people died due to snakebite. Also, on the Santa Fe trail unlike the Oregon trail, there was a serious danger of Indian attacks from either the Comanches or the Apaches of the southern high plains.

In 1825, Congress voted for federal protection for the Santa Fe Trail, even though much of it lay in the Mexican territory. Over time caravan size increased to prevent Indian raids and travelers packed more oxen instead of mules because the Indians did not want to risk raiding caravans for only some oxen.

In the early weeks of the adventure, Bill Brown's party was part of a larger wagon train and everyone would help the others. But, travelers would come and go as wagons broke down or people chose to rest for a few days while the train moved on and others caught up. Concern of an Indian attack was always present and there was great comfort when the party would meet up with Army troops or approach a fort along the trail. Without the company of troops the only security was in numbers and a large wagon train.

Caravan of wagons on the Santa Fe Trail

Rain and cold marked the first weeks on the train. The party also learned not to sleep near river or creek beds when it was raining because of the danger of a flash flood. Personalities also clashed. W.S. notes in his journal that Mrs. McCarthy's constant chatter was irritating and he also clashed with Ben and the Captain. In one fight over space at the fire, Ben threw W. S. down a river bank and W. S. hit Ben with a frying pan. The Captain tended to side with his son and thought W. S. was "too wild" to continue the journey and was ready to cast him out but changed his mind, surprisingly at the urging of Ben and Alex Tait. As time passed and everyone settled into the trip, the personality clashes subsided and people learned to get along.

The distance traveled each day varied greatly from little or no miles to 20 miles or more which was a very good day. Much depended on the weather, the condition of the trail and the temperament of the animals, including the human animals.

Food on the trail was more often than not prairie chicken or other birds and small game as each party would hunt their own meals. Occasionally, food was shared among groups as W. S. notes a meal of lamb quarter the Captain secured by trading. The most plentiful large game was buffalo but that was a difficult kill and dangerous to hunt.

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The First Buffalo Hunt Late in the morning of May 22, 1867, the party arrived on Cow Creek, near Fort Larned, KS, about 65 miles northeast of Dodge City (which did not yet exist). They had spent two weeks on the trail and traveled almost 600 miles.

After setting up camp, a group of soldiers tells them about a herd of buffalo out on the prairie, so the Captain, Fred, Tait and W. S. grab guns, jump on horses (W. S. getting the old gray with the bucket feet) and "away we went like the wind." W. S. took the lead and with his five shot revolving rifle charged the herd, chasing and shooting at several animals without noticeable effect. W. S. decided to change his approach and dismounted, laid his empty rifle on the ground took out his pistol and stalked what looked like an older animal.

"I took as I thought good aim and hit him in the hip." The only effect was to create an angry buffalo that turned his head and charged at W.S. head on. Having no time to pick up his rifle he put one foot in the stirrup the old gray took off.

"Then came a race for life for where I went the buffalo followed. I turned and shot at him but this only made him worse." Cocking his revolver again and holding it along his side, excitement caused him to pressed too hard on the trigger and "off she went cutting the sole of my shoe."

Finally, the chase reached a deep gulch that old gray cleared in one bound but the gap proved too much for the buffalo who made a leap but fell short breaking its leg.

Now about 10 miles from camp, W.S. determined to kill the beast with his Bowie knife, but in the fracas he found that he had lost the knife that he had stuck down his boot. He then looked up the creek an saw a party of Indians approaching so he took off for camp. Later he and friends returned to get the rifle and some meat but saw that the Indians had taken the hide and quarters and they feared the Indians might have poisoned the rest. W.S. noted in his journal that there were about 2500 in the buffalo herd. "It is lots of fun for me but a pretty close call -but old gray saved me."

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It is hard for us to imagine the size of an American buffalo herd in 1867. The closest image today would be wild life film and pictures of African wildebeest herd migrations or the massive elk herds of northern Canada. Hunters and travelers of the day regularly reported seeing the prairie black from horizon to horizon with the shaggy monsters. In the autumn of 1868, Generals Sheridan, Custer, and others, reported riding for three consecutive days through one continuous herd, which must have contained millions of buffalo. In the spring of 1869, a train on the Kansas Pacific Railroad was delayed from nine o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon because of the passage of an immense herd of buffalo across the track. (From: The Old Santa Fe Trail, the story of a great highway, by Colonel Henry Inman, late Assistant Quartermaster, US Army, 1880 )

Another way is to look at how many buffalo were killed from 1868 to 1881, a period of only thirteen years, during which time they were indiscriminately slaughtered for their hides. In Kansas alone $2.5 million was paid out for buffalo bones gathered on the prairies which were used by the various carbon works of the country, principally in St. Louis. About one hundred carcasses were needed to make one ton of bones, the price paid averaging eight dollars a ton; so amount quoted above represents the skeletons of over 31 million of buffalo.

All along the trail, members of the party would write and post letters home. Surprisingly there was a mail service of sorts along the western trails. In 1850, the US government first sanctioned a mail delivery route between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. At first a monthly stage coach carried passengers, baggage and mail. Service later increased in frequency. Letter writers would give their mail to soldiers or forts for transport back east by Wells Fargo or the Overland Express stage companies as well as the Pony Express. The letter writers would estimate their schedules and tell family members destinations ahead to which they could post their correspondence. This was surprisingly effective as W. S. Brown notes on several occasions that he got letters from his father, mother and sister.

Pile of buffalo skulls

Bill Brown's group continued on down the trail doing all they could to keep up with a troop of soldiers. This provided their caravan with a level of security and saved the party from having lose sleep with the task of standing guard.

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At Fort Larned, the party had to pause their trip as the commanding officer suggested they wait until a wagon train of at least 50 men could be assembled as the Indians were so active it was not safe to travel in small parties. While they waited a report came in that seven men were killed by Indians at Cow Creek, the site of the buffalo hunt. The Indians scalped them all including one man who escaped to tell the tale.

Hostile Indians regularly sniped at the wagon train and there were sudden raids and ambushes. All of this and the need to hunt for food helped young Bill Brown become familiar with guns and marksmanship. Several Indians and one fellow pioneer “bit the dust” according to his journal of the trip.

After almost two months and 700 miles into their trip, the weather had turned hard into summer's heat.

With the heat came a constant torment -- mosquitos "nearly as big as black birds."

Buffalo Bill One afternoon a luxury literally fell on the party from the sky. After making camp a storm blew up and it began to rain and hail. "Hail fell as large as a common hens egg." When the storm passed the men got out buckets and tins and gathered hail and made ice water.

In early July, the party camped for several days at Maxwell's Ranch in northern New Mexico. One of the most interesting and picturesque regions of all New Mexico, the ranch was an immense tract of nearly two million acres through which ran the Santa Fe Trail. The property belonged to Lucian Maxwell who acquired the land through a Spanish land grant.

William F. Cody 1864 - at age 18

In New Mexico, the caravan was joined by William F. Cody, later famous for his buffalo hunting exploits and Wild West Show under his stage name -- "Buffalo Bill". From 1867 until 1872, Cody was a scout for the US Army and also hunted buffalo to supply the Army and the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He would regularly travel to New Mexico and was a god son of Lucian Maxwell and partnered with him on a sheep ranch near Cimarron. (From: Prospector, Cowhand

William F. Cody - "Buffalo Bill" 1872 - at age 26

and Sodbuster, Cimarron New Mexico, by Drs. Faulk, Gilbert and Kinnaird, Division of History Studies, National Park Service, 2005)

Cody was 21 years old when he traveled the trail for some distance with the Brown party, hunted buffalo, played poker and together they survived Indian attacks, experiences that forge a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Whenever he was in or near Pittsburgh, Bill Cody would visit his old friend. A human scalp -- one of the trophies of that adventure -- hung on the wall of W.S. Brown's memento filled den.

The wagon train kept moving and eventually arrived at Jonada del Muerto, the “Route of the Dead” a stretch of desert in Southern New Mexico 100 miles long. This stretch of the Camino Real leaves the Rio Grande river and cuts across the desert with little water or shelter. The trail was clearly marked for them by the piles of bleached bones of animals and men. Now, to the dangers of Indian attack was added that of meager water supply. The intense heat made it necessary to do all traveling at night. The torturous day light hours were spent in futile efforts to sleep. Water was rationed in swallows and had to be shared with the animals. Despite its difficulty, the dreaded "Journey of the Deadman" 161

W. S. BROWN - TRIP OUT WEST 1867-1868 1867 April 8

April 9 April 10 April 11 -12 April 12 April 13 April 13 - April 15 April 15 - May 4 May 5 - 6 May 7 May 8 May 9 - 10 May 11 May 12 May 13 May 14 - 16 May 16 May 17 May 18 - 21 May 21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25 - 31 June 1 - 2 June 3 June 4 - 6 June 7 June 8 June 9 June 10 June 11 June 12 June 13 June 14 June 15 June 16 June 17 June 18 - 19 June 20 June 21 June 22 June 23 June 24 June 25 `June 26 June 27 - 29 June 30 - July 4 July 5 July 6 July 7 July 8 July 9 July 10 July 11 July 12 July 13 July 14 July 15 July 16 July 17 July 18 July 19 July 20 July 21 July 22 July 23 July 24 July 25 July 26 July 27 July 28 July 29 July 30 July 31 Aug 1 Aug 2 Aug 3 - 4 Aug 5 - 7 Aug 7 - Sept 11

Sept 11 Sept 12 Sept 13 Sept 14 - 15 Sept 16

Location Depart Mingo Landing (Monongahela City) To Pittsburgh via Packet boat Train to Browns Station Browns Station to Pittsburgh via train, depart via train to Cincinnati Arrive Cincinnati, OH Cincinnati to St. Louis, MO St. Louis St. Louis to Kansas City, KS Kansas City to Junction City, KS, western end of railroad Junction City hotel Camp 1, outside of Junction City Camp 2 Camp 3, 10 miles past Junction City Camp 4 Camp 5, Turkey Creek Camp 6 Camp 7, 10 miles from Salina, KS Camp 8, 2 miles from Salina Camp 9, Salina, KS Camp 10, Spring Creek Camp 11 Camp 12, Fort Harker, KS Camp 13, Plum Creek Camp 14, Cow Creek, the buffalo hunt Camp 15, Walnut Creek Camp 16, Pawnee Rock Camp 17, Fort Larned Camp 18, six miles past Fort Larned Camp 19, Aroyo Blanco Camp 20, Fort Dodge Camp 21, Fort Dodge Camp 22, Cimarron Crossing Camp 23, Pawnee Fort Camp 24, Arkansas River Camp 25, 4 miles from Love Tree Camp 26, Bluffs Camp 27, 5 miles from Fort Aubry Camp 28, 10 miles from Pretty Encampment Camp 29, 12 miles from Forty Lyon Camp 30, 2 miles from Fort Lyon Camp 31, Sand Creek, 10 miles from Bents Fort Camp 32, Bents Fort, ferry on Arkansas river Camp 33, The Mounds Camp 34, Hole in rock Camp 35, Hole in prairie Camp 36, Fishers Peak, Trinidad Camp 37, 10 miles past Fishers Peak Camp 38, Red River, New Mexico Camp 39, Veruiejo Creek Camp 40, 5 miles from Maxwell's Ranch Camp 41, 3 miles from Maxwell's Ranch Camp 42, Murrays Camp 43, 6 miles from Fort Union, NM Camp 44, 2 miles from Fort Union, NM Camp 45, 4 miles from Las Vegas, NM Camp 46, 8 miles past Las Vegas, NM Camp 47, Anton Chico on Pecos River Camp 48, 5 miles past Anton Chico Camp 49, 38 miles past Anton Chico Camp 50, 49 miles from Rio Grande Camp 51, 9 miles from Rio Grande Camp 52, Rio Grande (Albuquerque, NM) Camp 53, Paraltus Branch of Rio Grande Camp 54, 18 miles past Paraltus Camp 55, 10 miles from Casso Colorada Camp 56, 6 miles past La Hoyyo (La Joya, NM) Camp 57, Sanora (Socorro, NM) Camp 58, 15 miiles past Sanora (Socorro, NM) Camp 59, 8 miles from Fort Craig, NM Camp 60, 9 miles from Paraje, NM Camp 61, 1.5 miles from Paraje, NM Camp 62, Jornada del Muerto Camp 63, Jornada del Muerto Camp 64, Point of Rocks Camp 65, 2 miles from Rio Grande (Las Cruces) Camp 66, 10 miles from Rough & Ready Camp 67, 15 miles from Fort Cummings (Deming) Camp 68, 5 miles from Fort Cummings (Deming) Camp 69, Mimbres River Camp 70, 12 from Pinos Altos, NM Camp 71, 4 miles from Pinos Altos, NM Camp 72, in corral of hotel at Pinos Altos, NM PINOS ALTOS McCarthy buys hotel and party moves in Prospect in Pinos Altos, NM area Camp 1, Depart Pinos Altos, NM to Fort Bayard, NM Camp 2, Water Holes at Bisbee ranch Camp 3, On the way to Fort Selden Camp 4, Fort Selden, NM, join govt. mule train Camp 5, Point of Rocks END JOURNAL II, JOURNAL III MISSING

162

Daily Miles

Total Miles

30 7 7

126 1 2 10 2 10 15 5 8 2 10 16 17 20 14 16 16 16 6 20 23 3 20 16 18 20 20 25 17 20 11 25 10 25 24 15 27 10 16 15 22 2 19 25 4 24 12 24 5 33 7 40 9 25 18 8 20 20 15 12

30 37 44 334 709 959 1,085 1,086 1,088 1,098 1,100 1,110 1,115 1,125 1,133 1,135 1,143 1,145 1,155 1,171 1,188 1,208 1,222 1,238 1,254 1,270 1,276 1,296 1,319 1,322 1,342 1,358 1,376 1,396 1,416 1,441 1,458 1,478 1,489 1,514 1,524 1,549 1,573 1,588 1,615 1,625 1,641 1,656 1,678 1,680 1,699 1,724 1,728 1,752 1,764 1,788 1,793 1,826 1,833 1,873 1,882 1,907 1,925 1,933 1,953 1,973 1,988 2,000

27 8 10 15 15 15 20 20 10 20 20 8 4

2,027 2,035 2,045 2,060 2,075 2,090 2,110 2,130 2,140 2,160 2,180 2,188 2,192

13 10 25 30 15

13 23 48 78 93

290 375 250

This map show the itinerary of W. S. Brown from Junction City, KS to Pinos Altos, NM

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was heavily used by Spanish, Mexican and Anglo travelers between El Paso and northern New Mexico.

Their journey across the Jornada del Muerto desert basin begans south of Fort Craig as they leave the Rio Grande river behind them. The waterless portion begins at Paraje Fra Crist贸bal as the trail is squeezed between the Fra Crist贸bal Mountains and the Jornada del Muerto lava fields. The trail crosses several dry lake beds, the largest of which is Laguna del Muerto, while heading south through mesquite scrub land until it passes the Point of Rocks which is the southernmost boundary of the desert basin.

Finally, the trail reaches the intermittent water hole at Paraje Perillo and then onto reconnect with the Rio Grande river at Fort Selden, just north of Las Cruces, NM. To emphasize the remoteness of this portion of the trail, 40 miles northeast of the Jornada del Muerto is the Trinity test site the location for the first detonation of an atomic weapon on July 16, 1945.

Surviving these dangers, Bill Brown and most of his party finally arrived at Pinos Altos, New Mexico.

They found the Indians rampant, the prospecting hazardous and mined barely enough gold to obtain the necessities of life.

Pinos Altos Pinos Altos, meaning "high pines", is a small mountain town at the gateway to the massive Gila Wilderness area (the first designated wilderness area in the world). Pinos Altos today has 300 residents living in the mountains looking down from an altitude of 7,040 feet on its larger neighbor, Silver City, NM, seven miles to the south. The tall Ponderosa pine tree from which the town got its name are long gone - cut down during the mining boom years.

Main Street Pinos Altos, NM, Buckhorn Saloon on left and Oprah Housee on right

Pinos Altos is the oldest Anglo settlement in the southwestern corner of New Mexico dating from 1860 when gold was discovered there. Gold is what brought the town to life. In 1860, Thomas Birch had been looking for gold for some time without any luck. One day he stopped to get a drink of water and saw a nuggets of gold lying on a creek bottom. Pinos Alto sprang to life around his initial find. Later gold bearing quartz was discovered nearby by the Thomas brothers.

Pinos Altos was the location that began the Apache Indian wars with the US. For decades, the Apache tribes had fought their main enemy, Mexicans. In the 1830s Mexico placed a bounty on Apache scalps.

In 1846, when the US went to war with Mexico, the Apache tribes promised US soldiers safe passage through Apache lands and after the US occupied New Mexico, Chief Mangas Coloradas (also known as Red Sleeves) signed a peace treaty. A tenuous peace lasted until the influx of gold miners into the Pinos Altos area started the Apache Indian wars.

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In 1860, some miners invited Mangas Coloradas into town only to seize him, tie him to a tree and lash him with bullwhips. From that point on, Mangas united with famous chiefs Cochise, Geronimo and other Apache chiefs to seek revenge and drive all Americans out of Apache territory. Soon, the Thomas brothers were killed along with 40 others by a group of 400 Apache warriors led by Mangas Colorados and Cochise. The miners were lured to their deaths by Indian maidens performing a strip tease on a hill top. When the miners ran up, they were ambushed. Only a few Mexican miners remained as US military protection for miners was diverted to the Civil War in the east.

In 1863, Mangas Coloradas met with US military leaders under a flag of truce to seek peace. He was taken into custody by the soldiers, tortured and shot "trying to escape." General Joseph West, an officer in the California militia, who was in charge gave the execution order: "Men, that old murderer has got away from every soldier command and has left a trail of blood for 500 miles on the old stage line. I want him dead tomorrow. Do you understand? I want him dead." While tied on the ground, Mangas was poked with red hot bayonets until he tried to escape. The next day, US troops cut off his head, boiled it and sent the skull to a phrenologist in New York where it was put on display. The death of Mangus Coloradas was fuel on the fire of Indian war that would last for decades with hundreds lost on both sides.

After the Civil War, the US built Fort Bayard to protect miners from Indian attacks and people slowly began to return to Pinos Altos. In 1866, the town received a post office and became legitimate, featuring a saloon, general store and even a dueling ground. Apache attacks would continue to plague the area until 1874.

Gold was first mined in New Mexico in the early 1820s but it was not until 1860 that gold was discovered in Pinos Altos, the third significant discovery of gold in the state. In 1863, silver was discovered there. All mining was interrupted by the Civil War but resumed in 1865. The first gold stamp mills in New Mexico were operated at Pinos Altos mines. A stamp mill is a machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding to extract metallic ores. This is noteworthy because the Brown party transported a small stamp mill from Pittsburgh.

Estimates of the value of gold taken from the area range as high as $800,000,000. After the rich claims in the mountains were mined out, Pinos Altos almost became a ghost town. Now, the old mining district is a quiet tourist attraction with the town Main Street looking much as it did in old photographs. One tourist remarked, "It's like walking into a western movie." The Pinos Altos Post Office and Ice Cream Parlor now sits on the site of the original Occidental Hotel, a two story log structure that is long gone.

On the second day there, McCarty and his wife went off and bought the town hotel (Occidental Hotel) and set up shop with himself, Tait and W.S. to run the bar. This was a surprising change of plans.

On August 17th, the partners planned to have a "baile" (Spanish for dance) at their hotel/saloon but had to call it off because a friend was shot - "through both arms with 1 bullet by the Indians". On the same day another man was caught by Indians outside of town as he was prospecting. "What a horrible sight he was when we found him - all his front teeth knocked out, a large hole in his forehead

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made with a lance and scalped and stripped of his clothes." For the rest of the month, the residents of Pinos Altos hunkered down inside town because of hostile Indian actions.

Working in a saloon offered many temptations for a young man but perhaps W. S. did not succumb to that many. He records in his journal for August 28th, "Oh Lord have I not been a good boy."

Trenching for gold

Trenching for gold

Prospecting for gold in the area around Pinos Altos was difficult. The problem was a lack of water that is needed to wash sediment from the heavier gold. A few creeks and streams offered opportunities for panning for gold.

This was and still is the easiest and cheapest method, but to find larger yields, miners had to go deeper. The next level of mining was to dig down into soil deposits and trenching was a common approach to search for placer gold at deeper levels. Placer gold is found in the sand, dirt, or mud of dry river or creek beds.

Another method is hard rock mining which uses different tools. Hard rock gold deposits are mixed in with other solid minerals rather than loose dirt and sand.

These require breaking up the rock, crushing it and screening the material to release and separate the gold from other minerals. For this type of mining the stamp mill would be very beneficial.

Panning for gold

Gold ore in hard rock

At the end of the month, W.S. and 11 others were out prospecting in a party large enough to deter attack. Before they went out many gave a man named George Moon one of their mules and letters to take to Fort Bayard about 10 miles away noting that Moon got 25 cents for each letter he carried in addition to postage and also got 25 cents for each letter he brought back. When Moon did not return, they made a search and found his body - "shot once with a gun which probably got him and then 6 arrows were sticking in him and (he was) stripped of all his clothes and battered fearfully." It turned out that the Indians had also attacked Fort Bayard and stole some horses.

The next day, "We buried Moon today his body smelled very bad. I have one of the arrows that was stuck in Moons body and will take it home and keep it for a curiosity.

Also, made a hair chain (braded it) from an Indian's scalp and hung the scalp in the yard." These are the first of many souvenirs that would later fill the walls of Bill Browns den at his home in Pittsburgh.

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Journey Home Over time the partnership frays. McCarty holes up at the hotel drinking to excess and refuses to leave town to mine. He argues, fights and make threats against the others. Tait and Fred move out of the hotel and set up housekeeping down the street. Finally, in September, W. S. can stand no more of McCarty and moves out for fear of being hurt or killed or his doing the same to McCarty. He spends his last few days in Pinos Altos with Tait and Fred. He and the others continue to prospect but the going is difficult, dangerous and the prospects Ariel view of Fort Bayard, NM for gold do not seem good. In fact Bill Brown's party were well looking north towards Pinos Altos, NM past the peak of easy pickin's of the gold rush years. Gold from this time on came from hard work to extract the metal from hard rock. The future would show that the real mineral wealth in the southwest was coal and copper.

On September 11th, just over 5 months since leaving Mingo Landing and frustrated with his lack of success, Bill Brown threw up his hands with it all and said good bye to Tait and Fred, "for I never expect to see either one again and start for the States without much hope of ever getting there." He once more set out across the desert and plains for home and family. He joins up with a party traveling to Fort Bayard about 5 miles southeast of Pinos Altos to find protection from Indian attacks. Then they would go to Fort Seldon on to the Rio Grande river as they heard that the Indians are not so bad there.

Fort Bayard, NM circa 1870

On the way to Fort Bayard, Bill Brown and his party meet a troop from the 10th US Cavalry Regiment. These were colored soldiers going to relieve troops at the fort whose enlistment is up. The 10th was the first all African American regular army unit and they would earn distinction fighting in the Apache Indian wars and were instrumental in the chase for and capture of Geronimo.

A mounted "Buffalo Soldier"

Troops of the 10th became known as "Buffalo Soldiers" thanks to the courageous actions of Private John Randall of Troop G of the 10th. In September, 1867, Randall was assigned to escort two civilians on a hunting trip when they were attacked by 70 Indians. The civilians died quickly and Randall's horse was shot out from under him. He managed to find cover in a gulley where he fought off repeated Indian attacks, killing 13 Indians with only his pistol until help arrived from a nearby camp.

Randall was saved but suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder and 11 lance wounds.

Word spread fast among the Indian tribes about a new type of soldier, "who fought like a cornered buffalo, who like a buffalo had suffered wound after wound, yet had not 167

Troops of the 10th US Cavalry in New Mexico

died, and who like a buffalo had a thick and shaggy mane of hair." Besides their courage and fierce fighting and thick curly hair, Buffalo Soldiers often wore thick coats made from buffalo hide in the winter. (From: Exploring the Life and History of the Buffalo Soldiers, by Walter Hill, The Record of the National Archives, March, 1998; Black Valor, Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, by Frank. N. Shubert, 1997; The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West, by William H. Leckie, 1967)

Just outside of Fort Bayard was Bisbee's ranch and there Bill Brown again finds Buffalo Bill Cody tending bar as he owns a share of the ranch.

Fort Selden was built in 1865 on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande river, 18 miles north of Las Cruces, NM, to protect travelers and traders along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. It was a large, walled adobe garrison where 200 men lived and worked, not counting those who lived outside the fort. The fort had enlisted barracks, officer quarters, a 10 bed hospital with a resident surgeon, kitchens, corrals, workshops, offices, a courtroom and a trader's store.

Fort Selden circa 1867

W. S. makes it to Fort Selden, NM, where after a few days he is fortunate to link up with a government mule train hauling supplies back to Fort Union. He meets a group of the mexican teamsters who make fun of his long hair and pants with cuffs half way up to his knee. "I have to stand it or no chance to get back so tell them some American stories and any I don't know make up." The teamsters accept him and feed him a quart tin of bean soup with sow belly and, as he lays on the ground studying the stars, he thinks about his situation: "I am mighty glad I am on my way home even if I don't get there. This country may be mighty rich but let me be a poor one where a fellow can sit on a rail fence without fear of having an arrow US Army pack mule shoved through his navel." The next day Bill leaves with the mule train helping One onepart teamster of a mule train with his six mule team in exchange for riding on the wagon.

The next month is spent on the trail back slowly retracing the steps of his first journey. The mule train is heavily loaded and the mexican teamsters are in no hurry. Bill notes in his journal how the time is spent: "Tramp, tramp, tramp and then gathering around the camp fire with stories and songs."

At Fort Union, NM, Bill bids good bye to the wagon train and tries to find work with the government, but there is none. He is down to just $1.50, so he traded his revolver without any ammunition for store credit for food supplies. Turns out that when the man tries to fire the gun it blows up in his hand.

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The next month is spent at Fort Union and Bill learns the desperation of poverty. He had hoped to find work with a troop of Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Bayard who are being discharged and are heading back to "the States" but when the first group arrives he learns that they are not going to depart for another month as they wait for others. With no work and dwindling resources, Bill asks the commanding Colonel for rations and gets a 30 day supply - much of what he gets he sells for cash. The low point is having to dig a hole in the ground to stay warm at night and being alone on October 18th as he turns 18 years old on his birthday. He sells his watch to a Buffalo Soldier, getting $10 and is down to 3 blankets and his buffalo robe.

Fort Union, NM circa 1867

A week later, another group of Buffalo Soldiers arrive and Bill was surprised to find Alex Tait with them. Both men have a long talk about how McCarthy used them, took their money and now owned nearly every store in Pinos Altos and the whole town was suspicious of him. Tait thought "somebody will kill him."

Bill and Tait are stuck at Fort Union until the Buffalo troops move out in early November. At this point, W. S. Brown's adventure is continued in Volume III of his diary which has been lost. But, knowing the times, and Bill's intent, it is not hard to imagine the rest of his trip as one of extreme hardship as he retraces his steps along the Santa Fe Trail to get home as quickly as possible. If we simply look at the timetable of his trip from Pittsburgh to Pinos Altos, a journey of four months, we can assume his best luck would only slightly better that time. This would bring him back home to Pittsburgh in the Spring of 1868 at the earliest.

His good fortune is that by initially traveling with the Buffalo Soldiers, he escapes the Apache wars of New Mexico unscathed, but the plains were still far from safe. In fact, 1867 was the year that Indian attacks reached a peak in Kansas as 130 settlers were killed. But the fact is he did get home and Bill Brown's life was forever changed by the experience. He left home a boy of 17 and returned a man. His arrival home is variously reported as 1868 or 1869, but for sure he had little in his pocket but a journal of experiences and a sense of relief at being home safe.

For almost 60 years the Santa Fe Trail was the conduit bringing goods to New Mexico and the southwest and sending back silver, furs, and mules. But ideas and cultures were also exchanged. For raw eastern farm and city boys like Bill Brown, the Trail gave them memories of a different world.

A new look on life Almost immediately on his return, W. S. Brown started working in the coal mines and on the steamboats of his uncle William H. Brown, at the old town of Saltsburgh, near McKeesport, PA. Saltsburgh, PA is an old community on the Monongahela River, upstream from Braddock and near Port Perry at the confluence of Turtle Creek and the Monongahela river. (The name is spelled with an "h" at the end and should not be confused with Saltsburg without the "h" also located in the Pittsburgh area.) Here he worked hard in his uncle's coal mining and shipping business. His bout with poverty and destitution instilled a new work ethic in the young man, but he still had a yearning for adventure and to travel. After some time to get his life back on track and with the blessing and 169

support of his father and uncle, W. S. soon became a river boat captain working on the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Eventually, he would manage his uncle’s wholesale coal business at Cincinnati, OH.

1876 Map showing Saltsburgh on Monongahela river near Braddock, PA William H. Brown properties marked in red

In 1870, two years after returning from New Mexico, Bill Brown's sister dies at age 23. The passing of his "Sis Lizzie" who he wrote to throughout his journey is a tremendous loss. This caused him to throw himself even harder into his work. Now he decides with his uncle's blessing to return home to Pittsburgh working hard in his uncle's coal mining and shipping business in Saltsburg. Here he would eventually serve as the company's Superintendent and Paymaster for the various W. H. Brown coal mines in the region working closely with his cousins Captains Sam and Harry Brown.

On January 19, 1873, W. S. Brown married Emma Lucas, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Valentine Lucas of Allegheny, PA. She was 4 years younger that Bill. W. S. and Emma were both Methodists and they married at Christ M. E. Church in Pittsburgh. Her father, Rev. Lucas, had died 5 years before at age 44 on May 19, 1868. He was the pastor of the First Methodist Church of Allegheny (on or near Union Ave).

They had five children: two daughters, Nellie W. Brown (Mrs. Paul Hay), Jeanette (Jean) Brown (Mrs. J. Homer McCready) and three sons, William M. Brown, Edwin Lucas Brown and Samuel Smith Brown, all of Pittsburgh, PA. In 1883, several years after his uncle’s passing and as his cousins Captain Sam and W. Harry Brown bought out their brothers and took greater control of the business, Bill Brown left the family firm. He moved to Pittsburgh and purchases the well established sporting goods business of James Bown (often 170

listed as Brown) on Wood Street in Pittsburgh. He would operate this enterprise for the remainder of his life. (From: Death Ends Half a Century of Varied Activity, Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, September , 1928) W. S. Brown Sporting Goods and Enterprise Gun Works The origin of the sporting goods, gun and equipment business purchased by W. S. Brown in 1884, dates back to 1848, when it was established by James Bown and Abram Tetley as the firm of Bown & Tetley Gunsmiths, located at 136-138 Wood Street (between 5th and 6th avenues) in Pittsburgh, PA. (Note: James Bown and the firm name are often listed in publications as "Brown" rather than "Bown". This has led to some confusion regarding whether this man could be James Brown, the father of W. H. and Peter Brown and grandfather of W. S. Brown and whether there was a family connection prior to the purchase by W. S. Brown.)

James Bown was born in England in 1823 and came to America at 8 years old with his parents, first settling in Canada in 1831 and later he moved to New York state before coming to Pittsburgh at age 21 to work as a cutler with Cartwright Cutlery. Bown was quickly recognized as one of the best cutlery men in the state.

Abram Tetley was also born in the England, in 1822. The firm of Bown and Tetley, first began dealing in cutlery and later expanded into hardware.

Bown & Tetley were listed in all the period Pittsburgh directories.

The Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, 1850, calls the firm an instrument maker. The U. S Census of Industry of 1850 called the firm cutlers and showed they employed 7 hands with a $312 monthly payroll and made cutlery in the past 12 months valued at $7,500. In 1860, the U.S. Census of Industry reported that the firm had a $20,000 capital investment and a 14 horsepower steam engine. Over the previous 12 months it had bought $5,800 in iron, wood and other raw materials; and had made 1,800 rifles valued at $23,000. In May 1857, Bown and Tetley paid $2,300 to Harvey Noble of Richland County, Ohio, for a lot in Pittsburgh's Ninth Ward. This property had on it a building 40 by 90 feet, built of brick and containing a gun barrel factory. This was probably the J. and D. Little factory, begun by James and Daniel Little, which was bought out by Harvey Little and renamed Noble and Little, with James Little.

Bayonet manufactured by and stamped with name Bown & Tetley Pittsburgh

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Advertisement for the Enterprise Gen Works, from the Allegheny Pilot, by E. L Babbit, 1853

Next, the firm that Bown & Tetley established in 1848 as a cutlery, gradually grew into a substantial gun business as well. Besides being an accomplished cutler, James Bown had been well known for many years for manufacturing high quality small game rifles, known as the Kentucky long rifle or Kentucky squirrel rifle. So the next move for their firm was to established the Enterprise Gun Works which became famous throughout the South and West for producing both large and small bore rifles.

A periodical advertisement in 1857 shows the diversity of products offered by the firm: “ENTERPRISE WORKS, 136 Wood Street, 2 doors from Virgin Alley, Pittsburgh.

BOWN & TETLEY practical cutlers, surgical and dental Instrument manufacturers. We manufacture and keep constantly on hand a superior assortment of SURGICAL and DENTAL INSTRUMENTS, an article which we feel assured cannot be surpassed east or west of the Alleghenies and respectfully invite the profession to call and examine our instruments before purchasing elsewhere. We think it is no trouble to show them. In addition to the manufactory, we keep a general assortment of hardware and cutlery, guns, pistols, hunting equipage, etc. We are also manufacturing a new kind of dental lathe, suitable for all mechanical work appertaining to the profession. We are also agents for C.C. Rhinehart's Celebrated Glass Pad Truss, the best article now in use - for sale by the single one or by the dozen.” This firm was promoted as the "only one in the West which constructs rifles and guns for the trade exclusively. It has been in operation in the present large scale about 4 years, and, in that time has attained a reputation throughout the whole western country that is rapidly drawing off trade from the eastern houses . . . .

This establishment employs 25 hands whose yearly wages amount to $15,600 and turns out now at the rate of 4,000 rifles a year, with a steadily increasing demand. This is the first attempt to establish on a large scale the manufacture of this species of arms here or in the West.”

[From: Pittsburgh, Its Facts and Figures, 1857]

On February 6, 1862, James Bown and John Tetley bought out Abram Tetley, for $1,000. In 1863, James Bown became sole proprietor when John Tetley sold out his interest for $1,500. In 1871, Mr. Bown’s son, William H. Bown, was admitted to the partnership and the firm became James Bown & Son which operated until at least 1879. James Bown’s son, Mr. William. H. Bown, who was later brought into the firm was born in Pittsburgh and never lived in any other place.

The Enterprise Gun Works trade mark was “Kill Buck”, often simply the word "KILL" over an engraved image of a buck deer. Other Enterprise Gun Works rifles are marked "BROWN & HIRTH" and “W. S. Brown,” who were the successors to James Bown & Son.

The pictured rifle is a half stock, German silver mounted, percussion rifle of fine workmanship, with barrel and lock marked "BOWN & TETLEY PITTSBURGH" and barrel marked "KILL" over a buck and "ENTERPRISE GUN WORKS."

The following is from Industries of Pittsburgh 1879.

"For more than thirty years the name of Mr. Bown has been identified with the gun business in the Iron City, The Enterprise Gun Works having been established in 1848 by Bown & Tetley. They occupy three floors of the large double store, 30x60, at Nos. 136 and 138 Wood Street, employing twenty- six skilled workmen, and their weekly pay-roll amounts to about $275. Their stock, which is full and complete in every variety of Guns, Rifles, Revolvers, Fishing tackle, Sportsmen's articles in general . . . While they are large manufacturers of rifles, rifle barrels, shot guns, etc., they also deal extensively in the best articles of foreign and American make.”

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From 1871-1883, James Bown & Son (James and William H. Bown) operated the Enterprise Gun Works at 136-138 Wood Street in Pittsburgh then they moved to 121 Wood Street, In 1883, they advertised percussion full-stock rifles at $15, halfstocks at $12 and $20, double rifles at $35, and double rifleshotguns at $30. "The only manufacturers of the CELEBRATED KENTUCKY RIFLES, which name was adopted by the senior member of this firm in 1848; all our Rifles have our name stamped on each barrel, and THIS STAMP (KILL BUCK with a buck head facing left)."

1876 catalog for James Bown & Son

In 1877, Bown & Son played a prominent role during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. This strike began on July 14 and ended some 45 days later, after it was put down by local and state militias, and federal troops. Labor unions were not involved; these were spontaneous outbreaks in numerous cities of violence against railroads.

At the end of the Civil War, there was feverish, unregulated growth, especially in the railroad industry, with the government giving massive land grants and subsidies to railroad companies.

Overbuilding of the nation’s railroads, and the overinvestment by bankers of depositors’ funds in the railroads laid the foundation for a Panic and the depression that followed. Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt, and over 18,000 businesses failed. Unemployment reached 14 percent by 1876, while workers who kept their jobs were employed for a mere six months out of the year and suffered a 45% cut in their wages to approximately one dollar per day.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 started on July 14, in West Virginia in response to the cutting of wages Mob breaking into Brown's gun store on July 21, 1877 during the railroad riots and then burning the PA Railroad machine shops on Liberty Avenue for the third time in a year by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O). Striking workers would not allow any of the stock to roll until this third wage cut was revoked. Governor Henry M. Mathews sent in state militia units to restore train service, but the soldiers refused to use force against the strikers and the governor called for federal troops. Next the strike spread to Maryland with strikers stopping

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freight and passenger traffic. Here the strike turned violent as strikers attacked troops of the Maryland state militia called out by the governor to put down the strike.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became the site of the worst violence. On July 21, 1877, a mob of militant strikers rallied in downtown Pittsburgh. They then stormed the Wood Street store of James Bown & Sons, looting hundreds of rifles, pistols and shotguns as well as ammunition. Now well armed, they headed to the railroad yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

July 21-22, 1877 burning of Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Pittsburgh, PA

Thomas Alexander Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad, often considered one of the first robber barons, suggested that the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread." Local law enforcement officers refused to fire on the strikers. Several militia units did turn out, including the 3rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment.

Scott's suggestion came to pass later in the day, when militiamen bayoneted and fired on rockthrowing strikers, killing twenty people and wounding twenty-nine. Rather than quell the uprising however, this action merely infuriated the strikers who then forced the militiamen to take refuge in a railroad roundhouse, and then set fires that razed 39 buildings and destroyed 104 locomotives and 1,245 freight and passenger cars. On July 22, the militiamen mounted an assault on the strikers, shooting their way out of the roundhouse and killing 20 more people on their way out of the city.

After over a month of constant rioting and bloodshed, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops to end the strikes.

On November 18, 1880, at approximately three o'clock in the morning a fire was discovered at the Enterprise Gun Works of James Bown & Son on Wood Street in Pittsburgh. An alarm was sounded and the fire department responded quickly but before the flames could be checked the entire building was gutted. A large amount of cartridges were stored on the third floor that ignited and kept up a constant fusillade making it too dangerous for firefighters to approach the building. Finding it useless to try and save the Gun Works building, the firemen concentrated their attention on the adjacent buildings which were saved with difficulty but incurring great water damage. The origin of the fire was not known and the loss was estimated at $35,000 (approximately $850,000 today) Bown & Son were particularly unfortunate having been burned out three times within 12 years, besides having their gun 174

works gutted by a mob during the riots of 1877. (From: The New York Times, November 19, 1880) The repeated losses incurred by Bown & Son, as well as the age of James were probably a reasons they sold their business.

James Bown, died in 1901, at the residence of his son, W. H. Bown in Pittsburgh. He was married in Pittsburgh in 1846 to Maria Bailey, a daughter of John Bailey. They had six children, 3 sons and 3 daughters. The sons are William H., James W. and Edwin S. James Bown was a prominent Mason and had many friends . [From: Pittsburgh Commercial, January 30, 1901]

Circa 1880s Brown & Hirth Percussion Halfstock Rifle

W. S. Brown stamp on a Percussion rifle

In 1883, the firm Bown & Son was purchased by W. S. Brown & August Hirth and carried on by them under the name of Brown & Hirth. The following advertisement was printed in 1886.

“BROWN & HIRTH— Enterprise Gun Works, 520-522 Wood St., Pittsburgh. Proprietors of the Enterprise Gun and Machine Works and the only dealers in Pittsburgh or Allegheny County who manufacture their own gun barrels, and being the only parties who make the Celebrated Kentucky Muzzle-Loading Rifle.” These successors to James Bown & Son offered a complete line of muzzle-loading and other arms, barrels, gunsmiths' tools and gun parts, ammunition, and sporting goods.

(From: American gun makers, by Arcadi Gluckman Colonel U. S. Army, Ret. and L. D. Satterlee 1953) 1886 Catalog - Brown & Hirth with pictures of buildings

In April, 1887, Mr. Hirth retired from the business, which was then conducted by W. S. Brown as sole proprietor.

The business of W. S. Brown, Inc. occupied a three story building 30x60 feet in dimension, where he carried a large stock and unsurpassed variety of all kinds of fire arms, ammunition, cutlery, fishing tackle and a general line of sporting goods and equipment. W. S. Brown was the agent for the celebrated Winchester Repeating Arms, Colt Fire Arms, Marlin Fire Arms, L. C. Smith Guns, King’s Quick Shot powder and Parker guns.

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In addition to representing the best foreign and domestic manufacturers, W. S. Brown was also extensively engaged in manufacturing and refurbishing weapons. He was the sole proprietor of the Enterprise Gun and Machine Works located across Wood Street, on Virgin alley, near his retail warerooms.

The Enterprise Gun factory was housed in a separate four story building, 40x140 feet in dimensions, completely equipped with all the necessary modern machinery for manufacture of arms on an extensive scale.

Mr. Brown was the only dealer in Pittsburgh who manufactured his own gun barrels. His firm was the sole manufacturer of the celebrated Kentucky Muzzle-Loading Rifle.

He also manufactured first-class shot guns, double-barrel rifle and shot guns, and all kinds of tools and dies. In connection with his works, he maintained a complete repair shop, where all kinds of guns, of every make, are repaired, missing parts supplied, and where barrels are re-bored, choke-bored and rifle barrels rifled, and machinery was repaired in the most skillful manner.

W. S. Brown ad from Pittsburgh Press May 23, 1954

circa 1910 - W. S. Brown Building on corner Wood Street and Virgin Alley

In short, W. S. Brown was prepared to supply every description of guns, revolvers, pistols and ammunition, sportsmen’s outfits, shooting suits, fishing gear of all sorts, tents and accessories, gunsmith’s materials, and everything pertaining to this line. He was recognized for his knowledge of the business, the closeness of his prices and the accuracy of his dealings secured him a trade covering the entire county.

1890 Advertisement

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He employed thirty hands, but had no traveling salesmen. Instead he pushed his trade by the use of complete catalogues. He focused on return business and retaining his old customers by the propriety of his business conduct, which earned for him an excellent reputation.

W. S. Brown continued to manufacture and import the finest cutlery and was also famous for swords and other unique forms of cutlery including, table settings, carving knives, hunting knives of all types, bayonets and razors.

A fine example of the unique products offered by WS Brown is an Antique Ivory Knights Templar Masonic Sword & Scabbard sold at auction on December 19, 2006. This is a very fine, very early Knights Templar sword and scabbard. It was made about 1880 because it has the knight's head marking on the blade of the respected Solingen firm of KIRSCHBAUM . Many top-quality swords and sabers of the Civil War were made by Kirschbaum and imported. The particular marking seen on this sword was not used after 1883, when Kirschbaum merged with Weyersberg to form WKC, which still exists today. The other marking seen on this sword is, W. S. BROWN of Pittsburgh, PA (the retail dealer who actually sold the sword,) is a very rare one that is not listed in the reference books of sword dealers and makers!

Vintage trade card for W. S. Brown, the girl in the picture is his daughter Jean.

The sword inside the scabbard is 38 1/8 inches long from end-to-end. Sword by itself is 37 inches long overall and the blade is 30 inches. The blade is in very good shape with no nicks or rust, and the tip is sharp and pointed. It is mostly very bright with only moderate signs of age or use. It is fabulously etched with a scene of a mounted Crusader knight in battle with a Saracen, a knight holding a banner, crossed flags, etc. There is a name in the center on the front side, John Collier. The front side of the blade is marked W.S. BROWN PITTSBURGH PA. The back side has the Kirschbaum knight's head marking.

The crossguard, chain, pommel cap are silver plated. There is a lovely scroll in the middle with a Cross and Crown on it. The handle is genuine ivory.

There is a fine hairline age crack in the ivory, which is normal. It is finely needle-engraved on the front with the initials JC inside a wreath. The back side is engraved with an elaborate Crown and Triangle.

The scabbard is nickel-plated with silver-plated mounting pieces on it. At the top is a rendition of a knight reclining, with Crosses on his chest and shield. Below this is a Cross inside a Crown surrounded by the Bible quotation BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH AND I WILL GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE. The piece in the middle has the letters KT wrapped together. The bottom piece has axes and a knight's

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helmet, along with a shield with a Maltese Cross on it. According to the auction house: "THIS IS A MARVELOUS SWORD!" Another unique example of W.S. Brown products and also of his personal relationships are four very plain and simple knives. These throwing knives, however, are incredibly well balanced and their plain appearance belies their precision. And well they should because they are meant to be thrown at a living person. W. S. Brown personally manufactured these knives for the world's greatest magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini.

Houdini was a good friend of W. S. and he would regularly visit the Brown household whenever he was in Pittsburgh, which was surprisingly often. The industries that drove Pittsburgh's growth and identity also made the city a major destination for famous vaudeville performers.

In 1905, Houdini arrived in Pittsburgh after spending five years touring Europe where he was celebrated as the "King of Handcuffs." He had proclaimed that no jail or handcuffs could hold him and across the continent all had failed. Now Pittsburgh police got the chance and they too failed, but so had Scotland Yard.

In 1907 and 1908, Houdini was in Pittsburgh with a his new act. Both times an estimated 40,000 people were treated to his death defying one man show. Houdini stripped to a swimsuit and wearing manacles made from Pittsburgh steel, jumped off the Seventh Street Bridge and fell 40 feet into the Allegheny River. In less than two minutes, Houdini would emerge unshackled and holding up the handcuffs he had removed.

May 22, 1907, Houdini in circle, jumping from Pittsburgh's original 7th Street Bridge

In 1911, Houdini was again in Pittsburgh, only this time he was hospitalized in Pittsburgh's Mercy Hospital with a ruptured kidney. His Pittsburgh doctor said that Houdini would not live unless he took three months off to rest and that continuing his stunts would be suicide. Houdini laughed and finished three nights of performances. At the end of the year and for the next 15 years, Houdini sent his Pittsburgh doctor pictures of his most strenuous escapes.

(From: The Secret Life of Houdini, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, 2007)

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For almost 75 years, W. S. Brown Sporting Goods was the largest business of its type between New York and Chicago. The firm's products were diverse. Besides cutlery, such as swords, knives, razors, fine table cutlery, and guns and ammunition of all types; the company also sold bicycles, fishing and camping supplies of all sorts, as well as team and individual equipment for all sports.

W. S. Brown supplied high school, college and professional sports teams and also sold weapons to police departments in a three state area.

Two Men's Razors labled and sold by W. S. Brown

Fishing line sold by W. S. Brown, Inc.

Joe Jackson baseball bat professional model 1917-1920 originally sold by W.S. Brown sold at auction in 2007 for $7,500

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Despite the diversity of the firm's product lines, W. S. Brown is best remembered as a dealer in firearms.

He represented the most well known manufacturers from the US and Europe and was famous for the quality of his weapons and support services.

He sold guns to the average man as well as custom carved and engraved guns for presentation to Pittsburgh's rich and famous citizens as well as for national celebrities such as General "Black Jack" Pershing the commanding general of US Army forces in World War I. This Colt Outdoorsman revolver (photo on left) was sold to Andrew Mellon. Note the gold engraved initials A. W. M., for Andrew W. Mellon, banker, financier and Secretary of the Treasury. W. S. also supplied weapons to police departments and the Pennsylvania National Guard.

The early 1921, Colt .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun pictured above was shipped to W.S. Brown Company in Pennsylvania back in April of 1921 for delivery to the Aliquippa, Pennsylvania Police Department. On May 15, 2005, it set a record sale price of $43,125.00 at the auction house of J. C. Devine, Inc. This 1901 Remington rolling block target pistol and holster pictured on the right are marked W. S. Brown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All of these weapons are examples of the fine fire arms sold by the firm.

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A visit to the W. S. Brown Sporting Goods store was a thrill for any man or woman, young or old, who had an appreciation for their products. Upon entry into the store, one would notice that the wall along the right hand side was covered from waist height to ceiling with a large assortment of rifles, shot guns and pistols. Glass cabinets fronted the display holding special issue items such as carved and engraved works. The left hand side of the store displayed a variety of cutlery including swords and razors on half the wall with fishing rods of all types on the other half. Camping gear and clothing was arranged in the middle front and the back of the store held bicycles and team sporting goods. But the most impressive site was directly in the center of the store, up on a three foot high platform surrounded by a railing, Here would be seated W. S. Brown at his carved desk where he could survey the entire store.

W. S. Brown Building on corner of Wood Street and Virgin Alley (now Oliver Avenue)

The Wood Street store was originally the Third National Bank of Pittsburgh on the corner of Wood and Virgin Alley. For many years, the Enterprise Gun and Machine Works part of the business was located across the street in a four story building 40 x 140 feet on Virgin Alley. The factory was completely equipped with all the necessary modern machinery for manufacturing arms on an extensive scale but was later consolidated in the upper floors of the W. S. Brown building.

In March 17 and 18, 1936, the Great St. Patrick's Day Flood immersed downtown Pittsburgh in water. It was the worst flood in the history of the city. The three rivers overflowed their banks and the city was flooded to a depth of 46 feet. The cause was warmer-than-normal temperatures and torrential rain followed a cold and snowy winter, leading to the rapid melting of snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers.

March 18, 1936 - Great Flood looking down Virgin Alley (now Oliver Avenue) to W. S. Brown Building on Wood Street

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A Life of Service If the first part of his life was filled with adventure, then the latter part was filled with business success and civic honors.

After his new business was firmly underway, he began to become more active in club and civic affairs. He was conspicuous in Masonic circles and as a business man for almost a half century until shortly before his death when he was beset by the illness which proved fatal.

The famous Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh was founded in 1873. W. S. Brown was a founding member. After completion of construction of the club's building, he was for many years a resident. (From: Charter and By-Laws of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh, by Duquesne Club, 1896)

He was a member and president of the Americus Republican Club, a member of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, Long View Country Club and many others.

He was a Mason from 1870 and from 1891 until his death, he was the treasurer of the Shrine in the United States. He was also treasurer of the Shriners’ Hospitals for Crippled Children that are maintained in several states.

In 1888, Andrew Carnegie built the Carnegie Library in Braddock, PA, about 9 miles up the river from Pittsburgh, and home to one of the Carnegie Steel Company's Edgar Thompson steel mill. This was the first Carnegie Library to open in the United States and it was the first of just four libraries that he fully endowed. W. S. Brown was selected by his friend Andrew Carnegie to serve on this library's first board of directors. An 1893 addition doubled the size of the building and included the third Carnegie Music Hall in the United States.

Above: Carnegie Library of Braddock Library Reading Room Right:

Carnegie Music Hall Braddock

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Johnstown Flood On May 31, 1889, a neglected dam and a phenomenal storm led to the famous Johnstown Flood in which 2,209 people died. Immediately following the disaster, the first message to the outside world was sent by telegraph from Sang Hollow tower, located below Johnstown. Robert Pitcairn, superintendent of the railroad and a member of the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club, was on a train held up at Sang Hollow when flood debris, bodies and survivors began floating downstream. He immediately alerted Pittsburgh that Johnstown had been destroyed and that help should be organized immediately. The first relief train from Pittsburgh reached Johnstown on Saturday morning, June 1. W. S. Brown was on the train with two other men as the advance party to learn the state of affairs and gain information to help the Pittsburgh relief committee organize and lead relief efforts. He was part of the committee of the first organization to organize relief efforts, the Free and Accepted Masons of Allegheny County. He would also help to organize other organizations to help such as the Americus Republican Club.

Main Street, Johnstown, PA - 1889

In the immediate aftermath of the flood, the avalanche of graphic newspaper reports fueled an enormous charitable outpouring of goods, services and money donated to help almost 25,000 flood victims. It rapidly became the biggest news story of the era. Four square miles of downtown Johnstown was destroyed by the flood. Volunteers came to town to help in the huge task of rebuilding the city. The flood recovery effort was initially led by surviving Johnstown residents working with the Pittsburgh Relief Committee.

Relief efforts were hampered by the fact that it was impossible to get closer to Johnstown than four miles except on foot. Many of Pittsburgh's best and brightest men, unused to manual effort helped to transport train car loads of provisions, clothing and medicine on their backs in summer heat along the torn up rail line only to find the bridge into town was washed away.

Somehow a rope bridge was built and at great peril, the first relief crew managed to cross only to find corpses littering the road into town.

Center of Johnstown - 1889

Morbidly, an immediate need was met by 55 undertakers who set up 9 temporary morgues as recovery of bodies went on every day for two months. All major American cities organized charitable committees to rally support, funds and assistance. W. S. Brown tapped into a network of friends and acquaintances for help. One of his first calls was to lifelong friend, Al G. Field, a local 183

Painting: Carnage in Johnstown

man who had become one of America's most famous comedians and a promoter of old time minstrel shows. Field's group gave numerous benefit performances. In Paris, France, on June 13, Buffalo Bill Cody gave a benefit performance of his Wild West Show to raise funds at the request of his friend W. S. Brown. Another curious fact is that the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club that owned the dam that burst causing the flood was the summer retreat with 16 cottages and a clubhouse for its members who were some of Pittsburgh's most prominent and wealthy citizens including many of W. S. Brown's good friends and relatives, such as: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Philander Chase Knox, Andrew Mellon, James W. Brown, and James M. Schoonmaker. (From: History of The Johnstown Flood, by Willis Fletcher Johnson, 1889; and The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullough, 1968; and Johnstown: The Day the Dam Broke, by R. O'Connor, 1957).

In politics, W. S. Brown was a Republican and in 1894, he was elected Treasurer of Allegheny County. He served his community in this position for four years until 1898. And, although very active in local and national politics, he refused to stand for any other office. (From: Directory of Pittsburgh & Allegheny Cities, J. Johnstown Flood debris

F. Diffenbacher, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898)

In September of 1894, Pittsburgh hosted the reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic (a Civil War veterans group). W. S. Brown served on the Finance Committee for the GAR encampment. While at the encampment with thousands of Civil War veterans, he met an old soldier from Kansas who gave him a unique item. An Allegheny County $1.00 bill issued on June 1, 1846 by the Commissioners of Allegheny County and signed by them. This paper script was before the printing of US money by the federal government and at a time when the only money available was issued by banks and local governments.

On July 17, 1897, the State Bank of Braddock was incorporated. W. S. Brown was a founding director of this bank. (From: A Century of Banking, by Edward White, 1903)

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The Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce was chartered on July 8, 1876 and for many years W. S. Brown was a member. From 1919 to 1921, he served on the Chamber board of directors and on several committees.

W. S. Brown supported many other charitable and civic causes. He regularly sponsored trophies and awards for Negro League baseball and community football leagues. He worked W. S. Brown on left in bowler hat welcomes with legendary athlete Cum Posey, founder of the Vice President-elect James S. Sherman to Pittsburgh Homestead Grays team of the Negro Baseball League to assure that they had all they needed to compete. (It is noteworthy The W. S. Brown Trophy was annually awarded as the Super Bowl of community sandlot football).

From the 1880s until the end of World War I, Bill Brown served the National Guard of Pennsylvania as the Inspector of Rifle Practice of the 14th Regiment. His knowledge of weapons and expertise in marksmanship served this unit well. These skills and knowledge made him a prominent player in military and police circles of the city, the region and the country. He was regularly sought out as an advisor, trainer and supplier of weapons. (From: Pittsburgh and Allegheny illustrated review: historical, biographical and commercial. A record of progress in commerce, manufactures, the professions, and in social and municipal life, by John William Leonard, 18491932)

William Smith Brown, age 78, died on September 8th, 1928, at his home 5801 Aylesboro Avenue, on the corner of Aylesboro and Murrray Avenues, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, very near where he would be buried in The Homewood Cemetery. He was preceded in death by his sisters, Margaret Elizabeth Brown (23) and Amanda Brown Cavagna; a brother, Edwin Carson Brown; two sons, Frank M. Brown (1 year old) and Harry Ward Brown (10 years old); and, his wife who had passed away the preceding year on October, 1927. He was survived by two daughters, Nelle Brown Hay and Jean Brown McCready, and three sons, William M. Brown, Edwin Lucas Brown, and Samuel S. Brown.

At “Uncle Bill’s” funeral the Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America honored his memory with a reading of the following words by life-long friend and companion Alex Gilliland: Here lies an honest man at rest, As ere God with his image blessed; He was a friend of man, the friend of truth, The friend of age, and the guide of youth.

Few hearts like his with virtue warmed, Few heads like his with knowledge so informed.

In another world, he lives in bliss And then, too, he made the best of this.

A Scottish poet

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It was reported how all present realized how beautifully the sentiment fit the life and character of Bill Brown.

Imperial Potentate Frank Jones recalled: No member of the Imperial Council rendered greater service nor enjoyed more fully the confidence, the love and the respect of the Nobility of North America‌.He lived for his fellow man, he wrought good deeds, he spoke kind words, he spread the sunshine of good cheer, he labored to uplift mankind Indeed, William S. Brown’s Masonic career was filled with achievement. He was made a Master Mason in Braddock Field Lodge No. 510 and later became its Master and later still its Trustee. He was raised to the Degree of Royal Arch Mason, and became High Priest. He joined the Knights Templar and was elected Eminent Commander, Treasurer and Trustee. He was a member of Pittsburgh Consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the Northern Jurisdiction, becoming Sovereign Grand Inspector-General of the Supreme Council. He joined Syria Temple and became Potentate for two terms and was also Imperial Treasurer of the Shrine. He was also Royal Director of the National Court, Royal Order of Jesters.

W. S. Brown in Shrine regalia

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W. S. Brown with the Syria Santas circa 1920

After the death of W.S. Brown, the sporting goods firm was continued under the same name by his sons, Ed Brown, William M. Brown and Sam Brown.

The business was sold in the 1950s to Pittsburgh National Bank to make way for the development of Oliver Plaza a multi building complex spanning Oliver Avenue (the former Virgin Alley) between Wood Street and Liberty Avenue (outlined in yellow). Virgin Alley was renamed Oliver Avenue in 1904 to honor civic leader Henry Oliver who had died the year before.

Area marked is now Oliver Plaza at end of Oliver Avenue (formerly known as Virgin Alley) n Pittsburgh, PA

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Above: Two Oliver Plaza W. S. Brown Building was located in the plaza area marked in red in front of this building

Corca 1920 Gun and Sporting Goods store window displays and cartoon depicting store activity

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Lineage The father of W. S. Brown, Peter Brown, was a pioneer in the coal industry in Western Pennsylvania along with his brother William H. Brown. Peter, the older brother, played a much less known but important supporting role in the business success of his brother. Peter was a riverboat pilot and captain, fleet manager and manager of coal and coke operations. The brothers were remarkably close not just sharing in business success but they also shared family life living at Brown's Station. Even in later years when Peter moved his family to Saltsburgh (near Braddock) to manage the coal mines that would be important suppliers to the new Carnegie Corporation steel mill in Braddock, PA, named Edgar Thompson Works, Peter would regularly bring his family down river to visit W. H. Brown's family at the Rock Cottage at Browns Station. Even after Peter died, and the death two years later of his brother W. H., their children remained close, As a young boy, Bill Brown grew up with his cousins as playmates and friends. Documentary evidence mentioned in the preceding stories tells of the bonds that drew the family together. When Bill began his trip to the western frontier, he first stopped to meet with his uncle W. H. Brown.

The evidence also shows the closeness of Bill Brown to his cousins, especially Sam and Harry. First, they were close in age, Sam was 5 years older than Bill and Harry was 7 younger than Bill. All grew up along the river together. Sam and Bill shared adventurous experiences while teenagers and all shared roles in Brown businesses. All were masons and members of the Pittsburgh lodge at young ages. All were 33rd degree masons and extremely active in their several masonic orders. All were also active in the Pittsburgh community, members of the same clubs and with many shared friendships.

Sam Brown uniquely and specifically recognized his cousin Bill in his will. Bill honored his cousin Sam by naming his second son after him. Harry and Bill often served together on charitable and civic committees as did their spouses and children.

In 1902, three years before his death, Captain Sam Brown accompanied his cousin Bill Brown on a six month tour of the Mediterranean visiting historic ports and sites in North Africa, Middle East and Europe. Together the two cousins sailed on the White Star Line luxury ship the RMS Celtic, a precursor to White Star Line's RMS Titanic (built 10 years later).

This was part of the maiden voyage of RMS Celtic which was actually the second ship of that name built for the White Star Line. The first Celtic was sold and scrapped in 1898. At the time of the launch of the second Celtic in the late summer of 1901, this British steam ship was the largest ship in the world and her luxury was unsurpassed.

RMS Celtic circa 1902

W. S. Brown recorded a detailed daily record of this trip in his diary of the voyage. The trip is also reported in the souvenir book, The Cruise of the Celtic Around the Mediterranean 1902, by Dr. Robert Houston McCready and H. M. Tyndall. (Note: this book is available online from Google books.)

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Other friends and contemporaries of the Browns from Pittsburgh and across the country also took this trip. On board the ship a group of fraternal masonic brothers formed the S.S. Celtic Masonic Association. W. S. Brown was elected as Secretary for the group, which may explain his diary recording all aspects of the trip. Sam Brown was among the many masonic members onboard the ship. The Association was formed so the tourists could continue to hold their masonic meetings, visit and attend meetings at masonic lodges at the locations visited, and tour historic sites of particular interest and relevance to masonry. The association even issued special membership certificates for its members.

W. S. Brown, Secretary of SS Celtic Masonic Association

Certificate for RMS Celtic Masonic Association, signed by W. S. Brown

The cruise was made in incredible luxury, with the finest foods, entertainment and comfort. But, it was still not without difficulty for many. An Atlantic ocean crossing can see rough seas and sea sickness was a common curse that would eventually pass. The itinerary was for an awesome adventure. New York to the Madiera Islands, then Morocco, Algiers, Cairo, Luxor, Palestine with numerous inland tours of Jerusalem, RMS Celtic Masonic Association the Dead Sea and historical sites of on Foreward Deck of the ship, March 5, 1902 Christianity. Next, on to Turkey including Smyrna and Constantinople. Then Greece and Italy with inland tours of Switzerland. Other stops included Monte Carlo on the French Riviera, Spain, England, Scotland and Ireland and then back across the Atlantic to New York. In all six months of travel and sightseeing.

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Itinerary of the voyage of the RMS Celtic

W. S. Brown, M. W. Warren, Captain S. S. Brown at the site of Christ's Baptism, Jordan

W. S. and Sam Brown (on left) with other Pittsburghers under the orange blossoms at Jericho

Captain Sam and W. S. Brown wading in the Dead Sea

W. S. Brown on donkey at the temples of Luxor in Egypt

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There is no doubt that Captain Sam Brown was the elder statesman on this cruise. By 1902, he was widely known and among the most wealthy men in America. Yet it was his remarkable pleasant character and generosity the most impressed his fellow passengers. In presenting Captain Sam, the souvenir book relates a simple example of his character. In Constantinople, the passengers met with the Consul General who mentioned a girl's school that had a problem with debts. The passengers of the Celtic undertook to gather funds to help when someone approached Captain Sam. At the close of the presentation, Sam asked, "How much are you short?" He then wrote a check for that amount to the great pleasure of all on board.

Another noteworthy tale was of W. S. Brown's experience in Jerusalem. His tour guide was one Dragoman who escorted W. S. to the top of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem and the Mosque of Omar. This shrine completed in 691, is one of the oldest works of Islamic architecture. It is today, probably Jerusalem's most recognizable landmark - the Dome of the Rock.

The Dome of the Rock is located at the visual center of a plateau known as the Temple Mount. It is believed to have been constructed on the site of the Second Jewish Temple, which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem. The site's significance stems from religious traditions regarding the rock, known as the Foundation Stone, which has great significance for Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The Foundation Stone is the rock at the heart of the Dome of the Rock. Jewish tradition says it is the spot where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. It is the holiest site in Judaism. In Jewish tradition it as the junction of Heaven and Earth, the location of the "Holy of Holies" in the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. It is the third holiest site in Islam where tradition says The Foundation Stone in the floor Muhammad ascended to heaven. It is also known of the Dome of the Rock shrine. as the Pierced Stone because of a small hole in a The hole at upper left penetrates to the Well of Souls corner that enters a cavern beneath the rock, known as the Well of Souls. This is a cave inside of the Foundation Stone. The name comes from a medieval Islamic legend that it is the place where the spirits of the dead can be heard awaiting Judgment Day. Well of Souls

The Knights Templar believe Mosque of Omar/Dome of the Rock is the site of the Temple of Solomon.

In 1902, many of the most sacred sites of human history were not maintained and were in disrepair. The Mosque of Omar was no exception. Many of the decorative tiles were cracked and were falling from the walls of the shrine. One such tile was picked up by W. S. Brown and kept as a souvenir.

Mosque of Omar also known as the Dome of the Rock circa 1902

Tile from Mosque of Omar/ Dome of the Rock Jerusalem

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For W. S. Brown, the most important aspect of this cruise was the opportunity to spend time with his good friend cousin Sam. Harry also would include his cousin and family on several important river banquet cruises.

Steamer S. S. Brown

One was a trip from November 21st until December 6, 1906, traveling from Pittsburgh to Memphis, TN, on the famous family steamboat S. S. Brown. This ship was one of the most elegant river steamboats of the turn of the century and was named after Samuel S. Brown. The occasion was the one year anniversary of Sam's death.

A banquet was held in his honor on board the boat on December 1st. Guests included many of Sam's family, friends and business acquaintances. W. S. Brown and his wife Emma and their two daughters Nelle (age 25) and Jeanette (age 19) were included in the Harry Brown family party. From Memphis, the party returned to Pittsburgh on a private rail car.

On the occasion of the sesquicentennial day of the City of Pittsburgh, Bill and Harry were active supporters and organizers. Both Harry and Bill Brown were on the organizing committee putting together a marine parade as well as a parade through the streets of the city.

The multi-day celebration kicked off with a massive parade of boats. On the day of the celebration both Harry and Bill Brown and their families were on the steamboats Duquesne and Henry Lourey which were the flagships for a massive river parade.

These two steamboats and forty-five others were all gaily decorated with Stars and Stripes and black and gold city colors and pennants. The clean, white color of the boats provided a stunning background for the streaming decorations. Many brass bands were onboard the steamships and raise the spirits of those onboard and on shore by playing popular songs and patriotic music. Whistles were blowing almost continuously. Almost all of the steamers that lined up for the parade were lashed together. In addition to Duquesne and Henry Lourey there were many ships of the River Combine, the Monongahela River Coal and Coke Company and former W. H. Brown Sons vessels including: Alice Brown lashed to the Raymond Horner, Rival lashed to Volunteer, Titan tied to Vesta and others.

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Pittsburgh Sesquicentennial Marine Parade Flag Ships Henry Lourey and Duquesne

Harry, Bill and their families along with many others cruised on the two flagships in the boat parade. Other parade boats were equally packed with people and thousands of other Pittsburghers watched from the shore line of the City down the Ohio River to Davis Island. It was reported that 50,000 people watch from the city with thousands of others lining the shores on both sides along the parade route. Some lined hilltops and others waved and cheered from the roofs of buildings. Even the prisoners at Western Penitentiary were permitted to stand on tiers to see over the walls as the parade of boats passed.

Elegant buffet luncheons were served on all the steamers and none more wonderful than on the flagships. Harry and Bill Brown's families shared a table at this Sesquicentennial banquet before the great boat parade. Included were: Bill and Emma Brown with their daughters Nelle (age 27) and Jeanette (age 21) along with Harry and Margaret Brown and their daughter Mary Alice (age 15).

Steamer Alice Brown at Sesquicentennial Marine Parade

Shortly before noon the crowd on the shore let out a cheer as they saw a fleet of Indians in canoes set out from shore near the Smithfield Street Bridge. The parade had started. Indians represented the first residents of Pittsburgh and were followed by a succession of canoes with costumed explorers, French and British, who had traveled through Pittsburgh: LaSalle, deCeleron, French traders and then English traders. Next in the historical timeline, a raft carrying a young George Washington and Christopher Gist floated by. Later still, Lewis and Clark and their voyage of discovery passed the crowd in a replica ship. Early flatboats and keelboats that traveled the rivers before steam power were next in the historical parade. The earliest steamboats were represented by a newly constructed replica of the New Orleans the first steamer on the rivers built by Robert Fulton. Afterward came the river coal boats and work boats of all sorts and the major steamers lashed together.

Canoe of Cavalier de LaSalle and companions with Indian guides

After the principal part of the parade had passed in review, the flagships Henry Lourey and Duquesne swung in ahead of a fleet of private Original inhabitants in a canoe begin the historical marine parade

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motorboats, and all in line cruised downriver to the Davis Island dam on the Ohio river. At the dam, the boats turned for the return trip and as they passed each other along the route horns and whistles sounded in an almost continuous round of salutation. There was so much noise that many fell victims to headaches. The event was widely reported as the greatest spectacle in Pittsburgh's history.

Sesquicentennial steamers on parade

Bill and Harry also shared important political interests and connections as lifelong Republicans. Bill as Treasurer of Allegheny County had deep local connections and Harry had national connections and influence. Both knew and worked with Pittsburgh leaders and locals who became national political leaders like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon (US Secretary of the Treasury), and Philander Knox (US Attorney General and PA State Senator). Both would press for government support for coal mining and banking interests, as well as river improvements.

Both loved the water and were licensed captains. Harry took his interests to the next level with his Visitor ocean going yachts and the cousins often shared the experiences. Bill Brown was with Harry for the famous maiden voyage of his schooner Visitor II. They were together for Mardi Gras in New Orleans and later at Havana, Cuba. Bill was among the party from Pittsburgh that Harry hosted on the first transit of the Panama Canal.

Bill Brown and his family often visited Harry and his family at the Fifth Avenue estate. Both families would also regularly gathered at Sam's mansion at Browns Station while he was still alive. From all of this we know that the bonds of the Brown family run deep.

Harry (third from left) and Bill Brown (far right) on Visitor II in Havana 1909

We also know a good bit about the family of Bill Brown's mother, Claranna Jane McCauley Brown who died at age 89, in 1912, 38 years after her husband Peter's passing. At the time of her death, she was living with her son Bill's family at 5510 Stanton Avenue, in the East End of Pittsburgh. Jane Brown died of a severe cold she had contracted several weeks earlier.

Jane married Peter Brown about 65 years earlier (1847) and soon after their marriage they went to Pleasant Hills a short distance from what is now Turtle Creek to make their home. Peter preceded Jane in death by 36 years ago (1876) and several years after his death Jane went to Newport, KY to reside at Captain Sam Brown's Wildwood Farm. She remained there until a few years after Sam's passing, when she returned to Bill Brown's home on Stanton Avenue and she resided there along with her daughter, Amanda Brown Cavagna. Both are interred at the W. S. Brown plot at Homewood Cemetery along with Peter Brown and other family members.

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The mother of W. S. Brown, Jane Brown, was born near Ligonier, PA, in 1824. She was the daughter of Col. John McCauley who served throughout the Revolutionary War as a member of Washington's army.

After the war, John married Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley. This was the second marriage for Mary.

Mary did not serve in the army of the revolution because throughout most of history, women were not allowed to serve in the military except in such auxiliary forces as nursing. It was not until WWII that women who served in any military capacity were given formal status and not until 1976 that women were allowed into the military academies.

Mary, nevertheless was awarded a pension and recognition for her service at the Battle of Monmouth, NJ. From her exploits during this battle she also earned a famous nickname "Molly Pitcher." The name “Molly Pitcher” symbolizes the many women who helped on battlefields during the American Revolution.

Frequently wives traveled with regiments to do cooking and washing for their husbands.

Born in 1754, Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley was the daughter of a New Jersey dairy farmer. At the age of 13, she went to work as a domestic servant. During the same year, still at 13, she married a man by the name of William Hays (a barber). When the Revolutionary War began, William enlisted and became a gunner in Colonel John Proctor’s 4th Pennsylvania Artillery Regiment. Mary joined her husband as a camp follower during the retreat of Washington's Army through New Jersey eventually wintering with her husband's regiment at Valley Forge.

She became known as "Molly Pitcher" at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey on June 22, 1978. Mary carried water through smoke and firing to hot and thirsty soldiers, who identified her by the words, “Here comes Molly with her pitcher.” When the twenty-three year old woman saw her husband wounded, she took his place, keeping his cannon in action throughout the battle.

Joseph Plumb Martin, an eyewitness whose memoir was published in 1830, wrote the first account in print about Molly Pitcher. Plumb who is the only contemporary witness to the scene in June, 1778, describes the scene of the husband and wife, Mary and William, working together: "A woman whose husband belonged to the artillery and who was then attached to a piece in the engagement, attended with her husband at the piece the whole time. While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation."

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Ten years later, in 1840, a Mary Clendenen wrote that her late husband, who had been at the Battle, mentioned that a woman called "Captain Molly" brought water to the troops. The first article to combine Molly Pitcher's service providing water and at the gun was published by George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington.

Custis also drew one of the first images of Molly at the Battle and later would use it as the basis for a painting. (From: The Battle of Monmouth, by George Washington Parke Custis, in the National Intelligencer, February 22, 1840)

After the battle, Mary took her wounded husband home to Carlisle, Pennsylvania and cared for him until his death in 1787. Mary went back to work as a domestic as well as a "charwoman" in the State House in Carlisle. After the death of William, Mary remarried another Revolutionary War veteran by the name of Colonel John McCauley. In 1822, Mary was awarded a pension by the Pennsylvania State Legislature and it wasn't until the anniversary of the War in 1876 that a marker, noting her exemplary service, was placed on her grave. She died on January 22, 1832. She never received a pension for her service from the United States, and the law pensioning widows of Revolutionary War Soldiers was subsequent to Molly’s death.

Testimony of her descendants and former neighbors and employers provided sufficient oral evidence to establish that Mary McCauley had been at the battle, although exactly what she did there remains speculative.

Such was her fame that in the late 1800's, the Carlisle Garment Co. manufactured the "Molly Pitcher Dress," one of the first ready-made dresses in the U.S. Every nation needs heroes and heroines, especially when threatened. We don't need a reminder that America is worth fighting for, but we do need inspiration to be courageous. The grandmother of W. S. Brown, Mary McCauley, aka Molly Pitcher, continues to be a powerful role model and a symbol of patriotism at the highest level. She was at and she didn't run away in the midst of a terrible and bloody conflict, fought on an incredibly hot day in the summer of 1778.

On the maternal side of our W. S. Brown family, his wife Emma Lucas Brown comes from a peaceful, devoutly religious connection. Emma Lucas was the daughter of Reverend Valentine Lucas (circa 18201868) and Elizabeth Wood Lucas (1822-1910). Elizabeth was the daughter of Captain Benjamin "B. L." Wood the Lockkeeper at Lock Number 2 on the Monongahela River. Rev. Lucas was a noted Methodist Protestant minister in the Pittsburgh Conference of that faith and he served in many churches throughout southwestern Pennsylvania. Among his parish appointments are: Fayette Springs Circuit 1846-1847; Connellsville 1847-1848; Johnstown 1848-1850; Sharpsburg 1850-1851; Washington Station 1851-1853; Fairmont 1853-1855, Waynesburg Circuit 1855-1856; Monongahela Circuit 1856-1857; No Record 1857-1865; Allegheny, First 1865-1868.

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Friends and Contemporaries W. S. Brown was a friend to all men. He had a warm sense of humor and made friends easily. He was intelligent, some said that he was wise. He had a big heart that came from a close loving family experience and showed in his actions and involvements. "Uncle Bill" Brown as he was known to his friends had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh and tell stories. All of this led to his many close and enduring friendships.

His friendships with "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Harry Houdini and Andrew Carnegie have already been mentioned but several other famous personalities merit mention.

General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing One is John Joseph Pershing. "Black Jack" Pershing was a general officer in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Pershing is the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies, the highest authorized rank in the United States Army, signifying service directly under the president. (A retroactive Congressional edict passed in 1976 promoted George Washington to the same rank but with higher seniority.) Pershing was regarded as a mentor by the generation of American generals who led the United States Army in Europe during World War II, including George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley, and George S. Patton. A somewhat controversial figure, his tactics have been harshly criticized both by commanders at the time and by modern historians.

After graduating from West Point in 1886, Pershing served on active duty with Troop L of the 10th US Cavalry stationed at Fort Bayard, New Mexico. While serving in the 10th Cavalry, Pershing participated in several Indian campaigns and was cited for bravery for actions against the Apaches. He had many other postings , including as an instructor on the tactical staff at West Point. In addition to fighting in the Indian wars, he fought in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War and was the commanding general of US forces in World War I. He is also well remembered for his pursuit of Mexican revolutionary bandit Pancho Villa in the southwestern US. Pancho Villa and Black Jack Pershing before US declares Villa a bandit

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Pershing got the name "Black Jack" while teaching at West Point.

Because of his strictness and rigidity, Pershing was unpopular with the cadets, who took to calling him "Nigger Jack" because of his service with the 10th Cavalry Regiment, a now famous unit formed as a segregated African-American unit and one of the original "Buffalo Soldier" regiments. During the course of his tour at the Academy, this epithet softened to "Black Jack", although, "the intent remained hostile". Still, this nickname would stick with Pershing for the rest of his life, and was known to the public as early as 1917.

Pershing leads cavalry river crossing

(From: Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing – Volume I and II, by Frank E. Vandiver, 1977)

Although much younger, Pershing was a good friend of W. S. Brown and they had many common interests and experiences. They would often exchange stories about life in the wilderness of New Mexico, guns, marksmanship and military training.

W. S. Brown had many friends, famous and not, but the two non-family members closest to his heart were Al G. Fields and Alex Gililand. Both were lifelong friends, bound together by history, business and service.

Al G. Field Al G. Field was one of the most gifted, famous and successful entertainers of the post Civil War years and into the early 1900s. Alfred Griffith Hatfield (1850-1921) was born and raised in Brownsville, PA along the Monongahela river. As a young boy, Al dreamed of being a clown in the circus. When his cousin read the news that Van Amburg's Great Golden Menagerie and Zoological Institute was coming to Brownsville, Al wrote in his autobiography, "The seed had been sown."

Al's first show was at the local school house. He starred as singer, dancer, comedian, stage manager, property man and superintendent of wardrobe.

Other performers included the interlocutor, vocalists, and clog and jig dancers. Musician friends played the guitar, violin, flute and piccolo. At the age 15, he began his professional career as a ballad singer with Sharpley, Sheridan, Mack & Days Minstrels.

Al G. Field, entertainer

Al grew up in a time when minstrel shows were the most popular form of American entertainment. In the United States, the minstrel show was the precursor to Vaudeville, variety shows and the Broadway musicals we know today. Al is considered by historians to be one of the last of the great cork artists and managers. The term "cork artist" refers to white men who wore burnt cork facial makeup while speaking or singing in what were presented as southern negro dialects. Originating in the 1820s, the blackface acts quickly spread throughout America and England, becoming a staple of the music hall scene. Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. It is at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it afforded white Americans 199

a singular and broad awareness of what some whites considered significant aspects of blackAmerican culture to be. Vaudeville, burlesque, acts where men portray women, and song and dance all flowed from minstrelsy.

Minstrel shows were a unique national art form, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. Each show was a mix of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, all performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface. By the turn of the 20th century, the popularity of the traveling minstrel show had waned and was replaced for the most part by vaudeville. It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910. Amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, and local theaters but as the civil rights movement progressed and gained acceptance, minstrels lost popularity.

Minstrel shows were extremely popular and "consistently packed with families from all walks of life and every ethnic group." Most often performers paraded into town in costumes and song to drum up attendance.

The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. During the first act, the entire troupe danced onto stage singing a popular song and then sat in a circle and exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The second part featured a variety show structure. Performers danced, played instruments, did acrobatics, and demonstrated other amusing talents. The highlight was when one actor delivered a faux-black-dialect stump speech, a long oration about anything from nonsense to science, society, or politics, during which the dim-witted character tried to speak eloquently, only to deliver countless malapropisms, jokes, and unintentional puns. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or, after the Civil War, performers would do burlesque renditions of other plays; both Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights were common targets. The humor of these came from the inept black characters trying to perform some element of high white culture. Slapstick humor pervaded the afterpiece, including cream pies to the face, inflated bladders, and on-stage fireworks.

Shown on this page are original poster for the Al Field Greater Minstrels

Al Field made his first appearance in 1871 as a member of a minstrel troupe. Two years later, he started his own circus in Columbus, Ohio, known as the Al G. Minstrels, that played throughout the Mid-west. For 10 years, beginning in 1875, Alfred also performed with the Sells Brothers Circus from 200

Columbus. It was one of the most successful in the country. He acquired his executive experience there.

It seems that performers took jobs with both circus and minstrel shows during the 1800s.

In 1881, the Ohio legislature and the County Probate Court legalized his name change, and he became Al G. Field. In 1886, Al formed his minstrel company that he would operate successfully until his death in 1921.

His company, Al G. Field Greater Minstrels was headquartered in Columbus, OH. Their first show opened in Marion, Ohio, on Oct. 6, 1886, with 27 Picture of Al Field persons in the company and people turn out "en masse" and would from his autobiography continue to greet Field's company this way for a quarter of a century. (From: The Monarchs of Minstrelsy, by Edward LeRoy Rice, 1911) Throughout his career he claimed, he never had a season where he lost money. In fact, he became a wealthy man and was known as the "Millionaire Minstrel." His greatest financial success was from organizing and managing the minstrel and variety shows in which he performed. He was considered a good minstrel performer, well remembered for his comedy monologues. His training in management was working with the Sells Brothers and with Duprez & Benedicts Minstrels, both outfits were famous for their advertising and promotional practices. And, Al became one of America's greatest promoters.

Field had hoped that, after a few years of the show business life, he could own a farm and horses and, live near nature. And that is what he did, settling on a three hundred acre "country estate" named Maple Villa along the banks of the Olentangy River in Delaware County, OH, just north of Columbus. The land was part of a Revolutionary War grant to Ebenezer Goodrich around 1804. Here Al bred blooded horses, pedigreed cattle, game fowl, and hogs. He also built a dam on a brook to make a lake back in his woods. The farm was located just north of the Franklin County line on the west side of Rt 315. "Uncle Bill" Brown was a frequent visitor.

Al Field's Maple Villa

Al Field's 1912 illustrated autobiography, "Watch Yourself Go By", muses about country and farm life and pans city life. Throughout the book, Field pokes fun at his long time friend Bill Brown.

Much of the book is devoted to his childhood, and he offers some interesting impressions of Columbus that current residents might enjoy reading. Anyone can read Al's book online at: www.gutenberg.org.

Bill Brown (left) with Al Field at Maple Villa

Al. G. Field died in 1921, leaving his business to his brother asking that the company be continued, but minstrel shows were out of fashion.

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Sketch of Bill Brown from Al Field's Autobiography

Alexander Gilliland At the funeral of W. S. Brown, a stirring eulogy was given by his longtime friend Alexander Gilliland.

Alex was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 19, 1847 and later married Betty Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bald, in Dunfermline, Scotland. In 1866, Alex and Lizzie came to the U.S., settling in Old Allegheny on the north shore across from Pittsburgh where they lived for 30 years. There, he connected with a beloved family friend, steel magnate and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie as well as W. S. Brown. A List of Immigrants Who Applied for Naturalization Papers in the District Courts of Allegheny County PA. 1880-1887, shows that Alexander Gilliland, born in Scotland became a naturalized citizen of the United States on February 5, 1884.

Christmas card of Alex and Lizzie Gilliland

In 1892, Alex helped to established the Standard Gauge Steel Company with capital of $600,000. Its officers were A. Rasner, president, J. Wylie Forbes, vice president, J. A. B. Patterson, secretary, F. Dinger, treasurer, and S. Moltrup, superintendent. The firm manufactured finished machine keys, machine racks, square, flat, round, and special shapes in finished steel; also compressed steel elevator guides. W. S. Brown joined his friend in this venture as an investor and family members remain stockholders today. The firm was later renamed the Standard Steel Specialty Company. In more recent times, the company reorganized as the SSS Management Company a holding company that divested the Standard Steel Specialty Company and now owns and operates the Duer Spring Company located in Greer, SC. Soon after, in 1893, Alex and Lizzie moved to Bellevue where they resided until their deaths. The Gilliland family home overlooking the Ohio River was at 331 Ohio River Boulevard in Bellevue, PA. Alex was a master builder and he outfitted what was then a rural homestead that he had built, with red oak paneling, pocket doors, elegant stained glass windows and marble fireplaces. The original estate consisted of the main house, a carriage house with quarters, a fruit orchard and a house for the servants. Enjoying the fruits of his labor, often times, Alexander could be found relaxing on the large river rock porch that overlooked the Ohio River.

Legend has it that he wore his Scottish tartan at least 365 days a year and played a gramophone so loud it could be heard across the river in nearby McKees Rocks. He spent a portion of his earliest "retirement" overseeing the building of small, well built row houses on the hill above his estate. The street there still bears his name. The homes lining the cul-de-sac are examples of the homes he built for "starter" families.

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In 1908, the Palmer & Singer Manufacturing Compamy started producing automobiles. The company was successful, gaining much publicity racing their first model, The Skimabout. Over the next few years, there were several different models introduced. Costly experiments were blamed for the company declaring bankruptcy in 1915 and their assets were sold that summer. Alex Gilliland was a major creditor of the Palmer-Singer Manufacturing Company when it filed for involuntary bankruptcy. (From: The Horseless Age, First Automobile Journal in the English Language, Vol. XXXII, March 11, 1914)

Over his lifetime, Alex was a success builder, the Vice President of Standard Steel Specialty of Beaver Falls, President of Duff Patents Company, Carnegie Building, Pittsburgh, and Treasurer of National Mortar and Supply Company. The Duff Patents Company was a partnership of Alexander Gilliland, James S. Bradley, William H. Bradley and William C. Bradley. The company built gas producers used to create gas from coal or coke to provide heat and lighting for towns and homes.

Their product also was used to create the blast in steel making blast furnaces. The Duff patented producer offered an automatic and continuous operation making its efficiency superior to any previously known producer.

A gas producer creates "producer gas", also known as "suction gas", a manufactured gas for town and industry use. The producer is the machine that makes the gas by pulling air over red hot carbonaecous fuel such as coal, coke or other material creating an exothermic reaction.

After "scrubbing", to remove tar and ash, the gas may be used to power gas turbines, spark ignited engines (as a replacement for petrol fuel) or diesel internal combustion engines. In old movies and stories, when describing suicide by "turning on the gas" and leaving an oven door open without lighting the flame, they were talking about coal gas or town gas. As this gas contained a significant amount of carbon monoxide, the gas was quite toxic.

Most town gas was also odorized, if it did not have its own odor. Modern "natural gas" used in homes is far less toxic, and has a gassy odor added to it for identifying leaks.

The closeness of the relationship between Alex and Bill Brown was certainly forged in their common service in the Masonic orders. Alex was a 33rd degree Mason and a member of Allegheny Lodge 223, F.&A.M., Bellevue Chapter 286 Royal Arch Masons; Allegheny Council 38, Royal and Select Masons; Allegheny Command 35, Knights Templar; Pennsylvania Consistory, Syria Temple, Masonic Veterans Association, Lambskin Club, Jesters, and the Imperial Council, A.A.O.N.M.S. He served for some time as the Royal Property Man of the National Court, Royal Order of the Jesters.

Lizzie Gilliland, died in 1923 at age 76. Alexander remained in the residence at 331 Ohio River Boulevard where he had lived for 38 years until his death on May 3, 1931, at the age of 85. He was survived by three sons, William Bald Gilliland, Walter A. Gilliland, and Robert M. Gilliland;

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7 grandchildren; and a great-grandson. What was a fine estate overlooking the river underwent many changes over time, with multiple owners and different purposes. In 2008, the building was restored. It is now the Ohio River Antique Mall.

Many other great men were contemporaries, friends and acquaintances of W. S. Brown. Most if not all were members of the Duquesne Club and others were active Republicans or in various Masonic Orders.

All are interesting people in their own right and important to the growth of Pittsburgh and America. Here is a list of a few: Andrew W. Mellon Henry W. Oliver, Sr. James Laughlin, Sr. Charles M. Speer W. W. Speer John D. Scully John M. Yohe George H. Yohe J. R. Yohe Benjamin Darlington Harry Darlington

J. N. McCullough Thomas M. Howe Dr. Hussey Sil Cosgrave James Rees William Bissell Martin W. Rankin James McKibben George Dilworth William Dilworth Isaiah Dickey William B. Hays

Jacob Painter William Singer William Getty James B. O'Hara Col. William Herron C. W. Batchelor William Thaw H. K. Porter J. D. O'Neil Robert Pitcairn Fred Muller

Legends of the Movement The Brown family, as presented here, lived through times of slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow and acute racial discrimination. As I read about and wrote about these times I felt conflicted. Some Browns were slave owners at a time when it was legal and acceptable to own people as property. Other Browns traveled and did business in the deep south before and after the Civil War, most surely with southerners with deep racial prejudices. Brown friends and contemporaries like William Shakespeare Hays, Stephen Collins Foster and Al G. Field all exploited the life and character of black people of the day. "Old Darky", "Nigger", "Pickaninny", and more were words used in song, writings and everyday talk with impunity.

Terms totally unacceptable today were part of the common language in prior days.

My inner turmoil was in wondering, not what Brown family members said, but what they believed and how they acted - how they treated people. Were they abolitionists or pro-slavery or did they simply not care? Did their actions help or hinder the advancement of black people over time? I have found several stories that might give some context on this matter but the truth is there is only circumstantial evidence.

First, are the lives of our ancestors in Scotland and Ireland and even in early America which may have created empathy for the plight of blacks in slavery and after. While our ancestors may be of a professional, even propertied class they were nevertheless second class citizens to the British aristocracy and land barons in Scotland and Ireland. Simply put they were oppressed to the point of undertaking the dramatic life change of relocating to another continent. A change that required a difficult ocean crossing. Even in America, before slavery was the institution it would become, young Scots and Irish men and women were often "indentured servants" forced by debt to serve their masters.

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The difference was they could buy their way out of service by paying their debt or working it off.

Nevertheless, this could have created an empathy for other oppressed peoples.

Next are the beliefs of our relatives, descendents of the Erksines, Covenantors and professors of Protestant faith and tolerance. We can look to the lives of Rev. James Brown, Rev. Valentine Lucas and others Brown ministers who preached tolerance and respect for life in an area of the country renown for helping fugitive slaves travel the underground railroad. There is no evidence one way or the other as to whether Browns (other than the famous John Brown the abolitionist) actually aided slaves seeking freedom.

But this is only speculation and some wishful thinking - until I found real connections to people of color.

Captain Posey Cumberland Willis Posey Sr. (1858-1925) was born to former slaves and grew up in Port Tobacco, Maryland. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father, a minister, moved the family to West Virginia. Here he was introduced to life on waterways. His first job was a ferry boat deck sweeper and he would travel regularly between West Virginia and Ohio. Working on the riverboats of W. H. Brown he got a valuable education on how boats and ferries operate. Posey was most interested in the machinery that made boats work.

He talked endlessly with people who maintained the steam engines and other equipment hoping to become an engineer. Eventually, he earned the position of stroke engineer on a Ohio river boat owned by W. H. Brown. The position allowed him to operate, monitor, and repair the engines that powered riverboats.

But Posey was not satisfied just doing the work and being called an engineer, he wanted to be officially recognized with a government engineer's license, something unheard of for a man of his color. For Posey a license meant more than recognition of his knowledge of boat mechanics, it would lead to better wages. He fought long and hard and in 1877 with the support of his employer, Captain C. W. Posey the Browns, Posey was licensed as a second engineer and he would eventually become a chief engineer and the a captain. He is believed to be the first African American to receive an engineering license in the United States - and he worked for W. H. Brown and Browns Sons.

In the 1890s, Captain C. W. Posey lived with his family in Homestead, PA, just across the river from Brown's Station. He captained Brown family river boats and began building and selling his own ships.

Posey soon established himself in local business circles helped by his friendships with the Brown family.

Soon after the Browns sold out to the River Combine, he founded the Posey Steamboat Company and would over time employ hundreds of men and build 41 coal boats and barges at a time when the area's coal industry was booming. Now an established businessman, Posey formed the Delta Coal Company and the Diamond Coke and Coal Company and invested in coal mines to feed his ships and supply the steel and power companies of Pittsburgh. Captain Posey formed a partnership with the Browns, Henry Clay Frick others on the rivers and soon became the wealthiest African American and one of the wealthiest men in Pittsburgh.

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As Posey's wealth grew he became involved in banking ventures like the Douglas Land and Investment Company and the Modern Savings and Trust Company where he was a director. He also invested in the Pittsburgh Courier, a small newspaper established in 1910 to served the African American community but which soon developed a national following. Posey served as president of the newspaper for fourteen years, from its founding until 1924. He was a commanding presence in the African American community and participated in many organizations including: the African American chapters of the Freemasons, True Reformers, Knights of Pyththias, Odd Fellows, the Loendi Social and Literary Club and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He also served as a trustee or director for many organizations, including the YMCA and the Warren Methodist Episcopal Church. His masonic activites is another link to the Browns.

Cumberland W. Posey Sr. was buried with full Masonic honors after living a life of dignity, honor, and achievement. His varied business enterprises provided jobs to many and funded literacy programs for African Americans in the Pittsburgh area. He wore many hats but most distinctively that of a captain.

(From: Commodore' Posey Plied Boats, Ore Trade, by Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 21, 1994).

The Posey family also has another connection, to W. S. Brown Sporting Goods.

Cum Posey Captain Posey's son, Cumberland Willis "Cum" Posey, Jr. (1890 – 1946) was an American baseball player, manager, and team owner in the Negro leagues, as well as a star professional basketball player and team owner. He was born into Western Pennsylvania's Negro elite living in a palatial mansion on the heights in Homestead. Despite his family's wealth young Cum Posey still had to deal with racial discrimination. Although he was an exceptional athlete, his talents were relegated to Negro League teams.

In football, Cumberland Jr. was a star player and manager for semi-pro sandlot teams in the Pittsburgh area prior to 1910, including the Delaney Rifles and the Collins Tigers. He was also the best African American basketball player of his time, playing from the early 1900s through the mid-1920s. His peers and the national sporting press considered him an "All-Time Immortal".

Posey led Homestead High to the 1908 city championship, played basketball at Penn State for two years, did a stint at Pitt, and formed the famous Monticello Athletic Association team that won the Colored Basketball World Championship in 1912. He later played varsity basketball for Duquesne University, under the name "Charles Cumbert", and led the Dukes in scoring for three seasons through 1919. Today he is enshrined in the Duquesne Sports Hall of Fame under his real name.

During the mid-1910s, Posey formed, operated, and played for the Loendi Big Five, which became the most dominant basketball team of the Black Fives Era through the mid-1920s, winning four straight Colored Basketball World Championship titles. He retired from basketball in the late 1920s to focus exclusively on the business of baseball and on his weekly sports column in the Pittsburgh Courier, "In The Sportive Realm."

In 1910, a group of Homestead steelworkers was organized into one of baseball’s greatest clubs by Posey and his father, Captain Posey. Young Cum Posey played with the Homestead Grays in 1911, was manager by 1916, and became owner of the club in the early 1920s. In a quarter-century running the

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team, he built it into one of the powerhouse franchises of black baseball, winning numerous pennants, including nine consecutive Negro League titles from 1937-45.

He later became an officer of the Negro National League, and was a major force at its meetings throughout the rest of his career. Courier sportswriter Wendell Smith once wrote of Posey: "No matter what his critics say, they cannot deny that he was the smartest man in Negro baseball and certainly the most successful." He died of cancer at age 55 in Pittsburgh and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Throughout his career, Cum Posey's athletic endeavors were supported with sporting equipment provided by W. S. Brown Sporting Goods. W. S. Brown Trophies were also awarded to Negro League championship teams in a variety of sports.

In the first half of the twentieth century (1900-1940) large numbers of blacks migrated to northern cities like Pittsburgh to work in factories and mills. The NAACP and Urban League were formed and helped to mobilize support for non-discriminatory hiring practices and equal rights laws. In the post WWII era many more Americans who had fought against Nazi German racial supremacy realized that racial prejudice was no longer respectable and "racial democracy" was an important all-American freedom.

The black press led by the Pittsburgh Courier rallied blacks in a campaign for "Democracy at Home and Abroad."

For modern day African Americans the true Legends of the Movement are those who actively protested discrimination and fought for civil rights in the post World War II world. Here too, we find connections to the Brown family which may reveal character.

In Pittsburgh, protests opened access to public eating places for black people and also succeeded in getting downtown department stores to hire black clerks. Montefiore and St. Francis hospitals admitted blacks to their nursing schools for the first time and began to hire black doctors. The Medical Director of St. Francis Hospital at the time was James Homer McCready, husband of Jean Brown McCready, daughter of W. S. Brown.

Charles "Teenie" Harris Charles "Teenie" Harris (1908-1998), nicknamed "One Shot" because he was able to get the picture he wanted the first time, was a free lance photographer whose works regularly appeared in the Pittsburgh Courier. For four decades, Harris documented Pittsburgh's African American world of athletes, performing artists, politicians, working men and women, children, and everyday life including all the major events of the civil rights movement.

Harris grew up in the Hill District, where early on he developed his interest in photography. Later he bought his first professional camera and started freelance work. While working as a salesman with W.S. Brown Sporting Goods he opened his own photography studio in the Hill District. In 1941, he accepted a full-time position with the Pittsburgh Courier as staff photographer. Today, almost 100,000 of his photographs are held in the Teenie Harris Archives of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art. His photos captured a unique view of Pittsburgh community life during an era when positive images of blacks were rare.

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Charles C. Harris At a time when few blacks were employed in sales, Charles C. Harris for many years held an important sales position with W. S. Brown Sporting Goods Company. Harris was also a close personal friend of Samuel S. Brown, son of W. S. Brown.

Most importantly, Harris was one of seven founding members of the United Negro Protest Committee. Militant but nonviolent, he worked with the Direct Action Committee, a 1960s interracial group that confronted discrimination in employment and housing. In 1963, he initiated the Let's March! campaign of protest marches on local businesses to seek better job opportunities for blacks and more black administrators and professionals. His challenges to Blue Cross, county government and Community College of Allegheny College caused each to hire more black employees.

Charles C. Harris with Rev. Martin Luther King in Pittsburgh, 1961

In 1983, Harris, a self-proclaimed "man of the people," was sworn in as Allegheny County's first Minority Business Enterprises administrator. Here he was a tough negotiator who monitored minority participation in county contracts, which at the time required contractors to have 13 percent minority and 2 percent female participation. "He didn't understand no," said Harvey Adams, former president of the NAACP, "He was a pioneer who opened the doors for scores of black union workers and black businesses."

Many of the protest marches organized by Harris started at Centre and Crawford Streets, now called "Freedom Corner." The name of Charles C. Harris is now inscribed on a monument at this location as a soldier of justice in the monument.

The Legacy of W. S. Brown The legacy of W. S. Brown is a wide wake. Two of his children have extended the family by multiple generations. But, this history will, for the most part, end with the children of W. S. Brown. I have taken the liberty of including some easily found additional information about some other descendants of W. S. as a basis of the research of others. Also, I have included more detailed information about my own direct line to W. S. as a legacy for my sons and grandsons. I hope that other descendants will add the detailed stories about their lines.

W. S. Brown and Emma Lucas Brown had seven children.

Two sons died young: Harry Ward Brown (1882-1892) and Frank Miller Brown (1889-1890).

Two sons never married or married very late in life and died without children: Edwin Lucas Brown (1875-1939) lived with his longtime girl friend Ida Cramer.

November, 1939, Edwin Lucas Brown dies, he was 64 years old. He played college and professional football and many other sports. For many years he was employed with W.S. Brown Sporting Goods serving as company President following the death of his father. Ed Brown at age 18, played for the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in what would be the first professional football game on November 208

Edwin Lucas Brown

12, 1892 at Pittsburgh's Reservation Park (site of today's Heinz Field). On that day, 3000 fans watched a grudge match between rivals Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. All players were amateurs except that William "Pudge" Heffelfinger accepted $500 to play from the Allegheny Athletic Association making this the first pro football game. AAA won this game 4-0. (From: History: Birth of Pro Football, on the Pro Football Hall of Fame website; also an article in the Pittsburgh Press ROTO Magazine showing picture of team with Ed Brown) William "Pudge" Heffelfinger First professional football player

Samuel S. Brown named after his uncle Captain Sam Brown

Samuel S. Brown (1893-1967) married his long time girl friend Eve Provonche three years before his death at age 73. After the death of Ed Brown, Sam became President of W. S. Brown Sporting Goods until the business was closed and the building sold to make way for construction of Oliver Plaza in Pittsburgh.

Sam was a graduate of Washington & Jefferson College, a veteran of World War I, and a member of the First Methodist Church of Pittsburgh in Shadyside.

He was also a life member of the Syria Temple and the Scottish Rite and a member of the Fellowship Lodge No. 679, F. & A. M. Prior to his marriage, Sam lived for many years with his sister Nelle in the Dithridge Apartments in Oakland until her death. (From: The Pittsburgh Press, April 3, 1967) Sam was well loved by his niece and nephews and their children who he would entertained at holiday dinners at his sister Jean's home. Kids were fascinated by his magic tricks and his ability to blow spit bubbles that would float in the air.

Nelle Brown (1881-1962) was the oldest daughter of W. S. and Emma Lucas Brown. She married Paul Hay (1871-1944) but they had no children. After her husband died, Nelle (called "Niney" by her family) shared an apartment with her brother Sam. Only their oldest son William McCandless Brown (1874-1937)and their youngest daughter Jean Brown (1887-1965) had children and their families carry on the W. S. Brown line. More on these families follows.

Nelle Brown Hay Wiliam McCandless Brown was the oldest son of W. S. and Emma Lucas Brown.

Little is known about him although it is believed that when W. S. Brown died, William M. joined his brothers Ed Brown and Sam Brown in the operation of W. S. Brown Sporting Goods. W. M. Brown married and later separated from (name unknown) and the couple had two children: a daughter, Mary Brown, about whom little is known other than that she had a theatrical career on the stages of New York and William S. "Bill" Brown.

William Smith "Bill" Brown was a graduate of the Greenbrier Military Academy and made a career in real estate sales, including many years at Trilli and Dunbar Real Estate in Mt. Lebanon, PA. He married Betty Mueller and the couple had two children: William S. Brown III and Susan L. Brown.

William Smith Brown III attended Lehigh University and graduated from Carnegie Tech (CMU) with a degree in mechanical engineering. He had a distinguished career at US Steel, Dravo Corporation, Vectura, Carmeuse Lime and Excell Minerals. Bill also served as a commissioner of the Port of Pittsburgh as well as serving on many corporate boards. He was a member of the Duquesne Club, 209

Oakmont Country Club and the Chicago Yacht Club. Bill was married to Connie A. Brown and the couple had three children: William S. "Rick" Brown IV married to Beth, Gregg A. Brown married to Liz and Heather D. Brown. There are seven grandchildren: William Scott Brown married to Susan, Ashley D. Brown, Kara E. Brown, Joshua A. Brown, Christopher M. Brown, William Alexander Brown and Conner R. Brown. There are also two great grand children: Madeline C. Brown and Ellie P. Brown.

Jean Brown McCready (1887-1965) was the youngest daughter of W. S. and Emma Lucas Brown. She married Dr. James Homer McCready (1882-1959) and they raised three children.

Dr. James Homer "Puddy" McCready was born in Wellsville, OH on February 18, 1882, the son of James C. McCready (1845-1914) and Mary A. McIntosh (1843-1908). James C. McCready was a real estate and insurance broker with an office on Edmund Street in the Bloomfield section of Pittsburgh, a few blocks from West Penn Hospital. Their other children were: Joseph Pressley McCready (1867-1870) who never married;

Jean Brown McCready

Robert Addison McCready (1870-1930) married 1st Flo Slotterbeck and 2nd Flo Cartwright, they had one son Harrison Robert McCready; Mary Belle McCready (1872-1929) married Andrew Worley, they had two sons, James Howard McCready Worley and Raymond McCready Worley.

Cynthia Ave McCready (1875-1959) who never married; and, Dr. J. H. McCready Dr. J. H. McCready was a medical pioneer in creating innovative developments in the use of the bronchoscope, an instrument that could remove lodged articles from the larynx. Around the turn of the century he graduated from Jefferson Medical College and did post-graduate work at the University of Vienna. As a resident in 1902, Drs. Chevalier Jackson and James Homer McCready working together at Jefferson Medical College and later at Eye and Ear Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh invented significant improvements to bronchoscope use. They would place a small light at the end of a bronchoscope, a metal tube, to improve the tool’s use in exploring and removing small items from the throat, bronchial tubes and lungs. This is in essence the beginning of modern bronchoscopy and endoscopy. They later added an ocular mechanism and suction port. Other developments include the tracheostomy tube, laryngoscope and forceps, unchanged to this day. Prior to these developments, pediatric foreign body aspiration (suffocation due to a child inhaling or swallowing an item that would become lodged in the windpipe) had a mortality of 90%. Using 210

Dr. James Homer McCready

these newly developed techniques, mortality dropped to 2%.

(from: The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography,

by John S. Bowman, 1995).

In addition to his innovative work in bronchoscopy (removing foreign objects from the body with the bronchoscope), Dr. McCready was a leader in moving Eye and Ear Hospital to the present day University of Pittsburgh medical center complex in Oakland.

He was professor of Otolaryngology (ear and throat) at the University of Pittsburgh from 1932 to 1949 and was emeritus professor after that. From 1936 until 1949 he was president of Eye and Ear Hospital Medical Staff and he is one of only 4 men to serve on the otherwise all woman board of Eye and Ear. He was also for a time the Medical Director of St. Francis Hospital. He was on the senior staff at St. Francis, Eye and Ear, Sewickley Valley and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hospitals. He was a fellow with a number of professional boards and a member of national, state, and county medical societies. He was also a member of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association and was a founding member and a president of the Pittsburgh Field Club.

Dr. McCready was often called by the nickname "Puddy" because of his love of pudding for desert. He suffered a stroke in the early 1950s that severely affected his hearing and speech. But despite these disabilities, he still went to work until his death on September 28, 1959, at the age of 77. His wife Jean Brown McCready died on January 15, 1965, at age 78. Together they raised three children: James Homer "Whitey" McCready, Jr. (1913-1968) is the oldest son of Jean Brown and Dr. J. H. McCready. He married Jean "Queenie" Jenks and they had one daughter, Gail Diane. James and Jean later divorced. James died in 1968 in Miami, FL. Gail Diane McCready married and divorced Howard James. They had two children: Cortenay James who married Michael Wolf and Whitney James a physician in New York. Jim was an exceptional athlete and a very good golfer. Years after his death, golfing legend Arnold Palmer remembered his friend Whitey McCready's golfing prowess.

James Homer McCready, Jr. and Jean Jenks McCready

Emily McCready Sieber (1922-2006) is a granddaughter of W. S. Brown and the youngest child of Jean Brown and Dr. J. H. McCready. Emmy attended Ellis School, Mary Lyons School and Bennett Junior College. She was long active and associated with a variety of community organizations. She married Dr. Paul R. Sieber, Jr., who for many years was an outstanding thoracic surgeon at Pittsburgh's Mercy Hospital and later was the doctor for the US Postal Service in Pittsburgh. Emmy and Paul had three children: Paul Rothrock Sieber, III, married Christine Jackson and they had two children, Lauren Rister and Scott Sieber; Nancy Sieber Tucker, married Clarke Reed Tucker and they have two sons, Reed and Drew Tucker; and, Richard Brownlee Sieber who married and divorced Patricia Goodwin and they had two children, Riley and Kelly Sieber. Emily McCready Sieber died on October 1, 2006, she was 84 years old. Emmy and Paul Sieber were longtime members of the Long Vue Country Club.

Emily McCready Sieber

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William Brown "Bill" McCready (1917-1993) attended Arnold School (later part of Shadyside Academy), Amherst College and the graduate executive program at the University of Michigan. At Amherst he met his future wife Margery Lawson who was a student at Mt. Holyoke College. Both graduated in 1939. Margery E. Lawson received a fellowship to study medicine and moved to Washington, D.C. to begin working in the medical laboratory at Georgetown University. Bill McCready then enlisted in the US Army at the start of World War II, William Brown McCready married Margery Eleanor Lawson born in Batavia, NY. They wed in Washington, DC. She is the daughter of Frank Edward and Minnie Burlingham Lawson. Frank Lawson was a prominent attorney in Batavia, NY who served for a time as its District Attorney and also was a lawyer for George Eastman (Eastman Kodak Co.) in Rochester, NY. Minnie Bill and Marge McCready Lawson was a nurse. The Lawsons had three children: Ruth Catherine Lawson; John Paul Lawson and Margery Eleanor Lawson.

Following is information on each: Margery Lawson McCready

Ruth C. Lawson was born in 1911 in Batavia, New York and graduated first in her class at Batavia High School. She graduated from Mt. Holyoke College magna cum laude in 1933 with a degree in History and Political Science. After graduation, Miss Lawson went on to study International Law at Bryn Mawr College earning her M.A. in 1934. In 1947, she received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr. She spent six years as an instructor at Newcomb College, the women’s college at Tulane University, before coming back to Mount Holyoke College to teach in 1942. In the summers from 1948 to 1950, Miss Lawson organized the United Nations Institute, an adult education seminar that attracted major political scholars and Dr. Ruth Catherine Lawson figures of the day. One former student remembers sitting at Eleanor Roosevelt’s feet and discussing world peace. Miss Lawson often brought in guest speakers, such as Roosevelt and Indira Gandhi, to her regular classes. Ruth Lawson established an International Internship Program in 1950 and served as the program’s director for twenty-six years, until her retirement. During her tenure, students worked with organizations as varied as the High Professor Ruth Lawson (center) in class with guest Indira Gandhi Commissioner for Refugees and the Food and Prime Minister of India (left of Ruth) Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Energy Agency in Paris, and the International Press Institute in Zurich.

Ruth worked extensively outside of Mount Holyoke. In the summer of 1939, she attended the Academy of International Law at the Hague as a Carnegie scholar, and, later, conducted research in all of the NATO capitals. She also taught abroad: in Geneva, as part of Smith College’s Junior Year Abroad program; in Bologna, Italy, for the University of Massachusetts’s summer program; and as a visiting fellow at the University of Sussex, England. Ruth belonged to the American Society of Ruth Lawson recieves honorary doctorate from Mt. Holyoke College

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International Law, the American Political Science Association, served as president of the New England section of the International Studies Association, and was on the Board of Directors of the Naval War College and the Atlantic Council of the United States, serving as the only female member of its Committee on Atlantic Studies, among many other organizations. At Mt. Holyoke, she was a part of practically every faculty committee, and served as the advisor of the International Relations Club for many years, an organization that she had been president of back when she was a student. She always insisted on teaching an introductory course, and, although all of her students recall her toughness, many also recall her kindness, humor, and devotion. Ruth remained at Mt. Holyoke College until her retirement in 1976. In 1989, she was awarded an honorary degree by the College and the endowed Ruth C. Lawson Chair in International Politics was created in her honor. Ruth passed away on Friday, December 14, 1990.

John Paul Lawson graduated from Cornell University date unknown. He spent several years in contemplation at the Franciscan Friars Monastery. Later he work for the Union Pacific Railroad in Tuscon, Arizona until retirement. He married his wife Ruth on (date unknown) and they had no children. After retirement the two lived their remaining days in Los Angeles, CA.

John P. Lawson

William Brown "Bill" McCready and Margery Lawson McCready lived for several years in Lordsburg, NM (not far from Pinos Altos) where Bill served as Master Sergeant at the Japanese internment camp until receiving a medical discharge. On returning to Pittsburgh, he was the president of Av-O-Clean Company, a partnership he created with brother, James H. McCready, Jr. and his cousin William S. Brown specializing in cleaning oriental rugs using a unique cleaning compound developed by their aunt, Cynthia Ava McCready.

They later sold the business and Bill McCready began his career at the United States Steel Corporation as a Purchasing Agent. He would work at US Steel for 30 years. He is best known for his work as manager of construction purchases where he secured all the design, engineering and construction contracts for the William Brown McCready corporation, including steel mills and other innovative grandson of W. S. Brown projects such as the US Steel Building on Grant Street Contemporary Resort in Pittsburgh, its new skyscraper headquarters, at the and Monorail at Disney World time the world's second largest high-rise office building. This is one of many major USS and USS Engineers and Consultants projects where Bill McCready served a leading role from the 1950s to 1980s. Others include: building complete steel mills such as Fairless Works outside of Philadelphia, PA, renovating or improving virtually every existing USS mill and collateral plants, building major condominium buildings for USS Realty on the gulf shore of Clearwater, FL, and construction Disney's Contemporary Resort and Monorail, (1961) and Polynesian Resort (1971)at Walt Disney World.

McCready also traveled the world for the corporation acquiring innovative components and processes for steel making. His business contracts were influential in bringing many international companies to the US for the first time including Seimens and Linde Gas . McCready would finally retire as Special Assistant to Chairman and CEO David Roderick in 1986. He had been working on secret negotiations for USX Corporation through its US Steel division to merge with the National Steel Corporation, but the deal Fairless Works - US Steel Corporation

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fell apart and National Steel filed for bankruptcy. He also worked on development of a unique form of cast ingot mold to reduce the cost of steel production.

In 1978, Palacio del Sol, Inc., a Florida real estate development company formed by W. B. McCready, completed construction and renovation of the 36 unit condominium building Palacio del Sol and forms the Palacio del Sol Condominium Association in Punta Gorda, FL. Following his retirement from the steel company, Bill McCready would continue as president of his Florida real estate development company until his death.

Palacio del Sol Condominium Punta Gorda, FL

Bill and Marge McCready in retirement

Bill McCready was very active in local charities particularly the Boy Scouts of America where he served on the board of the Pittsburgh Council and was a District Chairman of the Council. He received a special trophy for his work with the Friends of Scouting. For many years, Bill also ran a family owned seasonal golf course, Pen Lake Farms Golf Club, near Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. On July 6, 1993, William Brown McCready, a grandson of W.S. Brown, died. He is 76 years old. Shortly after, on December 22, 1993, his wife of 50 years, Margery Lawson McCready, dies, at age 76. Although World War II, marriage and children interrupted her studies, Margery had a lifetime of community service volunteering at her church, Pittsburgh's Childrens Hospital and other charities. Bill and Marge are survived by their three sons: William Brown McCready, Jr., Edward Lawson McCready and James Lawson McCready, and five grandchildren: William Brown McCready, III, Andrew Langelier McCready, Margery Lawson McCready, James Lawson McCready, Jr., and Anne Lawson McCready.

Edward Lawson McCready, was born on July 2, 1950, the middle son of William Brown and Margery Lawson McCready. A graduate of nursing studies from Clemson University (SC). Ed remained a South Carolina resident until death. He was a distinguished emergency room trauma nurse at Greenville Hospital and at St. Francis Bon Secures Hospital. Ed was very active in his community and was recognized for his service with the James Cash Penney Golden Rule Award, one of the nation's most elite honors for distinguished community service. He was married twice, to Beverly James and to Lois Palmer both marriages ended in divorce. Ed died on February 21, 2003. He was 53 years old. He is survived by his only daughter, Anne Lawson McCready. Anne married Joseph Rogel and they have a son, Nathan Rogel.

Edward Lawson McCready

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James Lawson McCready, was born on January 9, 1952, the youngest son of William Brown and Margery Lawson McCready.

He attended Davis and Elkins College (WV) and after graduation worked for several years for the US Steel Corporation at its Clairton Coke Works. First, he worked on the coke batteries and later he was in the Environmental Department monitoring smoke stake emissions. In 1979, James Lawson McCready married Helen "Mickey" Freyvogel, daughter of Thomas and Susan Freyvogel. Mr. Freyvogel was a partner in the Freyvogel Funeral Home in Pittsburgh. Soon after their marriage, James McCready began a career as an appraiser with Howard Hanna Real Estate in James Lawson, Mickey and Margery McCready Pittsburgh, eventually becoming president of the American Appraisal Company. Jim and Mickey have two children: Margery Lawson McCready, who married Derek McDonald and James Lawson McCready, Jr.

Reverend Captain William Brown McCready, Jr.

William Brown McCready, Jr., the author of this book, was born on December 30, 1947, the oldest son of William Brown and Margery Lawson McCready.

After attending Wilmington College (OH) and Allegheny College (PA), in 1968, he enlisted in the PA Army National Guard, Battery B, 2nd Missile Battalion, 176th Air Defense Artillery ("The Duquesne Greys" - missile site PI-71). He served as a missile fire control crewman from 1969 to 1975 including two years at a similar unit outside of San Francisco, CA. These US Army units were part of a ring of air defense missile sites surrounding Pittsburgh and other major cities across America. They were equipped with state of the art Nike Hercules missile systems. The troops at these facilities were dubbed "Buck Rogers boys" because they were tasked with fighting the war of the future. Their mission was to defend America cities against Soviet nuclear attack.

Soldiers at these units would regularly practice by conducting computer generated war games of global thermonuclear war.

"Nike," named for the Greek goddess of victory, was the name given to this program which ultimately produced the world's first successful, widely-deployed, guided surface-to-air missile system. The Nike Hercules was designed to carry either nuclear and/or high-explosive warheads that could combat sophisticated Soviet supersonic offensive weapons. The enemy targets could be bomber aircraft that reached speeds of Mach 2, or missiles and rockets operating at velocities of Mach 3.

The systems High Power Acquisition Radar (HIPAR) was an important component with an extended acquisition range of 175 nautical miles. This reach allowed soldiers more than 400 seconds from the time of target acquisition to the time of intercept. With the increasing speed of enemy aircraft and ballistic missiles, every extra moment was essential.

Nike Hercules Missile

In 1973, William B. McCready, Jr., graduated cum laude from Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA with a BA degree in History and Political Science. He then attended the Institute of Foreign Studies in Montery, CA where he received two masters degrees in Political Science and International Studies.

From 1975 to 1977, he served as a special assistant to the Representative in the United Kingdom for the 215

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in London, England. During this time he also served on the support staff of the Command and General Staff School of the US Army War College in Frankfurt, Germany. Bill McCready, Jr. served in the military for 12 years, ending his serve as Intelligence Analyst/Section Chief/Czech Linguist at the Defense Language Institute and 3rd Psychological Operation Company, 99th ARCOM. On September 22, 1978, William Brown McCready, Jr. married Paule Langelier, of St. Prosper, Quebec, Canada. The two were married in Pittsburgh, PA. McCready had just completed a year of training as a Czech linguist at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, where he met his future wife. Earlier in this year, he began working for the Swindress Bond division of Pullman, Inc, ultimately becoming the youngest division general manager in the corporation's history in 1981. In 1982, Bill McCready, Jr. left corporate life to begin a 25 year career in community service with the United Way, first in Pittsburgh and then in 1984 as the president of the United Way of Washington County (PA).

Paule Langelier McCready

In 2006, W. B. McCready, Jr. is licensed as a captain in the US Merchant Marine by the US Coast Guard and the same year he is ordained a minister of the Universal Life Church.

In 2007, W. B. McCready, Jr., retires after enjoying a 25 year career in the United Way. In his United Way career, he raised more than $75 million for local community services and created many innovative programs. He retired in 2007 to spend more time with his family and enjoy life.

In 2009, W. B. McCready, Jr, came out of retirement to assume leadership of the Allegheny Valley Hospital Trust. Here he would lead and close a successful $15 million capital campaign to fund construction of a new emergency medicine department. Additionally, in this position he served on the Hospital's seven member senior management team, as a member of the strategic planning group of the West Penn Allegheny Health System and was a director of the Allegheny Valley Chamber of Commerce. During Bill's career, his wife Paule raised a family and worked as the Office Manager of the Metal Building Insulation Company in Pittsburgh.

William Brown McCready, Jr. has spent over 40 years of his life researching and writing on the history of the Brown and McCready families as well as the history and economics of western Pennsylvania.

Rev. Captain Bill McCready in retirement

Both Bill and Paule finally retired again in 2013, to relocate to Charleston, SC to be near their two sons and grandchildren: William Brown McCready, III was born on April 4, 1981. W. B. McCready, III graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in Marketing. He has since had a fruitful career in the automotive industry. First, as a salesman with a Cadillac dealership in Pittsburgh and then in management positions 216

with auto auctions in Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. He ultimately was the Assistant General Manager of the Charleston Auto Auction before leaving to become the Executive Vice President of the Savannah Auto Auction. Bill is married to Amelia "Amy" Mellard a member of a distinguished family whose history in Charleston, SC extends to the Revolutionary War. Amy works as a Nurse in the Operating Room at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Bill and Amy have a son, Marc Lawson McCready, born on May 11, 2012.

Andrew Langelier McCready was born on January 14, 1983. Andrew graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in Finance. For a time he worked at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh and as a hotel night auditor. He later change careers, earning a degree in Physical Therapy and working at a Nursing Home. He is married to Francesca Locastro. Francesca is an esthetician who is employed by a Louis Vitton company and works for them in a Belk store. Andrew and Francesca have two sons: Maximus William McCready, born on January 21, 2010 and Xavier Andrew McCready born on May 24, 2012.

William Brown McCready, Jr Family Bill III, Paule, Bill, Andrew

Andrew L. McCready Family Andrew, Francesca, Max and Xavier William B. McCready, III Family Bill, Amy, Marc

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ALICE WINDERS BROWN & COLONEL JAMES M. SCHOONMAKER James Martinus Schoonmaker (1842-1927) was the husband of Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker, daughter of William H. Brown. He would benefit from her inheritance and early death and become an early partner of Henry Clay Frick in the coal and coke enterprises and later a railroad tychoon.

James Martinus Schoonmaker was born on June 30, 1842 in Peebles Township, PA. His father was of New York "Knickerbocker" stock, his paternal ancestors were born in Ulster and Orange counties, New York, sometime after 1660. The Colonel's parents were James and Mary Clark Stockton Schoonmaker. James, the father came to Pittsburgh around 1836 and set up as a druggist and paint manufacturer. The father was raised on the home farm near the Erie Basin of New York. James M. Schoonmaker, the subject of this essay, had four brothers George B., Frederick W., Joseph Stockton and Sylvanus Lothrop Schoonmaker and sisters Mrs. William P. Wood and Mrs. James Brown. (From: Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, February 4, 1887) The father and brother S. L. Schoomaker were prominent businessmen in their own right. The father, James Schoonmaker, was very prominent in the Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and also owned and operated the white lead and paint business inherited from his wife Mary Stockton Schoonmaker's family. (From: The Ruling Elders of the First Presbyterian Church) Sylvanus L. Schoonmaker was prominent in the Carnegie Steel Corporation and one of the founders of US Steel Corporation.

The Colonel was married twice. His first wife was Alice Winders Brown, a daughter of W. H. Brown. They were married on February 22, 1872 at Third Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

Alice Brown Schoonmaker died on October 17, 1881, in Denver, CO at age 33. James and Alice had one son, William Henry Brown Schoonmaker, born on November 25, 1872, at Browns Station.

Their son lived to almost 68 years old, dying on July 18, 1941.

William Henry Schoonmaker had two daughters: Alice Brown Schoonmaker (married Stephan Campbell Cleaves) and Mrs. John Dawes Ames. James M. Shoonmaker's second wife was Rebekah Cook of Cincinnati with whom he had several children.

Schoonmaker was educated at Pittsburgh private and public schools. He left Western University (now the University of Pittsburgh) at age 19 to enter the Army as a private on August 15, 219 James M. Schoonmaker (center in uniform) and family

1861. Initially he served in a company of the First Pennsylvania Calvary that was part of the Army of the Potomac. During the first year of duty, he was made Lieutenant in Company A, First Maryland Calvary Regiment, to which the First Pennsylvania was attached.

On August 18, 1862, Lieutenant Schoonmaker was authorized by Secretary of War Stanton and PA Governor Curtin to return home from the front. He was ordered to recruit and take command of a battalion of cavalry. Recruits came in so rapidly that his authority was extended to recruit a full regiment of twelve companies as the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Pennsylvania Cavalry Battle Flag

In November, 1862, James was commissioned a colonel and took his regiment into the field. At that time Col. Schoonmaker was a little less than 20 years and 5 months and was believed to be the youngest officer of his rank in the Federal army. He would command the regiment until January 1, 1864, when he was assigned to the command of the First Brigade, First Cavalry Division of the Army of the Shenandoah with which he would remain until the end of the war. During his military career Col. Schoonmaker was constantly in the field. He participated in all the battles of the Army of the Shenandoah under Gen. Philip Sheridan. At one time his brigade was in the saddle for forty-two consecutive days and nights engaging the enemy daily.

On September 19, 1864, at the battle of Winchester, Virginia (also known as the battle of Opequon Creek), Union Army General Sheridan assaulted Confederate placements under the command of General Jubal Early. The Confederates numbered about 8,300 infantrymen and 3,000 cavalry with three artillery battalions. Gen. Sheridan's Union force had 25,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry but were held at bay by Confederates on higher ground. Both sides continued to pound on each other for hours but neither gained the advantage. Finally, General Sheridan ordered a full-scale assault and his cavalry charged forward and overwhelmed the Confederates forcing them back into Winchester. Union casualties in this battle totaled 693 dead, 4,033 wounded and 623 missing in action. The Confederates sustained 3,250 killed or wounded and 3,600 captured. Among the Union casualties was Colonel George S. Patton of the 22nd Virginia Regiment.

He was shot in the leg and captured. The wound proves fatal. He is the grandfather of World War II General George S. Patton III. 220

In this battle, Colonel Schoonmaker led his PA cavalry company in a charge on Star Fort, “at a critical period, (he) gallantly led a cavalry charge against the left side of the enemy's line of battle, drove the enemy out of his works, and captured many prisoners.” (From: Colonel James M. Schoonmaker’s Medal of Honor Citation)

Colonel James M. Schoonmaker

For his heroic and gallant charge that changed the tide of this battle, Col. Schoonmaker was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, issued on May 19, 1899. In the war Schoonmaker's only injury was a sabre cut on his left arm. In 1864, on the recommendation of General Sheridan, Schoomaker was breveted to the rank of Brigadier-general, for his gallant and meritorious services in the field.

The President Of The United States In The Name Of The Congress Takes Pleasure In Presenting The Medal of Honor To James M. Schoonmaker Rank and Organization: Colonel, 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry Place and Date: At Winchester, VA, 19 September 1864.

Entered Service At Maryland.

Born: 30 June 1842, Pittsburgh, Pa. Date Of Issue: 19 May 1899.

Citation: During the Battle of Star Fort Virginia, at a critical period, gallantly led a cavalry charge against the left of the enemy's line of battle, drove the enemy out of his works, and captured many prisoners.

A painting, Calvary Charge of Colonel Schoonmaker by Thor Thulstrup, hangs in Soldier's and Sailor's Memorial Hall.

Union Army Colonel James M. Schoonmaker (on white horse), leads the 1st Brigade of Averell's cavalry division against entrenched Confederate troops; the wildly charging Federal troops broke through the line, causing a widespread Rebel retreat

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Colonel Schoonmaker's Medal of Honor is on display at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). In 1999, his descendents donated the medal to the VMI located in Lexington, Va. In 1864, on the approach of his troops to Lexington, Schoonmaker was ordered to shell the town. He refused, saying the innocent would suffer and instead he directed cannon fire on VMI, the Confederate military college. There was no resistance. When he walked into the VMI buildings he found the cadets had fled, their books still open on their desks.

Ordered to burn the school, Schoonmaker did not because he said it was "unnecessary and unwarranted." For this, he lost his command. Although VMI was burned later that day, Schoonmaker's commander later apologized for his hasty judgment, and restored Schoonmaker's command. In 1914, fifty years later, Schoonmaker helped VMI get money from the federal government to pay for the damages by Union troops.

Following the Civil War, the War Department assigned the First Brigade to guard the Overland Stage Route from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains. Schoonmaker and his Brigade served until July 31, 1865, then they were mustered out of service at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Cavalry sabre of Col. James M. Schoonmaker

Now out of the army, Schoonmaker returned to Pittsburgh and entered business with his father. In 1872, he went into coal mining and coke manufacturing with his father-in-law, William H. Brown. The company controlled more than 1,400 coke ovens in Fayette and Westmoreland counties of Pennsylvania.

In 1879, Schoonmaker came into possession of the Connellsville and other Fayette County coal and coke interests of the Brown family enterprises.

This was following the death of W. H. Brown and the division and assignment of interests among his heirs. The Alice Brown/James Schoonmaker share included 463 coke-ovens at Dawson's Station; onethird ownership of the Redstone Coke Company with 300 ovens near Uniontown of which he was chairman; the Alice mines in Westmoreland County with 251 ovens; and, he owned 25% of a partnership with Henry Clay Frick in the Morewood Coke Company of Westmoreland County with 470 ovens. By 1882, he owned or had major interests in almost 1,500 coke ovens around Dawson and Uniontown in Fayette County, and in East Huntingdon Township in Westmoreland James Martius Schoonmaker County.

Later, Schoonmaker sold all his coke interests to the Henry C. Frick Coke Company. He then plunged his profits into railroads where he could make more money. Schoonmaker became one of the founders of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE). This important railroad, had Connellsville at one end and 222

Pittsburgh then Youngstown at the other. Connellsville was also at the intersection of several railroads, so P&LE's Connellsville terminus was ideal. At the time of his death, Schoonmaker was the chairman of the P&LE Board Of Directors. The P&LE's old headquarters and associated buildings in Pittsburgh, built around 1900 by Schoonmaker, are now Station Square, a retail and entertainment complex.

In 1889, Col. Schoonmaker was a member along with 68 other prominent businessmen, lawyers, politicians and industrialists in the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. These men included, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, Henry Phipps, Philander Chase Knox, among others. A club house and several cottages were built along the shore of a man-made lake - Lake Conemaugh - outside of Johnstown, PA. The members came here to hunt, fish, sail, and have shooting competitions. It was a place far removed from the business of business in Pittsburgh, but not too far, considering the city was only a few hours away by rail. Then on May 31, 1889, the dam creating the lake failed and sent a wall of water down the river and destroying Johnstown.

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club

Another resort haven frequented by the Schoonmaker and Brown families was the Mountain House Hotel, a resort located in Cresson, PA, near Altoona about 75 miles east of Pittsburgh. Railroads fueled the growth of the resort and the town with the hotel located just up the hill from the train depot on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Many famous and prominent families regularly stayed at the resort. Andrew Carnegie spent considerable time at the resort with his mother who died there. Carnegie was responsible for bringing in others.

The Mountain House was a huge Queen Anne style building that attracted many people from Pittsburgh and other areas who were looking for clean air and the Mountain House, Cresson, PA "theraputic" mineral springs. Many of the resorts wealthy visitors would build summer homes on grounds surrounding the hotel. The Mountain House opened in the summer of 1881, closed in the 1890s and was torn down in the early 1900s.

The largest of the great lakes ore boats, and when launched and until 1937 the largest bulk freighter in the world, the Col. James M. Schoonmaker was named after him and is known affectionately as "the Schoonie."

Schoonmaker was in part responsible, for his namesake steamer's proportions. In 1909, he made a trip aboard the steamer Shenango and while watching the maneuvering of one of the big freighters at the Soo Locks he remarked to 223

The "Schoonie"

the owner, that based on his own experience with river transport, that the great lakes freighters would be more manageable if they had greater beam. The owner said nothing, but some time later, meeting Col. Schoonmaker in Pittsburgh, he told him that he had given thought to his remark and had decided to build a steamer of 4 feet greater beam than any other on the lakes and name her after him. Col. Schoonmaker considered this honor to be one of his proudest achievements. Not only did he make the maiden voyage aboard his namesake vessel, but became a frequent passenger. The Schoonie operated on the Great Lakes until 1980 when she was retired. Today she is a museum ship in Toledo.

(From: Shenango, by The Shenango Furnace Company, 1954; The Lake Carriers Association Bulletin, Volume 58, No. 1, April-May 1969; and, Freighters of Fortune, The Story of the Great Lakes, by Norman Beasley, 1930)

Cartoon of Railroad Baron James M. Schoonmaker pulling a train

It is interesting that the "Schoonie" was built in 1911 by the Shenango Furnace Company. The original Shenango Furnace was owned at one time by W. H. Brown. One story reports that Col. Schoonmaker was an significant investor in the Shenango Furnace Company but this would have been part of Alice Brown Schoonmaker's inheritance.

Also in 1913, Col. Schoonmaker served as the chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission for the 50th Anniversary Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg. It would propel Schoonmaker to national fame. Civil War veterans from both the North and South attended, whether they fought at Gettysburg or anywhere else during the Civil War. Many came in their old uniforms, carrying drums, tattered battle flags, and other mementoes of 50 years before. The veterans, from 61 to 112 years old, camped in thousands of tents grouped according to states on the old battlefield. Schoonmaker arrange funding to assure that lodging and meals were free to veterans from the people of Pennsylvania. Veterans only had to pay their way to and from Gettysburg, but most states paid the way for their veterans.

A highlight and one of the most heart-wrenching moments was the re-enactment, exactly 50 years later to the minute, of Pickett's Charge. The 1863 charge was grand and glorious, but resulted in a devastating defeat for the Confederates. Many regiments were all but wiped out. No one knew it at the time, but it marked the beginning of the end of the Confederacy. Only the survivors of the 1863 charge could participate in 1913. Hundreds of thousands of onlookers, including Schoonmaker, cheered, then gasped. These were not thousands of young men carrying rifles toward the Union line, but a group of a few old men with white hair and beards waving hats and umbrellas, and carrying an old Confederate battle flag from that charge. They met Union survivors of the Charge, who flew their own old battle flag, and these Confederate and Union survivors hugged each other, and cried.

The event was front page news for a week in practically every newspaper from coast to coast and it was covered by newspapers in Europe. A reporter from London, England, wrote that nothing like it had ever taken place in the history of the world. One American reporter perhaps said it best. He wrote, "Their duty was done. They had healed a nation."

The man at the center of it all, the man who had put it all together, was James Schoonmaker.

Colonel J. M. Schoonmaker

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James Schoonmaker died on October 11, 1927, following an appendicitis operation. At the time of his death, Schoonmaker was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (P&LE) Railroad. He also served as President of the Monongahela Railroad, Vice President of the Tradesmen's National Bank, Vice President of the Union Trust Company, Director of Mellon National Bank, Director of the Pittsburgh and Union Savings Bank. For many years he was President of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind.

Honorary pallbearers at Schoonmaker's funeral included: Howard Heinz (founder of H.J. Heinz Company); Richard B. and William M. Mellon; Taylor Allderdice: and John L. Porter. (From: Allegheny County Medal Of Honor Recipients, by Wes Slusher & Joe Pulgini, 1982)

Colonel Schoonmaker's family plot and monument are located next to the Henry C. Frick Family plot in Homewood Cemetery.

Schoonmaker Family Grave at Homewood Cemetery (note Medal of Honor Tombstone in center)

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ELIZABETH SMITH BROWN WARD & JAMES WARD JR Elizabeth Smith Brown was the oldest daughter of William Hughey Brown and Mary Smith Brown. She was born in 1840 at Brown Station on the Monongahela river and raised with brothers, sisters and cousins, including: Samuel S., W. Harry, and W. S. Brown. In 1863, Elizabeth married James Ward Jr., son of a prominent iron and steel making family from Niles, OH. James Ward Jr. was born on May 17, 1842 and died on May 2, 1919. Elizabeth Brown Ward preceded her husband in death almost six years earlier, on February 10, 1913.

Elizabeth and James Ward Jr., lived for many years in New Castle, PA and raised a family. They had six children: James; William H.; Charles S. (died at age 21); Elizabeth B. (died at age 14); a daughter who died in infancy; and, Mary Brown Ward, married in 1891 to Jonathan Warner, the superintendent of the Russia Rolling Mills owned by Ward family. Mary and Jonathan had a daughter Elizabeth Brown Warner.

James Ward Jr. was a respected citizen of Niles, Ohio and New Castle, Pennsylvania first working in the extensive iron manufacturing business of his family in Ohio, and later as attorney for the William H. Brown estate.

He is a son of James Ward Sr. and grandson of William Ward. William Ward and his wife Sarah were born in Staffordshire, England. James Ward Sr., was born near Dudley, Staffordshire, England, and when he was four years old immigrated to Pittsburgh, PA with his parents. His education was limited, and concluded when he was thirteen years old. He then began work assisting his father in puddling iron and the manufacture of wrought iron nails. This continued until the age of nineteen, when he began the study of engineering, and remained in that profession in Pittsburgh until 1841.

In 1842, James Ward Sr., moved to Niles, OH and began a rolling mill business named James Ward & Company. This was probably the first mill of its kind west of Pittsburgh. Niles is also the first place where bar iron was made in Ohio. Ward Sr. would continue to roll metal until his death in 1864. He was married in 1853 to Eliza Ditridge, daughter of William and Elizabeth Ditridge, natives of Staffordshire, England.

James Sr. and Eliza had seven children of whom only James Ward Jr. survived childhood.

Over the next several decades James Ward & Company played a prominent role in the growth of Niles as well as of the entire Mahoning Valley in Ohio. The firm soon built a prosperous business shipping their iron products to all parts of the west. They made bar iron, horseshoe iron, sheet, bar and a special mixture of iron and steel scrap called James Ward Sr.

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"Dandy Tire" iron, which was in great demand for wagon tires because of its good welding and wearing qualities. Later Reis, Brown and Berger (the Brown being William H. Brown) became a partner in the firm and with their investment, the company expanded its mills until it was among the leading makers of iron in the Mahoning Valley. In 1859, James Ward, with the backing of Reis, Brown and Berger, purchased, dismantled and moved the works and machinery of the famous Juniata rolling mill to Niles, Ohio. This was the first rolling mill in Allegheny city and was located at the present site of PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

(From: Recollections of Seventy Years, by Judge John E. Parke, who died in Allegheny City on April 22, 1885, aged 78 years.)

In 1854, James Ward & Company leased the Falcon Furnace at Youngstown and in 1859 built the new Elizabeth furnace. In those days, this was a very modern furnace with a significantly increased production. The firm continued a gradual expansion of its mills and business followed by explosive growth during the Civil War. James Ward Sr. was also the first man to practically make pig iron from raw "black band" iron ore. This important event impacted the fortunes of James Ward & Company and had a large role in the industrial destiny of the Mahoning Valley. The black band ore was discovered in a Ward company coal mine at Mineral Ridge approximately 3 miles south of Niles.

Coal was first mined at Mineral Ridge in 1835 by a Pennsylvania a coal miner who discovered the outcrop. He found the coal was four feet thick with the bottom of the vein being a peculiarly heavy material resembling in some ways anthracite coal. When it was found that the material would not burn it was assumed to be worthless slate and only the top portion of the coal vein was mined. The mysterious bottom layer remained untouched until 1855, by which time, the coal deposits in Mineral Ridge and the Mahoning Valley were largely mined out.

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It was then that a Welsh miner working in one of Ward Sr.'s mines noticed that the rock that was supposed to be slate looked familiar to the "black-band" iron ore he had mined in England and Scotland. When Ward Sr. learned of this, he ordered that the material be tested. Some of the ore was taken to Ward's Maria furnace and smelted resulting in a fine grade of iron with a much larger yield than obtained from native American iron ores. The ore produced a fine-grained, soft iron, with such fluidity that it was especially suitable for casting intricate patterns, then the only method known for producing such forms in iron. This discovery probably prevented the total collapse of the iron industry in eastern Ohio as local ores were almost exhausted. Now every mine was reopened and reworked to remove this new ore.

James Ward Sr. is also remembered for setting the Niles, OH area on a period of great growth. From 1840 to 1870 the village expanded from 300 people with a single blast furnace, to a town of 3,000 people and a major industrial area and business district. What had been a pioneer settlement in the forest grew to a bustling, smoke filled industrial town with numerous mills and businesses. People built frame houses rather than log cabins, and railroads supplanted stage coaches and canals in transportation. This growth was set off by the discovery of the high grade black band ore in Mineral Ridge, making Niles a prime location for the manufacturing of iron products from this ore.

Ward Sr.'s business continued to gradually grow and expand until the Civil war, when like other iron works businesses, it grew rapidly and was very prosperous. Unfortunately, two events interrupted the area's success. First, the "black band" iron ore deposits which were relatively small were soon exhausted. The other major setback was the 1864 murder of the area's most prominent citizen, James Ward Sr..

On the evening of July 22, 1864, Ward Sr. was returning from church, but had to make a stop to deal with a difficult tenant in one of his properties. The tenant, a local prostitute, had been warned by Ward to cease her activities or leave his house. The woman and a her boyfriend were determined to seek revenge and on their way to the Ward home they first met and attacked his son, James Ward Jr. The young man was brutally beaten. Ward Sr. seeing the fight, attempted to rescue his son when the boyfriend drew his pistol and shot Ward Sr. in the head. The pair then fled but were captured in Fort Erie in Canada. (From: "Terrible murder in Ohio," The New York Times, August 5, 1864) After the death of James Ward Sr., majority ownership passed to his son, James Ward Jr., who took charge of his business and managed all the iron interests. Under Ward Jr.'s management, in 1866 the company built a new mill greatly increasing the capacity of the original plant in Niles. The next year it built another plant known as the Falcon Iron & Nail Works. Also in 1867, James Ward sent a man to Russia to study the method of making "Russia" iron. This is a highly finished and planished sheet metal that was in demand for the manufacture of stoves and commanded a high price because it had to be imported from abroad. After the report came back that "Russia" iron could be produced in this country, the Ward company built the "Russia Mill" in 1868. For months every effort was made to produce a sheet product as good as that made by the Russians but there was little success or profit. The experiment was finally given up and the mills turned to production of ordinary black iron sheet.

Although James Ward Jr. took over the business and rapidly grew it expanding with new mills to meet the needs of the Civil War, this would all collapse in the depression of 1873. The expansions of Ward operations were shown to be an over extension of the company's resources when the depression hit.

The company simply could not weather the storm. In 1874, the firm was put into receivership with managers appointed by the court. They tried to keep the business together and protect the creditors, 229

but without success. Finally, the leading creditors, of whom W. H. Brown was the largest, were compelled to take over much of the works of the firm. The result was the breakup of an old and honorable business that had operated for over thirty years and was nationally known. The collapse of James Ward & Company had a domino effect on other furnace operators in the Mahoning Valley many of whom also failed.

After the failure of James Ward & Co., in 1874, one of the companies set up by the creditors was known as the L. B. Ward & Company, the principal interest in this being owned by Lizzie B. Ward, wife of James Ward, Jr. This company took over the "Russia Mill," which it operated for a number of years. James Ward, Jr., was the manager of the "Russia" plant as well the Ward Iron Company, a corporation organized to operate the original Ward Rolling Mills. In the depression of 1884-87, both this company and the concern known as L. B. Ward & Company failed. When this occurred the old Ward Mill was shut down and never operated again. The Russia Mill, operated by L. B. Ward & Company was taken over by the Falcon Iron & Nail Company.

With the failure of Ward family businesses the Niles, OH area suffered significantly for two important reasons: First, the Company owned much of the industry in Niles, and second, many people in the area were investors the Company and were left with worthless shares. The Ward and Brown families tried valiantly to save everyone's interests, without much success. The result was that many of the mills, including those not owned by Ward & Company were sold to non-local interests.

Then, from 1886 to 1898, the city saw improvements in their industry and economy, marking a time of additional expansion. But then again in 1898, another recession brought the closing of many mills and mergers of the smaller, less modern mills of the Mahoning valley with industrial giants such as Carnegie Steel. At that time local people were assured that the city's mills would be modernized but it was soon learned that modernization would be too expensive and even more of the Ohio independent mills declined and closed. (From: History of Niles, Ohio, by The Niles Centennial History Club and McKinley High School, 1984, and Pictorial History of Niles, OH, by the Niles Bicentennial History Committee, 1976)

James Ward Jr. was one of the founders of Niles, OH, although it was his father, James Ward Sr. who built the industrial base that attracted people to reside in the town. Shortly after Ward Sr.'s death, the state of Ohio granted Niles formal status as an incorporated village. James Ward Jr. was elected to the first town council.

The Ward Home in Niles, Ohio still stands today and is preserved by the Niles Historical Society as the Ward-Thomas House Museum. The house was built in 1862 by either James Ward Sr. or James Ward Jr. Most likely the house was the home for both families, including Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward. The second owners were John and Margaret Thomas who came to this country from Wales. The Thomas family founded the Niles Firebrick Company and later, Mahoning Valley Steel. The Thomas family ocupied the house until 1969 when the property was deeded to the City of Niles. Through the effort of a local attorney, the house became the home of the Niles Historical Society.

Ward-Thomas House, Niles, Ohio

The house is now a museum consisting of fourteen rooms, many furnished in the style of the period, some with furniture owned by the Thomas family and donated to the museum. The museum collection 230

has more than 5,000 items, including many from the two families. Throughout the museum, mannequins wear life size replicas of the White House ladies' gowns displayed by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. Also on the five acre property are a recently restored barn and a 1925 green house as well a various gardens and 56 varieties of trees in the arboretum.

Care of the house and gardens is done by volunteers and the house is decorated appropriately for each season.

Entrance to the Ward-Thomas House

(The above information is from: Niles, Ohio Historical Society webpage)

1886 James Ward Jr. sold all his interests in the iron industry and moved his family to New Castle where he worked as an attorney of the William H. Brown estate. (From: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania, 1897)

Following the death of her brother Captain Sam Brown in 1905, Elizabeth Brown Ward and James Ward Jr. assumed ownership of the Brown Mansion at Browns Station in Pittsburgh. At this time, James Ward Jr. partnered in the raw materials investment brokerage house of Ward, Darley and Lupold.

When Elizabeth died on February 10, 1913, at age 73, the mansion house and all Brown's Station property passed to her son, also named James Ward, Jr (III). James Ward, Jr (III), the son of Elizabeth and James, was living in the mansion house with his wife when it was destroyed by fire 1913. James Ward, Jr., the father and founder of Niles, OH died on May 2, 1919, at age 77.

James Ward (often mentioned as Jr., but actually is James Ward III), the son of Elizabeth Brown Ward, married Leila Elliott in Wheelling, West Virginia on September 9, 1886. Leila Elliott was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio on March 28, 1863. Her parents are Jesse Duncan (J. D.) Elliott and Marie (Mary) Bechtel. Her great uncle was Jesse Duncan Elliott who commanded the USS NIAGARA during the Naval Battle for Lake Erie in the War of 1812. The Bechtel's are a Philadelphia family. J. D. Elliott (editor of the Ohio Democrat) work for his Uncle, Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott when he was the Superintendent at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Leila Elliott was reported at the time to be from an "early pioneer family" in North Huntingdon. This may be William Elliott who warranted property located to the right of the McKinney warrant in the Brownstown Road area. Elliott named this 306 acre parcel "Short Spring".

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James and Leila Ward had at least one child, a son Charles Smith Brown Ward (C. S. B. Ward), born in New Philadelphia, OH on August 1, 1889.

Leila Bechtel Elliott Ward passed on February 4, 1892, from stomach troubles. Leila and her parents along with her aunt Catherine Bechtel are buried at the Fair Street cemetery in New Philadelphia, OH. James Ward (III) worked for the Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead for two years, then for W. Harry Brown at the Alicia Mines as a superintendent for two years. Next he formed the Ward Supply Company of Brownsville, PA and a year later came to Pittsburgh and organized the East Liberty Coal & Coke Company. He was also associated with the Walter Wallingford Coal Company as vice president and general manager. Later, with his son, he organized the C. S. B. Ward & Company to take over the Wallingford business.

C. S. B. Ward was the president of Wieman & Ward, coal and coke brokers. He was a member of many Masonic bodies and belonged to the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, the Duquesne Club, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, the Pittsburgh Field Club, the Civic Club, and Lions Club. C. S. B. Ward married Virginia Jenkins and they had three daughters, two of whom are: Katherine Leila Ward and Mary Virginia Ward. (From: History of Pittsburgh and Environs, by Charles S. B. Fleming and the Polk Directory, 1929 and 1930) Virginia Jenkins Ward (1889-1982) was a well studied and famous Pittsburgh artist. At Wilson College she absorbed the traditional art of the Masters before moving into the Modernist arena with studies in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Institute; then in Paris in 1929–1930 she studied with Fernand Leger, Amedee Ozenfant and the sculptors Charles Despiau and Astride Maillol; in the 1940’s through the 1960’s, she studied with Hans Hofmann, the leading light of Abstract Expressionism in America. She exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Argent Gallery in New York; the Butler Art Gallery in Youngstown, Ohio; the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts in Syracuse, N.Y. ; the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Minn.; the Cape Cod Art Museum; the Provincetown Art Association; the Westmoreland County Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA.; in Pittsburgh at Chatham College, The Playhouse, Carnegie Museum, among others; and in Paris at Galerie O.,Bosc- Petrides. Her art favours colour over line.

James Ward, son of Elizabeth Brown Ward and grandson of W. H. Brown, owned the Captain Sam Brown Mansion at Brown's Station when it was destroyed by fire.

Brown Mansion shell after the fire 232

THE BROWN MANSION FIRE "James Ward, Jr., Saves Wife and Maids as Famous Brown Home Burns. Family Heirlooms are Lost."

"Four women were rescued from the flames—Mrs. James Ward, Jr., and three maids, all in their night clothing—when the historic Brown mansion at Browns Station was destroyed by fire early on December 9, 1913. The loss of the house and heirlooms, paintings, and jewelry was estimated at $200,000.

In the early morning, Mrs. Ward awakened to a crackling of flames and aroused her husband. James Ward first tried to telephone for help but the wires had been burned. He then escaped across an ice covered porch roof, slid down a supporting pillar and got a ladder to save his wife. He and the chauffeur then returned for the servants and clothing.

Mrs. Ward said she thought the fire may have originated from an overheated furnace, explaining that because of the cold weather the fires had been increased. The fire is thought to have started in the billiard room and had made considerable headway before it was discovered with halls and stairways filled with smoke and flames.

The Homestead Fire Department crossed the river to aid the Pittsburgh firemen to no avail. A high wind fanned the flames of the already fully on fire home and hampered the firemen. The extensive wood paneled interior burned so intensely that it was impossible for firemen to enter and save any of the paintings, bric-a-brac or furniture. The house was a total loss. Only blackened walls remained of what once was one of the finest homes in Pittsburgh.

Since the death of Captain Brown in 1905, the mansion has been occupied by Mr. Ward and his family. The loss of the old mansion is estimated at $100,000 and the heirlooms, paintings, jewelry and furniture is valued a like amount."

(From: The Pittsburgh Gazette, December 10, 1913)

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BROTHERS AND SONS Captains James Herron Brown and Charles Smith Brown Not alot is known about Captains James H. Brown and Charles S. Brown, sons of William Hughey Brown and brothers of Alice Brown Schoonmaker, Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward and Captains Samuel S. Brown and W. Harry Brown. No photographs of these men are known to exist and what little is known is presented below.

1882 was a bad year for the Browns. Sister Alice passed, brother James passed and brother Charles became paralyzed.

The obituaries for W. H. Brown's sons, James Herron Brown and Charles Smith Brown, were printed in the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette and can be found online at the Google Newspaper Archve . Both men were licensed riverboat Captains.

Captain James Brown's obituary notes that he graduated Western University (now the University of Pittsburgh) and handled his father's business at Louisville, Cairo and Memphis. He was working at the home office in Pittsburgh at the time of his death from inflammation of the bowels. His estate was estimated at more than $1 million. (Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, July 10, 1882, page 4) Captain Charles S. Brown was educated at Allegheny College in Meadville and graduated from the Chester Academy (Pennsylvania Military College) in 1876. He became paralyzed in 1882 and died from pneumonia three years later. His estate was estimated at over $700,000. (Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, March 16, 1885, page 4) .

He resided at the Rock Cottage at Browns Station for 23 years. This would put the family taking up residence there circa 1862.

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THE EARLIEST BROWNS IN AMERICA As we traced back our family tree it culminated with surety at the early Brown, Hughey, Smith and McCauley settlers of Pennsylvania in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

We know that a James Brown (born in 1787 and died 1864) is the father of William Hughey Brown, Peter Brown and their siblings. We also know the parents of the spouses of W. H., Peter and several siblings.

Most important to our family lines, W.H. Brown married Mary Smith in 1840 and her parents are Samuel and Elizabeth Smith of Minersville, PA. Peter married Claranna Jane McCauley and her parents are Colonel John and Mary Pitcher Hays McCauley.

If we follow the traditional Scottish naming protocols and look at the middle names of the children of W.H. Peter Brown and their sibling Browns, we will find family connections to other early settlers of western Pennsylvania in the 1700s and early 1800s. Thus, we find the family names Herron, Oliver, Winders, Carson as well as Lucas, Ward, McCandless, and Painter.

But first, let's ponder an important question. Why did our earliest American relatives leave their homes in England, Ireland or Scotland to go to America in the 1600s and 1700s?

Mostly to escape persecution and/or to seek opportunity. Very few did it for adventure, as crossing the Atlantic ocean wasn't much fun in those days. England already had colonies set up since the 1600s in America so that some of the 1700's settlers could have been soldiers and government officials who simply decided not to return home.

Human movement in general is termed migration. Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region with the intent to settle permanently in another. There are many reasons why people might choose to emigrate; these reasons can be divided into "pull" factors and "push" factors. Better economic opportunity is an example of a "pull" factor, as is a quest for a better climate. Fears of poverty or of religious or political discrimination are "push" factors. Some others are: Push factors  Lack of employment or entrepreneurial opportunities  Lack of political or religious rights  Persecution or intolerance based on race, religion, sex or sexual orientation  Lack of freedom to choose religion, or to choose no religion  Shortage of farmland; hard to start new farms (historically)  Oppressive legal/political conditions  Struggling or failing economy  Military draft, warfare  Famine or drought  Cultural fights with other cultural groups  Expulsion by armed force or coercion Pull factors  Better opportunities for acquiring farms for self and children  Cheap purchase of farmland  Instant wealth (as in California Gold Rush) 235

         

More job opportunities Higher pay Prepaid travel (from relatives) Better welfare programmes Better schools Join friends and relatives who have already moved Build a new nation (historically) Build specific cultural or religious communities Political freedom Cultural richness

These motivations can be further refined into four classes of people: the Colonists, the Adventurers, the Soldiers and the Settlers. All are pioneers. For the most part, each of these represent a wave of human movement into previously unknown, unexplored and dangerous regions.

The Colonists The Colonists were the first settlers in America and for the most part settled close in on the Eastern seaboard.

Christopher Browne is recorded as being one of the first settlers in the new American colonies. In the very first listing of the colonists of New England he is shown to be "living in Virginea, on February 16th 1623".

A land patent of 1711 by William Nicholson, references a John Brown and Thomas Brown "of Lower Norfolk" in 1650 to 1656. Lower Norfolk County is a long-extinct county which was located in colonial Virginia from 1637 until 1691. New Norfolk County was formed in 1636 from Elizabeth City Shire, one of the eight original shires (or counties) formed in 1634 in the colony of Virginia by direction of the King of England. "Given granted. . .unto William Nicholson. . .300 acres. . .being land within the bounds of two patents the one of them granted to John Brown for 200 acres dated June the 19th 1650 and by virtue of power of attorney to his brother Thomas Brown sold. . .by deed dated April 15th 1656. . . " A Marjory Browne married John Piggott in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1679. Early spelling of the family name includes the 'e' at the end, but it was dropped soon after the family came to America.

One line of Browns were English from Wellington, Northampton prior to immigrating to Pennsylvania.

Richard Browne born was born in the early 1620s in Northampton, England. His father was John Browne. Richard Browne married Mary, and was a prosperous businessman before becoming a Quaker minister. Richard and Mary had five sons and three daughters born between 1645 to 1660: Daniel, Joseph, Joanna, Elizabeth, John, James Jeremiah and Marjory Browne. Two sons, James Brown (born 1656) and William Brown (born 1658) traveled to America together. William was married four times to Dorothy (in England), Anne Mercer (1684), Catherine, and finally Mary.

The first Quaker settlement in America was in what is now Salem County, New Jersey. William Penn and others purchased lands and the original Quaker colonists sailed to America on board the ship Kent in 1677 and then settled and established a Quaker meeting house. The Browne brothers came soon after and were part of what was then called the Burlington Monthly Meeting, part of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends.

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They settled in the area of Marcus Hook on the west bank of the Delaware and James was living there 1679 when notice of his marriage was given at the Monthly Meeting in Burlington: "James Brown of Markers Hook and Honor Clayton of Burlington were married at the Burlington Meeting 8th 6th Month 1679." (From: the Historical Society of Philadelphia) James Brown as well as his brother William Brown were Ministers in the Quaker Church as had been their father. Later, James Brown bought 200 acres in Chester. He remained on this land until about 1700.

In 1701, William Penn granted 37 lots of 490 acres each and allowed a new area, Nottingham, to be established. William and James Browne and others were original settlers there. In 1705, a meeting hall was established at the home of William Brown and it became a part of the Concord Monthly Meeting until 1715 when it became part of the Newark Monthly Meeting. When the famous Mason-Dixon Line was established in 1765-1767, the Brown property lay just inside the Maryland border in what is now Cecil County, Maryland. James Brown died in 1716. James had seven children: James (born 1681), William (born 1682), Clayton (born 1685), Jeremiah (born 1689 and died 1767), Marjory (born 1691), Daniel and Mary.

Other east coast Browns who established lives in colonial American cities and towns along the eastern shore include: Andrew Brown (born 1744) came from an Ulster family and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, before serving in America as an officer in the English army. He settled in Massachusetts and fought on the American side at Lexington and Bunker Hill. When peace came, he tried to set up an academy for young ladies of Philadelphia, but he was more successful in publishing, especially his Philadelphia Gazette, which was the first to regularly report debates in Congress.

Another Brown family which made a contribution to the United States was descended from the Reverend Arthur Browne, born in 1699 in Drogheda, County Louth, north of Dublin on the river Boyne in Ireland. He was Vicar General of the diocese of Kildare and was returned to the Irish House of Commons. His son, Arthur Browne, went to America where he was rector of Trinity Church, Rhode Island. His son, a third Arthur Browne, was sent to Dublin to study for the Bar at Trinity College. On returning to America he was one of the original fellows of Rhode Island College which, from 1804, has been known as Brown University, inspired by these gentlemen from County Louth.

The Browns are very strong in Ulster. Alexander Brown (1764-1834), who has been described as "one of America's first millionaires", was born in Ballymena, County Antrim. In 1800, when he left for America, he had a small linen store in Belfast. Beginning by importing linen from Ireland, the Alexander Brown house soon grew into one of the biggest business and banking companies in America. With the help of his four sons, the business branched out to Philadelphia, New York, and Liverpool in England. They built and sailed their own importing and exporting ships and were involved in every type of civic progress and social activity, including helping to found the Maryland Institute of Art. (From: Alexander Brown and his Descendants 1764-1916, by Mary Elizabeth Brown, 1917)

One of Alexander's sons, George Brown (1787-1859), was a founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Alexander Brown & Sons is the oldest banking house in the United States today.

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The Adventurers The Adventurers are those men (in almost every case) who are willing to endure great personal risk and discomfort to penetrate the wilderness whether pushed or pulled into the journey. These are the first to come to America and also the first white men to follow the Indian trails and animal migration routes to unknown places and adventures. These men met and had to fend off hostile natives but also they would often find surprising warm welcomes in native camps. If there is native American blood in our veins, it is because of these Brown family traders living and building families among the tribes. Among the Adventurers are the following Brown ancestors: John Brown mentioned earlier as a colonist settling in Virginia circa 1656 was also an occasional Indian trader. In the year 1667, he was employed by a William West to go by canoe with certain goods to the Maherine Indian Towns along the Blackwater River. John Brown died in 1713. (From: the North Carolina historical and genealogical register, Vol 1.) John Brown had at least four children: John Brown, William Brown, Thomas Brown and Elizabeth Brown Joyner all of whom lived in the area of southern Virginia and Northern North Carolina. (From: Letter from the North Carolina Governor’s Council to the Virginia Governor’s Council, including depositions concerning the North Carolina/Virginia boundary, Vol. 1, North Carolina Council, June 17, 1707)

Four Browns are listed in the publication Indian Trade and Pennsylvania Traders as operating in the early 1700s, although this may in reality be one man. A Mr. Brown (no first name given) was an employee of Hugh Parker and was killed by Indians at Kuskuskies in 1748. (From: Pennsylvania Archives ii, 16) A James Brown, an English Indian trader, was at a treaty meeting at Logstown on May 28, 1751, as reported by George Croghan in his Journal of that year. (From: Logstown on the Ohio: a historical sketch, by Daniel Agnew, 1894; and, Early history of western Pennsylvania: and of the West, and of western expeditions and campaigns, from MDCCLIV to MDCCCXXXIII, by I. Daniel Rupp and Daniel W. Kauffman) Also, a Mr. Brown (no first name given) a trader from Scioto, met George

Washington and Christopher Gist at Logstown in 1753. (From: Washington's Journal of 1753) A trader named Brown was also one of Colonel Bouquet's guides in building the road for General Forbes' army to Fort Duquesne in 1758. (From: C. R., v., 532, 536; Hubert' Old Glade Road, 100) In 1767, James Brown received on credit merchandise from the trading house of William Colvin in Redstone township in what is now Fayette county. (From: History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, by Franklin Ellis, 1882) It is possible that any or all of these were relative of our ancestor James Brown.

Both of the major land routes from Virginia and Philadelphia to the Forks of the Ohio River (the future site of Pittsburgh) ran through the wilderness of what would become Westmoreland County. It was the early Indian traders, land agents and explorers who blazed the trail - men like Christopher Gist at Mount Braddock, William Stewart at Connellsville, and Wendell Brown and his sons in what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Thomas Brown was born in 1674 and married circa 1697 and died in 1707, all in Westmoreland County, VA (later PA). His children are: Francis Brown (1698 - 1755) who married Benjamin Asbury in 1718, Thomas Brown (1704 - 1793) and George Brown born 1624, in Westmoreland County, VA (later PA) and married Frances Rowland in 1659.

Wendell Brown and his sons Thomas, Manus and Adam are known to be among the earliest to have lived in western Pennsylvania. In 175I or 1752, Wendell Brown and his sons settled first on the Monongahela below Jacob's Creek, then on Georges Creek (both sites now in Fayette County, PA).

Thomas served in the Virginia Regiment with Washington at Fort Necessity. Legend has it that it was 238

the Browns who supplied Washington and his troops at Ft. Necessity and prospered from it. Another family legend is that Manus (or Emanuel) Brown had a native Mingo wife whose name may have been "Brightwater". These Browns maintained a tract of farm land in this area until the 1960s.

Adventurer communities grew up near natural geographical and transportation routes such as Indian trails and rivers. Christopher Gist's plantation near the present Mount Braddock was started in 1753, and about the same time William Stewart settled at Stewart's Crossing, now Connellsville.

Other communities were sparked by mill owner Henry Beeson in Uniontown, Colonel William Crawford and Zachariah Connell at Connellsville, John Brown and the trader Jacob Bowman at Brownsville, and John Mason at Masontown. All sold land and helped other people establish homes.

In January, 1754, George Washington writes of meeting with families on his return from a mission to ask the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf to abandon his outpost at the forks of the Ohio. These families including some Browns were probably bound for one or the other of the settlements mentioned above.

It is likely that most of these adventurers went out under the auspices of the Ohio Company and expected to obtain title to their land through that company. The Ohio Company was organized by several wealthy Virginians, including the family of George Washington. The British government granted the Ohio Company 200,000 acres of land in what is now western Pennsylvania. The investors planned to sell the land to settlers moving westward for a higher price than they had originally paid. But there was nothing to prevent the establishment of other claims in the area, and there is evidence to indicate that a "Russell and Company," in 1753, surveyed a large tract of land in the forks formed by the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny with a view to locating a Virginia grant there. The Penn family also had competing interests in the area.

All these settlements were abandoned in I754 when Washington was defeated and withdrew from Fort Necessity at the beginning of the French and Indian War. In the years that followed access to the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers was restricted by Indian raiders. This became a time when the western frontier was a dangerous and inhospitable place as the British and French and their Indian allies battled for control. Indians formed surrogate armies for the European powers and were encouraged to kill and plunder any settlement. Those Adventurer settlements that remained survived because they joined together and became fortified.

It is noteworthy that early Pennsylvania was a maze of primitive travel routes.

Indian trails and numerous rivers and streams crisscrossed the area and facilitated the movement of people and goods. These trails and waterways were used for hundreds of years by the Indian tribes and now became the migration routes for the westward settlement of the territory. As one traces the Brown family over time a natural progression can be seen. Family members settle first along the coast. Succeeding generations acquire property in incremental movements westward.

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We encourage someone in the future to explore our family history by taking a closer look at connections to the Browns who settled on the eastern side of the Allegheny Mountains.

The Soldiers The next wave into the wilderness was the Soldiers. These are now the men and women camp followers that traveled with the British Army or Colonial Militias and settled around military forts.

Many moved into the west with the Armies of General Braddock and General Forbes. Military experiences opened their eyes to the new opportunities for land and freedom in territory west of the Allegheny Mountains.

The flow of people into western Pennsylvania followed two major routes well known to the Soldiers. Scots, Irish and Englishmen from the Cumberland Valley and the other settled parts of eastern Pennsylvania made their way west using the Forbes military road. Along the way to Fort Pitt, many stopped and built cabins near the road. These men were faithful to Pennsylvania, under whose seal they held their lands.

From the Valley of Virginia other Scots, Irish and Englishmen crossed the mountains by way of Braddock's road. They would settle the rich lands along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers and Chartiers creek. These men were loyal Virginians and believed until the American Revolution that their settlements were still within the Virginia territory.

BRADDOCK'S ROAD The predecessor of this military road was called Nemaolin's Path, named for the Delaware Indian who assisted Colonel Thomas Cresap in blazing a path from Cumberland, Maryland to a trading post of the Ohio Company at present-day Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Soon after, Virginia's governor sent Major George Washington in that direction to expel the French from British territory. To accommodate his supply wagons, it was necessary to widen the trail, and that portion of the trail became known as Washington's Road.

Washington's first expedition was a failure and he later returned with British Major General Edward Braddock's army during the French and Indian War. A company of 600 soldiers set out from Ft. Cumberland to widen Washington's old road as they moved toward the French outpost at Fort Duquesne. Braddock's road was the first road to cross overland through the Appalachian Mountains. He insisted that the road be 12 feet wide so that horse-drawn wagons could travel on it to haul the necessary supplies for his advancing army.

As the years advanced, Braddock's Road became impassable. Pioneers who trekked into western Pennsylvania usually preferred to depend on packhorse trails, traveling in caravans. When construction began in 1806 on the Cumberland Road, it roughly followed the original Braddock's Road and was later designated as the National Road and is now U.S. Highway 40.

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THE PENNSYLVANIA ROAD Faced with the need to build a road to move troops west to avenge Braddock's defeat during the French and Indian War, General Forbes' army constructed a road from Harrisburg to Ft. Duquesne which he would rename Fort Pitt. Years later, the Pennsylvania Legislature granted charters that extended the Lancaster Pike that went from Philadelphia to Lancaster, on westward to Pittsburgh, following closely the route of the Forbes Road. This was designated the Pennsylvania Road and later was the route followed by today's Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Migration moved westward through Fort Pitt as settlers trekked from eastern Pennsylvania and New England west to new lands and opportunities. The river, canal and railroad system that opened in 1834 between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh reduced traffic on Pennsylvania's turnpike. Heavy freight traffic was diverted to the canals but stagecoach passenger lines continued to use the turnpike.

After the fall of Fort Duquesne in 1758 and the abandonment of western Pennsylvania by the French, Fort Pitt was built the following year. Conditions became more secure and ripe for another surge of settlement west over the Allegheny Mountains. Population had increased in the settled areas east of the mountains, the Braddock and Forbes roads offered avenues of approach to the interior of the country, the war had advertised the upper Ohio river country and provided the soldiers in the provincial forces an opportunity to observe its advantages. The new forts at Bedford, Ligonier, Redstone and Pittsburgh each offered attractive protected bases for settlement.

The only apparent obstacle was the fact that the British government declared the country west of the mountains to be Indian land and not open to settlement except by military permit. To the next wave of frontiersman, the soldier/settler who had been there and back, this was not a serious obstacle and many continued to explore and settle the western lands. A few early settlements sprung up along the Forbes and Braddock roads with the permission of the Fort Pitt commandant. These permissions were granted to tavern keepers along the routes to give shelter and entertainment to persons traveling on the king's business. The general settlement of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains did not begin in earnest until the Pennsylvania land office opened and granted land warrants, in early 1769.

BROWN'S FORT Brown's Fort was a settlers' stone house surrounded by a log stockade fence. Both the house and the log fence were pierced with holes for firing muskets. The fort was used as a defensive outpost from 1755 to 1765.

It was owned by our relative James Brown who was killed by Indians in August, 1756 along with two soldiers. Brown's Fort 241

stood along the main road westward across the mountains between Swatara Gap and Manada Gap near present day Carlisle/Harrisburg. The fort was garrisoned by the PA colonial militia in 1756 and 1757. It was also used as a patrol station in 1763 and 1764.

One of the soldiers garrisoning Brown's Fort was named Jacob Ellis who lived in Manada Gap. He had some wheat growing at his home and needed to harvest it. His commanding officer agreed and gave him an escort of ten men to help with the work. The men carelessly left their muskets in a corner of the field, set a poor watch and started to cut the grain. All went well until late morning when, three Indians stepped into the field between the men and their weapons. The Indians fired a volley at them killing the Corporal in charge and wounding another. It was a wild fight but finally the Indians left after giving a war cry and firing another volley. The survivors hid the body of the dead man, to prevent the Indians from taking his scalp, and then returned to the fort. Here they learned that another of their troop was missing, named James Brown, who lived in the house they were garrisoning. The Lieutenant in charge then led a detachment to the place of the hostilities and brought in the dead body of the Corporal but could find no trace of Brown. At the same time he sent word to his superior officer, Captain Smith, at Fort Swatara, who sent reinforcements the same night to protect the settlers from another attack. A Squire Reed, living about five miles from the fight heard gun fire echoing in the mountains. The next morning, he led a party of men to help and found the dead body of James Brown. He had been killed by one of the last shots fired by the Indians and was scalped.

The area along the rivers in western Pennsylvania was dangerous. Bands of Indians roamed the territory competing with each other as well as the French and English who also were competing for land, trade and control. Although dangerous and primitive, the area did have thriving settlements of Indian villages that often included colonial trappers and traders many of whom had Indian families. Young George Washington in his travels to Fort LeBouf near Erie, PA mentions visiting several of these Indian towns.

1759 MAP OF THREE RIVERS TERRITORY Often called the first map of Pittsburgh, this map shows:.

1. Monongahela River, 2. Fort Duquesne, 3. Smaller fort (closer to the Forks), maybe Fort Prince George, constructed by Virginians in 1754, or, it could be Mercer's Fort, built to house troops between the destruction of Fort Duquesne and the building of Fort Pitt.

4. Allegheny River, 5. Indian town, 6. Shanopins town, 7. Youghiogheney River, 8. Ohio River, 9. Logs town, 10. Beaver Creek /River, 11. Kuskaskies (chief town of the Six Nations), 12. Shingoes town, 13. Queen Allequippa's Town, 14. Sennakaas (another Indian town), 15. Turtle Creek, 16. Pine Creek.

(From: An untitled woodcut map showing the Forks of the Ohio in the London Magazine of January 1759. It also appeared in Poor Roger 1760, and in Father Abraham's Almanac, 1761)

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In 1771, the western half of the Penn's territory was included in a single county named Bedford. During the year 1772, following the evacuation of Fort Pitt by British troops, returning soldier settlements grew so rapidly west of the mountains that these settlers soon needed and demanded their own local civil government.

The Settlers In 1773, Lt. Governor Richard Penn created the eleventh county of the Commonwealth and the last under the proprietary government, the County of Westmoreland, the most westward territory of the Province. The Penns had bought the land for this new county from the Iroquois Indians at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, NY, in 1768. The land was now open for settlement by those who would risk it.

The total area of the territory of Westmoreland county was about 4,700 square miles and extended from the Susquehanna river to a northern point at the Indian town called Kittanning, on the Allegheny river, then following the Allegheny and the Ohio rivers to the western limit of the Province. The western and southern border of Westmoreland county were the same as the western and southern borders of Pennsylvania, which at the time were not yet definitely set. The county included all of what is now considered southwestern Pennsylvania including the current counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, Greene and Washington, parts of Allegheny and Beaver counties south of the Ohio river, and most of Indiana and Armstrong counties.

The Penn's establishment of the area of Westmoreland was restricted in fact by Virginia's seizure and government of a large portion of the territory. It had not yet been determined by survey how far Pennsylvania extended westward of the mountains. Virginia claimed all the interior country west of Pennsylvania and asserted that the entire valley of the Monongahela, including Pittsburgh, was within its jurisdiction. Pennsylvania thought otherwise. This would begin a political struggle that would only be ended by the American Revolution and the end of British rule. But not before involving our ancestors in political intrigue, violence, criminal charges and imprisonment.

Colony Population (in thousands)

While family names Brown and Smith are common, in the early days of America there were not that many people and thus not that many Smiths and Browns. Most were settled on the eastern coastline.

1780

1770

1750

1740

1720

1700

1690

1670

1650

1630

2780.2

2148.1

1170.8

905.7

466.2

251.0

210.2

111.9

50.3

4.7

Maine (counties)

49.1

31.3

1.0

0.4

New Hampshire

87.8

62.4

Vermont

47.6

10.0

Total

Plymouth and Massachusetts

27.5

23.3

9.4

5.0

4.2

1.8

1.3

0.5 0.9

268.6

235.3

188.0

151.6

91.0

55.9

56.9

35.3

15.6

Rhode Island

52.9

58.2

33.2

25.3

11.7

5.9

4.2

2.2

0.8

Connecticut

206.7

183.9

111.3

89.6

58.8

26.0

21.6

12.6

4.1

New York

210.5

162.9

76.7

63.7

36.9

19.1

13.9

5.8

4.1

New Jersey

139.6

117.4

71.4

51.4

29.8

14.0

8.0

1.0

Pennsylvania

11.4

327.3

240.1

119.7

85.6

31.0

18.0

Delaware

45.4

35.5

28.7

19.9

5.4

2.5

1.5

0.7

Maryland

245.5

202.6

141.1

116.1

66.1

29.6

24.0

13.2

4.5

Virginia

538.0

447.0

231.0

180.4

87.8

58.6

53.0

35.3

18.7

North Carolina

270.1

197.2

73.0

51.8

21.3

10.7

7.6

3.8

South Carolina

17.0

5.7

3.9

0.2

180.0

124.2

64.0

45.0

Georgia

56.1

23.4

5.2

2.0

Kentucky

45.0

15.7

Tennessee

10.0

1.0

Source: Bureau of the Census, U.S. Dept. of Commerce from 1998 World Almanac and Book of Facts, p 378

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0.4

0.2 2.5

Brown Family Settlers in early Western Pennsylvania Many of our family settled in the area as recorded above and others are recorded in various other historical census and tax records such as follows.

1764 - an Enoch Brown settled in Franklin, Venango County.

In October, 1764, on the Virginia frontier in what is now western Pennsylvania about 50 Delaware and Mingo warriors attacked William Carpenter's settlement where a stockade fort was under the care of a Mr. Brown. In the night, the Indians killed Carpenter and Mrs. Brown and took prisoner Carpenter's son and the two sons of Mr. Brown all small children. Mr. Brown and other family members escaped.

Carpenter's son came home 15 years later and became a physician. Only Brown's youngest son, the late Col. Samuel Brown of Greenbrier, WV, came home in 1769. The older son, Adam Brown, never returned. He took an Indian wife, became wealthy and lived at Brown's town in Michigan. As a chief of the Wyandott Indians, Adam Brown signed treaties of 1805 and 1808. He sided with the British in the War of 1812 and afterward fled to Canada where he died in 1815.

In 1768, John Brown spent time with five others hunting in the frontier lands without making any improvements or tomahawk claims for lands.

OFFICERS FOR LANCASTER, COUNTY. Sheriffs.

Samuel Smith, Oct. 3, 1735-37 Thomas Smith, Oct. 4, 1752-54 William Smith, Oct. 4, 1758-60 Justices of the Peace.

Samuel Smith, Nov. 22, 1738, April 4, 1741, Dec. 17, 1745, April 22, 1749 James Smith, April 22, 1749, Oct. 16, 1752 Assembly.

Samuel Smith, 1737, 1738 OFFICERS FOR YORK COUNTY. Justices of the Peace.

William Smith, Dec. 7, 1764, March 11, 1771, April 9, 1774 John Smith, March 11, 1771 OFFICERS FOR CUMBERLAND COUNTY. Sheriffs.

Ezekiel Smith, Oct. 4, 1759-60 Collectors.

William Brown, 1761-62 Treasurers.

William Brown, 1766 Justices of the Peace.

Samuel Smith, 1749-1750 Members of Proprietary and Governor's Council, John Smith, July 13, 1757 William Smith, July 13, 1757, Oct. 17, 1764 William Brown April 6, 1771 Assembly.

John Smith, 1754, 1755, 1759 OFFICERS FOR BEDFORD COUNTY. Prothonotary, Register, and Recorder.

Thomas Smith, Feb. 27, 1773 Justices of the Peace.

Thomas Smith, Feb. 27, 177, April 9, 1774 OFFICERS FOR WESTMORELAND COUNTY. Justices of the Peace.

Devereux Smith, Jan. 11, 1774

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(From: the PA Archives: Second Series. Vol. IX.: Part II: Section 5: "Provincial Officers for the Additional Counties. 1729-1776." (This includes Lancaster, York, Berks, Cumberland, Northampton, Bedford, Northumberland, and Westmoreland Counties.)

Lord Dunsmore's War - the Virginia versus Pennsylvania Territorial Dispute. Devereux Smith, ancestor of Samuel Smith, father of Mary Smith Brown, was an early Indian trader and one of the founders of the settlement at Fort Pitt and Pittsburgh. Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh is named after him. For more information about Devereux Smith and this territorial dispute see the Timeline circa 1770s.

In 1770, the deed transferring property from John Campbell to Adam Turner dated August 17, 1770, noted that it was on "Little Sawickly creek" bounded by properties of John Brown and William Brown.

Little Sewickley creek (correct spelling) is in Sewickley township just south of North Huntingdon and Irwin. Little Sewickley creek flows into Sewickley creek which flows into the Youghiogheny river above Suttersville.

In 1773, Joseph Brown and James Brown were listed among early settlers of Westmoreland county.

(From: Annals of southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol.1, by Lewis C. Walkinshaw, 1939)

The following are included in Pitt Twp. 1773 Bedford county Assessment list (2 months before creation of Westmoreland county): Samuel Brown / Bazil Brown / Coleman Brown / James Brown (Dunlap's) / Morris Brown / John Brown / William Brown / Thomas Brown (From: Annals of southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, by Lewis C. Walkinshaw, 1939)

In 1774, a group of Virginia frontiersmen led by Daniel Greathouse murdered the family of Mingo Indian chief Logan, among them Logan’s brother and at least two other close female relatives, one of them pregnant and caring for her infant daughter. These Mingos had been living near the mouth of Yellow Creek, and had been lured to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader who lived across the Ohio River from their village. The Natives in Baker’s cabin were all murdered, except for the infant child, who was spared with the intention of giving her to her father. At least two canoes were dispatched from the Yellow Creek village, but they were repelled by Greathouse’s men concealed along the river. In all, approximately a dozen were murdered in the cabin and on the river. Logan was not present in the area when the massacre occurred.

Influential tribal chiefs in the region, such as Cornstalk (Shawnee), White Eyes (Lenape), and Guyasuta (Seneca/Mingo), attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution lest the incident develop into a larger war, but by Native American custom Logan had the right to retaliate for the murders. Several parties of mixed Mingo and Shawnee warriors soon struck the frontier, including one led by Logan. They attacked settlers in several frontier regions, both killing and taking captives.

Coleman Brown was one of the first settlers killed in indiscriminant attacks as part of Chief Logan's revenge. Brown was pulling flax in a field opposite the mouth of Simpson's creek on the Virginia frontier when Logan and his war party approached unnoticed. The Indians fired on the men and Brown fell instantly "...his body perforated by several balls."

The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, responded to Logan's attacks by launching an expedition against the Mingos and Shawnees, in the conflict known as Dunmore’s War.

The American Revolution Rev. James Brown is listed as the first pastor of the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church organized in 1776.

This is possibly the first church west of the Allegheny Mountains. (From: A Short History of Westmoreland County: the first county west of the Appalachians, by C. M. Bomberger, circa 1941)

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John Brown Jr. served in the Fifth Battalion of the Cumberland County Militia 1777-1779, and the Eighth Battalion from 1780-1782.

Andrew Brown was a private in Capt. Joseph Erwin's Company, raised in Westmoreland County and later discharged at Valley Forge on Jan. 1, 1778 after his term of enlistment expired. Fought at Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Quibbletown, Brandywine and Germantown. (From: Old and new Westmoreland, by John N. Boucher, 1918)

General Lachlan McIntosh from Inverness, Scotland had emigrated with his father and 100 others of Clan McIntosh to Georgia in 1736 founding New Inverness, McIntosh County, GA. He joined the Colonial army at the opening of the American Revolution and rose to the rank of brigadier general. He would later fight a duel and kill Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. General McIntosh led a failed attempt to capture the British stronghold at Fort Detroit, was at the seige of Savannah in 1779, was a prisoner of war in 1780, a member of congress in 1784 and in 1785 was a treaty commissioner with the Southern Indians.

In 1778, General McIntosh was the commander of the Western Department of the American colonial army. Under his command he built new forts and rebuilt and strengthened existing forts on the western frontier including: Fort Pitt, Fort McIntosh (Beaver, PA), Fort Laurens (near Bolivar, OH), Fort Tuscarora (near Lisbon, OH), Fort Henry (now Wheeling, WV), Fort Armstrong (Kittaning, PA), and Fort Holliday's Cove along with lesser outposts. McIntosh built and garrisoned Fort McIntosh overlooking the Ohio River at the mouth of Big Beaver creek, 26 miles downriver from Pittsburgh. The post was manned by McIntosh's regular army troops and local Virginia militia (western PA still being a territory in dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania). It is noteworthy that Robert McCready was adjutant to General McIntosh and kept his orderly books (a record of all orders and activity of the garrison).

The reason for the sending of McIntosh and his troops was the expectation of Indian attacks in the spring and summer of 1778 following the murder at Point Pleasant of Shawnee Indian chief or sachem, Cornstalk, by local settlers. The Shawnees were seeking revenge and were aided by British emissaries from Fort Detroit and local American supporters of the British cause in the Revolution. The murder of Cornstalk was a subject of much dispute among the Indians, Virginian and Pennsylvanian settlers.

Cornstalk was a prominent leader of the Shawnee nation just prior to the American Revolution. His Shawnee name, Hokoleskwa, translates loosely into "stalk of corn". Cornstalk opposed European settlement west of the Ohio River in his youth, but he later became an advocate for peace after the Battle of Point Pleasant. His murder by American militiamen at Fort Randolph during a diplomatic visit in November 1777 outraged both American Indians and Virginians.

Cornstalk played a central role in Dunmore's War of 1774. After the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, settlers and land speculators moved into the lands south of the Ohio River in present-day Kentucky.

Although the Iroquois had agreed to cede the land, the Shawnee and others had not been present at the Fort Stanwix negotiations. They still claimed Kentucky as their hunting grounds. Clashes soon took place over this. Cornstalk tried unsuccessfully to prevent escalation of the hostilities.

Attempting to block a Virginian invasion of the Ohio country, Cornstalk led a force of Shawnee and Mingo warriors at the Battle of Point Pleasant. His attack, although ferociously made, was beaten back

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by the Virginians. Cornstalk retreated and would reluctantly accept the Ohio River as the boundary of Shawnee lands in the Treaty of Camp Charlotte.

When the American Revolution began, Cornstalk worked to keep his people neutral. He represented the Shawnee at treaty councils at Fort Pitt in 1775 and 1776, the first Indian treaties ever negotiated by the United States. Many Shawnees nevertheless hoped to use British aid to reclaim their lands lost to the settlers. By the winter of 1776, the Shawnee were effectively divided into a neutral faction led by Cornstalk, and militant bands led by men such as Blue Jacket.

A replica of Fort Randolph, where Cornstalk was murdered.

In the fall of 1777, Cornstalk made a diplomatic visit to Fort Randolph, an American fort at present-day Point Pleasant, seeking as always to maintain his faction's neutrality. Cornstalk was detained by the fort commander, who had decided on his own initiative to take hostage any Shawnees who fell into his hands. When, on November 10, an American militiaman from the fort was killed nearby by unknown Indians, angry soldiers brutally executed Cornstalk, his son Elinipsico, and two other Shawnees.

American political and military leaders were alarmed by the murder of Cornstalk; they believed he was their only hope of securing Shawnee neutrality. At the insistence of Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, Cornstalk's killers (whom Henry called "vile assassins") were eventually brought to trial, but since their fellow soldiers would not testify against them, all were acquitted.

The Wyandot, Mingo, Shawnee, and Lenape allied with the British and regularly raided settlements on the Ohio Country frontier. The British were strong at Fort Detroit and other outposts, and had most of the Iroquois Confederacy as allies.

The placement of Fort McIntosh and the more extensive fortification of the area east of Pittsburgh and along the Ohio River simply diverted Indian interest to other areas more susceptible to easy attack and plunder. This happened in the settler communities in the area now near Fairmont WV and along the southern Monongahela river.

In 1778, James Brown participated in a skirmish with Indians at West's fort.

(From: Chronicles of border warfare: or, a history of the settlement by the whites, of northwestern Virginia, and of the Indian wars and massacres, in that section of the state, by A. S. Withers, R. G. Thwaites, L. C. Draper, W. Powers and W. Hacker, 1895)

West's Fort was on Hacker's creek at what is now Jane Lew, WV. The fort was used by the Virginia milita 1776-1779. Other settler forts in this area were: Richard's Fort was on the west bank of the Monongahela river 1/2 mile SE of present day West Milford and Prickett's Fort was on the east side of the Monongahela river at mouth of Pricketts creek 5 mile below present day Fairmont, WV. All of these settlements were approximately 70 miles from Pittsburgh and accessible via waterways.

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On March 5, 1779, Col. Daniel Brodhead replaced McIntosh as commander of the Western Department assuming command of all the western forts built and strengthened by Gen. McIntosh.

In 1781, some of the Lenape-Delaware ended their neutrality and sided with the British. In retaliation, Brodhead mounted the Coshocton Expedition, invading their territory in central Ohio and destroying the main village of Coshocton in what is now east-central Ohio. As a result of Brodhead's campaign, the Delaware fled from eastern Ohio. They also vowed vengeance. In 1781, following Col. Broadhead's Coshocton expedition, a group of Indian's moving eastward towards Cheat were intercepted and fought off by James Brown and Stephen Radcliff. The Indians then diverted to the settlement at Leading Creek where they destroyed the whole settlement, killing or capturing all. The Indians left no one alive and burnt all the homes.

In 1778, Patrick Henry, then the Governor of Virginia, appointed David Rogers, of Redstone (now Brownsville) to lead an expedition south to bring back gun powder for the frontier. Rogers was a justice of the Virginia courts in Westmoreland County and was a member of its Revolutionary committee. He was also an able frontier scout with a thorough understanding of the Indians. For the expedition, Rogers brought together forty hardy young woodsmen, most of whom had seen military service. Among them was Basil Brown, a son of Thomas Brown who founded Brownsville, and grandson of early frontiersman Wendell Brown. (From: Old and New Westmoreland, by John N. Boucher, 1918)

Using two large flatboats operated by long sweep oars and a steering pole, Rogers' men floated down river and eventually procured the gun powder at St. Louis, a settlement of about 800 people protected by a Spanish garrison of 100 soldiers. Next came a slow and difficult journey up the Ohio river which passed without incident until they reached the mouth of the Licking river at Newport, Kentucky across the Ohio river from present day Cincinnati, Ohio. There they landed their boats and fell into an Indian ambush led by Simon Girty. Rogers' party was outnumbered two to one and many died in the first volley of musket fire. As the Indians charged more men were killed and scalped as others fled into the woods.

Fortunately for 13 survivors the forest was thick and night fell quickly ending the Indian pursuit. The Indians looted the boats and left.

Rogers was killed and many in the party were wounded. Several were unhurt and found their way to settlements in Kentucky. Robert Benham and Basil Brown were both seriously wounded and hid in the woods for days. Benham was shot through both legs and Brown was shot in the right arm and left shoulder, "between them only one pair of good arms and one pair of good legs!" (From: Old Westmoreland: A History of Western Pennsylvania During the Revolution, by Edgar Wakefield Hassler)

For days the two men helped each other survive. Brown would run wide circles through the forest shouting and kicking branches to drive game to Benham for him to shoot. Brown would then kick the dead animal to a fire made by Benham who would also clean and cook the meal and even feed Brown.

Nineteen days passed this way until a passing flatboat heard Brown's shouts and rescued the men.

After treatment and recovery at the new settlement at the falls of the Ohio (Louisville, Kentucky) both men returned home to western Pennsylvania. Basil Brown died in 1835 at age 75. He never married

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but lived in Brownsville, Pennsylvania with his cripple sister Sally Brown.

(From: Annals of the West; Affidavit of

Basil Brown in Notes and Queries, Vol. III; and, Winning of the West, Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. II)

Also, there is a reference to John Brown of Hempfield who is mentioned as a constable or judge in the July, 1780, court sessions of Westmoreland County. This would put him in the correct area to be an ancestor of William H. and Peter Brown.

In 1781, Colonel James Brown had a home/fort near the mouth of Harmon Creek near that of a Thomas Edgington who was captured by Indians and taken to the Wyandot villages in the Ohio territory where he met Simon Girty. Harmon Creek flows into the Ohio River at Weirton, WV. (From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, by Earle R. Forrest, Vol. 1, 1926) In the 1782 Hechewelder transcripts, he reports that Simon Girty and a group of Indians attacked settlers and Fort McIntosh along the Ohio river near Harmon Creek and near "Col. James Brown's fort". (From: History of the Girtys. by Consul Wilshire Butterfield, 1890) The following is from a list of negro and mulatto slave owners registered in Westmoreland County pursuant to an Act of Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, entitled "An act for the gradual abolition of slavery," passed the March 1, 1780, 1782. (The date of entry is given first, then the name of owner, followed by the sex, age and name of the slave)

Dec. 27, 1782. Thomas Brown is listed as a slave holder.

Female 29, Susanna; female, 26, Margaret; male, 20, Abner; male 18, Doreby; female, 6, Phillis; male, 3, Richard.

Dec. 31, 1782. John Brown. Female, 9, Else.

In 1783, James Brown is listed as a person who had land rented in Mt. Pleasant township, PA. James Brown is listed as a Lieutenant in the Third Company (67 men), Fourth Battalion of the Washington county militia of 1784 founded immediately after the close of the American Revolution.

(From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, by Boyd Crumrine, 1882)

In 1789, William H. Brown wrote the Power of Sympathy, considered to be the first American novel.

Brown's first novel uses the characters' struggles to illustrate the dangers of seduction and the pitfalls of giving in to one's passions, while advocating the moral education of women and the use of rational thinking as ways to prevent the consequences of such actions.

The novel begins with letters between Thomas Harrington and his friend Jack Worthy revealing that Harrington has fallen for Harriot Fawcet, despite the reservations of his father. Harriot resists Harrington's initial advances, as he intends to make her his mistress. Worthy encourages Harrington to abandon his licentious motives in favor of properly courting Harriot. However, when Harrington and Harriot become engaged, Eliza Holmes, who is a friend of all the characters, becomes alarmed and exposes a deep family secret to Harrington's sister: Harriot is in fact the illegitimate sister from Harrington's father's affair with Harriot's mother and her birth had to be kept a secret to maintain the family’s honor. Upon receiving the news of this family secret, Harriot and Harrington are devastated, as their relationship is incestuous and thus forbidden. Harriot falls into a grief-stricken consumption, a condition now referred to as tuberculosis, from which she is unable to recover. Harrington spirals into a deep depression and commits suicide after learning of Harriot's death.

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Circa 1790, William Brown emigrated from Ireland and settled in Cumberland county, PA with his wife, Rebecca (Gracie) Brown. They lived their lives here and raised their children: Thomas, William, Robert, David, James and Mary. All were members of the United Presbyterian Church of Newville. James Brown, son of William and Rebecca was born in Cumberland county in 1824 and moved to Allegheny county in his 20s and where he worked as a cattle drover, cared for a gentleman's estate in Hazelwood and in 1878 bought a farm in Hampton township where he lived until his death in 1896. (From: Genealogical and personal history of western Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, by John W. Jordan, 1915)

The 1792 Map of Pennsylvania made by Reading Howell shows that Browns are living along Youghiogheny River in N. Huntington Township in Westmoreland County (look near the W in Westmoreland on map) On this map we can see the relationship of this Brown family settlement to major transit routes to Pittsburgh and across the state. Also, we can compare this location to other Brown landholdings shown on later maps and trace property ownership and movement. We also used this map in the sections about William Hughey Brown and James Brown.

In December, 1798, James Brown was licensed as a tavern keeper in Menallen township and he was later licensed in Redstone township both are in what is not Fayette county, but was then Westmoreland or Bedford county. (From: History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, by Franklin Ellis, 1882)

James Brown of Armstrong County. Son Robert Brown whose daughter Margaret married Dr. Samuel S. Neale of Kittanning, PA. In 1798, Robert Brown came to Armstrong county with some hunters and was one of its first settlers.

(From: Armstrong County, Pennsylvania: her people past and present, embracing a history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, v.1, 1876)

Allegheny No. 2.

In 1861, a Robert Brown of Armstrong County owned the keelboat

(From: The Allegheny River, by S. Kussart, 1938)

In 1798, leaders of Pittsburgh organized a lottery with a top prize of $1,000 to raise funds to improve the banks of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and protect them against being washed away by high water. James Brown was listed as a manager of the lottery and seller of tickets. (From: The history of Pittsburgh: its rise and progress, by Sarah H. Killikelly, 1906)

James Brown one of the first settlers of Washington, PA came to the area in 1798, built a log house in 1815 and died in 1866. (From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, by Earle R. Forrest, Vol. 1, 1926)

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James Brown was living in Hopewell township in 1800 and was a miller. He is also listed as one of the first elders of the Burgettstown Presbyterian Church. (From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, by Boyd Crumrine, 1882)

Dr. Samuel Potter Brown was a prominent Westmoreland County physician. He was born in Greensburg in 1801 and was educated in the local schools of that day. He read medicine with Dr. James Postlethwaite a noted physician of the time. Brown graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1823, returning for more studies in 1824. He later located to Blairsville which was a place of considerable importance due to the building of the nearby Pennsylvania Canal. He stayed here until 1828, when he moved to Greensburg where he soon ranked among the leading men of Westmoreland County and a highly regarded physician.

In the minutes of October 6th, 1812, at the Synod meeting at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Rev. James Brown and Rev. Francis Herron of the Presbytery of Redstone are listed as present. (From: Records of the Synod of Pittsburgh: from its first organization, September 29, 1802 to October 1832 inclusive, by, Presbyterian Church in the

Also circa 1812, James Brown was an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh along with John Herron, James Irwin, William Hays, William McCandless and Daniel Bushnell.

Rev. Dr. Francis Herron is listed as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh at Wood Street, between Sixth Street and Virgin Alley (now Oliver Avenue) and Dr. James Brown is listed as an elder and ordained in 1811, 1812. In 1811, James Brown and John Snowden were elected elders. It was noted that Snowden had just relocated to Pittsburgh from Greensburg and brought with him his newspaper business which purchase the Pittsburgh Commonweath which he renamed the Mercury which he continued to edit and publish in Pittsburgh until 1831. (From: The Iron City: a compendium of facts concerning Pittsburgh U.S.A, Synod of Pittsburgh, 1852)

and vicinity, for strangers and the public generally, 1867; and, Early Pittsburgh Presbyterianism: tracing the development of the Presbyterian church, United States of America, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1758-1839, By: William Wilson McKinney, 1938)

In 1812-1813, R. Brown & Company is listed "among the leading establishments in the city. . ."

In 1813, the firm of Brown, Barker & Butler is listed as having ". . . . extensive edge tool and cutlery manufactory." (From: Pittsburgh as it is, by G. H. Thurston, 1857) Also in 1813, the Pittsburgh Humane Society was established with James Brown (cutler) on the committee for the Point Ward with G. Miltenberger and James Brown (baker) on the committee for the Allegheny Ward with Rev. Francis Herron and James Irwin.

In 1815, a James Brown is listed as a baker and serving on Pittsburgh's town council. He was also a director of the Bank of Pittsburgh and served on the Allegheny ward committee with Rev. Francis Herron. (From: Pittsburgh Directory of 1815, by James Riddle and Pittsburgh in 1816, by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1916 ) In 1815, a James Brown is listed as a shoemaker, another is listed as a cutter and another is a baker. In 1817, it is noted that "James Brown made water and butter crackers and pilot, navy and common bread.

He is again recorded as a baker of crackers and other goods in 1888. (From: The Pittsburgh Mercury, 1818-1819 and the Standard History of Pittsburgh, by Erasmus Wilson, 1888)

In 1816, James Brown listed among the Common Council of the City of Pittsburgh, William Wilkins, president. (From: The book of words of the pageant and masque of freedom Charter Centennial Celebration Pittsburgh, by George Baird, 1916)

In 1817, James Brown signs a letter with other Pittsburgh leaders requesting the Bank of U.S. in Philadelphia establish a branch in Pittsburgh. (From: A Century and a half of Pittsburgh and her people, Vol. 2, by John N. Boucher, 1908)

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Another Brown who was a prominent citizen in early Pittsburgh was James Brown born February 10, 1780, in Coothill, County Cavan, Ireland and came to America in 1797 and made his way to Pittsburgh in 1803.

His brothers were already here and together they established a dry goods business that was successful. Later, this James Brown was a partner in the firm of Miltenberger & Brown owners of the Wayne Iron Works, one of the first in Pittsburgh. In 1829 the Wayne Iron Works at 10th and Duquesne Way was built it then passed to the firm of Miltenberger & Brown (James Brown). They were succeeded by Bailey, Brown & Co (W. B. Brown and later William R. Brown) and finally Brown & Co. (John H. Brown and his sons and Joseph S. Brown). (From: Allegheny County's Hundred Years, 1822-1895, by George T. Thurston, 1888) James Brown was also a major investor in area real estate. The Bank of Pittsburgh was chartered in 1813 and began From: "Flems" view of Pittsburgh,

by George T. Fleming, 1855) doing business on November 22, 1814, with James Brown as one of 13 directors. (From: Allegheny County's Hundred Years, 1822-1895, by George T. Thurston, 1888) He lived in Allegheny City from 1825 until his death on November 8, 1873. Here he served on borough and city councils and was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Allegheny. In 1828, Allegheny borough (now the North Side of Pittsburgh) was incorporated and the 1830's was known as Allegheny's "Golden Age" before it was merged with the city of Pittsburgh. In 1840, the first elected President of Council was James Brown. Brown served in this position to at least 1841. James married Mary Banton in 1806 and they had five children: John H. Brown who moved to Philadelphia and founded John H. Brown Dry Goods Company; Mansfield Banton Brown who founded Carnegie, PA; and, Joseph S. Brown who would become the president of the Carrie Furnace Company later Carnegie Steel. Joseph S. Brown & Co. operated the Hope Furnace, Rose Point, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. This was one stack, 28 x 8, built in 1808. The ore and limestone were mined only 200 yards from the furnace. The entire product is used by Brown & Co's Wayne Iron and Steel Works at Pittsburgh in the manufacture of steel and plate-iron. Curiously, the son of Mansfield Banton Brown, James J. Brown, was born in 1843, and married Gertrude Schoonmaker, oldest daughter (or sister) of Col. James M. Schoonmaker and granddaughter of Joseph Stockton. Given the known descendents of this James Brown, he is not in our James Brown, William H. Brown and Peter Brown line, but he could be a cousin.

In 1818, James Brown of Franklin, PA was a lumber raft pilot probably working for Herron Lumber Company. (From: The Allegheny River, by Sarepta Kussart, 1938) In 1818, James Brown was listed among those organizing a campaign to build the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. (From: East Liberty Presbyterian Church with historical setting & a narrative of the centennial celebration, April 12-20, 1919, by Georgina G. Negley, 1919)

The 1818 will of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford mentions a tract of land in Birmingham on the south side of Pittsburgh that he had recently purchased from James Brown. (From: A goodly heritage: earliest wills on an American frontier, by Ella Chalfant, 1955) James Brown, Books and Stationery, 1313 Carson Street, Pittsburgh, PA was a popular stationary and variety store on the south side. Also, it was a depot for express freight and packages. Stock included books, periodicals, stationery, cutlery, fancy goods, novelties, musical instrument, school supplies and sewing machines. "James Brown was born in Allegheny county and lived in Pittsburgh for 30 years and been in business here since 1883, formerly he was a teamster. (From: History and commerce of Pittsburgh and environs: consisting of Allegheny, McKeesport, Braddock and Homestead, 1893-4)

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In 1819, a new brewery called "Pittsburg Brewery No. 4," was in the process of being built by Verner, Colwell & Co. The Union Brewery, owned by Brown & Scott, was also in operation. Circa 1830s1840s, James Brown partnered with James Verner in a brewery and lumber business in Pittsburgh named Brown & Verner. (From: History of Pittsburgh and environs: from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution, Vol. 5, by George T. Fleming, 1922 and the Standard History of Pittsburgh, by Erasmus Wilson, 1888)

On October 21, 1823, at Sawickly church, the Redstone Presbytery met and heard the appeal of William Clark of a decision of the Sawickly church, in which he accused James Brown with malicious lies, and attempting to cause his brother John Brown to perjure himself. The Presbytery confirmed the church decision in favor of James Brown. (From: Minutes of the Presbytery of Redstone, of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A: from the organization of Presbytery, September 19, 1781, to December, 1831, by Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A, Presbytery of Redstone, 1878)

It is noteworthy that there are many different spellings of Sewickley before it was finally standardized. Sewickly church is located on West Newton Road, just off of Route 136 and about 3 miles from Hermine, Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County. This is a few miles south of North Huntingdon and Irwin.

Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature on April, 1827 and March 1844, conveyed all rights and title to the land of the Western Theological Seminary to James Brown, John Hannen and Hugh Davis as trustees.

(From: Recollections of seventy years and historical gleanings of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, by John E. Park, 1886)

In the spring of 1828, a James Brown helped to organize the Bible Society in Armstrong County. He is also listed as one of the early settlers of the County. In 1829, he was one of the original trustees of the Western Theological Seminary. Dr. Francis Herron was the president and Dr. Matthew Brown was a director. (From: Alumni Re-union of the Western Theological Seminary: held April 16-18, 1872.)

In 1828, James Brown was a commissioner for the Pittsburgh and Coal Hill Turnpike Road.

(From:

Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by Erasmus Wilson, 1898)

James Brown served as president of the borough of Allegheny in 1828, 1829, 1834, 1840, 1841. He was a member of council in 1831, 1833, 1835, and 1836. Also, a James Brown, M.D. is listed as president of the Board of School Controllers from 1861 to 1865. (From: Recollections of seventy years and historical gleanings of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, by John E. Park, 1886)

Rev. James Brown organized the Turtle Creek Presbyterian Church in June, 1829. Services had been conducted in a grove of trees in this area as early as 1820. (From: History of the Allegheny Presbyterian Church, by Thomas Conley, 1889) Also, in the spring of 1829, James Brown is one of the original trustees of the Western Theological Seminary. (From: Alumni Re-union of the Western Theological Seminary: held April 16-18, 1872.)

On February 26, 1830, John Irwin and James Brown were elected trustees of the Presbyterian Church in "Allegheny Town". (From: The Work of a Century: History of the First Presbyterian Church of Allegheny) In 1832, James Brown and others built a market house on Liberty Street between St. Clair Street and Cecil Alley to rent stalls and provide relief to the congestion and lack of space in the existing market.

(From: Standard History of Pittsburgh, by Erasmus Wilson, 1888)

In 1834, James Brown was a vice president of the Pittsburgh branch of the Bank of the US. He was among the anti-Andrew Jackson faction who protested Jackson's attempt to defeat the rechartering 253

of the bank which was instrumental in stabilizing the economy of the early US by supporting business financing of trade. (From: A century and a half of Pittsburgh and her people, Vol. 2, by John N. Boucher, 1908; and, Allegheny county's hundred years, by George H. Thurston, 1888)

In 1836, James W. Brown and Sylvanus Lathrop were listed as founding directors when the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh was chartered by Pennsylvania. (From: A century and a half of Pittsburgh and her people, Vol. 2, by John N. Boucher, 1908; and, Allegheny county's hundred years, by George H. Thurston, 1888)

In 1838, there are 20 Browns listed in the Harris Pittsburgh Directory, including W. H. Brown, a Gunsmith at 126 Wood Street.

In 1840, James Brown was the recorder of deeds in Washington county and later in 1848 was the prothonotary. (From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, by Boyd Crumrine, 1882)

in 1837 and 1841, James Brown is reported to be the proprietor of Bedford Springs, "celebrated for restorative and healing medical properties." (From: Harris Business Directory for 1837 and 1841) The first rolling mill in Lawrence county was built in 1839 at New Castle by James D. White, Shubal Wilder, of Massachusetts, James H. Brown, and other practical ironworkers. It made cut nails and bar iron. At first only Juniata blooms were used, as the mill did not contain any puddling furnaces.

(From: Western Pennsylvanians, by the Western Pennsylvania Biographical Association, Charles Alexander Rook; 1923)

James Brown was the pastor of the Mingo Creek (later Peters Creek) Presbyterian Church form 18401843). (From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, by Earle R. Forrest, Vol. 1, 1926 and History of Washington County: from its first settlement to the present time, first under Virginia as Yohogania, Ohio, or Augusta County until 1781, and subsequently under Pennsylvania : with sketches of all the townships, boroughs, and villages, etc. and to which is added a full account of the celebrated Mason and Dixon's Line, the Whiskey Insurrection, Indian warfare, traditional and local historical events, by Alfred Creigh, 1871; and History of the Associate and United Presbyterian Presbytery of Chartiers, by John T. Brownlee, 1877)

In 1841 and 1846, James Brown served on the Washington town council.

(From: History of Washington County: from its first settlement to the present time, first under Virginia as Yohogania, Ohio, or Augusta County until 1781, and subsequently under Pennsylvania : with sketches of all the townships, boroughs, and villages, etc. and to which is added a full account of the celebrated Mason and Dixon's Line, the Whiskey Insurrection, Indian warfare, traditional and local historical events, by Alfred Creigh, 1871)

Ann (or Hannah) Brown, daughter of James Brown married William Black, son of James Black. James Black was one of the first settlers up the Youghiogheny river and settled in Coultersville, PA. William Black was raised in the same area of North Huntingdon Township as was William H. Brown. Black, W. H. Brown and a Mr. Lloyd, whose family was also from this area, partnered in ownership of the Kensington Iron Works and coal mines and coke works on the Monongahela river. (From: Genius of Liberty, December 26, 1820; and, History of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania: including its early settlement and progress to the present time ; a description of its historic and interesting localities ; its cities, towns and villages; religious, educational, social and military history ; mining, manufacturing and commercial interests, improvements, resources, statistics, etc. ; also, biographies of many of its representative citizens,

by Thomas Cushing, 1889)

James Brown a brick manufacturer with his business in McKeesport, PA, was born in Pittsburgh on April 9, 1843. He is the son of Robert and Mary (Ray) Brown. Robert was a cooper by trade and a native of Carlisle, PA and settled in Pittsburgh about 1835 but latter lived in Allegheny city. James was educated in Pittsburgh and learned the trade of brickmaker and has the oldest brickmaking business in the city. (From: History of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania: including its early settlement and progress to the present time ; a description of its historic and interesting localities ; its cities, towns and villages; religious, educational, social and military history ; mining, manufacturing and commercial interests, improvements, resources, statistics, etc; also, biographies of many of its representative citizens, by Thomas Cushing, 1889)

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In 1845, among the losses record from the Great Fire of Pittsburgh were those of two James Browns.

James Brown a merchant had losses totaling $1,500 and another James Brown had losses of $800.

(From: A full account of the great fire at Pittsburgh, on the tenth day of April, 1845: with the individual losses and contributions for relief,

by J. Heron Foster, 1845)

The Shenango Furnace was built in 1845 by Joseph H. Brown and others and operated until it "ceased operation after the death of William H. Brown, one of the largest owners." (From: Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. 3., by Lewis Clark Walkinshaw, 1939)

In 1846, a Dr. James Brown was acting pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.

(From: The First United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa: a historical and anniversary sermon, preached April 2d and 9th, 1876 , by William Reid, 1876; and, History of the First United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1801-1901, by William J. Reid, 1901]

In 1848, James Brown sold property to build the Presbyterian Church in Greensburg, PA.

(From: The

history of Greensburg, 1799-1949, by the Westmoreland County Historical Society, 1949

In 1852, there are 34 Browns listed in the Harris Pittsburgh Directory.

The following are buried in St. Clair Cemetery in Hempfield township, Greensburg, PA, (beside Westmoreland Mall) formerly called the Presbyterian graveyard and then the Borough burial ground: Margaret, born 1775, died June 22, 1831, age 56, wife of James Brown Sr.; William Brown, born 1804, died Feb.6, 1853, age 49; Lydia Brown, wife of William, died Oct 21, 1829, age 21; Robert Brown, born Dec. 5, 1763, died Nov. 17, 1849; Anna Brown, wife of Robert, died Aug. 3, 1840, age 63. (From: History of the county of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, by George D. Albert, 1882)

In 1864, Dr. James Brown was president of Allegheny City Schools and also president of the Third Ward School Board. (From: Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1864-1865, by G. H. Thurston, 1864) In 1866, James Brown was one of the first trustees of the Slate Lick Classical Institute.

(From: Armstrong

County PA, her people past and present, Vol 2, 1914)

In 1867, James Brown was the minister of an Independent Congregational Church at No. 2 St. Clair Street (now Sixth Street, Pittsburgh). (From: The Iron City: a compendium of facts concerning Pittsburgh and vicinity, for strangers and the public generally, 1867; and, Early Pittsburgh Presbyterianism: tracing the development of the Presbyterian church, United States of America, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1758-1839, By: William Wilson McKinney, 1938)

William R. Brown was part of a board of commissioners created in 1868 by an Act of the Pennsylvania Assembly for the purpose of taking charge of Pittsburgh city bonds. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Committee of Public Safety created in Allegheny County immediately after the outbreak of the Civil War. (From: The History of Pittsburgh: Its Rise and Progress, by Sarah H. Killikelly, 1906) He is also one of the commissioners appointed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to create the Pittsburg Railways Company. (From: History of the Pittsburg Railways Company and its underlying companies, by W. C. Farnsworth, 1903) William R. Brown is also listed as the Chief Clerk of the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office in 1898. (From: Pittsburg Press Almanac and Cyclopedia of Useful Information, 1898) On the 13th Ward map on the Historic Pittsburgh Project for the 1870's there is a large parcel marked Brown not far from the Herron family property and the Minersville Cemetery.

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The 1872 plot map of the 22nd Ward of Pittsburgh shows James Brown owns property on Four Mile Run just below the plot of Captain E. W. H. Schenley that would later become Schenley Park. Browns Station is in the Twenty-third Ward - All of Peebles Township between the Monongahela River and the south line of Twenty-second Ward.

In 1876, James Brown & Company was a charter member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce.

(From: Fifty-years of the Chamber of commerce of Pittsburgh, 1874-1924, by the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, 1924)

In 1892, James Herron Brown is listed as the Burgess of Brownsville. This date is incorrect as James Herron Brown died in 1882. (From: History of Washington County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, by Boyd Crumrine, 1882)

The following are listed in The Pittsburgh Blue Book 1895: Miss Annie Brown and William R. Brown, Jr. at 402 Penn Avenue Major A. M. Brown Mrs. Thomas M. Brown Mr. & Mrs. John H. Herron (Mrs. Caroline Brown) Nannie Gibson Herron Eugene O'Neill Herron Samuel S. Brown Mrs. Samuel S. Brown Mrs. Grace M. Brown

) ) )

William S. Brown Mrs. Emma Lucas Brown Miss Nellie W. Brown William McC. Brown Edwin L. Brown

) ) ) ) )

Mr. W. Harry Brown Mrs. W. Harry Brown

) )

) ) ) ) )

Same household Liberty Ave near corner Pacific Ave. Shadyside East End

Browns Station, B & O RR PO Conestoga Building

Main Street Braddock PA PRR

Forbes Ave. corner Halket East End

The following foundries were owned and operated by James W. Brown: Hussey, Howe & Brown, Beaver Howe, Brown Steel Works, Pittsburgh Colonial Iron Works, Beaver Falls, Beaver Co. Beaver Falls Cutlery Company, Beaver Co. & Pittsburgh In 1835, James W. Brown was a member of the first board of directors of the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh. (From: Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by Erasmus Wilson, 1898)

In 1837, James W. Brown was the secretary of the Pittsburgh Board of Trade.

(From: Harris' Pittsburgh business directory for the year 1837: including the names of all the merchants, manufacturers, mechanics, professional, & men of business of Pittsburgh and its vicinity, 1837)

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(Picture from Notable men of Pittsburgh and vicinity,by Percy F. Smith, 1901)

Also in 1837, James W. Brown was a delegate to a large railway convention to consider construction of a railroad westward from Pittsburgh. (From: Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by Erasmus Wilson, 1898) In 1841, James W. Brown & Co. are listed as dealers in foreign merchandise in the Second Ward of the city of Pittsburgh. (From: Harris' general business directory of the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny: and also of the most flourishing and important towns and cities of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Western New York, Virginia, etc., containing, 1841, by Isaac Harris, 1841)

In 1867, the Beaver Falls Cutlery Company was organized by Dr. C. G. Hussey and Gen. Thomas Howe and James W. Brown, of Pittsburgh.

In 1878, James W. Brown was among the original incorporators of Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh. (From: History of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania: including its early settlement and progress to the present time; by Thomas Cushing, 1889)

In 1879, James W. Brown was vice president of the founding Board of Governors of the Pittsburgh Club. (From: Pittsburgh Club constitution and rules, 1904)

Ad for Beaver Falls Cutlery Co. from: Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1870.

Howe, Brown & Co. formed in 1888 with James W. Brown as chairman and Geo. A. Howe, vice chairman.

Plant covered the entire block bordered by 16th, 18th and Pike Streets and the Allegheny River. It had 14 puddling furnaces, 47 heating furnaces, 18 steam hammers, 26 Siemens furnaces, 11 train rolls and an open heart furnace. The firm had 800+ employees and have branch offices in Boston and Chicago.

(From: History and Commerce of Pittsburgh and environs, 1894)

In 1889, James W. Brown was the junior Grand Deacon for Masonic Lodge 321. (From: History of Lodge no. 45, F. & A. M., 1785-1910, by Freemasons, Pittsburgh., Lodge no. 45, Frederick C. Rommel, circa 1912) James Brown is also listed as the Secretary for Masonic Lodge 318 in Pittsburgh.

In 1895, James W. Brown was a member of the Art Society of Pittsburg.

(From: The Pittsburgh and Allegheny blue

book, 1895)

In 1898, James W. Brown is listed as a trustee for St. Margaret Memorial Hospital.

(From: Pittsburg Press

almanac and cyclopedia of useful information, 1898)

In 1901, James W. Brown was the president of Colonial Steel Company and in 1904 he was a member of Congress from Beaver county and also the president of Colonial Steel Company. (From: History of Beaver County, Vol. 2, by Richard J. Fraise, 1888)

In 1904, James W. Brown was chairman of the building committee for the new Calvary Episcopal Church to be built on the corner of Shady Avenue and Walnut Street. (From: A descriptive guide of Calvary Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by T. Siviter, 1925)

In 1903, James W. Brown was listed as the sole Trustee for the Bondholders of the Pittsburgh Golf Club at Schenley Park. (From: The Pittsburgh Golf Club: organized August, 1896, by the Pittsburgh Golf Club, 1904) In 1904, Alice Howe Brown, daughter of James W. Brown married Samuel Clarke Reed a vice president of the Oil Well Supply Company. (From: Pittsburgh of today: its resources and people, Vol. 4, Frank C. Harper, 1931)

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In 1908, James W. Brown was the First Vice Chairman (H. J. Heinz was Second Vice Chairman) of the General Committee of the Pittsburgh Sesqui-Centenial Committee. (From: 150 years of unparalleled thrift: Pittsburgh Sesqui-centennial chronicling a development from a frontier camp to a mighty city; official history and programme, Edward White], circa 1908)

In 1911, the Prominent Families of Pittsburgh, list Mrs. James W. Brown of Woodland Road and her son Charles M. Brown and his family including children James W. Brown, Charles M. Brown, Jr. and Nancy W. Brown. (From: Prominent Families, Pittsburgh, 1911) In 1919, Mrs. James W. Brown is a trustee for the Industrial Home for Crippled Children and on the Board of Managers. (From: Annual report, 17th, 1919/1920, by the Industrial Home for Crippled Children (Pittsburgh, Pa.), 1919) Mrs. James W. Brown, the former Clara T. Howe, daughter of Thomas M. Howe and Mary Ann Palmer who lived at Greystone an estate and mansion in the east end of Pittsburgh. Later, this property would be divided and homes were built there for his daughters. The property would later become Chatham College in Pittsburgh. (From: History of Pittsburgh and environs: from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution, Vol. 3, by George T. Fleming, 1922) Thomas Howe and son George A. Howe are principals of Howe, Brown & Co. (From: Standard History of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by Erasmus Wilson, 1898)

James W. Brown was also a director of Citizens Insurance Co. the oldest insurance company in Pittsburgh (incorporated in 1849). (From: J. F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1882)

James W. Brown is listed among residents and interns of Eye and Ear Hospital of Pittsburgh. (From: The first seventy-five years: a history of the Eye and Ear Hospital of Pittsburgh, by Robert W. Nickeson, 1970)

From 1875 until 1896, James Brown was the controller for Allegheny County.

(From: Comptroller's Annual Report Cit of Allegheny City, 1875)

In 1889, Hon. James Brown was a member of Shady Side Academy corporation (also, Charles M. Brown and Col. James M. Schoonmaker was a charter member and corporator). (From: So Stand throughout the years: a history of Shady Side Academy 1883-1958,

by George Swetnam, 1958)

In 1897, James W. Brown is listed as District Deputy Grand Master of the 28th Masonic District including all lodges in the Pittsburgh area.

(Ad for Citizens Insurance Company from: J. F. Diffenbacher's Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, 1882)

(From: J. F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1897)

In 1913, a James Brown Neale was living in Minersville. He was related to John C. and Elizabeth Colwell Neale of 230 Thorn Street, Sewickley. (From: Prominent Families, 1913) It is also noted that the family's summer home was Blackburn Farm, Sewickley Heights. Born in 1837 and died in 1903, he became president judge of the 33rd judicial district of PA in 1879. His mother was Margaret Brown, daughter of Robert Brown, whose father James Brown, Sr. served in the American Revolution. For many years, James Brown Neale practices law in Kittanning and on retiring from the bench formed a law office partnership with John H. Painter. The Linton Case in US circuit court: Linton & wife vs James Brown Neale re: the will of James Brown of Kittanning which distributed a very large estate both personal and real, the latter lying in many states of the Union.

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Curiously, a look at early furnaces and rolling mills show some interesting names and actual or potential Brown family connections.

The following were operated by John H. Brown & Company Lamb's Forge, Fayette Co. Little Pet Furnace, Lawrence Co. Rosena Furnace (ca.1872-1880), Lawrence Co. Pennsylvania Rolling Mill, Allegheny Co. Shenango Iron Works, Lawrence Co. Shenango Rolling Mill, Lawrence Co. Sophia Furnace, Lawrence Co. Valley Rolling Mill (ca.1848-1873), Armstrong Co. Wayne Iron & Steel Works, (ca.1829- ? ), Allegheny Co. Wayne Rolling Mill (ca.1835- ? ), Allegheny Co. Operated by John Brown and William Brown: Freedom Forge, Mifflin Co. Also operated as Brown & Maclay Company Brown Furnace, Mifflin Co. Operated by Herron, Ohl & Company: Wheatland Furnace, Wheatland, Mercer County. Four stacks, built from 1860 to 1865; one, 46 x 9, and three, 46 x 12; combined annual capacity, 30,000 net tons. Out of blast 1875. Also had a rolling mill.

Operated by James E. Brown: Cowanshannock Furnace, Armstrong Co. is along Cowanshannock Creek, 3 miles North of Kittanning, PA. Jeremiah and James Bonner built this furnace in 1845. Among several owners are: James E. Brown, Brown and Connell, and Brown and Ball.

Pine Creek Furnace, Armstrong Co. (Brown & Mosgrove Company) Most if not all of these furnaces and rolling mills were at one time all or part owned by W. H. Brown.

This could be a strong indicator of familial connections. Certainly this is true in the case of John H. Brown mentioned earlier.

Regardless of clear connections to these early Browns in America, we do know that by 1800, James Brown, the father of William Hughey Brown and Peter Brown had settled in western Pennsylvania.

Likewise, Samuel Smith, the father of Mary Smith Brown, is recorded often in the history of the city of Pittsburgh and the region.

Samuel Smith was an early iron puddler, mechanic and steam engine builder who settled in Pittsburgh in the late 1700s or early 1800s. Any or all of the following could have been owned and operated by Samuel Smith: S. Smith & Company Nail Factory (ca.1811- ? ), Allegheny Co. 259

Smith, Minis & Holmes Foundry (ca.1812- ? ), Allegheny Co. Smith & Company Rolling Mill (ca.1827- ? ), Allegheny Co. What we do know for sure is that in 1812, Samuel Smith built and operated the second steamboat on the western rivers.

Also, we know that Mary Smith Brown's oldest brother was Charles Smith, a son of Samuel Smith.

Simon Smith was the brother of Samuel Smith and served with Joseph Winders as executors of Samuel Smith's will.

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Surname: Brown, Browne, Broun, de BrĂşn Brown is today a very common surname. It is the second most common name in Scotland, it ranks as the fifth most common surname in England and the fourth most common family name in the US, surpassing Jones for that position in 2000. Only Smith, Johnson and Williams have more family members than the 1,380,145 Browns in the US. Of that number, 60.71% are self defined as White, 34.54% as Black, 1.86 as Multiracial, 1.64% as Hispanic, .41% as Asian, and .83% as Native American.

(From: 2000 US Census)

The spelling variations of our family name include: Brown (sometimes with an "e" at the end), Broun, Braun, Bruen, Bruan, Brohn, Bruene, Brun, de Brun and other variants.

This ancient and prolific surname derives, from a pre-seventh century Germanic and Anglo-Saxon word "brun" or the Olde Norse personal name "Bruni".

Brown is a common surname found in early England, Scotland and Ireland. Originally, Brown would have been a descriptive surname or tribal nickname referring to the color of the individual's complexion, color of hair, or garments, from the Middle English broun, or from Old English brun, meaning "brown."

It may also have referred to someone who habitually wore brown clothing, such as a monk or cleric. As a Scottish or Irish name, Brown may also be a translation of the Gaelic donn for "brown."

Brown is the second most common surname among African Americans in the United States. Some freed slaves adopted the surname Brown following the Civil War for the obvious reason that it described their appearance, but there were also many who adopted the surname Brown in honor of abolitionist John Brown, as well as for other reasons.

In earliest days, there were no surnames in Anglo-Saxon England. You might be called "Alfred the Thatcher" or "Oswin the Brown" but these tags were personal to you; your children would not be called Thatcher or Brown unless they too were thatchers, or brown haired/skinned. Surnames didn't start to be adopted until long after the Anglo-Saxon period. By about 1400 pretty much everyone in England had a surname.

Ireland was one of the first countries to adopt hereditary surnames, many of which were devised during the reign of Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland, who fell defending Ireland from the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 AD. Many of these names began as patronyms to define a son from his father or grandson from his grandfather. Thus, the reason for the common prefixes found on Irish surnames.

Mac, sometimes written Mc, is the Gaelic word for "son" and was attached to the father's name or trade. O is a word all by itself, signifying "grandson" when attached to a grandfather's name or trade.

The apostrophe that usually follows the O actually comes from a misunderstanding by English-speaking clerks in Elizabethan time, who interpreted it as a form of the word "of." Another common Irish prefix, Fritz, derives from the French word fils, also meaning "son."

English family names passed down intact from father to son to grandson began in England as early as the eleventh century. Such hereditary names were not universally prevalent and settled, however, prior to the era of the Reformation in sixteenth century England. It is conjectured that the introduction of parish registers in 1538 was a great influence in this, as a person entered under one surname at baptism would not be likely to be married under another name, and buried under a third. Some areas of England

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came later to the use of surnames, however. It was not until the late seventeenth century that many families in Yorkshire and Halifax took permanent surnames.

Scottish surnames were first introduced into Scotland by the Normans about the year 1100. Such hereditary names were not universally prevalent and settled, however. The use of fixed Scottish surnames (last names that didn't change with each generation) wasn't really in prevalent use until the 16th century, and it was well into the late 18th century before surnames were common in the Highlands and northern isles.

Browns in England The earliest Browns are thought to have settled in the ancient English county of Cumberland where they were granted lands by the William, Duke of Normandy and also known as William the Conqueror.

These Cumberland land grants were awarded to the Browns for their assistance to William at the Battle of Hastings in1066 AD. Cumberland is a historic county in northwestern England from the 12th century until 1974. As shown on the map, it is surrounded on its eastern and southern sides by the English counties of Northumberland, Durham, Westmoreland and Lancashire. To the north is Dumfrieshire in Scotland and to the west is Solway Firth and the Irish Sea. From 945 AD, when the Anglo Saxon Chronicle first records the area as given to Malcolm I of Scotland by King Edmund of England, until the Treaty of York in 1237 AD, ownership and control of the district of Cumberland was hotly disputed between Scots and English.

The first recorded spelling of the family name anywhere in the world is probably that of William le Brun, which was dated 1169, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Northumberland, England. This was during the reign of King Henry II (1154-1189), known as "The church builder". Another of the early surname recordings are those of Hugh Bron of Stafford, England, in the year 1274.

Browns in Ireland In western Ireland, the Browns were the descendants of a knight called " Hugo le Brun" who formed one of the fourteen merchant families known as the Tribes of Galway, as recorded in the "Annals of the Nine Kings".

These families dominated the political, commercial, and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late-19th centuries. The Tribes were merchant families who prospered from trade with continental Europe. They dominated Galway's municipal government during the medieval and early modern eras. The Tribes distinguished themselves from the Gaelic peoples who lived in the hinterland of the city.

This Brown family descends from Sir Hugh le Brun of Wales, who was in turn descended from the Counts of Marche in Normandy. A nephew of his, also named Hugh married Isabel Augouleme. She was the queen consort of England as the second wife English King John. After King John's death, Isabel married Hugh. Their son, William de Valence, was created the Earl of Pembroke in Wales, by King Henry III. The 262

first-mentioned Hugh had another son, Stephen who married Eva, sister of Griffith, Prince of Wales, and they had three sons: Hugh, Philip and William. The latter two having distinguished themselves in the Civil Wars against Henry were, to escape his resentment, obliged to join in the invasion of Ireland by Strongbow, in 1170, in which year Philip was appointed Governor of Wexford. The Brownes of Mulrankan remained in Wexford till their property was confiscated in the Commonwealth period.

Philip, of Mulrankan, is said to have been the ancestor of the Matthew Browne of Mulrankan, from whose son, Sir John Browne, are descended Lord Kilmaine and the Marquis of Sligo. David, a great grandson of William (Philip's brother), was companion-in-arms of Rickard de Burgo, the Red Earl of Ulster, with whom he was connected by marriage, and obtained extensive possessions near Athenry, the capital of the Anglo-Norman settlers in Connaught. He died at David's Castle; having with his son Aymer built the Castle of Carrabrowne, in Oranmore, thus establishing what would become the Browne dynasty in Galway.

The Tribes lost much of their power within Galway city after English Parliamentarians took over the Galway Corporation in 1654. Because of the uncertain response to this dilemma by the merchant families, Cromwell's forces referred to them by the derogatory name, "The Tribes of Galway", which they themselves later adopted as a mark of defiance. Galway's urban elite enjoyed a measure of their power restored during the reign of the King Charles II (1660–1685) and his successor James II. However, the Jacobite defeat in the War of the Two Kings (1689–91), marked the end of the Tribes' once overwhelming political influence on the life of the city – which passed to its small Protestant population.

Garrison members of the tribes who owned land in Galway and Mayo were protected by the advantageous surrender provisions that were signed on July 22, 1691.

Browns in Scotland Brown is the second most common name in Scotland. The family name has a specifically Scottish pedigree that can be traced to the early 12th century. The Broun family has a crest recognized by the Lord Lyon King at Arms and is included in the list of clans and families maintained by the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs. They also have a recognized tartan. In Scotland, this Clan Broun is also known as Clan Brown.

One historian asserts that Browns may be of Celtic origin named after their descent from native judges, who were known as brehons. Walterus Brown was involved with the church in Glasgow in 1116 and Richard de Broun and others with the same surname signed the Ragman Roll in 1296 when all the nobles and landowners were forced to swear allegiance to King Edward I of England.

The Scottish Lowland name of Brown achieved prominence in the early twelfth century in East Lothian. The Brouns of East Lothian claim descent from the ancient royal house France. They also claim descent from George Broun, who, in 1543 married Jean Hay, daughter of the third Lord Yester, ancestor of the Marquesses of Tweeddale. The lady's dowry included the celebrated 'Coulston Pear' which her remote ancestor, Hugo de Gifford of Yester, a famous magician, was supposed to have invested with the extraordinary virtue of securing unfailing prosperity for the family which possessed it.

Sir David Le Brun was a witness to the laying of the foundation of Holyrood Abbey in 1128. He had given lands to the abbey in return for prayers said for the health of his son. The chiefly family, the Brouns of 263

Colstoun enjoyed considerable royal favor, which may have been because of their claimed descent from the royal house of France. The chief's arms even bear the three gold lilies of France. The family married into other noble families such as that of the chiefs of Clan Hay. There is little doubt that many of the Browns, Brownes and Brouns that settled in the northern parts of Ireland spring from these families.

(From: Way, George and Squire, Romily. Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia.. Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs. Published in 1994.)

Brown Family Crests The Scottish Brown family crests are likely the most ancient and original representation of Brown family heraldry. The Scottish crest includes three French lilies (fleur de lis) representing the Normandy connection of the invasion of William the Conquer.

The Brown family motto "Floreat Majestas" often found on Brown family crests means "Let majesty flourish".

The shield color is royal blue with three golden lilies.

Several other versions of Brown family crests appear in Ireland:

Browne of the Tribes of Galway

Browne of the Mulrankan, Wexford

Browne of Killarney, Earls of Kenmare

Browne of Mayo

Browne of County Down

Scottish Clan Brown Tartans

Broun of Coldston

Brown of Castledeen

Brown Watch

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Brown Watch Dress

Some Notable Browns Ignatius Brown (d. 1679), born in Waterford, had to be sent to Spain to be educated. There he joined the Jesuit Order and was confessor to the queen. Later he moved to France to become rector of the Irish seminary at Poitiers.

George Browne (1698-1792) was one of a number of Brownes who, to their misfortune, favored the illfated Stuart King, James II. Following his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, the Brownes of Camus, County Limerick, seeing no opportunity for their young son to follow the gentlemanly occupation of arms, sent him abroad. He joined the Russian imperial army and began a life of high adventure. He was imprisoned three times after various battles. He was sold as a slave to the Turks, but was eventually released. Having shown exceptional skill and bravery, he was appointed Field Marshal to Czar Peter of Russia. As Count George Browne, he became Governor of Livonia. He had become a great favorite with the powerful Empress Catherine and she would not consider letting him go, so he remained in Russia, dying there at the age of 94.

Maxmilian Ulysses Browne (1705-57), a kinsman from the Camus family, whose Jacobite father was exiled following the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, entered the imperial service of Austria and became a Field Marshal. He was created Count of the Empire by Charles VI of Austria and was killed at the battle of Prague.

In the twentieth century, the Irish literary world was startled by Christy Brown (1932-81). Born in the slums of Dublin, one of six children, he was almost completely paralysed from birth. His persevering mother taught him to read and, using his left foot, to write and paint. His paintings were exhibited and he achieved maturity and international acclaim with his autobiography, My Left Foot and his novel, Down All the Days. A very successful film has been made of his life.

Former residences built by Brownes are located all over Ireland, although some have been demolished, burned down or put to other use. Clongowes Wood College, one of Ireland's premier boys' schools, was a former eighteenth century Castle Browne, in County Kildare. Ashford Castle, County Galway, a Brown home, is now a palatial hotel. It was here that President Ronald Reagan stayed during his 1983 visit and that several EU conferences have been hosted.

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BROWN FAMILY - BUSINESSES, COMPANIES & RAILROADS Companies of Samuel Smith: Samuel Smith Iron Works & Steam Engines Merchants & Manufacturers Bank - 1832 Exchange Bank Good Intent Lines Pittsburgh Institute of Arts and Sciences – 1836 Smith & Irwin Steam Engine Manufacturing Co. – 1838, in 1839 Pittsburgh Business Directory Samuel Smith is listed as a Steam Engine Manufacturer Samuel Smith Iron Works Co – 1851, in the Pittsburgh Business Directory, 30th and Penn Ave. Downtown, also address on Herron Hill.

Mining & Coke Co’s: Herron & Brown Co. Lloyd, Black & Brown Co. W. H. Brown Co. Brown & Cochran Brown & Jones Co. Paull, Brown & Co. W. H. Brown Sons & N. M. Jones Co. – from Brown & Jones Co Brown Bros. Coal Co. Brown & Dettling Coal Co. Pittsburgh Coal Company Duncan, Cornell & Werling Mining Co. Ohio Valley Coal & Coke Co. – Ohio Valley Coal & Mining Co. Cairo Coal Co. New Orleans Coal Depot/13 Commercial Place James Schoonmaker Coal & Coke Co. Morewood Coal & Coke Co. - H. C. Frick & J.M. Schoonmaker, partners. In 1882 this was the largest coal & coke operation in the country, located southwest of Mount Pleasant; it had 470 ovens.

Washington Coal & Coke Co. – W. Harry Brown Manufacturing Co’s: Peter Brown Tannery – Armstrong County Brown, Reis & Berger Co. – Shenago Iron Works, W.H. Brown, president (founded by Joseph H. Brown ) Cambria Iron & Steel Co. – with Paull, Brown & Co. Brown Hoisting Machinery Co. – SSB Brown & Hirth Enterprise Gun Works – WSB W. S. Brown Company - Guns, Cutlery and Sporting Goods W.T. Stockton Co. – white lead & paints, oldest paint co. in US, J.M. Schoonmaker

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Steamboat & Transport Co’s: Anchor Line Pittsburgh-Morgantown Packet Co. – SSB Greenville & New Orleans Packet Co. – SSB Arkansas River Packet Co. – SSB Memphis & Arkansas City Packet Co. – SSB Memphis, Helena & Rosedale Packet Co. Railroads: Ohio Railroad – SSB, pres.

Lake Erie & Ohio Railroad – W. Harry Brown Washington Run Railroad – W. Harry Brown Pittsburgh-Steubenville Railroad – JMS Illinois Central Railroad – SSB & Dr. P.G. Kelsey Ohio Valley Railroad – SSB Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad – JMS, president Montour Railroad Hotels, Banks, Civic Assns., & Charities: Monongahela House Hotel, SSB 1st National Bank of Dawson Commercial National Bank Dollar Savings Bank, WHarry First National Bank, W. Harry Marine National Bank Mellon National Bank, JMS Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce, SSB Pittsburgh Trust Co., JMS State Bank of Braddock, WSB Tradesmens National Bank, JMS Union Savings Bank, JMS Union Trust Co., SSB Allegheny County Treasuer, WSB Pittsburgh City Council, SSB, WHarry, WSB Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce Pittsburgh Coal Exchange Duquesne Club, WSB, SSB and WHarryB founding members American Red Cross, MrsWHB Brown’s Station School, oldest in Pgh Carnegie Library of Braddock, WSB Community Chest/Federation of Charities, MrsWHB Mary Smith Brown Memorial Methodist Church Pittsburgh Blind Association Shut-In Society, Marnie Brown Western Theological Seminary, JMS

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BROWN FAMILY - MINES & COKE WORKS Alice Mine Alicia Mine Arnold Mine Banning Mine No. 1 Black Diamond Mine Boston Mine No. 1 Boston Mine No. 2 Brown Mine Brown Brothers Mine Brownsdale Mine W.H. Brown Mine Buena Vista Mine Bunola Mine Catsburg Mine Cincinnati Mine Clarissa Mine Coal Bluff Mine Cochran Mine No. 1 Cornell and Werling Mines Courtney Mine Cowan Mine Crucible Mine

Delmont Mines Dickson Mines Elk Horn Mine Equitable Mine Euclid Mine Hazel Mine Henderson Mine Hodgson Mine Hutchinson Mine Iron City Mine Jimtown Coke Works Keystone Mine No. 1 Keystone Mine No. 2 Linley Mine Lower Walton Mine Mahoning Mine & Coke Works Manown Mine Mathies Mine McClosky Mine Minersville Mine Mingo Mine Mongah Mine

Montour Mines Moon Run Mine Morewood Mine Mure Mine National Mine Nellie Mine Oak Hill Mines Old Eagle Mine Paull Mine Port Perry Mine Roaring Run Mine Smock Mine Turtle Creek Mine Washington Mine No. 1 Washington Mine No. 2 Washington Mine No. 3 Washington Mine No. 4 Washington Mine No. 5 Wild Cat Hollow Mine Youghiogheny Mine 1 Youghiogheny Mine 2

Pool 1 mines: PORT-PERRY MINE, (11 1/2 miles from Pittsburgh.) Located on the east side of the river.

TURTLE CREEK MINE, (11 miles from Pittsburgh.) Located at upper side of Turtle creek.

BROWN MINE, (6 ¼ miles from Pittsburgh.) Located on the east side of the river near Logtown at Nine Mile Run, now called Browns Station. First owned by David Bushnell, later W. H. Brown.

HODGSON MINE, (5 ¼ miles from Pittsburgh.) Located at Logtown, now called Brown Station on the east side of the river. Opened in 1843 by Daniel Bushnell and Wm. Munson. The improvements, consisting of a slide tipple, gravity plane and check house, were built out of sugar timber growing in the vicinity of the mine. The property was sold to Wm. H. Brown in 1850. He built a new road, about 500 yards up the river from the old one, and mined out the remainder of the coal contained in the property.

Pool 2 mines: BLACK DIAMOND MINE, (32 mlles from PittMburgh.) (PIC – Black Diamond Mine Tiple) This mine was sold to Wm. H. Brown in 1869. He built a slide tipple and continued to operate until about the time of his death in 1875. It was then operated by his heirs. It has not been in operation since that time. It still belongs to the heirs of Wm. H. Brown, deceased.

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OLD EAGLE, (28 1/4 miles from Pittsburgh.) (PIC Old Eagle locomotive) W. H. Brown Co., Monongahela City, also called “Old Eagle Mine”. The coal is hauled over an outside road from this entry of the mine to the tipple house, a distance of 900 yards, by a compressed air locomotive. This locomotive consists of two cylinders, each 22 feet in length and 36 inches in diameter, placed on a truck or carriage side by side, which, together with its levers, connections, and other necessary parts, amounts to 27 feet in total length. It is charged by the use of a high and a low pressure air engine run by steam power stationed near the pit mouth. The amount of pressure used, as indicated by the air gauge, is 400 pounds per square inch. The locomotive makes a round trip in from seven to ten minutes, which reduces the pressure to about 250 pounds. They haul out 30 full cars at a trip and can easily haul 50 cars at a time.

A clear entry way eight feet wide and six feet high is necessary for the safe passage of the locomotive where the track is straight ; and where the entry is curved a somewhat larger opening is required. Mules are used in the mine to distribute the empty cars through the workings, and collect the loaded ones together into trains at the parting, from whence they are taken by the locomotive.

ELKHORN MINE, across the river from Mitchell Power Plant. There was a post office, Railroad Station, Hotel, School and a few miner houses of the W.H. Brown & Sons coal mine. Hardly any signs of a coal mine is there now and only a hand full of houses remain. The one large house that remains is the residence of Ms. Molnar and Molnars Marina. Elkhorn road is up over the hill.

MANOWN MINE was located very near Elkhorn Mine.

LOWER WALTON NINE, (22.3, miles from Pittsburgh.) Located in West Elizabeth, and is 21 miles from the last named place by rail.

McCLOSKY MINE, (12 1/2 miles from Pittsburgh.) At upper end of Saltsburg, on east side of the river.

SALTWORKS MINE, (12 3/10 miles from Pittsburgh.) At Saltsburg, on the east side of the river.

KEYSTONE MINE, (12 1/4 miles from Pittsburgh.) At lower end of Saltsburg, on the east side of the river.

Pool 3 Mines: IRON CITY MINE (37 miles from Pittsburgh) W.H. Brown purchased 226 acres of coal and river frontage at this place in 1863, opened the mine and built the necessary improvements and operated until 1864.

Youghiogheny River Coal Mines: CORNELL AND WERLING MINE. Located at Boston, on the west side of the river, 3 5/8 miles from its mouth. (PIC Cornell -Werling coal tiple) Non-River Mines: ALICE MINE – W. H. Brown, later J. M. Schoonmaker, in Connellsville area MINERSVILLE MINE – Herron & Brown Co., at foot of Herron Hill MAHONING MINE & COKE WORKS – Paull, Brown & Co. MOREWOOD MINE – H.C. Frick & J.M. Schoonmaker, Morewood Coal & Coke Co. (Note: All of above from: Report on coal mines on the Monongahela River from WV to Pittsburgh, 1884)

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BROWN FAMILY - STEAMBOATS & YACHTS Comet, 2nd Steamboat on the western rivers, built

by D. French for Samuel Smith Enterprise, Capt. Henry Shreve take munitions & supplies to Andrew Jackson at Battle of New Orleans Little Swan, legend of anchor symbol Walter Forward Tempest, ½ interest, w/ Walter Forward 1st tow to New Orleans and back General Larimer Grampus CSS Grampus Alonzo Child William H. Brown, Civil war dispatch boat Harry Brown Alice Brown Charles Brown Sam Brown Samuel Brown S.S. Brown, built after SS Brown died, later renamed Majestic W. S. Brown Jim Brown Nellie Brown Alicia Alarm Alex Swift John Penny Delta Corsair

M. Dougherty Mariner, first to go thru a lock toll free Percy Kelsey Valiant Voyager Vanguard Volunteer Charley Clarke Cruiser Clipper Resolute Dexter B.T. Enos Empire City Crystal City Duquesne Ironsides Eugene Joe Peters Carondolet, owned by Brown & Jones Co. Liberty, owned by Brown & Jones Co. JM White, part owner Kate Adams, part owner + 1,000 Barges Troubadour, Capt. S.S. Brown’s yacht Visitor, Capt. W.Harry Brown’s yacht Visitor II, Capt. W. Harry Brown’s yacht Visitor III, Visitor IV

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BROWN FAMILY – RACETRACKS AND FARMS Race Horses owned, raced or bred by Captain Samuel S. Brown: Stable racing colors: Royal Blue & Cherry with Tan Pants

Ascension, 1875, finished 10th tenth in the 2nd KY Derby Kimball, owned with Cottrill, 1880, 2nd KY Derby Runnymeade, owned with Cottrill, 1882, 2nd Ky Derby Babcock, owned with Cottrill, 1882, 2nd Belmont Buchanan, 1884 wins KY Derby Masterpiece, 1886 KY Derby, finished 10th & last Troubadour, 1886 wins Suburban Handicap, 1887 American Champion Blue Wing, 1886, finished 2nd KY Derby; 1887, finished 2nd Brooklyn Jockey Club Stakes Buddhist, 1889 wins Preakness Stakes Lookout, 1893, wins KY Derby Broomstick, 1903, wins his first three starts: the Juvenile, Expectation, and Great American Stakes Broadcloth, 1904, wins Manhattan Handicap Proceeds, 1904 KY Derby favorite, finished 5th & last Agile, 1905 wins KY Derby Whisk Broom II, 1913 wins Victoria Cup (England), Suburban Stakes and is Horse of the Year Regret, 1915 wins KY Derby, 1st filly, Horse of Year Audience Auditor Conjourer Lamplighter Senorita Reckon – famous brood mare

The following horses were either owned with Cottrill or acquired after his death when SSB assumed full ownership of Cottrill’s stables and race tracks: Ascender Ascot Belle Banneret Billy Williamson Bonaventure Bonnie Lass Buckden Bucktie Carrie Fish Colonel Sprague Corinne Sprague Harry Gilmore Jennie C. Jim Guest Maggie G. Maggie Mitchell Magnolia Meta H. Minaret Pauline Sprague Sally Watson And many other winners and losers.

Race Tracks & Farms 1884 SSB buys half interest in all Captain William Cottrill’s racing stables and tracks. 1886, SSB assumes full ownership following Cottrill’s illness and death. (Could this be the origin of the Wildwood Farm).

Bascombe Downs (Mobile, AL), 1885, SSB owns and also used as his winter training track Magnolia Racetrack (Baton Rouge, LA), 1885 Churchill Downs, SSB becomes controlling stockholder in 1902 272

Kentucky Racing Association (Keeneland Race Track), SSB becomes outright owner in 1902 Latonia Racetrack, Newport, KY, now called Turfway Park Memphis Jockey Club and Racetrack Saratoga Racetrack, part owner w/ the Belmont family Wildwood Farm Senorita Stud Oak Hill Farm, on plateau above Alicia Mine property along the Monongahela river in Luzerne township, Fayette counnty.

Oak Hill Farm, Mt. Saint Macrina Retreat. A second Oak Hill Farm was located high on the hill overlooking Uniontown, PA. This farm once named Oak Hill was the estate of several wealthy families. First, the Boyle family of Mrs. Harry Brown, later owned by Captain Samuel S. Brown and J.V. Thompson. This property, visible from U.S. Route 40 east of Uniontown, is now the Mt. St. Macrina Monastery and retreat center.

Linger-Longer Farm. Located high on Laurel Ridge above Uniontown on US route 40, the National Road. The site of Linger-Longer is on the right side of the road approximately 1 mile east of the Summit Inn on US40 near where Sandy Creek flows under the road.

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TIMELINE - BROWN FAMILY HISTORY Part I. Pre-History to 1799 15,000 B.C. approximate

For thousands of years, Native Americans inhabited the region where the Allegheny and the Monongahela join to form the Ohio. Prehistoric hunters and gatherers would leave traces of their lives at the oldest site of human habitation in North America, the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter. Paleo-Indians camped at this rock shelter high in a bluff overlooking Cross Creek (a stream running into the Ohio River.

The site is near Avella, Washington County, PA, about 36 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.

Native Americans from the preClovis era would first use the site but use was continuous for 17,000 to possibly 19,000 years-the longest-known sequence of habitation in the eastern half of North America. (from: Pittsbrugh: an Urban Portrait; F. Toker, 1986). Now a National Historic Landmark, the shelter is a massive rock overhang with evidence of fire and storage pits and stone, ceramic and bone artifa cts (objects made or modified by people) “. . . . that suggest the presence of specialized work areas and roasting pits�. (from: Heinz History Center/Measdowdroft Rockshelter website). "...the Meadowcroft Rockshelter near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, show[s] that people may have lived in North America nearly 20,000 years ago." (from: National Geographic Magazine, 2000). The site has yielded evidence of animal processing, such as deer, elk, bird eggs and mussels, as well as plants such as corn, squash, fruits, nuts and seeds. Many tools have also been found and at least one basin shaped hearth was reused over time.

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400-500 A.D. approximate

Indians created the largest burial mound in Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie had the mound partially excavated in the late 1890s, unearthing 33 skeletons and stone, copper and shell artifacts for display at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. The mound sits on a promontory overlooking the Ohio River at McKees Rocks Hill. The site was created by the Adena Indians, who used their hands and baskets of dirt to build mounds for their sacred burial ceremonies. Their culture dates back to 1000 B.C. but this mound, 161 feet high and 85 feet in diameter, was a more recent creation. Artifacts found at the site include items made of copper and marine shells which may indicate these Indians participated in widespread trade. der and another at the top of Grant’s Hill in Pittsburgh. (from: Pittsburgh: an Urban Portrait; F. Toker, 1986).

Indian Burial Mound McKees Rocks Hill

1612

The French explorer Etienne Brule is believed to be the first European to see the Great Lakes. Brule, believed to have been born in 1592, journeyed to North America with Samuel de Champlain in 1608 and helped found Quebec. Brule explored Lake Huron in 1612 and is believed to have also explored Lakes Ontario, Erie and Superior after 1615. Brule is the first European to live among the Indians and was probably the first European to set foot in what is now Pennsylvania. Brule was eventually killed by the Hurons, for reasons unknown, in 1632. Brule is burned at the stake and eaten by the Indians,becoming the original crème brule.

1624

Entienne Brule George Brown born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Married Francis Rowland in 1659. These are the parents of Thomas Brown born 1674 in Westmorland County, PA.

1630

The earliest records of settlers in County Armagh in Northern Ireland, are the 1630 Armagh Muster Rolls, which list several of the surname Browne and two of the surname Brown, namely John Brown and George Brown. It is thought that these two were brothers of Scots origin and that either of them could be the progenitor of our Brown Family.

Oct 14, 1644

William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woods, is born.

1674

Thomas Brown born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was married circa 1697 and died in 1707.

His known children are: a daughter, Francis (1698–1755) who married in 1718, Benjamin Asbury and a son, Thomas (1704-1793) who married in 1725, Elizabeth Read.

March 10, 1681

English Quaker William Penn received a charter from Charles II, making him sole proprietor of colonial American territory of Pennsylvania

October 29, 1682

The founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, landed at what is now Chester, Pa and later founds the city of Philadelphia. Penn founded Pennsylvania as a "Holy Experiment" based on Quaker principles.

June 23, 1683

William Penn signed a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in PA. It became the only treaty "not sworn to, nor broken."

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William Penn

1700s

In the early 18th century, the Iroquois controlled the upper Ohio valley from their homelands in presentday New York State. Other Native American tribes that had been displaced from eastern PA by European settlement were allowed to reside in the area by the Iroquois. These tribes included the Lenape, or Delawares, and also the Shawnees, who had migrated up from the south. (from: The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania, by C.H. Sipe, 1831).

The names of the rivers of this section are Indian names. The name Monongahela is from two words, Henna meaning "swift waters" and Monona which means "high clay banks". Allegheny is from Henna and Allegewei which was the name of an ancient Indian tribe later conquered by the Iroquois.

1717

Michael Bezallion, Pennsylvania fur trader, passed the future site of Pittsburgh en route from the Illinois country to Philadelphia, where he made a report of the trip.

White traders began to establish trading posts in the territory of the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela valleys. The largest settlement was Logstown (now Ambridge), about four miles north of the fork of the Ohio, was built by the French as a trade and council center to increase their influence in the area.

1727

William Smith born this year. He is the brother of Devereaux Smith.

1731

A number of Indian traders report to Provincial authorities about the great wealth in the western territory (the Pittsburgh and Ohio territories) and that French traders had been visiting regularly every year since 1726. English traders complained that the “french people, from Canada, were busy building a Fort with Loggs, at or near said River Ohio.” It was this trading rivalry that led France and England into the struggle to possess the Ohio.

In 1731, according to the estimate of Jonah Davenport, there were 300 Delaware, 260 Shawnee, 100 Asswekalaes and some "Mingoes", living on the Ohio in this region . (Archives, I. 299).

1735

Devereaux Smith born this year in Warwickshire, England. (from: Burials in Trinity Church, Helen L. Harris).

The Ohio Company of Virginia is organized to capitalize on opportunities for Indian trade and land speculation. This venture is composed of influential Virginians, including two of George Washington’s brothers. A rival group of land speculators, the Loyal Company, organized about the same time by another group of Virginians included Thomas Jefferson’s father. (from: The Ohio Company of Virginia and the Westward Movement, 1748-1792, by K.P. Bailey, 1939).

1748

“[first name unknown] Brown, and employee of Hugh Parker, killed by the Indians at Kuskuskies in 1748 (P.A., ii., 16.) .” (from: Indian Trade and Pennsylvania Traders) The British Crown approves the Ohio Company's petition for a grant of 200,000 acres near the "forks" of the Ohio River, and the next year, 1749, the governor and council of Virginia confirms the grant on the condition that the company would, within seven years, settle 100 families in the area and erect a fort to protect both them and the British claim on the land. A secondary purpose of this settlement is to establish a regular trade with the local Native Americans, necessary in order to maintain friendly relations.

Conrad Weiser (1696-1760), the German, who for thirty years was prominent in Pennsylvania’s negotiations with the Indians, was the guest of the Delaware Indian Chief Shannopin at the mouth of Two Mile Run (the present Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh). Weiser counted 789 warriors gathered there: 165 Lenape, 163 Seneca, 162 Shawnee, 100 Wyandot, 74 Mohawk, 40 Tisagechroamis, 35 Onondaga, 20 Cayuga, 15 Oneida, and 15 Mohicans. (from: Logstown on the Ohio, by D. Agnew, 1894).

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August 7, 1749

Celoron de Blainville (1693-1759), with 43 French soldiers, 180 Canadians, and a band of Indians, floated past the site of Pittsburgh, once more claiming possession of the Ohio Valley for King Louis XV of France. Chaplain Father Bonnecamps kept a journal and made a map of the trip. DeBienville warned English traders to stay out of the region and posted markers claiming the territory.

Mid 1700s

As the Indian trade increased on the Ohio many other villages were settled

by Delaware, Shawnee, Iroquois, with a mixture of Miami, Wyandot and other tribes living in Ohio.

At the time of the first occupation of the Southwestern PA area by whites, Celoron de Blainville, painting by Robert Griffing the area had long been a hunting ground shared by many Indian tribes.

The Iroquois, mainly through their affiliate Seneca tribe, controlled the lands of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. They used the rivers regularly as a war trail to raid villages farther west. The land around the three rivers was full of all sorts of game and was their hunting ground. Despite the regular use of the area, few peoples actually settled here until the late 1600's and then only sporadically. The migration and settlement in the area of Indian tribes displaced from the eastern shores attracted traders from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to the Ohio.

The resident Indian leaders were Guyasuta who lived along the Allegheny River near present day Sharpsburg and Queen Aliquippa living at the mouth of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers at present day McKeesport. The earliest name for the fork of rivers that would become Pittsburgh was the Seneca name “Diondega”. Other Indian villages in the area included: Shannopin’s Town on the Allegheny; Sawcunk, on the mouth of the Beaver River that was home to Shinagas a chief of the Lenape/Delaware tribe; Chartiers Town, a Shawnee village; and, Kittanning a mixed Lenape and Shawnee village on the Allegheny river with more than 300 residents. (from: The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania, by S.J. Buck, 1939).

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There were a number of historic Indian Trails which led to "the Forks." The oldest of these was probably the Iroquois Trail, which came down the Allegheny River, from the Seneca country. This was used by the Iroquois on their war expeditions to the Mississippi and to the Carolinas. Other important Indian trails include: The Kittanning Trail ran eastward to the Susquehanna; The Shamokin Trail, was perhaps the oldest trail eastward; The Allegheny Path, which ran by way of Ligonier, Bedford, Fort Loudon, Chambersburg, Carlisle to Harrisburg, is likely the path which the Shawnee and Delaware tribes followed westward;The Monongahela and Youghiogeny Rivers were as water trails, and when joined with other trails which crossed Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, are frequently mentioned as the "Catawba Trail"; Nemacolin's Trail ran from the mouth of Dunlap's Creek (Brownsville) across the mountains to the Potomac, at Cumberland, Md, was followed by Washington (1753 and 1754), and also by Braddock (1755); General Forbes in 1758 followed an Indian trail from Bedford, through Ligonier, Hannastown, Harrison City, to Pittsburgh, along what is now Penn Avenue. (Archives, II. 12, 24, 47-48, 133-136; Col. Rec. V. 750760; VI. 84. Also: Hanna, Wilderness Trail; Hulbert, Historic Highway).

1751

Wendell Brown, brother of Thomas Brown (above) and sons (Emanuel, called Manus, Adam and Thomas) early Indian traders, land agents and explorers, settle in what is now Fayette County, first on the Monongahela below Jacob's Creek, then on Georges Creek, also on land known as “Provinces Bottom” on the Youghiogheny River. Tradition says they sent provisions to Washington at Fort Necessity.

Wendel Brown and sons property “Provinces Bottom” on the Youghiogheny River.

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Rev. Dr. William Smith, brother of Devereaux Smith, arrives in Philadelphia from England.

May 28, 1751

James Brown identified as an Indian Trader present at a treaty meeting with the Indians of the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandotts and Twightwees at Logstown on the Ohio River. (From: George Croghan’s Journal 1851, in Early History of Western Pennsylvania and of Western Expeditions and Campaigns of a Gentleman of the Bar). James Brown “. . . was also one of Boquet’s guides in building Forbes’s Road to Fort Duquesne in 1758.” (from: Indian Trade and Pennsylvania Traders and also Hulbert’s Old Glade Road).

Individuals were licensed to trade with the Indians. Some traders married native women and adopted the Indian way of life, siding with the tribes when the settlers began to encroach. Many of these traders later settled in this part of the state and their names now mark towns, rivers and other major landmarks.

(From: ARMSTRONG COUNTY (PA) GENEALOGY CLUB QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1998. EDITED BY KATHY MARCINEK, PENNSYLVANIA ARCHIVES, Second Series, Volume II).

May 1751

Philippe Thomas Joncaire, with a troop of Indians, passed by the river forks en route to Logstown to establish a French trading house there.

1752

Elizabeth Smith, future wife of Devereaux Smith born (approx).

May 28, 1752

Joshua Fry, James Patton, and Lunsford Lomax, Virginia agents chosen to treat with the Indians at Logstown, held a conference with Chief Shannopin.

November 25, 1752

George Washington and Christopher Gist traveling to Fort LeBoeuf to demand that the French abandon the territory stay with Queen Aliquippa at Logstown. There they “met a couple of French deserters.” “These deserters came up from lower Shannook Town with one Brown, and Indian trader, and were going to Philadelphia.” (Washington’s Journal of his Tour of the French Posts.)

1753

Christopher Gist starts plantation at Mount Braddock.

November 23, 1753

James Brown, Indian Trader from Scioto, meets Washington and Gist at Logstown. (from: Indian Trade and PA Traders) Washington’s “Journal of a Tour of the Alleghenies” notes that on this date in Logstown on the Ohio River: “Came to town, four of ten Frenchmen, who had deserted from a company at the Kuskuskas which lies at the mouth of this river.”

Washington questioned them about French positions along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. “These deserters came up from the lower Shennoah town with one Brown an Indian Trader and were going to Philadelphia.”

Indian Traders on Western Rivers

The 21-year old Major George Washington (1732-99), emissary from Virginia’s Governor Robert Dinwiddie to the French commandant at Fort LeBoeuf on French Creek (now Waterford, Pa.), observed the land at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers (where Pittsburgh is today) and described it as "extremely well situated for a Fort; as it has the absolute Command of both Rivers. The Land at the Point is 20 or 25 Feet above the common Surface of the Water; and a considerable Bottom of flat, well timbered Land all around it very convenient for Building."

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December 30, 1753

George Washington and his guide, Christopher Gist, were stranded on Garrison Island in the Allegheny River after their raft had been dashed to pieces by floating ice.

February 17, 1754

William Trent (1715-87), the Indian trader, came to the forks. When the militiamen whom he had enlisted in the Monongahela Valley arrived, Trent began to build a fort and named it Fort Prince George.

April 13, 1754

Ensign Edward Ward, temporarily in charge of Fort Prince George (later Fort Pitt), learned that French troops were on the march against him.

April 17, 1754

When the French force of about 500 men, under Commandant Pierre de Contreoeur, arrived at the forks, Ensign Ward and his 41 men had to surrender their building. The French began to build a large fort on the spot and named it Fort Duquesne, after the Marquis de Duquesne (1700-78), governor general of New France from 1752 to 1755.

July 4, 1754

The French and Indians force Colonel Washington to surrender at Fort Necessity.

July 28, 1754

The Scotsman Robert Stobo, a friend of Governor Dinwiddie, was one of two hostages taken to Fort Duquesne after the battle at Fort Necessity. During his imprisonment he sent out letters and a sketch of the fort to the English. (See Stobo MAP below)

October 13, 1754

Mary Ludwig born. Would later become known as Molly Pitcher during the Revolution and marry Col. John McCauley, father of Claranna Jane Brown, mother of W. S. Brown.

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1755-1757

Most frontier settlements in Western PA were abandoned in I754 after Washington surrendered Fort Necessity. For the next several years, the settled frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania were pushed eastward by Indian raids. James Brown’s Fort near Manada Gap (west of present Fort Indiantown Gap) is a palisade settlers log and stone house used by the Pennsylvania colonial militia.

May 24, 1755

The French commandant announced that Fort Duquesne was completed.

July 5, 1755

James Smith, a young man who is part of the advance party cutting a road for General Braddock’s army from Fort Loudon to the Youghiogheny river, is captured and taken to Fort Duquesne. There he is made to run the gauntlet among the Indians and French. He is then taken as a prisoner to Indian settlement at Kittanning. He later escaped and became a Colonel in the army. While at Kittanning he saw and later reported the events of July 30, 1756. (from: Historical Register of Westmoreland County, Sept, 1884)

July 9, 1755

A British expedition under General Edward Braddock, marching to attack Fort Duquesne, was defeated not far from the fort by an army of French and Indian warriors. Some of the English captives were burned alive by the Indians.

1756

Spring Fort Duquesne was damaged by a flood.

July 30, 1756

James Smith reported following his captivity among the Indians in Kittanning: “Fort Granville, situated on the Juniata, one mile above Lewistown, was besieged by the Indians July 30, 1756. The force then in it consisted of 24 men, under the command of Lieut. Armstrong, who was killed during the siege. Having assaulted the fort in vain during the afternoon and night, the enemy took to the Juniata creek, and, protected by its bank, attained a deep ravine, by which they were enabled to approach, without fear of injury, to within 30 or 40 feet of the stockade, which they succeeded in setting on fire. Through a hole made by the flames, they killed the lieutenant and one private, and wounded three others, who were endeavoring to put out the fire. The enemy then offering quarter to the besieged, if they would surrender, one Turner opened the gate to them. . . . He and the others, including three women and several children, were taken prisoners. By order of the French commander, the fort was burned by Capt. Jacobs.”

“When the Indians and prisoners reached Kittanning. Turner was tied to a black post, the Indians danced around him, made a great fire, and his body was run through with red-hot gun barrels. Having tormented him for three hours, the Indians scalped him alive, and finally held up a boy, who gave him the finishing stroke with a hatchet.”

“Turner had married the widow of the elder Girty, deceased, the mother of the Girty boys, Simon, James and George. The savages spared her and her son John Turner, Jr., and carried them to Fort Duquesne, where John Turner, aged two and a half years, on the 18 August, A. D. 1756, was baptized by Fr. Denys Baron, Chaplain of the B. C. mission at that post.”

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August 6, 1756

The record of the baptism is preserved in the Register, herein frequently referred to. Turner, Jr., died a resident of the township of Peebles, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. (from: The Historical Register of Westmoreland County, September, 1884) (Note: John Turner’s farm and the Turner family burial ground, believed to contain the grave of the renegade Simon Girty, is located on the grounds of the Mary Smith Brown Memorial Church in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA.)

One of the subsidiary frontier defenses along the westward trails in what is now Lebanon County PA was called Brown's Fort. It stood on the main road, along the mountain, between Swatara and Manada Gaps, about 34 miles from the latter. It then belonged to a James Brown, whence the name, and was temporarily garrisoned by soldiers. An incident occurred in the vicinity on of Brown's Fort on August 6, 1756 that resulted in the deaths of two soldiers who were local recruits.

The defense of frontier settlements in Lebanon County, and brunt of fighting within its borders, fell mainly on its own children and neighbors. One of the local soldiers garrisoning Brown's Fort was named Jacob Ellis, who had some wheat growing at his home just within the Manada Gap that he wanted to harvest. He prevailed upon his commanding officer, who gave him an escort of ten men, to aid in the work. Piling their arms carelessly in a corner of the field, and with but a poor watch, if any, the soldiers started to cut the grain. All went well until about 10:00 a. m. when, suddenly, three Indians stepped between them and their muskets and poured in a volley on them. One man was killed at once and one man was wounded. For a while there was a scene of wild excitement when, finally, the savages were driven off, giving a war-whoop as they fled and firing a farewell volley.

The soldiers then hid the dead man, to save his scalp and returned to the fort only to find another one of their number missing, named James Brown, who lived in the house they were garrisoning.

A detachment promptly went to the place of the hostilities and brought in the dead body left behind but could find no trace of Brown. At the same time he sent word to superior officers at Fort Swatara, who sent up some reinforcements the same night to protect the settlers should a further attack be made. Another local resident hearing the reverberating sound of the guns in the mountains during the fight, came up the Gap with a party of men the next morning from his house five miles distant, to render assistance. During the day another search was made for the missing man, and his dead body found. He had been killed by the last shot fired by the Indians and was scalped.

Part of the walls of Brown's Fort, about six feet high, are still standing alongside the road. They were made of stone, therefore well adapted for the purpose of a fort, and were pierced with five holes for muskets. (From p 69-72, Papers and Addresses of the Lebanon County Historical Society, Vol II, 1901-1904).

August 10, 1756

The Priest at Fort Duquesne baptized Barbara Smith, the daughter of William Smith, and Englishman and Catharine Bangornoz. The godfather was John Candon, and Irishman and the godmother Barbara Conrad, a German. (from: The Baptismal Register of Fort Duquesne, from June 1754 to Dec. 1756)

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1758

Dr. William Smith, brother of Devereaux Smith, a Doctor of Divinity from Oxford University and a renown orator of the day advocated from the pulpit support for General Forbes proposed campaign against Fort Duquesne. He held the prevalent opinion of the day that this was a religious struggle between the French Catholics and English Protestants. “Never was the Protestant cause in a more desperate situation.” Smith conclusion in his published sermon, was an appeal to patriotism: “Rise then, my countrymen! As you value the blessings of the liberty you enjoy, and dread the evils that hang over you, rise and show yourselves worthy of the name Dr. William Smith brother of Devereaux Smith of Britons!” PA responded by providing nearly half of the troops and supplies that General Forbes required. (From: Early Pittsburgh Presbyterianism, William W. McKinney, 1938).

James Brown and Devereaux Smith are among the young men who served in Forbes Army as guides to Col. Henry Boquet’s advance party helping to mark and build Forbes Road to Fort Duquesne/Fort Pitt.

Col. Boquet’s Advance Party Cutting the Forbes Road Painting by Pamela Patrick White

August 30, 1758

The French commandant at Fort Duquesne learned that a British force led by General John Forbes was at Loyalhanna (the present Ligonier) and was planning to advance against the fort.

September 14, 1758

Major James Grant, with Forbes’s army, received permission to attack Fort Duquesne. He led his force of 800 into disaster; one third of his men were killed.

November 24, 1758

General Forbes’s army took possession of the remnants of Fort Duquesne, which the French had burned and evacuated earlier in the day.

November 25, 1758

Map showing Forbes' and Braddock's Roads

The English flag flew over the ruins of the demolished Fort Duquesne.

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November 26, 1758

Five thousand soldiers knelt near the fort in observance of Thanksgiving.

November 29. 1758

A detachment of soldiers who had been with Major Grant on his fateful attack in September, buried the bodies of their dead comrades. The camp at Fort Duquesne was referred to as Fort Argyle.

December 1, 1758

General Forbes formally named the camp Pittsburgh. On January 21 the following year, writing from Philadelphia, the general told William Pitt, the English prime minister, that he had "used the freedom of giving your name to Fort Duquesne, as - - - it was in some measure the being activated by your spirits that now makes us Masters of the place."

December 4, 1758

Indian chiefs, at a conference in the fort, promised peace to Colonel Henry Bouquet (1719-65), the Swiss soldier who accompanied General Forbes. They also promised the return of all English captives.

January 9, 1759

Temporary barracks, about a thousand feet from the site of Fort Duquesne, had been built; General Forbes authorized a payment of ÂŁ124/13/2 for the work.

March 1, 1759

The building of a permanent fort -Fort Pitt -- had begun under the direction of a new commanding officer, General John Stanwix, and engineer Harry Gordon.

1759 Plan of Fort Pitt (From: the Collections of the Pennsylvania Department, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh)

October 24, 1759

General Stanwix made a treaty of peace and friendship with the Indians.

October 29, 1759

Adam Stephen, a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia regiment who survived Grant’s defeat, complained that the Pennsylvania Indian traders were taking over the lucrative fur trade and that the Indians had brought 20 tons of skins and furs to Fort Pitt in the previous three months.

1759

After the fall of Fort Duquesne in 1758 and French abandonment of western Pennsylvania, settlements advanced westward in both colonies. Population increased in the area as both the Braddock and Forbes roads offered avenues of approach to the interior, the war had advertised the upper Ohio country and provided the soldiers in the provincial forces an opportunity to observe its advantages, and the new forts at Bedford, Ligonier, Pittsburgh, and Redstone offered bases for settlements. The only apparent obstacle was the fact that the British government declared the country west of the Allegheny mountains to be Indian land and not open to settlement except by military permit. To frontiersmen this was not a serious obstacle.

William Smith, brother of Devereaux Smith, is appointed Provost at the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). He serves in this position until 1780.

285

1760s

Devereaux Smith listed among the early inhabitants of Allegheny County and area around Fort Pitt.

Establishes partnership with Richard Butler for trading with the Indians.

Squirrel Hill is born as a pioneer farming community including a few homes of Indian traders. The original village fronted south on the Monongahela River, toward Homestead, and its center of activity was the present-day intersection of Brown's Hill Road and Beechwood Boulevard.

1760

The first coal mine at the foot of Coal Hill (known now as Mt.Washington.) “…a coal mine was in the year 1760 opened opposite Fort Pitt on the River Monongahela for the use of the Garrison." (from: Captain Adam Stephen’s journal)

July 1760

Colonel James Burd counted the population of Pittsburgh; he found that 149 people, besides the soldiers, were living there.

August 12, 1760

General Robert Monckton, in command at Fort Pitt, reaffirmed Stanwix’s treaty with the Indians.

James Boggs, Allegheny’s first white settler, built his cabin.

Spring 1761

Lieutenant Bernard Ratzer drew up a plan for the British military reservation which included 40 acres of vegetable and flower gardens and the "King’s Orchard" of apple and pear trees in the area between Fort Pitt and the Allegheny River.

April 14, 1761

According to a count ordered by Colonel Bouquet, Pittsburgh’s population consisted of 163 men, 45 women, and 25 children, who lived in 160 houses outside the fort.

October 12, 1761

George Croghan, an Irishman who came to America in 1741, was the most prominent of the Pennsylvania traders. As Indian agent at Fort Pitt, he noted that the Indians had returned 338 white captives to the fort since June 1759.

Winter 1761

Fort Pitt, surrounded by moats drawing water from the Allegheny River, was completed. Its cost was estimated between £60,000 and £100,000.

On the trail to Fort Pitt

January 9, 1762

The Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers, reaching a stage of 39.2 feet at the Point, badly damaged the fort. All but 13 barrels of powder were destroyed.

May 2, 1762

The Indian Chief Delaware George a faithful friend of the British, was buried with full military honors on the north side of the Allegheny River opposite Fort Pitt.

March 9, 1763

When the rivers rose to 41 feet at the Point, Fort Pitt was inundated by six inches of water.

March 30, 1763

Pontiac’s uprising against the whites brought all the inhabitants from the outside within the confines of Fort Pitt. Most of the homes surrounding the fort were burned by the British commander so as not to 286

provide shelter to Indians during the siege.

May 18, 1763

After Fort LeBoeff is surrounded by Indians and as Ensign Price and company escape and flee to Fort Pitt, “Brown Bill” builds a straw man to lure Indians into sight so that he can shoot them.

1764 – 1819

"Between 1764 and 1819 the only means of crossing these streams, at Pittsburg, was by way of ferries.

The first of these, it is believed, was operated from the foot of Ferry street, Pittsburg to the opposite shore, and this was the origin of the name 'Ferry street'.... Early in the nineteenth century a ferry was established from the mouth of Liberty street, called 'Jones Ferry.' Foot passengers desiring to cross the river employed skiffs, while stock was taken over on flat-boats. Such boats were pushed by means of poles, at low stages of water, and by oars in high water periods." (from: Boucher's Century and a half of Pittsburg).

1764

The downtown street plan was begun by John Campbell in 1764 -- the year after most of the buildings outside of Fort Pitt were destroyed in Pontiac's War. Campbell laid out a cluster of small military lots in the area bounded by Water St (Fort Pitt Blvd), Second St (Blvd of the Allies), Ferry St (Stanwix St) and Market St. This four block pattern along the Mon riverfront was the beginning of the pattern for urban Pittsburgh.

Devereaux Smith Water and Ferry Streets

June 3, 1764

Those houses in the area of Fort Pitt which had not been destroyed the year earlier were burned by the Indians.

August 11, 1764

Colonel Bouquet’s army defeated the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run on August 5 and 6, thus the siege of Fort Pitt had come to an end. The people, who had taken shelter in the fort, returned to the places where they once lived and set out to build new cabins.

The Battle of Bushy Run

287

October 3, 1764

Bouquet’s army forced the Delaware and Shawnee Indians to fulfill their agreement and bring all their English captives to the fort.

November 15, 1764

The Indians brought 60 captives to Fort Pitt Colonel Bouquet’s Redoubt -- the Blockhouse, which is still in existence -- was built outside the walls of the fort, midway between the Ohio and Monongahela bastions.

John Campbell made a plan for the town, consisting of four blocks between Water and Second streets and Ferry and Market Streets, with an alley, Chancery Lane, between Ferry and Market. (see previous page) Richard and William Butler’s log cabins were the first to be completed after the lifting of the siege.

After the British occupation of Fort Pitt and the Battle of Bushy Run, the Indians commenced leaving the villages in the entire region, going westward into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and northward along the upper waters of the Allegheny. (From A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania with Numerous Historical Notes and References, by George P. Donehoo, 1928).

1765

Dr. William Smith publishes “An Historical Account of Colonel Bouquet’s Expedition against the Ohio Indians”, published in Philadelphia by Robert Clarke & Co. The information for this account was from Bouquet’s Journals and also letters from his brother Devereaux Smith who accompanied Bouquet’s troops.

Spring 1766

Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan, the well-known Philadelphia trading firm, erected a storehouse, the first shingle-roofed building in Pittsburgh. (see PIC Bayton, Wharton & Morgan account book)

August 1767

Peter Brown, and Indian trader from Pittsburgh area, is killed by Indians at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville, KY).

September 20, 1767

Devereaux Smith first appears at Fort Pitt. This is recorded in Alexander McKee’s letter of this date to George Croghan.: “SIR, On the 17th. Instant arrived Devereaux Smith a Trader who went form hence to the Ilinois last spring, he left Fort Chartres the 27th July, and on his way up the River found a Battoe with some Goods which appeared to have been robb'd of part of her Cargo; the particulars of which I must beg leave to refer you to his information, which I herewith inclose you.. [Extract from Journal of Devereaux Smith, July 17, 1767] The same day Monsr. Maisonville & Aron a Mohawk came here from D'troit, Mr. Maisonville informs me that on his way to D'troit he was told that a Party of Ten Chipawas from Saganas Bay had returned form War; as had been suppozed from against the Southern Indians, but sundry Goods being seen with them confessed to have Murdered Eleven White Men in two Battoes, & plundered.

It is said some of Pondiacs relations were in. But Maisonville will be able to acquaint you of the truth of this as well as anything else you may necessary to Know relative to it. And also of the present Dispositions of the Nations amongst whom he has been; Those of the Wabash he says are much dissatisfied & he seems to think that an Uneasiness is amongst them in general; The Meeting I informed 288

you of in my last to be held at the Lower Shawanese Town, can not be so soon as the Shawanese expected, as the Nations that are to Assemble there Mr. Maisonville tells me were not collected together; when he passed the Miamies; Be pleased to ask him what he Knows of their intentions by this meeting, as he seems to hint to me he has something to acquaint you of relative to it.

I am Sir, With great respect, Your most most obedient very Humble Servant, A. McKEE”.

(From: The Papers of Sir William Johnson, vol. 5, in THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION).

1768

George Croghan sells land on the Juniata River at the mouth of Standing Creek to Dr. William Smith of Philadelphia (brother of Devereaux Smith).

William Smith lays out the plan for the town of Huntingdon, PA. (from: The Wilderness Trail, C.A. Hanna, 1911).

April 29, 1768

Devereaux Smith attends Conferences between the Six Nations Indians and the British were held at Fort Pitt; 1103 male Indians came with their retinue of wives and children.

John Penn’s letter to the Indians notes murder of Peter Brown and calls for renewed peace. “I must now inform you of such English subjects belonging to my province as have been murdered in the Indian country, viz.: Henry O’Brien, Peter Brown and eight other men, in proceeding down the Ohio last August with two large bateaux loaded with goods, were murdered by the Indians and part of the goods taken away near the falls of that river.” A belt of wampum was passed showing links between two hands as a symbol of peace and urging hostilities to cease.

This was not just a conference about negotiating peace, but rather a major trading rendezvous.

Documents from the meeting detail “…requisitions for articles needed for distribution to the Indians at that council. The entire value of the articles in the requisition is given at $26,575. Among them are 1,500 white ruffled shirts at $3.00 each; and 2,000 ruffled calico shirts, at $2.00 each; 50 dozen black silk hankerchiefs, at $12.00 a dozen; 50 gross scarlet, pink, green and yellow plain bedlace, at 3 cents a piece; 150 pieces scarlet, blue, pink, green and yellow ribbon. . .” all products used for trading.

Devereaux Smith’s Indian trading business evolves to become Pittsburgh earliest merchant enterprise, later partnering with Ephraim Douglas and James O’Hara. These and other legendary Pittsburgh business men worked in Devereaux Smith’s business. The business itself “. . . consisted in selling shirts, leggings, beads, powder, lead, wampum, tomahawks, tobacco and other unmentionalbles to the Indians, for peltry of all sorts – bear, beaver, elk, fox, raccoon, cat, deer, etc, rated, not by money but by bucks – as, “By five deer skins, three bucks.” These when dried, etc, were sent to Philadelphia on pack-horses and sold by the pound, the pack-horse train bringing back goods for the traders.”

“From 1772 to 1774 [Ephraim Douglas] operated as partner with Devereaux Smith, Esq., famous in the ‘Boundary Controversy.’ They were extensive dealers, having establishments not only at Pittsburgh, but at Kuskuskia, on Beaver River, near the mouth of the Mahoning and elsewhere in the Indian country. Gen. James O’Hara was in their employ. The Messrs. Gratz and Thos. Ashton were their factors in Philadelphia. The business become overdone in 1773, and the Indian troubles in 1774, and the Revolution in 1776 put an end to it.” “The firm of Smith & Douglass continued in business until 1776, when Richard Butler came into the firm for a short period.” (from: The Monongahela of Old, Historical Sketches of Southwestern PA to the year 1800, J. Veech, 1910) While Indian trading by the firm may have ceased, Devereaux Smith profited during the Revolution as Ephraim Douglas and Richard Butler joined the Continental Army. Douglass was the Quarter Master and Butler rose to rank of General. Both continued to channel business Smith to equip and supply the military including 289

“victualling the troops” at the new Fort Kittanning. (Note: The records of Devereaux Smith’s trading business are in the archives of the Darlington Library at the University of Pittsburgh).

1769

The Penn’s Pittsburgh Manor, some of it within the present Golden Triangle area, was surveyed and found to include 5766 acres.

October 19, 1770

George Washington arrives for a visit in Pittsburgh. He noted in his diary: "We lodged in what is called the Town, distant about 300 yards from the Fort, at one Mr. Semples, who keeps a very good house of entertainment." Semple’s Kitchen, also known as Semple’s Tavern, was located at the corner of Water and Ferry Street and was built of rough hewn logs, in 1764 by Col. George Morgan and was the first shingled roof house in Pittsburgh. This is the same house “. . . where Aaron Burr stopped when at Pittsburgh, on his way to Blennerhasset Island in pursuance of the expedition for which he was tried for treason.” (from: Allegheny County’s Hundred Years, by George H. Thurston, 1888).

Semple’s Tavern was very near to Devereaux Smith’s home at the corner of Front and Ferry Streets. George Woods, who made the survey of Pittsburgh Manor for the Penns, named Smithfield Street in honor of Devereux Smith. When James O'Hara came to Pittsburgh, he became associated with the Indian trading firm of Devereux Smith and Ephriam Douglass. The ledgers of this trading house are in the Darlington Memorial Library of this University. Although, by 1804, this large building had not been occupied by Devereux Smith for many years, it was still known as "Devereux Smiths."

These homes are shown on the painting “Pittsburgh in 1806”, by the artist George Beck, that “. . . shows the real beauty of Pittsburgh, a mushrooming frontier town and home of distinguished and busy families.” The painting, which may actually have been painted in 1804, has labeled with numbers showing 50 major structures and areas identified in the City of Pittsburgh. (from: Pittsburgh in 1806, by Lois Mulkearn, published in Pitt: A Quarterly of Fact and Thought at the University of Pittsburgh, Spring 1948. The painting is on display in the Special Collections reading room on the third floor of Hillman Library).

October 12, 1770

Captain Charles Edmonstone of the Eighteenth Royal Regiment, in command at Fort Pitt, sold the installation to William Thompson and Alexander Ross for 50 pounds New York currency. Thus ended the Crown’s jurisdiction over the military reservation and fort at Pittsburgh.

April, 1771

Devereaux Smith listed as among Overseers of the Poor. (from: Quarter Sessions Abstracts, Docket #1, Bedford County Courthouse, Bedford, Pa.; Listing of elected officials.)

April 11, 1772

Deed. Joseph Spear of Pittsburgh, Bedford County, PA, merchant, and his partner Devereaux Smith, to Samuel Sampble (Sample?) of Pittsburgh, Bedford County, PA. Land: A smith's shop adjoining the town of Pittsburgh. Price: 5 pounds PA currency. (from: Abstracts of Deeds, Westmoreland County, Pa., Book A-1).

June 8, 1772

The Gaspee Affair. A significant event leading up to the American Revolution.

290

HMS Gaspee, a British revenue schooner enforcing unpopular trade regulations, runs aground in shallow water near the city of Warwick, RI, while chasing the packet boat Hannah. In a notorious act of defiance, American patriots led by John Brown organized a flotilla of eight boats to attack, board, loot and torch the ship.

1773

Devereaux Smith appointed Justice in Pittsburgh by the Pennsylvania legislature.

Devereaux and Elizabeth Smith married.

John Ormsby was granted the right to keep the first licensed ferry across the Monongahela River.

Pennsylvania obtained permission from Great Britain to garrison militia at Fort Pitt.

November 27, 1773

“Mortgage. William McCauly, Jr. saddler, Bedford County, to Devereux Smith, merchant, of Pittsburgh, Westmoreland County. Bound for L200 Pa. currency, conditioned for payment of £60 due 27 Nov 1776 with reasonable interest, and £40 due 27 Nov 1774. Land: 300 acres within 5 miles of Pittsburgh, bounded by lands of James Reid, William Cunningham, Simeon Girty and Robert Walk. Witnesses: James O'Hara, Ephriam Douglas.” (from: Abstracts of Deeds, Westmoreland County, Pa., Book A-1). (Note: At this time Pittsburgh was in Bedford County, Westmoreland County would later be created from Bedford County and in 1788, Allegheny County would be created from Westmoreland County.)

1774-1775

The struggle between Virginia and Pennsylvania over Pittsburgh and western territory. Lord Dunmore of Virginia dispatched a militia under Dr. John Connolly (a nephew of Greoge Croghan) who tries to assert his authority over the area and is met with resistance by Magistrates and representatives of Governor Penn including: Devereaux Smith, Aeneas McKay and Andrew McFarlane,, the Justices for Westmoreland County which included Pittsburgh. Governor Penn, a Quaker pacifist tries to negotiate with Dunmore and offers a temporary settlement but Dunmore said: “. . . that under nothing short of his Majesty’s orders would he relinquish his hold upon Pittsburgh.”

While the battles at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill had turned eastern sentiments toward revolution and drew the attention of the King and British government, the people in western Pennsylvania “. . . were subjected to attacks on their persons, houses and property through all sorts of insults, violence, vexatious suits and oppressions.” (from: Presbyterian Centennial Convention) Pennsylvania justices including Devereaux Smith jailed Connolly who was freed after he pledged to return for his court date two months later.

Connolly did return with a mob of almost 200 Virginia supporters.

Connolly then jailed the Pennsylvania justices, including Devereaux Smith, who are taken in irons and under guard to a court in Staunton, VA. Aeneas McKay got permission to go to Williamsburg the capital of VA and got a letter from Lord Dunmore allowing the PA justices to return to their home.

Map showing Virginia claims in SWPA including Fort Pitt

Devereaux Smith is later accused of killing one of Connolly’s henchmen but is never brought to trial. The 291

dispute soon fizzles out with the beginning of the Revolution as Connolly and Lord Dunmore flee into protection of the British Army, never to return to the Western PA area. (from: City of Allegheny, PA: History and Institutions, by the Evening Record, 1897).

January 6, 1774

The unsettled boundary between Pennsylvania and Virginia became hotly contested when Dr. John Connolly posted a proclamation on the walls of Fort Pitt to announce his appointment by Lord Dunmore, governor of the southern colony, as "Captain, Commandant of the Militia of Pittsburgh and its Dependencies." He ordered the people to assemble as a militia on January 25.

January 14, 1774

Devereaux Smith is recorded as a Justice of the Peace at Fort Pitt for Westmoreland County PA. (from:

January 24, 1774

Pennsylvania challenged Virginia’s claim to Pittsburgh by arresting Dr. Connolly and removing him to Hannastown to stand trial.

February 2, 1774

By promising to return in April for trial, Dr. Connolly persuaded the sheriff of Westmoreland County to release him. He then obtained a commission as justice of the peace from the court of Augusta County, Virginia, which was held to include Pittsburgh, and returned to the forks, took possession of Fort Pitt, and organized his militia. He then returned to the court in Hannastown, Westmoreland County with his militia and arrested the PA justices, including Devereaux Smith.

May 29, 1774

As white settlers pushed westward and crossed the Ohio and raided Indian villages, Indian prophets urged their people to resume a traditional way of life, to observe sacred rituals and regain the power to take back their land. Militant Shawnees recruited Cherokees, Mingos, and Delawares to join them in a united Indian war that broke out against the people on the border in what we now call southwestern PA. This created a panic among the people and many decided to flee eastward to safer lands.

PA Archives: Second Series. Vol IX.: Part II: Section 5: “Provincial Officers for the Additional Counties. 1729-1776.")

Devereaux Smith noted: “The Virginians in this part of the country seem determined to make war with the Indians at any rate. The one half of this county is ruined to all intents and purposes, which, only a few months ago, was in a flourishing way.” (from: West Virginia, WV History Film Project) “During this time Arthur St. Clair, Aeneas Mackay, Devereux Smith and other staunch friends of the Penns, by their personal influence alone succeeded in quieting the Indians on the northern frontier and west of the Allegheny, and in allaying the fears of the people.”

Arthur St. Clair writes to Gov. Penn stating: “The panic that has struck this Country, threatening an entire Depopulation thereof, induced me a few days ago to make an Excursion to Pittsburgh to see if it could be removed and the Desertion prevented. The only probable Remedy that offered was to afford the People the appearance of some Protection, accordingly Mr. Smith, Mr. Mackay, Mr. Butler, and some other of the Inhabitants of Pittsburgh, with Colonel Croghan and myself, entered into an Association for the immediate raising an hundred Men, to be employed as a ranging Company to cover the Inhabitants in case of Danger, to which Association several Magistrates and other Inhabitants have acceded, and in a very few days they will be on foot. We have undertaken to maintain for one Month at the rate of one Shilling six-pence a Man per Diem; this we will chearfully discharge; at the same time. We flatter ourselves that your Honour will approve the Measure, and that the Government will not only relieve private Persons from the Burthen, but take effectual Measures for the safety of this Frontier, and this I am desired by the People in general to request of your Honor."

April 25, 1774

Lord Dunmore ordered all the inhabitants "to pay their quit-rents and all public dues" to officers appointed by him. This is protested by the residents with land warrants and appointments granted by Pennsylvania.

Devereaux Smith and other of the most active and influential men of Pittsburgh form an association to 292

April-June 1774

protect the PA people of the area. They armed themselves and proposed to stand together and resist Connonlly and the Virginians. They called on all able bodied citizens of Westmoreland County and posted small forces at strategic locations.

June 10, 1774

Devereaux Smith in a letter to his brother Dr. William Smith, Provost of Philadelphia College (later University of Pennsylvania) writes about Connolly’s outrages. “Pittsburgh, June 10, 1774.

SIR: I returned to this place the 11th of May, and found my family in the greatest confusion, owing to the appearance of an Indian war, and the tyrannical treatment they received from Doctor Conolly in my absence. Before I was illegally taken from my family the 10th of April, I understood from some of the Shawanese Chiefs, at a Council with Mr. McKee, the Indian Agent, under Sir William Johnson, that they were much dissatisfied at the rapid progress the Virginians had made down the Ohio in settling the lands below the purchase, viz: below Sciota river, which they looked upon as a great encroachment on their liberties and properties; they also expressed their surprise to see a number of armed men assembled at this place with their colours at different times, making a warlike appearance, and said, that after the first muster of the 25th of January, some of the militia fired on them at their camps near the mouth of the Sawmill Run. These Shawanese Chiefs were sent for by Mr. Croghan last summer, and came here about the 25th of December, and remained here till the 1st of April; during which time they often complained to the inhabitants of this place, that Mr. Croghan had sent for them to do business, and kept them in great distress for want of provisions and clothing; upon which the inhabitants were at some expense supplying them during their stay, and when they were going home made a collection of goods for them, in order to send them off satisfied.

On the 15th of April, Mr. William Butler sent off a canoe loaded with goods for the Shawanese Towns, and on the 16th it was attacked about forty miles from here by three Cherokee Indians, who had waylaid them on the river bank. They killed one white man, and wounded another, and a third made his escape. They plundered the canoe of the most valuable part of the cargo and made off; but as they were Cherokees, we were sure they did this for sake of plunder alone, therefore thought no more of it than the loss.

As Mr. Butler was under the necessity of sending people to assist in bringing his peltry from the Shawanese Towns, he sent off another canoe on the 24th of April, in care of two Indians, who were well known to be good men, and two white men. On the 27th, about ninety miles from here, they were fired upon from shore, and both the Indians were killed, by Michael Cresap, and a party he had with him; they also scalped the Indians. Mr. Cresap then immediately followed the above mentioned Shawanese Chiefs some small distance lower down, where they were encamped, and fired upon them, killed one and wounded two more. The Indians fled to the Delaware Towns, which were the nearest, and are greatly exasperated at this treatment, as they did not expect any such thing from the English. About that same time, a party, headed by one Greathouse, barbarously murdered and scalped nine Indians at the house of one Baker, near Yellow Creek, about fifty-five miles down the river. Owing to these cruelties committed by Cresap and Greathouse, the inhabitants of Rackoon and Wheeling fled from that settlement, and are chiefly gone to Virginia.

After Cresap had been guilty of these cruelties, he returned to Maryland, but has since came back with a party of men. Cresap wrote to Conolly, and Mr. McKee, threatening that if they did not give them security that the Indians would not do any mischief for six months, that he, Cresap, would immediately proceed to commit further hostilities against the Indians. On the 21st of April, Conolly wrote a letter to the inhabitants of Wheeling, telling them that he had been informed, by good authority, that the Shawanese were ill disposed towards white men, and that he, therefore, required and commanded 293

them to hold themselves in readiness to repel any insults that might be offered by them. This letter fell into the hands of Cresap, and he says that it was in consequence of this letter, and the murder committed by the Cherokees on Mr. Butler's people, that he committed the hostilities above mentioned.

I am informed, that on the 6th day of May, Mr. Croghan sent Captain White Eyes, (one of the Indian Chiefs,) in company with some of our traders, to acquaint the Shawanese and Delawares that the outrages which had been committed by some of our ill disposed white people, were without the least countenance from Government. This Indian promised to use his best endeavours to accommodate matters, and returned the 24th of May, and brought with him ten white men, who had been protected by the Delawares eight days, in their towns, and guarded safe to this place. He also brought a speech from the Delawares, from which we have great reason to believe they are not inclined for war. We also believe that they will endeavour to preserve the lives of the traders that are now amongst the Shawanese. He also brought from the Shawanese Chief (called the Hardman) an answer to a speech sent to them by Mr. Croghan upon this occasion, in which he signifies that the Shawanese are all warriors, and will not listen to us until they have satisfaction of us for what injuries they have received from the Virginians, &c.

White Eyes informs us that a Mingo man called Logan, (whose family had been murdered in the number,) had raised a party to cut down the Shawanese Town traders at the Canoe Bottom, on Hockhocking Creek, where they were pressing their peltry; but we have heard since that the Shawanese have taken them under their care until matters are further settled, but God knows what fate they have met with; we hope they are still alive, and if it be so they have a chance to come in, if the outrageous behaviour of the Virginians do not prevent them. The sixth of this month we had an account from Muddy Creek, (empties into the river Monongahela, near Cheat river,) that the Indians had killed and scalped one white man, his wife, and three children, and that three more of the same man's children were missing, and has since been confirmed. We suppose this to be Logan's party, and that they will do more mischief before they return. About the 20th of May, one Campbell, lately from Lancaster, was killed and scalped near Newcomer's Town, and one Proctor, at Wheeling, by a party of Shawanese and Mingoes.

The Virginians in this part of the country seem determined to make war with the Indians at any rate. The one half of this country is ruined to all intents and purposes, which, a few months ago, was in a flourishing way. Conolly has embodied upwards of one hundred men, and will have this fort in good order in a short time. He is gathering in all the provisions he can possibly get from the country, which, he says, will be paid for by the Government of Virginia. The militia here, by Conolly's orders, shoot down the cattle, sheep and hogs, belonging to the inhabitants, as they please; they also press horses, and take by force any part of our property they think proper, and tell us that they have authority so to do; therefore you may Judge of our situation at present.

Before I returned from Virginia, about the 5th day of May, Mr. Conolly sent an armed guard of men to my house, who attempted to take away a quantity of blankets and bags by force. Mr. William Butler, who lived at my house at that time, had a great dispute in defence of my property, and put them out with great difficulty, on which they complained to Conolly, who immediately despatched a party of twelve men to the house in order to put their villainous scheme in execution, on which my wife locked her doors. Conolly came at the same time, and began to abuse Mr. Butler and my wife. He also 294

threatened to send Mr. Butler to Virginia in irons, and to take every farthing's worth of his property from him; damned my wife, telling her the same, and that he would let her know that he commanded here, &c., &c.

On the 27th day of May, Mr. Mackay and I rode out about seven miles from town, and on our return was met on the road by a man from Mrs. Mackay, who came to tell us that Conolly had sent a party of men to pull down Mr. Mackay's house. When we came home we found a guard of six armed men pulling down two outhouses in Mr. Mackay's back yard. He ordered them to desist, saying that he would defend his property at the risk of his life; upon which the men agreed to wait until we would talk to Mr. Conolly about the matter. We walked toward the fort with that intention, but was met by one Aston, (a Captain of Conolly's,) at the head of about thirty armed men, followed by Conolly. Aston approached, and in a blasphemous manner accosted Mr. Mackay, ordering the Virginia Sheriff to seize him; upon which the Sheriff, Aston, and several others, seized him in a valiant manner; Aston, presenting a rifle at Mr. Mackay, threatened to shoot him down, which some of the bystanders prevented. Conolly came up at the same time in a great rage, telling Mr. Mackay that he would send him to Virginia in irons. We endeavoured to expostulate with him, but all to no purpose, but told him that he would tear down his dwelling house, if he thought proper. He also accused Mr. Mackay with being refractory on many occasions, and a fomenter of sedition, &c, in opposition to the Colony of Virginia, and that he had encouraged his servants to abuse one of his men, who was then present, calling the man to prove what he asserted, but the man cleared Mr. Mackay and his servant, saying that it was a man of Mr. Spear's who had struck him. Conolly being there confuted before upwards of sixty persons, said it was all one, as it was one of the Magistrates' servants. Aston attempted to run the muzzle of his gun at Mr. Mackay's face, but was prevented; in the mean time Conolly suffered a forsworn rascal (one Reily) to shake a stick at Mr. Mackay, and abuse him in an outrageous manner, without bringing him to an account for so doing. In this manner Conolly enforces all his laws.

The 7th of this inst., one Christy returned to this place from Williamsburg, and brought Conolly a packet from my Lord Dunmore; he also brought some late newspapers, in which we had an account of the House of Burgesses being dissolved by Lord Dunmore. It happened that Mr. Mackay told this news to a neighbour man, and that same evening Conolly came to his house, accompanied by one of his officers, and began to abuse him in a most blasphemous and outrageous manner, accusing him of being the cause of a meeting amongst his men, and alleged that he had asserted there was no provision made by the House of Burgesses for the payment of the men under his command.

Conolly continued to threaten Mr. Mackay with confinement. He read a paragraph of a letter to us, in which Lord Dunmore acquaints him of the Commissioners of Philadelphia being at Williamsburg, and the proposals they made in regard of a temporary line were so extravagant that nothing could be done in it, but that he, Conolly, might settle a line at present with the Magistrates of this county, allowing it to be twelve, or at least ten miles east of this place. We told him that no Magistrate in this county could pretend to do any thing of the kind without instructions from the Government of Pennsylvania. At this time the Magistrates had raised a number of men in behalf of the Government for the protection of the frontiers, and to prevent the country from being entirely depopulated. About thirty of them were stationed at the Bullock Pens, seven miles east of this town. Conolly told us that he was determined to go, or send out the next day, with a party, to dispossess our men of that post, and if they did not behave themselves he would not suffer one Pennsylvanian to live on this side the Laurel Hill.

June 12. Mr. Conolly purposes to march from this place to-morrow with two hundred men to build a stockade fort at Wheeling Creek, and another near Hockhocking Creek; and says he will send parties, at the same time, against the Shawanese Towns; and I am of opinion that they will make no distinction betwixt Shawanese and Delawares, as they are determined to have a general war.

Mr. Croghan has set off this morning to Williamsburg, as he says, to represent the state of this country to Lord Dunmore and Council, as also to acquaint them of Mr. Conolly's rash conduct at this place, 295

which he seems to disapprove of.

We are this day informed, that the three children before mentioned, that were missing near Muddy Creek, were found dead, and scalped, and two other men, in sight of a fort that is lately built on Dunkard Creek, up the river Monongahela, all supposed to be done by Logan's party.

The inhabitants of the town are busily employed in stockading it round about, yet have no reason to expect any thing better than ruin and destruction.

Mr. Mackay wrote to Governour Penn from Staunton, the 5th of May, informing him of our enlargement. I also wrote to you, and Doctor Smith, at the same time, but these letters were since returned to us here by Colonel Wilson, as also the Governour's letter, which we have answered. I would be glad to hear the candid opinion of the Governour and Council concerning those extraordinary disturbances.

I am, sir, your most obliged humble servant, DEVEREUX SMITH. P. S. Please to present without delay the Governour's letter, which you have enclosed.

June 13. We have this morning received certain accounts from Ten Mile Creek, (which empties into the Monongahela ten miles above Red Stone Port,) that on the 11th inst. Francis McClure was killed, and one Samuel Kincade badly wounded. These men were heading a party of men in pursuit of Logan, McClure as Captain, and Kincade as Lieutenant; and owing to their bad conduct they advanced some considerable distance ahead of their men, and were discovered by Logan. When the party came up they found their Captain killed and Lieutenant wounded. Part of them staid to take care of the wounded man, and the rest pursued the Indians. It is said that one of Logan's men was wounded.

The inhabitants of this country are about petitioning Governour Penn by this opportunity.” Include with this letter is a petition to the Governor for assistance and detailing many of the grievances mentioned above. (from: AMERICAN ARCHIVES: Containing A Documentary History Of The United States Of America Series 4, Six Volumes and Series 5, Three Volumes: M. St. Clair Clarke and Peter Force under the authority of Acts of Congress; Washington, D.C.: 1848-1851. 9 Volumes Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. Containing A Documentary History Of The United States Of America From The Declaration Of Independence, July 4, 1776 To The Definitive Treaty Of Peace With Great Britain, September 3, 1783. Volume II Edited by Stanley L. Klos, 2005.)

1775

Dr. William Smith, brother of Devereaux Smith, preaches a sermon in Christ Church, Philadelphia, “whose patriotic utterances stirred the emotions of the primitive patriots and in this sermon asserted his sympathy with the incipient movement to throw off the yoke of England.” (from: History of Pittsburgh and environs, Vol.2, G. Thornton, 1922). th

February 10, 1775

Devereaux Smith made an affidavit before PA justice Jospeph Spear that: “On the 8 instant between 8 and 9 o’clock, 12 or more armed men belonging to the garrison kept up by Lord Dunmore’s orders surrounded the house of Devereux Smith in Pittsburgh in said county of Westmoreland and attempted to break open his doors and window to the great terror of his family, at the same time telling him what the Virginia boys could do. That with the violence of their throwing stones they split one of his window shutters and continued about the street until near 2 o’clock during which he was under necessity of sitting up in arms to protect his infant family.” (from: Olden Time, Vol. I)

February 21, 1775

Dr. Connolly changed the name of Fort Pitt to Fort Dunmore. The Augusta County Court, which had been adjourned from Staunton, Virginia, on December 6, 1774, was organized at the Fort.

February 23, 1775

Jacob Bausman was licensed by the Virginia Court to keep a ferry over the Monongahela at the foot of Wood Street where John Ormsby had his establishment for the previous two years.

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Spring 1775

Governor Dunmore advised Dr. Connolly to disband his militia and devote himself to winning the support of the Indians for the British cause.

April 19, 1775

AMERICAN REVOLUTION BEGINS: British troops fire on American patriots at Lexington Common.

May 16, 1775

Word reaches Pittsburgh about the British attack. The dispute and feud between Virginia and Pennsylvania was then at its height in this region. Both colonies claimed and both attempted to exercise jurisdiction over the country between Laurel Ridge (near Ligonier, PA) and the Ohio River.

After many tense confrontations and fights, partisans of both provinces quickly put aside their animosities, or at least became temporarily distracted and rallied to the cause of revolution against the Brittish. Together they held large patriotic meetings pledging to aid as best they could the the cause of the American colonies against Britain. In a meeting held at Pittsburgh, frontiersmen, of the area, including Devereau Smith, set up a Committee of Safety approved the action of the colonies in their revolt against the Crown, and resolved that it was the "indispensable duty of every American" to resist tyranny.

July 25, 1775

Dr. Connolly leaves Fort Pitt for Virginia. Pennsylvania authority prevails generally in the Pittsburgh area.

John Neville (1731-1803), with 100 militia, took possession of the fort.

August 25, 1775

A band of "patriots" burned the tea stock of the merchants Joseph Symonds and John Campbell.

September 13, 1775

Westmoreland County is divided into five voting districts, people in the Fort Pitt district, now Allegheny County, were to vote at Devereux Smith’s house. (from: History of Westmoreland County, Volume I, Pennsylvania by John N Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906).

October 7, 1775

By the Treaty of Pittsburgh, the chiefs of the Indian tribes in the area pledged friendship and neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and her colonies.

November, 1775

Dr. Connolly is seized by Maryland authorities and imprisoned at Frederick as an enemy to his country.

He remains a prisoner for years, until winter of 1780-1781, when released to the British in Canada.

November 21, 1775

Devereux Smith charged by final Virginia Courts convened in Pittsburgh with the murder of Capt.

George Ashton, a brutal officer of Connolly who had terrorized the people around Fort Pitt. Smith was wounded in the fight. Charges lapsed with start of Revolution.

MINUTES OF COURT AT FORT DUNMORE (Pittsburgh): “At a Court held for the Examination of Mr. Devereux Smith, at His House, by His Petition to the Justices, this 2ist November, I775, for the Murder of Captn Geo Aston: Pres't Geo Croghan, Thos.

Smallman, John Cannon, Geo Vanlandingham, Edward Ward.

The above Devereux Smith was Examined, denied the fact wherewith he stands Charged, whereupon several Witnesses were sworn and Examined; on Consideration of which the Court are of Opinion that after hearing Smith by his Attorney, that he is Guilty of the said fact wherewith he stands Charged, that he ought to be tried for the said fact at the General Court in April, on the 6th day thereof, and in Order thereto he is remanded to the Goal of this County and thence to be removed. Be it Remembered that John Nevill, Thos. Herbert, James Nowlan, Simon Morgan, all of this County, came before our Justices and Acknowledged themselves Indebted to ours'd Lord the King in the Sum of Ioo Pounds Each, to be Levied of Each of their respective Goods and Chattels, Lands and Tenements, and to ours'd Lord the King rendered upon Condition they do appear at the General Court in April next and there testify and Evidence ag'st Devereux Smith for the Murder of Geo Aston, and shall not depart without leave of the s'd General Court .

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The Prisoner moved the Court that he might be admitted to Bail and It is Ordered that the Court be adjorned until to Morrow Morning at 7 o'clock. GEO. CROGHAN.” The next day: “At a Cald Court Con'd and held for Augusta County for the Examination of Devereux Smith for the Murder of Capt Geo. Aston: Pres't, Geo Croghan, Thos Smallman, John Cannon, Geo Vallandigham.

Upon a motion made by Mr. Devereux Smith by his attorney to be admitted to Bail for his appearance at the 6th day of the next General Court, the Court are of opinion that from the situation Mr. Smith is in & the circumstances attending the fact where-with he is charged, that he ought to be admitted to Bail, and that he Enter into recog on the Sum of 3000/, with 3 Securities in the Sum of 1500 Each, to be Levied, and thereupon the said Devereux Smith Ack'd himself in the Sum of 3000 and Robert Hanna, Aeneas McCay and Wm. Butler, his Secys, in the Sum of I500 Each, to be Levied of their respective goods and Chattels, Lands and Tenements, and to our said Lord the King rendered, upon Condition that Devereux Smith doth personally appear on the 6th day of the next General Court, if he be able at that time to attend the said General Court, from the situation of his wound & state of health, if not at the succeeding Court for the Tryall of Criminals, and shall not depart upon his appearance without leave of said Court. Then the Court did rise, GEO. CROGHAN .” (from: George Croghan minutes of the VA Court at Fort Dunmore, Annals of the Carnegie Museum) (Note: George Croghan the famous Indian trader and land dealer was later accused of being a tory [a British sympathizer] and all his estates were confiscated and he died bankrupt at the close of the Revolution).

1776

Thomas Brown buys Cresap’s property at Redstone and Dunlap’s Creek (Brownsville, PA).

January 16, 1776

At a Court held for Augusta County, VA at Pittsburgh.

“According to an Ordinance of Convention held at Richmond: Pres't, Edward Ward, Thos. Smallman, Geo Vallandigham, John McColloch, Wm. Goe. Devorix Smith being bound over to this Court on the Complaint of Susanna Styger, for asaulting, Beating & Wounding her, appeared, and on hearing the parties and the Witnesses the Court are of Opinion that the Complaint be dismised with Costs. Susanna Sturgus being bound over to this Court on the Complaint of Devereux Smith, for Insulting his wife and threatening her, on hearing the parties and Wits the Court are of Opinion that the Complaint be dismised.” (from: George Croghan minutes of the VA Court at Fort Dunmore, Annal of the Carnegie Museum)

October 1776

By a Second Treaty of Pittsburgh, the Indians confirmed their agreement of the year before.

February 23, 1777

Fourteen boat carpenters arrive in the Pittsburgh area from Philadelphia and begin work on the Monongahela river, 14 miles from Fort Pitt, near a saw mill. They built 30 large bateaux, each 40 feet long, nine feet wide and 32 inches deep. These were for movement of troops against the Indians. (from: History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania)

March 24, 1777

Devereaux Smith writes from Hannastown, the Westmoreland County seat, to the Pa Indian Commissioners: "Gentlemen: You have Long since been acquainted of Andrew Macfarlane, Esquire, is being taken Prisoner the 14th of February at Hatharings. From that date to the 17th or 18th of this Instant, Captain Moorhead was under necessity of staying at that Post with a small Party of Militia to Guard the Stores, &c., When he Was relieved by an officer and about 25 Men of the Militia, to whom he Delivered up the Stores, &c.; and was on his return to this Settlement to Recruit, when he found one Simpson killed and Scalpt, a hors shot by him, & Captain Moorhead's Brother Who was in Company with said Simpson a missing. Supposed to be taken prisonar. Was found by the Dead Corps, a War Bullet, a Tomahawk & a beaver Pouch containing a Written Speech, a Copy of it you have enclosed.

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You have also enclosed a Letter from Colonel Morgan Which was sent to this Place Late Last Night by Express. The above Simpson & Captain Moorhead's Brother Left Kittaning the 16th, was found the th 18 about 10 miles from there, near Blankit Hill. Captain Moorhead being obliged to Stay so Long at Kittanning & Lieutenant Macfarline being Prisonar put almost a total stop to the Recruiting services of his Company. And the Calling of the Westmoreland Battalion & Militia as left this county very bare of Men and arms, and you both well no the Militia of this County are not to be Depended on When at home; therefore from the present appearance of things, if some speedy steps are not taken for our Relief, Either by the Honorable Congress or Gentelmen in authority in our Government below, This infant Country certainly will fall a victim to British tyrants & mercyless Savages." (from: The Historical Register of Westmoreland County, September, 1884)

March 27, 1777

Devereaux Smith again writes to the Indian Commissioners: “Last night the Party of Militia, 30 men who were sent to keep Garrison at Kittaning & take care of the Stores till Captain Moorhead raised his Company, Returned to this Place, having evacuated that Post; and as in no other Reasan than because they was afraid. I hope we will Get them to Return, by reinforcing them, &c. Colonel Crawford has assured Captain Moorhead by Letter that he will send him Immediate assistance from his Battalion." (from: The Historical Register of Westmoreland County, September, 1884)

June 1, 1777

Fort Pitt, once again bearing this proud name, became a United States fort when Brigadier General Edward Hand took it over from Captain John Neville.

August 20, 1777

The Virginia Court moved out of the fort.

1778

John Turner builds an estate called “Federal Hill” in what is now the 3400 block of Beechwood Blvd. and includes the area now occupied by the oldest congregation in Squirrel Hill, the Mary S. Brown Memorial Methodist Church (3424 Beechwood Blvd.), which serves as custodian of the Turner cemetery next door, with its Indian graves and recollections of the early pioneers. (from: Pittsburgh an Urban Portrait)

February, 1778

General Hand, the commander at Fort Pitt makes an expedition into the Indian country west of the Ohio, the first force to enter that region in the Revolution. About five hundred men marched from Fort Pitt and proceeded to the Cuyahoga River for the purpose of destroying some British stores reported to be there. The result of this movement was one Indian warrior and one squaw killed, and one squaw taken prisoner; and of the white troops, one captain wounded and one man drowned. This was then called in derision the “Squaw Campaign.”

May, 1778

Continental officer, Brig.-General Lachlin McIntosh assumes command of the Western Department and Fort Pitt. McIntosh brings with him a small force of the regular Continental Army. In the mean time Pennsylvania and Virginia had become aroused to the danger menacing their western frontiers, and had taken measures to raise a force for their protection. Congress too had become aware of the increased hostility of the Indians and had awakened to the need to protect the almost defenseless western border. This resulted in the determination to send an expedition for the reduction of the British post of Detroit, as the surest means of overawing the savages and so insuring the safety of the frontiers.

Orders were therefore issued to Gen. McIntosh to organize the proposed expedition and march against Detroit. In obedience to these orders he moved down the Ohio River with his little force of Continentals, a battalion of Virginians, and several companies of Pennsylvanians (raised by the State for the emergency as before mentioned), and halting at the mouth of Beaver, the site of the present town of that name, erected there a small fort, which was named Fort McIntosh. This, the first military work ever erected by the United States on the Indian side of the Ohio, was a stockade, but bastioned, and on 299

each bastion was mounted a six-pounder gun. It was scarcely more than worthless as against even light artillery, but for the purpose for which it was built was considered formidable.

By the time Fort McIntosh was completed it was found that the proposed expedition against Detroit would be too expensive an undertaking for the slender resources of the Congress. It was therefore abandoned. Gen. McIntosh, having received orders to proceed instead at his discretion against some of the Indian settlements, and having decided on an expedition against the Wyandot towns on the upper waters of the Sandusky, leaving a garrison at the fort, marched with about one thousand men into the western wilderness towards his objective-point. But for some cause which is not perfectly clear, on reaching the Muskingum River he decided to proceed no farther until spring, and therefore halted there and erected a defensive work, which he named, in honor of the president of the Continental Congress, Fort Laurens. It was a weak stockade, located on the west bank of the river, near the site of the present town of Bolivar, Tuscarawas Co., Ohio. Having decided on a suspension of operations for the season, he left in the fort a garrison of one hundred and fifty men, under command of Col. John Gibson, and returned with the main body of his force to Fort Pitt.

“In the year 1778 the Eighth [PA Regiment] was sent to Pittsburgh to guard the frontier, and placed under the command of Gen. McIntosh; that they went down to the mouth of the Beaver, and there built Fort McIntosh, and from that went, upon McIntosh’s command, to the head of the Muskingum, and there built Fort Laurens. In the year 1779 went up the Allegheny, on Gen. Brodhead’s expedition, attacked the Indians and defeated them, and burned their towns. On the return of the regiment, its time having expired, it was discharged at Pittsburgh.” (from: Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 12, series 1.). (note: Robert McCready, a pioneer settler and veteran of Washington’s battles around New York, served as Adjutant to Gen. McIntosh on his campaign west. McCready’s journal recounting the McIntosh campaign is in the holdings of the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Museum).

June 1778

David Rogers, with about 40 men, left Fort Pitt to bring a much-needed cargo of ammunition from New Orleans. His return was intercepted.

June 28, 1778

The legend of “Molly Pitcher” and the Battle of Monmouth, NJ. The main Continental Army under George Washington attacked the rear of the British Army column commanded by Sir Henry Clinton as they left Monmouth Court House.

Monmouth was the last major battle in the northern theater, and the largest one-day battle of the war when measured in terms of participants. Molly was the wife of an American artilleryman who to the battle with her husband, carrying water in a pitcher for swabbing (cooling) the cannons and for the thirsty gun crews. She took her husband's place at the cannon after he fell. The story is based on a true incident, but has become embellished over the years. Two places on the battlefield are marked as sites of the "Molly Pitcher Spring". Molly Pitcher is generally remembered as Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, wife of William Hays. Molly was a frequent nickname for women named Mary.

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Solid records first appear in 1778. She was working in her house with her best friend whose husband was also in the war.

She knew her husband was going to Monmouth and she heard from German soldiers about the British. She went to her husband in New Jersey from Carlisle. She then helped the soldiers on the American side by giving them water and took her husband's place at his cannon when he fell injured. She resolutely stayed at her post in the face of severe enemy fire, acting as a gunner. Soldiers called her “Molly Pitcher” because she carried pitchers of water to cool the cannon and give drinks to wounded soldiers.

After the battle, General George Washington issued her a warrant as a noncommissioned officer, and she was thereafter known by the nickname "Sergeant Molly". After her first husband died, she married Col. John McCauley of Carlisle, Pa. Col. and Mary McCauley are the parents of Claranna Jane Brown, mother of W.S. Brown. Today, The US Field Artillery Association has among its distinguished awards: the Artillery Order of Molly Pitcher.

January, 1779

In January following Gen. McIntosh’s return to Fort Pitt, Col. Gibson at Fort Laurens suddenly found himself besieged by a body of about eight hundred and fifty Indians, who reached the vicinity of the fort in the evening after dark. During the first night of the presence of the savages they caught the horses which were outside the fort, took off their bells, and led them some distance into the woods, then concealing themselves in the grass that bordered the path to the woods, and at about daybreak a party of them commenced rattling the bells at a point beyond the ambush. The people in the fort supposed the horses were there, and sixteen men were sent to bring them in. When they had been drawn sufficiently into the ambushment the concealed Indians fired on them in front and rear, killing all but two, who were taken prisoners. In the afternoon of the same day the whole Indian force marched within full view of the garrison to an elevated piece of ground on the opposite side of the river, where they made their encampment.

The siege of the fort continued for six weeks, at the end of which time the garrison became greatly straitened for provisions, but it proved that the savages were still more so. During the time of their stay frequent conversations were held between the besiegers and besieged, the former telling Col. Gibson that they did not want war, but they were determined that the white man should not come and occupy their country and build forts within it. With Col. Gibson’s garrison there was a Delaware Indian called John Thompson, who during the investment had been permitted by both parties to go to and fro between the Indian camp and the fort at will. Finally the savages sent word by this Thompson to the white commandant that they wanted peace, and would make a treaty and leave the place if he would send them a barrel of flour and some tobacco. The garrison were terribly reduced for provisions, but Col. Gibson acceded to the request of the Indians, and sent them the articles demanded, whereupon the savages raised the siege and marched away through the woods, but did not keep their promise to make a treaty of peace.

Col. Gibson had a large number of sick men in his garrison, and soon after the Indians had apparently left the vicinity, he detached Col. Clarke with fifteen men to escort these invalids to Fort McIntosh, but they had not proceeded far from the fort when they fell into an ambush of the treacherous Indians, and all were killed or taken prisoners except Col. Clarke and three others who succeeded in making their escape to the fort. This act of perfidy so incensed Col. Gibson that he at once sallied out with the main part of his force, determined to attack and punish the Indians for their treachery, but the savage forces had disappeared and were not again seen.

During the continuance of the siege, Col. Gibson had managed to send a friendly Delaware with a message to Gen. McIntosh at Fort Pitt, notifying him that unless men and provisions were promptly 301

sent him he would be compelled to surrender. The general sent messengers in haste to the settlers up the Monongahela, acquainting them of the situation of affairs at Fort Laurens, and asking instant aid in men and provisions. The settlers promptly responded, many volunteering for the expedition of relief, and others furnishing pack-horses, with an abundant supply of provisions. With these and part of the garrison of Fort Pitt (making an entire force of about seven hundred men), Gen. McIntosh set out without delay, and marched rapidly to Fort Laurens, which was reached a few days after the departure of the besieging force of Indians. When the relief force appeared in sight at the fort the joy of the garrison was great, and found expression in the firing of a salute of musketry, which, however, cost them dear, for it frightened the pack-horses and caused them to break loose and run into the woods with their loads, by which accident a great part of the flour was lost, the sacks being broken open, and their contents scattered among the trees and bushes so that it could not be recovered. The meats of course were not injured.

A new garrison under Maj. Frederick Vernon was left at Fort Laurens, and Gibson’s command, with the main force under Gen. McIntosh, returned to Fort Pitt. During the stay of Maj. Vernon at Fort Laurens the garrison under his command was reduced to the verge of starvation, and finally, in the spring of 1779, the fort was evacuated and abandoned. The evacuation of Fort McIntosh followed soon afterwards. The withdrawal of the troops from these forts was the final abandonment of the proposed expeditions of Gen. McIntosh against the British post of Detroit and the Wyandot towns on the Sandusky. The troops with which he had prosecuted his operations at Forts McIntosh and Laurens in 1778 and the early part of 1779 were, with the exception of the small Continental force which he brought with him from the East, made up almost exclusively of men from the country between the Laurel Hill and the Ohio River, the territory which afterwards became Washington County furnishing its full share.

Through all the Monongahela country and westward to the Ohio River there was great consternation and alarm and no little indignation at the withdrawal of the garrisons of the frontier forts, McIntosh and Laurens, and public meetings were held to memorialize Congress and pray for the re-occupation of the posts. But Congress could do nothing, for the operations of the armies in the East called for all, and more than all, the men and means at command. So the borders were of necessity left for the time to take care of themselves and protect their exposed frontiers from savages, white outlaws, and the British.

Gen. McIntosh had retired from the command of the Western Department in 1779, and was succeeded

by Col. Daniel Brodhead, who, as it appears, was invested with power to order out the militia of the western counties through the several county lieutenants.

August 11, 1779

Colonel Daniel Brodhead left Fort Pitt with 600 men to destroy the Seneca Indian villages along the upper Allegheny River.

1780

Hughey family homesteading in the Turtle Creek and Penn Hills area near what is today Monroeville.

William Smith, brother of Devereaux Smith, leaves Philadelphia after the College of Philadelphia has its charter revoked because of the Revolution. He moves to Chestertown, MD as rector of the Anglican Church. While 302

there he convened a conference that asked the state to “disestablish” the Church of England and create what Smith called the “Protestant Episcopal Church of America”. Six months later he is placed in charge of the Kent County School that was founded in the 1720s. The school quickly grew under William Smith’s leadership to 140 students. The Board of Visitors and Governors the petitioned the state of MD for a college charter. The state agreed provided that Dr. Smith raise 5,000 pounds within 5 years to support the college. Traveling the countyside on horseback he raised more than double the required amount as the leaders of the day understood the importance of having an educated citizenry. The college was chartered in 1782 as Washington College.

March 18, 1780

Early in 1780 the Indians commenced their work of devastation in the frontier settlements. On the 18th of March, Col. Brodhead, in a communication to the president of the Council, said, “I am sorry to inform you that the Savages have already begun their hostilities. Last Sunday morning at a Sugar Camp upon Raccoon Creek five Men were killed & three lads & three girls taken prisoners. It is generally conjectured that the Delawares have struck this blow, and it is probable enough, but it is possible it may have been done by other Indians. If the Delawares are set against us, with their numerous alliances, they will greatly distress the frontier, as my Force is quite too small to repell their invasions. I have wrote to the Commander-in-Chief for a reinforcement from the main army, but I fear it will not be in his power to detach any of the troops. . . You may rely on my giving every possible protection & countenance to our settlements, but I have very little in my power without calling out the Militia, and for them I have no provisions. What Col. Geo. Morgan [congressional Indian agent] has been doing this two years past I know not, but I conceive that if he had been where his employment required we should have been much better provided.”

April 29, 1780

For the next year, Broadhead repeatedly asks for men, arms and supplies to attack the Indians and British in the West but receives nothing as the attention of the government and the Army are focused on fighting in the east. The only assistance Broadhead received was an incentive for the local militia: The president of the Supreme Executive Council, in a letter to Brodhead, dated Philadelphia, April 29, 1780, says, “After many Consultations & much Deliberation we have concluded to offer a Reward for Scalps, & hope it will serve as an Inducement to the young Fellows of the County & others to turn out against the Indians. I herewith send you several of them. We ware sensible it may be attended with Inconveniences, but it occurred to us as a Measure of Necessity & the only effectual Weapon against the Savages; we hope it is so guarded that many abuses will not happen.” (from: Penn. Arch., 1779-81, p. 218).

Col. Brodhead, although he did not abandon the project of an expedition against the Indian towns west of the Ohio, found it impossible to carry it out during the year 1780, not only for lack of provisions but from the difficulty (particularly in the latter part of the year) of procuring men from the settlements willing to volunteer for the campaign. This unwillingness was, perhaps, caused by the fact that the Indians had made several incursions into the Monongahela country, which alarmed the inhabitants and made them particularly unwilling to absent themselves, leaving their homes unprotected.

Each one of the commandants of Fort Pitt from the time of the commencement of the war – Neville, Hand, McIntosh, and Brodhead – had been especially desirous of retaining for the American cause the friendship of the Delaware tribe of Indians, and had used all available means to accomplish that end.

The reason for these efforts to conciliate the Delawares in particular was thus explained by Col. Brodhead. “I am not ignorant,” he said, in a letter to President Reed, “of the influence of the Delaware Councils over near twenty different Nations, and it is for that reason only why so much notice has been taken of them.” “The Delaware chiefs with upwards of thirty warriors are come to aid me upon an Expedition, but as I have neither Bread nor Meat to give them, they will discover that it is not in my power to act offensively. They appear much dejected on account of the total want of goods, which they were promised in exchange for their peltry.”

1781

Hugh Henry Brackenridge arrived from Philadelphia to practice law. He soon became an important civic and political leader in western Pennsylvania.

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April, 1781

Col. Brodhead learns that the Delawares have defected from the American cause and becomes determined to push forward his expedition into the Indian country immediately and at all hazards.

Being unable to obtain any troops by draft from the militia of Westmoreland County, he called for volunteers, and the call was responded to, principally by men from the territory of the newly-erected (though not organized) county of Washington. The force amounted to a little over three hundred men, of whom about one-half were volunteers. From the place of rendezvous at Wheeling (Fort Henry) they crossed the Ohio, and marched as rapidly as possible and by the most direct route to the principal village of the hostile Delawares, which was located on the Muskingum River, on the lower part of the site of the present town of Coshocton, Ohio.

1782

The German Evangelical Protestant (Congregational) Church, the first organized religious group in Pittsburgh, held services in a small block-house at the corner of present Wood and Diamond streets.

Reverend John William Weber was pastor.

October 15, 1782

Washington College in Chestertown, MD is chartered by the state of Maryland, with William Smith, brother of Devereaux Smith, its first president. Named after General George Washington, who made the largest founding gift to the college and served on its first Board until 1889 when he became President of the United States. That year he also accepted an honorary degree from the college. William Smith served as president of the college for 9 years.

Smith Hall - Wasshington College

May, 1783

Congress resolves to send an emissary to the Western Indians to inform them that the war with the British is over. The Secretary of War selects Major Ephraim Douglass, partner of Devereaux Smith, for the mission.

June, 1784

Douglass sets out from Fort Pitt traveling through the wilderness eventually to Detroit where he reports of the peace to a “Grand Council of eleven Indian Tribes.” Douglas later reported following his return in 1784, that he had learned that Sir John Johnson, the British Indian Agent, had told the Indians that although the King had surrendered his lands to the Americans, he had not given the Americans the Indian lands west of the Ohio River. Johnson urged the Indians to defend “. . . their rights and property if they were invaded or molested by the Americans.” (from: Ephraim Douglas letter to the President of Council, dated Uniontown, February, 1784)

In the first real estate sale on record, Isaac Craig and Samuel Bayard purchased three acres of land lying between Fort Pitt and the Allegheny River.

Bouquet’s Redoubt, the famous Blockhouse, was converted into a dwelling and continued as such until April 1, 1894.

The Penns’ Pittsburgh Manor was laid out in lots by George Woods and Thomas Vickroy. The manor embraced the tongue of land between the two rivers as far as present Grant Street and Eleventh.

Woods and Vickory’s plan expanded on Campbell’s street plan of 1764, extending it to Suke’s Run th (Grant Street) on the Monongahela River and Washington Street (11 Street) on the Allegheny River.

1785

Thomas Brown surveys land called “Whiskey Path” and lays out town named Brownsville.

Sarah Brown, mother of William Hughey Brown is born this year. Later (date unknown but prior to 1811) marries James Brown.

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August 15, 1785

The Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania ordered John Ormsby to "take possession of Fort Pitt in behalf of the Commonwealth, upon its being relinquished" by the United States.

Lodge No. 45, Ancient Order of York Masons, was organized.

1786

Brownsville has a population of 600 people which is larger that Pittsburgh at this time. There is a constant stream of west-bound travelers who stop here either to build or have built boats to float down the Monongahela River.

February 28, 1786

The State Legislature granted a charter for the Pittsburgh Academy "for the education of youth in useful arts, sciences and literature." Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge was prime organizer.

July 29, 1786

The Pittsburgh Gazette, first newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains, was published as a weekly

by John Scull and Joseph Hall, printers. In the columns of the newly launched gazette, Hugh H. Brackenridge wrote that, at the junction of the three rivers in the morning, "a light fog is usually incumbent." But, he observed, "in as much as it consists of vapor. . . Which the sun of the preceding day had extracted from trees and flowers and in the evening had sent back into dew it is experienced to be healthful."

Niles Weekly Register reported that "36 log houses, one stone house, one frame house, and five small stores" extended along Chancery Lane and Market Street.

Septetmber 24, 1786

The Penns donated two and one half lots each to the First Presbyterian, the German Evangelical Protestant, and the Trinity Protestant Episcopal churches.

September 29, 1786 The First Presbyterian Church was incorporated by an act of the Legislature.

David Redick was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council to lay Out the "Town Common and lots in the reserve tract opposite Pittsburgh." The reserved tract had been authorized by the Legislature in September 1787.

The first market house was erected.

1787

William Brown claims land near village of Greenville on Kittaning and Shenago Trails.

May 3, 1787

James Brown, father of William Hughey Brown is born, in Ireland or Scotland. When he is 5 years old, he is brought to America by his widowed mother who later marries Mr. McKinney.

1788

Allegheny County is created David Redick lays out the plans for Allegheny City (now the North Side).

September 24, 1788 Mainly through efforts of Hugh H. Brackenridge, lawyer and state assemblyman, Allegheny County was created out of parts of Westmoreland and Washington counties; Pittsburgh was decreed the county seat.

November 19, 1788 Lots in the reserved tract were sold at public sale.

December 16, 1788

First Quarter Sessions Court of Allegheny County convened in Pittsburgh at Andrew Watson's tavern.

Regular mail service to Philadelphia was inaugurated.

A Mechanical Society, devoted to the betterment of the workingman, was organized.

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1789

First published novel in America: Power of Sympathy by Williiam H. Brown.

March 14, 1789

The first Court of Common Pleas convened in Andrew Watson s tavern.

May 2, 1789

Devereaux Smith reported in the Pittsburgh Gazette: “Ran away from the subscriber on the 12 inst., living near Pittsburgh, a serving lad, named John Murphy, about 18 years of age, 5 ft. 6 inches high, full round face, short black hair; had on when he went away, buckskin breeches, yarn stockings, th old shoes, a country linen shirt and a wool hat. He was seen lurking about Pittsburgh from the 12 to the 16 instant. That evening he is supposed to have stolen a canoe and proceeded down the Ohio River. Whoever secures said servant in any jail so that the master may get him again shall receive Two Dollars reward.” “It was further reported that “Said servant boy walks with crooked in his knees, and is much given to lying, etc.” (from: A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills on an American Frontier, E. Chalfant)

July 2, 1789

The gazette reported: "Yesterday was brought to this place and buried, the bodies of two young men, named Arthur Graham and Alexander Campbell, who had gone out to fish. They were killed by the savages about two miles from this place."

th

Captain Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, died at John Ormsby’s.

1790

Joseph Brown along with John and Mordecai McLeod, and Duncan Campbell, start a boatyard in Pittsburgh designed to make keel and Kentucky boats to ship lumber down the rivers.

Population of Pittsburgh is 376 and Allegheny City is 10,309.

Map of Pittsburgh 1790

April 13, 1791

Devereaux Smith and other city leaders are authorized by the state of PA to purchase land in Pittsburgh and to erect a courthouse and prison.

June 15, 1791

Elizabeth Smith (mother of Mary Smith Brown) born.

May 5, 1792

The Kentucky Gazette records “The sloop Western Experiment…built on the Monongahela and bound for Philadelphia-passed…on Saturday the 20 April, navigated by Isaac Brown…” This is the first seagoing vessel on the upper river waters.

1794

18 people in Southwestern PA are arrested by troops of Gen. Irvine during the “Whiskey Rebellion”.

April 22, 1794

Pittsburgh is incorporated as a borough.

April 18, 1795

Weekly mail service is established between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia..

1796

Population of Pittsburgh is 1,300.

August 1, 1797

William Brown hosts a meeting at his home to choose officers of the local battalion of the PA militia.

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1798 December 22, 1799

Ships “President Adams” and “Senator Ross” are built, armed for service against Spanish forces on the lower Mississippi and launched at Elizabeth, PA Devereux Smith dies in Pittsburgh at age 64. He is a valued and trusted friend of the Penn family and served them with distinction at Fort Pitt and Pittsburgh. His is one of the Trustees to receive a grant from the heirs of William Penn to Trinity Church. He is also a Trustee of the First Presbyterian Church. His will is dated July 13, 1898 and recorded on June 21, 1800. (from: Burials in Trinity Church, Helen L. Harris).

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TIMELINE - BROWN FAMILY HISTORY Part II.

1800 to 1860

Pittsburgh 1790 McRae print of Bratz watercolor

1800s

In the late 1700s, coal was mined on "Coal Hill" (now Mount Washington) in Pittsburgh and by the 1800s, Americans had found a variety of ways to use the growing coal discoveries below their lands. In 1816, Baltimore began to light its streets with coal gas. In 1830, Tom Thumb, the first commercially practical American built locomotive was fueled by coal. To meet the increasing demand for coal, the steam shovel was invented in 1839 and transformed the growing coal industry to mechanized surface mining. In the 1870s, a major surge in coal demand was for coke production as coke replaced wood charcoal as the fuel for iron blast furnaces. In the 1870s and 1880s coal production increased 300%.

Ultimately, today's primary use of coal - electric power generation - began in 1882 when Thomas Edison built the first practical coal fired electric generating station to power New York City.

1800

Commercial businesses in Pittsburgh, PA consist of 63 shops, of which 23 are general stores, 6 are shoe shops, 4 bakeries and 4 hat stores.

Population of Pittsburgh is 1,565 and Allegheny County is 15,087.

Abundant natural resources of wood, coal, limestone, sand, and flax along with the barrier of the Allegheny mountains to eastern imports made early Pittsburgh focus on self-sufficiency. Soon, however, the river network would bring raw materials to the city which could be aggregated through simple manufacturing and then shipped to other markets. Pittsburgh would gradually grow into a major commerce center thanks to its position as the gateway to western travel and its near monopoly on western trade.

Pittsburgh 1796 J. Warin pen & ink drawing

1801

United Kingdom formed from merger of Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland.

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Zadok Cramer prints first river navigation guide called the “Navigator”, with instructions on river transport and maps.

1802

“Pittsburgh Almanac”, published by Zadok Cramer, lists industrial operations in the city: 1 large brewery, 2 large glassworks, 1 fine-glass factory, 1 paper mill, several oil mills, powder works, ironworks, saltworks, saw and grist mills and a boat yard.

1803

“Pittsburgh Almanac” estimates the total value of all city manufacturing at $358,903. Of that amount, iron manufacturing accounted for $56,548 from castings and nails, textile manufacturing was second in value at $46,825.

The rivers around Pittsburgh are beginning to be used to float coal to New Orleans for shipment to Philadelphia.

April 30, 1803

Louisianna Purchase. US buys the territorial claims of France in North America.

1804-1806

Lewis and Clark expedition journeys to the Pacific coast and back. The expedition began from Elizabeth, PA on the Monongahela river.

At this site, keel boats were built and sailed down river.

In the early 1800s, the most important industry in Pittsburgh was boat building. The forests of western Pennsylvania and river transportation brought the necessary materials. Two main types of boats were built.

Flatboats of lengths of 20 to 100 feet by 12 to 20 feet wide carried an average of 50 tones simply by floating down river. The journey to New Orleans took four weeks, one way and on arrival both the cargo and the boat would be sold. Wood from flat boats was used to build homes and buildings down river. Keelboats were build for two way travel and were needed for hauls upriver. A trip from New Orleans to Pittsburgh took four months.

1804

James Brown founds Pittsburgh’s oldest iron mills Mittenberger & Brown, Wayne Iron Works.

New stage coach service is established offering “speedy” 6 day service from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia.

George Beck an artist traveling through Pittsburgh paints the oldest surviving painting of early Pittsburgh. (See note above for October 19, 1770 and Devereaux Smith’s house.)

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January 9, 1804

The first bank in Pittsburgh is opened, a branch bank of the Bank of Pennsylvania.

February, 1806

Company incorporated to build a turnpike from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg.

August 14, 1807

Commercial steam boating on the Hudson River began with Robert Fulton’s successful steamboat trip from New York to Albany. This was the first voyage of any considerable length made by a steamboat. Immediately following this demonstration, Robert Fulton started regular steamboat service on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany.

1810

Population of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City is 4,768, Allegheny County is 25,317.

November 9, 1810

Pittsburgh Manufacturing Co. is 2 bank in Pittsburgh, first with local capital, would become Bank of Pittsburgh.

October 25, 1811

The steamboat “New Orleans” was built in Pittsburgh by Nicholas Roosevelt at a cost of $40,000. It traveled to New Orleans and operated as a regular packet service between there and Natchez, MS, it was the first steamboat to navigate the western rivers.

1812-1815

War of 1812 between US and Great Britain.

May, 1812

A steam engine works was built in Pittsburgh by Oliver Evans.

1812-1813

The 25 ton stern wheel steamboat “Comet” was built

by Daniel French for Samuel Smith of Pittsburgh (father of Mary Smith Brown, wife of William Hughey nd Brown). This is the 2 steamboat on rivers and was followed by the "Vesuvius built by this same group.

French had been given a patent on light draught steamboats of the stern wheel type. (from: A History

nd

of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, C.H. Ambler; and also: History of Northern West Virginia Panhandle).

1813

Peter Brown and George Brown serve in Captain William Cray’s company, Fayette County roster of War of 1812.

Samuel Smith and Daniel French build their second steamboat, “Enterprise”, of 45 tons, at Brownsville, PA. Of all the early independent steamboats the “Enterprise” “. . . gave the best account of herself. After two trips from Pittsburgh to Louisville and return, she entered the employ of the federal government, sailing from Pittsburgh to New Orleans under the command of Captain Henry M. Shreve.

After aiding Jackson to defeat the British, Captain Shreve decided to use the “Enterprise” to demonstrate the practicability of steam navigation up-stream between Natchez and 311

Louisville.” The small draft of his boat facilitated the success of this venture and she became the first steamboat to accomplish this journey up river. Another important element of the voyage of the “Enterprise is that it assure free navigation of the western river and denied Fulton and his associates a monopoly. (from: A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, C.H. Ambler; also from: Who’s Who on the Ohio River)

"In 1813 there were five glass factories, three foundries, a new edge tool factory, Cowan's New Rolling Mill, a new lock factory built by Patterson, two steam engine and boiler works, one steel factory and a goodly number of small concerns manufacturing various articles. (from: Boucher's Century and a half of Pittsburg).

September 1, 1813

Mary Smith is born in Manchester, England. (She is the future Mrs. W. Hughey Brown and the mother of Captain Samuel S. and W. Harry Brown.)

December 18, 1813

The Will of Ephraim Hughey is recorded in Pittsburgh directing his estate to care for his son: “I leave my son Wilson Hughy that he must be learned to read and write well, to be made perfect in the five Common Rules of Arithmetic, to be clothed and kept free from expenses until fit to go to a trade or other business.” Hughey is very specific regarding his wife and daughter also, leaving his wife: “. . . the kitchen furniture, beds and bedding, her living and accommodations of the farm I possess, as also a sufficient quantity of wool and flax to make her clothing yearly – that is to say as long as she remains my widow, but in case she marry, my executors shall be exempted from finding her in anything from that period. I leave my daughter Jane Hays the property I have already given her – that is to say one horse, saddle, and bridle, one bed bedstead and furniture and one bureau, two cows, one breakfast table, four sheep, four chairs, one wash pot, one cook pot, one bake oven, middling size, six knives and forks, six spoons, one tea kettle and tea furniture, three delph dishes and six plates. These I lent to you when married, and now I bequeath them to you as your portion of my property.” (from: A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills on an American Frontier, E. Chalfant, 1955)

1814

Richard Brown & Co. opens in Pittsburgh, merchants of cloth, sugar, cotton, etc, shipped from New Orleans. It is recorded among the leading establishments in the City.

November 23, 1814

The Bank of Pittsburgh (the city’s 2 bank) is reorganized with George Wilkens as president and James Brown a director.

December 15, 1814

Enterprise, a stern wheel steamboat captained by Henry Shreve, leaves Pittsburgh loaded with supplies and guns to relieve Gen. Andrew Jackson at Battle of New Orleans. Owned and funded by Samuel Smith, William Foster (Stephen Collins Foster’s father) and others. The Enterprise, or Enterprize, was the first steamboat to demonstrate by her epic 2,200-mile voyage from New Orleans to Pittsburgh that steamboat commerce was practical on America's western rivers. The Enterprise was the fourth steamboat west of the Allegheny Mountains.

1815 – 1817

Financial panic and depression in Western Pennsylvania. (from: Boucher's Century and a half of Pittsburg). “The fiscal crisis was indeed very striking. The very elements seemed leagued against the interests of agriculture in the Atlantic States, where a series of early and late frosts,

nd

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in 1816 and 1817, had created quite a panic, which helped to settle the West.” (from: Schoolcraft's Thirty years with the Indian tribes).

1815

James Riddle compiles and publishes the “Pittsburgh Directory for 1815”. James Brown is listed as a shoemaker.

Napoleon defeated at Waterloo, concludes Napoleonic Wars.

The Farmers and Mechanics Bank is founded.

"In 1815 the buildings of a public character were 'a handsome octagon Episcopal church, a handsome and spacious Presbyterian church, also a Covenanter, German Lutheran and Roman Catholic church, and an Academy, all of brick;' a court house, jail, three incorporated banks, a dramatic theatre, a Masonic hall, three market houses, one in the Diamond and two in Second street. Both the court house and market house in the public square, called the Diamond, were built of brick, and some of the mercantile and financial buildings were of a substantial character." (from: Killikelly's, History of Pittsburgh)

January 1, 1815

Enterprise arrives at New Orleans.

Ad in the Kentucky Gazette, 1815

January 8, 1815

Gen. Andrew Jackson defeats British in Battle of New Orleans.

January 15, 1815

William Hughey Brown born North Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, PA “He was of honest but humble origin, being a son of James Brown, a farmer of Scotch-Irish descent, and rose to wealth and influence, simply by utilizing the homely every day opportunities, which were close at hand. With an education sufficient to lift him out of the ranks of the unlettered, he began life on the farm.” (from: America’s Successful Men of Affairs, Henry Hall, 1895).

October, 1815

"When this city and vicinity was surveyed by the author of this treatise, in October, 1815, there were in Pittsburg 960 dwelling houses, and in the suburbs, villages, and immediate outskirts, about 300 more, making in all 1260, and including inhabitants, workmen in the manufactories, and labourers, upwards of 12,000 inhabitants." (from: Darby's Emigrant's Guide, 1818).

1816

From 1815 to the Civil War (1861) Pittsburgh's economy saw a significant economic shift from commerce to industry. This resulted in part from challenges to the city's near monopoly on western trade as cities downriver such as Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis became major supply points for the frontier. Another problem was created by a decision of the US Congress by pass Pittsburgh with the National Road (US 40) which ran from Baltimore and terminated at Wheeling, WV on the Ohio River. Pittsburgh industrial growth came from abundant raw materials: iron ore, charcoal and coal among others. Iron production at local foundries produced simple shape, nails and farm tools while supplying a host of machinery manufacturers.

"The steam-boat navigation, we are assured, is a losing concern. The newspapers have announced the hopes of our western citizens, and the editors now appear to be careful to 313

conceal their disappointments. Two large vessels of this description are lying near the Point, which have not justified public expectations. Captain FRENCH, of Brownsville, (fifty miles by water up the Monongahela and thirty-five by land) has built two vessels of this kind, which it is said have succeeded best." (from: Thomas's Travels through the western country in 1816). (Note: The two boats built by Captain French are the Comet and Enterprise contracted for and owned by Samuel Smith.)

Lawrenceville, named for the Naval commander James Lawrence, established by William B. Foster, father of songwriter Stephen Collins Foster. The U.S. Army built its Allegheny Arsenal on land provided by Foster. In time, Lawrenceville was clustered about the intersection of Butler St and 43rd St (Ewalt St) where a covered bridge crossed the Allegheny in 1870. "Two cotton factories, one woollen factory, one paper mill, two saw mills, and one flour mill, are all moved by steam, in this city and in its suburbs across the Monongahela. Four glass factories, two for flint, and two for green, are very extensive; and the productions of the former for elegance of workmanship, are scarcely surpassed by European manufacture. It is sent in many directions from this place; one of the proprietors assured us that Philadelphia receives a part, but the great outlet is down the Ohio." (from: Thomas's Travels through the western country in 1816).

"Three steamers were built at Pittsburgh in 1816, the 'Franklin,' one hundred and twenty-five tons, by Messrs. Shiras and Cromwell; the 'Oliver Evans,' seventy-five tons, by George Evans; and the 'Harriet,' forty tons, by a Mr. Armstrong of Williamsport, Pennsylvania.... Up to 1816 grave doubts existed as to the practicability of navigating the Ohio by steamboats. A gentleman who in that year, with others, long watched the futile efforts of a stern wheeler to ascend the Baltimore lights its streets using coal gas.

March 18, 1816

Pittsburgh is incorporated as a city.

May 11, 1816

"In the course of the present week, wagons have arrived at Pittsburgh, in thirteen days from Philadelphia, with loads of 3500 lbs. and upwards." (Reported in the newspaper the Mercury).

June 29, 1816

James Brown is among those elected to the first Pittsburgh City Common Council. (from:

1817

A branch of the Bank of the United States is established in Pittsburgh. It takes over the business of the defunct Bank of Pennslvania. James Brown and Samuel Smith were among those who petitioned for this bank. Samuel Smith is among its first directors.

Commonweath, June 29,1816; one of three Pittsburgh newspapers of the day along with the Gazette, and the Mercury)

James Brown begins making water and butter crackers, and pilot, navy and common breads. house in the public square.

"A mixture of all nations, though principally Americans; there are Irish, Scotch, English, French, Dutch, Swiss, etc. The character of the people is that of enterprising and persevering industry; every man to his business is the prevailing maxim, there is therefore little time devoted to amusements or to the cultivation of refined social pleasures. Strangers are not much pleased with the place in point of hospitality merely, but those who have business to transact, will meet with as many facilities as elsewhere. They are of all denominations of the Christian religion; many of them attentive on the duties of their worship, and but few addicted to gross vices and dissipation. Luxury, pomp and parade are scarcely seen; there are perhaps, not more than one or two carriages in the place. There is a public academy, but not in a flourishing state, where the Latin and Greek classics are taught. There are besides, a number of English schools where children are taught to read, write, arithmetic, grammar, etc. There is a seminary for young ladies, which is said to be well conducted. The amusements of these industrious people are not numerous, a few balls during the winter season; there is also a small theatre where a company 314

from the eastern cities sometimes performs. A society has been formed for the purpose of natural improvement in the different departments of natural history, and is flourishing; it has attached to it a circulating library, a cabinet of curiosities and chemical laboratory." (from:

Sketch of city in 1817 by Mrs. E. C. Gibson while on her wedding tour.

Cramer's Navigator, 1817).

"The principal manufacturing establishments are, a steam grist-mill, steam engine factory, slitting mill, to which is attached a nail factory, the first of the kind in America; a cannon foundery, air furnace, cotton and woollen factories, two potteries, three breweries, &c.

There are four printing-offices, and two bookstores. A complete description of this interesting town would fill a volume." (from: Brown's Western Gazetteer, 1817) "Before the time of railroads between the east and west of the Allegheny mountains, the freight business to the Monongahela was carried on by means of the Conestoga road wagons drawn by six horses. By this way the freight to Pittsburgh was carried exclusively, but after the completion of the Pennsylvania canal, transportation was divided between the canal-boat and the wagon. As early as 1817 12,000 wagons, in twelve months, passed over the Allegheny mountains from Philadelphia and Baltimore, each with from four to six horses, carrying from thirty-five to forty hundred weight. (from: Van Voorhis's Old and new Monongahela) 1818

The Pittsburgh to Harrisburg turnpike is open to travel.

A total of nine steam boats were built at Pittsburgh.

March 3, 1818

William Brown is named commissioner in Pittsburgh to sell stock in the Pittsburgh to Steubenville Turnpike Road.

March 17, 1818

Will of Pittsburgh’s 1 doctor, Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, leaves to his wife land in town of Birmingham on south side of Mon river, “including piece of land lately purchased by James Brown, together with buildings, coal banks and improvements.” (from: A Goodly Heritage: Earliest

st

Wills on an American Frontier, by E. Chalfant)

1819

First bridges across the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers are built.

1820s-1830s

The roster of physicians in Pittsburgh compiled by Dr. James Speer includes William Hughey. (from: History of Pittsburgh)

1820

Population of Pittsburgh is 7,248 and Allegheny County is 34,927.

The Pittsburgh Directory of 1820: 31 Browns are listed (26 men and 5 women) and 3 companies, Brown and Connolly, proprietors of Brown’s Hotel at 37 Smithfield Street; Brown & Kirkpatrick Grocers at 193 Liberty Street; and Brown & Phillips Mfg. Iron & Nails at 99 Water St.

315

Turtle Creek United Presbyterian Church is organized by Rev. Joseph Brown.

1821

Turnpike to Erie via Butler, Mercer and Meadville is completed.

February 21, 1822

Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, “Molly Pitcher”, is awarded an annual pension of $40 for her heroism during the Revolution by the Commonwealth of PA.

1823

Peter Brown, father of W.S. Brown and brother of William Hughey Brown, is born probably in Huntingdon, PA.

1824

Claranna Jane McCauley Brown is born, daughter of Col John McCauley of Ligionier and Mary McCauley (aka “Molly Pitcher” hero of the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth, NJ) Pittsburgh City Council passes and ordinance to create a central city water system.

1825

"At the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century Pittsburg had surpassed all other parts of the West in the production of nails. A patent nail machine had been introduced extensively, and it had revolutionized the manufacture. Some of the factories were built in connection with the rolling mills." (from: Boucher's Century and a half of Pittsburg).

Map of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City 1825

1826

"Many travelers and emigrants to this region, view the first samples of the mode of travelling in the western world, on the Allegany at Oleanne point, or the Monongahela at Brownsville.

These are but the retail specimens. At Pittsburg, where these rivers unite, you have the thing in gross, and by wholesale. The first thing that strikes a stranger from the Atlantic, arrived at the boat-landing, is the singular, whimsical, and amusing spectacle, of the varieties of water-craft, 316

of all shapes and structures. There is the stately barge, of the size of a large Atlantic schooner, with its raised and outlandish looking deck.... Next there is the keel-boat, of a long, slender, and elegant form, and generally carrying from fifteen to thirty tons.... Next in order are the Kentucky flats, or in the vernacular phrase, 'broad-horns,' a species of ark, very nearly resembling a New England pig-stye. They are fifteen feet wide, and from forty to one hundred feet in length, and carry from twenty to seventy tons. Some of them, that are called familyboats, and used by families in descending the river, are very large and roomy, and have comfortable and separate apartments, fitted up with chairs, beds, tables and stoves. It is not uncommon spectacle to see a large family, old and young, servants, cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, fowls, and animals of all kinds, bringing to recollection the cargo of the ancient ark, all embarked, and floating down on the same bottom. Then there are what the people call 'covered sleds,' or ferry-flats, and Allegany-skiffs, carrying from eight to twelve tons. In another place are pirogues of from two to four tons burthen, hollowed sometimes from one prodigious tree, or from the trunks of two trees united, and a plank rim fitted to the upper part. There are common skiffs, and other small craft, named from the manner of making them, 'dug-outs,' and canoes hollowed from smaller trees....You can scarcely imagine an abstract form in which a boat can be built, that in some part of the Ohio or Mississippi you will not see, actually in motion....This variety of boats, so singular in form, and most of them apparently so frail, is destined in many instances to voyages of from twelve hundred to three thousand miles." (from: Flint's Recollections of the last ten years, 1826).

July 4, 1826

Stephen Collins Foster born.

September, 1826

First city water reservoir is completed on Grant’s Hill.

December, 1826

Work begins on the Pennsylvania Canal.

November 28, 1827

Contract awarded to build an aqueduct across the Allegheny River to carry the PA Canal into Pittsburgh.

Completed PA Canal aqueduct carries canal boats over the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh.

1828

James Brown named commissioner of the Pittsburgh-Coal Hill Turnpike.

May 3, 1828

The foundation stone is laid for the Washington Lock, the first of four to connect the PA Canal with the Monongahela River.

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September, 1828

Pittsburgh's first water system begins operation pumping water from the Grant’s Hill reservoir.

1829

George Bayard and James Adams lay out Bayardstown extending from 20 Street to 33 Street.

Between Bayardstown and Lawrenceville was Croghansville, named for the early settler George Croghan who lived in that area. His later home was called "Croghan's Castle" on the Allegheny River at the foot of McCandless St which runs between 52nd and 53rd St in Lawrenceville -- one of the few streets perpendicular to the river which was not given a numbered designation.

November 10, 1829

The PA canal aqueduct over the Allegheny River begins service.

1830s - 1840s

W. H. Brown learned to manage horses on his father’s farm and then worked on PA Canal, first as a digger and then driving teams pulling canal boats near Portage, PA. W. H. Brown “worked as a youth on farms and on the Pennsylvania Canal, dug coal in the winter and saved his money until he had accumulated the price of a horse and wagon when he began selling and delivering coal to customers in his neighborhood. He prospered and soon was the owner of many teams which he used to deliver coal in quantity to several of the Pittsburgh mill furnaces. This coal came from the Minersville mines at the foot of Herron Hill, Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh streets were never fine in those days (the forties of the Nineteenth Century) and the work became so slavish and discouraging that Mr. Brown thought that floating coal down the Ohio River in flats would be less onerous than teaming in Pittsburgh and, borrowing money, he bought a flat and loaded it with a cargo of coal and took it southward. This venture was profitable and he kept at it until he was in a position to buy, in company with others, a mine in the Nine Mine Run vicinity of the Monongahela River and therein began mining and shipping in larger quantities.” (from: Western Pennsylvanians: a work for newspaper and library

th

rd

reference/compiled under the direction of the James O. Jones Company; editors Charles Alexander Rook, et. al.; 1923).

1830

Population of Pittsburgh is 15,568 and Allegheny County is 50,552.

Coal begins to replace charcoal as fuel.

Tom Thumb, America's first commercially practical locomotive is built. It is fueled by coal.

Pittsburgh experiences recurring cholera epidemics. (from: Pittsburgh an Urban Portrait) The Western section of the PA Canal, from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, is completed. The Pennsylvania Canal was built during a period of rapid expansion in the country's transportation system. The line was 395 miles long and cost $25,000,000 to complete, paid entirely by the State of Pennsylvania. This scenic river route was never was profitable and was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857. It was abandoned in 1860. To reach Pittsburgh, the canal was carried over the Allegheny River through a 1100 foot aqueduct entering the city near the present day Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge. Despite its name, the Pennsylvania Canal was not entirely a canal. Long stretches were covered by the Portage Railroad, and in the mountains the canal boats were lifted up the hills by inclines, then pulled by horses until the next hill.

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1831

Origin of the Anchor Symbol. The steamships of W.H. Brown and later associated firms would display a decorative tilted anchor between their stacks.

About 1831 the first boat for the Monogahela river trade was built. It was owned by Brownsville capitalists and had been built to run between that town and Pittsburgh. It was known as the "Little Swan".

It was a single engine craft with seven inch cylinders. That was before the days of the slack water system. Mr. Sawyers was engineer of the boat. A year or so after it had been running, the Odd Fellow, a stern wheel boat was put on the river as an opposition craft. There was considerable rivalry between the crews of the two boats in regards to the time occupied in making the trip. One day both boats left the city at the same time. When they reached the riffle at Peter's Creek neither of them could stem the current. The river was not high and the engineer of the Little Swan, a tall man named Trimble, picked up the anchor, placed it on his shoulder, stepped off the boat and waded to a point at the head of the riffle. He planted the anchor and then stood upon it. The other men of the crew took hold of the rope attached to the anchor, tugged away at it for some time, and finally succeeded in drawing the boat up to where the anchor had been placed. The Little Swan got into deep water before the Odd Fellow and beat it in making the trip.

1832

By this time, insane patients at Pennsylvania Hospital outnumber those with a physical diagnosis by two to one. PA legislative resolution: "Resolved...a separate Asylum be provided for our Insane patients with ample space for their proper seclusion, classification and employment." This led to the creation of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane that would open in 1844.

January 22, 1832

Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, “Molly Pitcher”, dies at Carlisle, PA at the age of 78.

1833

The Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Bank of Pittsburgh is established with Samuel Smith as a founding commissioner and director. The bank continued in existence until 1902 when it consolidated with the Bank of Pittsburgh.

George Brown patents a parcel of land near Turtle Creek

May-July 1833

Stephen Foster travels by steamer to Cincinnati, OH and Louisville, KY

July 30, 1833

Pittsburgh’s first daily newspaper the “Gazette” is published.

1834

The PA canal system from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia is opened with completion of the final section to Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania Rivers and Canal Systems

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1835-1836

Texas revolution in Mexico Pittsburgh’s first public school is opened with 5 students.

“The Pittsburgh” the first steam locomotive built west of the Allegheny Mountains is completed.

November 30, 1835

Samuel Langhorne Clemens born at Florida, Missouri. He is better known by his pen name, "Mark Twain".

1836

The Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh is established by prominent men of this city in western PA. Founding directors of the Bank include James Brown, Samuel Smith and Sylvanus Lothrop. st

1 Pittsburgh police system.

61 steam boats were built at Pittsburgh.

March 31, 1836

Monongahela Navigation Company is chartered and begins construction of a system of locks and dams on the Mon River. From 1836-1897, the Monongahela Navigation Co. controlled toll locks and dams on the Monongahela river.

Locks and dams on the Monongahela River

Original Lock 5 Near Denbo, PA. Built by Monongahela Navigation Company

1836 travel poster by canal and train to Pittsburgh in just 3.5 days

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April 20, 1836

Peter Brown purchases 50 acres, 32 perches of land in lower Armstrong County for $225 on which Peter Brown Jr was assessed for taxes on a tannery in 1862. (from: Historical Sketch of Armstrong County)

1837

Herron & Brown Co. established. The Herrons were among the founding families of Pittsburgh. John Herron, father of William A. Herron, operated “. . . a large number of mines in Minersville. . . was the senior member” of this coal mining firm. (from: Encyclopedia of Contemporary Biography of PA, vol. II, 1868).

W.H. Browns had saved enough money from his work to buy a buy a partial interest in his initial venture in mining coal in Minersville, PA, in partnership with John Herron and William A. Herron. Now he was “. . . part owner in a mine and was supplying local industries with fuel on an increasingly large scale. After a time this partnership would be dissolved, because, it is said, Brown’s associates could not see possible profits in marketing surpluses on the lower waters, in engaging in the newly established coke industry, and in enlarging the scale of their operations generally.” (from: A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, by C.H.Ambler, 1932).

Bayardstown added as the Fifth Ward of Pittsburgh.

Financial Panic – all Pittsburgh banks suspend gold payments.

A total of 63 steam boats were owned in Pittsburgh operating in regular business Samuel Smith a part owner of “Good Intent Lines” a canal and steam boat company and the “Good Intent Tavern and Meeting Place”. (from: Pittsburgh City Directory 1813-1847) 1837-1901

Queen Victoria’s reign of British Empire, known as the Victorian era.

1838

The Pittsburgh Institute of Arts and Sciences is incorporated by the leading operating mechanics and artisans of the city to “promote the cause of productive industry” and encourage scientific principles, manufacturing, mechanics and “useful arts” through popular lectures. Samuel Smith is the school’s Treasurer. (from: Harris' Pittsburgh business directory for the year 1837)

June, 1838

Samuel Smith and John Irwin are listed as “steam-engine manufacturers in Pittsburgh.”

1839

Samuel Smith is listed as an engine builder at 50 High Street and as a collier near Robert Street in Arthursville. (from: Pittsburgh City Directory 1813-1847) The coal fired steam shovel is invented.

Spring 1839

More than 1,400 canal boats pass through the city carrying 25,000 tons of freight.

September 1839

The “Valley Forge” is the first iron steamboat built in Pittsburgh.

1840s & 1850s

Before the 1840s, most indoor lamps were fueled by oil from animal fat. Although the flames burned brightly, the oil produced a pungent odor. The 1840s and 1850s saw a flood of innovative lamps that relied on an alternative, cleaner burning fuel known as kerosene, which was produced from coal oil. Steam engines, which were becoming increasingly popular, also 321

relied on coal oil as a lubricant.

All coal produces oil when distilled. One of the cleanest burning types is cannel oil which was discovered in large quantities in 1847. Cannel, derived from the Scottish word for candle, had to be distilled, much like moonshine, to burn off impurities and produce an oil with a high, steady flame. It quickly became the lighting fuel of choice for in east coast markets. (Henson) Coal would contribute to the growth of the American gaslight industry by furnishing coal supplies for conversion into light and heat in all major cities 1840

William Hughey Brown marries Mary Smith daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Smith, Minersville, PA.

W. H. Brown W. A. Herron

Map of Minersville area showing properties of Brown,Herron, Oliver, McCandless, and Ward.

Area stradles Center Avenue near the University of Pittsburgh.

John Herron Oliver Ward McCandless

Minersville is “A portion of the Fifth Ward, north of Center Avenue, adjoining Schenley Heights, occupying the heightest part of Herron Hill. Principally a residence district. Reached

by Wylie and Herron Avenue cars.” (from: Lewis’ Pittsburgh Guide, 1923). Their Children: Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward (married: James Ward Sr.), Samuel Smith Brown, James Herron Brown, Mary Oliver Brown, Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker (married: Colonel James M. Schoonmaker), William Hughey Brown (?), Charles Smith Brown, William Harry Brown.

Elizabeth Smith Brown, born, daughter of W. H. Brown and Mary Smith Brown. She will marry James Ward and they will have six children: James Ward, Jr. (no info); William H. Ward (no info); an infant died at birth; Mary Ward (1870-6/28/1906, marries Jonathan B. Warner and they have a daughter Elizabeth Brown Warner); Charles S. B. Ward (5/18/1868-4/5/1889, marries Virginia Jenkins Ward and they have three daughters: Mrs. Lawrence Parshall, Mrs. Durban A. McGraw, Mrs. William Campbell, Jr.) Population of Pittsburgh is 21,515 and Allegheny County is 81,235.

May or June, 1840

th

Samuel Smith dies. His will is dated May 4 and it is filed th in court on June 6 . He leaves equal shares of his estate to his daughter Mary Smith, his grandson Charles Smith and his wife Elizabeth Smith, with an amount to his brother Simon Smith to support his mother. Simon Smith and Joseph Winders are appointed executors.

The Will of Samuel Smith

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1840 - 1841

James Brown serves as President of the Select Council of Pittsburgh

1841

Unnamed Baby born to W. H. and Mary Smith Brown, dies at birth.

Pittsburgh develops as a coal port with coal shipments out of the city totaling 464,826 tons.

Stephen Collins Foster is a student at Washington & Jefferson College

April 1841

The Monongahela House Hotel opens its doors. This first class hotel overlooks the Monongahela River on Smithfield Street. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt. It was five stories high and had over 200 rooms and a banquet hall accommodating 1,500 people. Among its famous guests were Presidents Jackson, Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, as well as Charles Dickens, and King Edward VII. It was located on the wharf to take advantage of river traffic. The Hotel would later be owned by Captain Sam Brown.

Monongahela House Hotel "Finest Hotel west of the Allegheny Mountains".

May 17, 1842

James Ward born in Pittsburgh, PA. Would later marry W.H. Brown’s daughter, Elizabeth Smith Brown in 1863.

June 30, 1842

James Martinus Schoonmaker born in Peebles Township, PA. Would marry W. H. Brown’s daughter, Alice Winders Brown in 1848. Awarded Medal of Honor in Civil War.

December 15, 1842

Samuel Smith Brown born in Pitt Township at Brown’s Station.

He would attend different Pittsburgh normal schools and then Jefferson College in Canonsburg, PA. He enlisted in the Union Army with the th 10 PA Reserves, serving early in the Civil War with the Army of the Potomac.

He then took charge of the handling of coal and hay at Memphis, TN, for the Federal government at the time of the beginning of Grant's campaign against Vicksburg, but was finally compelled by malarial fever to relinquish this post. He then joined then joined his father’s business and excelled.

Pittsburgh 1843 Sherman Day wood engraving

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1844

The PA Hospital for the Insane opens in Philadelphia with Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbridge as the first Superintendent. For the next 43 years he works at the hospital championing humane care and treatment for mental illness. He is viewed as a founder of the American Psychiatric Association. A strong advocate of "moral treatment," his philosophy is based on compassion and respect for the insane. He sought to create a humane environment where both rich and poor were treated with dignity believing patients responded to greater freedom with better behavior. Those suffering from insanity, he said "are not disabled from appreciating books...or enjoying many intellectual and physical comforts." Dr. Kirkbride estimated that one in every 500 persons was insane.

Grief, ill health, intemperance and anxiety were the most common reasons cited for patient admissions. But case records show other suspected causes of insanity at the time: "religious excitement," tobacco use, prolonged lactation, metaphysical speculation, nostalgia and exposure to the sun's direct rays. (from: Dr. Kirkbridge and His Mental Hospital, by E.D. Bond, 1947). (note: W. H. Brown would later die at this hospital).

Annie M. Brown born, daughter of unknown brother of W.H. and Peter Brown.

August 4, 1844

James Herron Brown born.

November 13, 1844

The Monongahela River is formally open for slack water navigation with 7 locks and dams as far as Brownsville, PA.

1845-1846

“W. H. Brown floats coal in flat boats down Monongahela River. The industry considered nine feet of depth a necessity. The early coal boats measured 160 to 175 feet long; 24 feet wide, 8 feet deep; were constructed of wooden frame with one and one-half inch sheeting; held a maximum 25,000 bushels; were floated in pairs tied together; were operated by crews of as many as 25; were steered by "long sweeps or oars"; were accompanied by "two skiffs" to help with emergencies and with tying of ropes for landings. "Most" were built at Pittsburg on the Allegheny, then floated around to the Monongahela for loading. Down river after unloading they were "knocked down," sold for very significant sums to be used for building, road paving, and fuel.” (from: Kenton County Historical Society Newletter, January 1993)

1845

David Bushnell pioneers steam towing by taking 3 small barges with 6,000 bushels of coal to Cincinnati, OH. Bushnell’s mine was at the mouth of Nine Mile Creek on the Monongahela river on property he would later sell to W.H. Brown.

An iron works is established in New Castle, PA, by Joseph H. Brown and others. They built a mill for the manufacture of iron bar, nails and muck bar. Successive plants were destroyed by fire, rebuilt and added to including a rolling mill and a sheet mill. The company would become Reis, Brown & Berger with W.H. Brown as president in 1864. W.H. Brown was “its principal and heaviest stockholder.” The company later becomes the Shenango Iron Works and eventually part of the Carnegie Steel Co..

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April 10, 1845

The Great Fire in Pittsburgh destroys 982 building and makes 12,000 people homeless with 1/3 of the city in ashes. Among the losses is listed: Samuel Smith, iron manufacturer, two wood houses on Wood Street at a loss of $5,000. (from: The Great Fire, at Pittsburgh; J. Heron Foster, 1845).

The Great Fire of 1845

Pittsburgh after the Great Fire

May 31, 1845

Founding of a school at Brown’s Station that was open until September 1, 1932. “There was a little coal mining village known as Logstown, some distance above the present Glenwood Bridge, on the right bank of the Monongahela River, where one of the earliest river coal mines in this district was opened. Between twenty and thirty one-story log houses were built here for the miners, and in one of these buildings a school was started, the second school in this part of Peebles Township. In the old Minute Book, under date of May 31, 1845, we find: ‘Received a letter from Mr. (Daniel) Bushnell, at Ross Coal Works, in relation to a school. Mr. John Murdock was appointed to make arrangements. In case Mr. Bushnell would find a house at his or the citizen's expense, the Board would grant them funds, or lend a teacher for three or four months.’ The children from "Scotch Bottoms"' were also to attend this school, and did so. Mr. Wm. H. Barker informed the writer that this is the first school which he remembers, and speaks of a Mr. Parker being the teacher at one time. In the Minute Book, later records refer to "Brownstown" school, the name originating from the coal works of Wm. H. Brown, where there was a considerable settlement. (from: The Early History of the Fifteenth Ward of the City of Pittsburgh, by S. Kussart, 1925)

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1845-1849

Irish potato famine

1846-1848

Mexican-American War leads to US gaining most of its modern day Southwestern territory.

1846

The wooden Smithfield Street bridge is replaced by a wire suspension bridge, the first built by John Roebling builder of the Brooklyn Bridge.

A total of 63 steam boats were built at Pittsburgh.

June 27, 1846

Mary Oliver Brown born.

1847

Samuel Smith is listed as an engine builder with a factory at Mulberry Alley. An ad shows SMITH & IRWIN, Steam Engine Builders with partners Samuel Smith and John Irwin. (from: Pittsburgh City Directory 1813-1847)

The Herron family, David S., William, William Jr, and John are listed as coal merchants in Minersville. (from: Pittsburgh City Directory 1813-1847). The Herron family settled on Herron Hill, the highest point in Pittsburgh, in the mid-1700s. They made a fortune in coal and lumber and later family members invested in from metals to cotton. The Herron’s were the financial backing for W. H. Brown’s initial mining venture.

Herron, Brown & Compay listed among Coal Railway Owners & Merchants at Dam #2 on the Mon River. (from: Harris General Business Directory, 1847) W. H. Brown Co. formed when W.H. Brown buys controlling interest of Herron & Brown.

Margaret Elizabeth Brown born, daughter of Peter and Jane Brown, sister of W.S. Brown.

Pittsburgh 1847 A copper & steel engraving by Frankenstein in Graham's Magazine, April 1847

March 5, 1847

Monongahela House Hotel reopens after being destroyed by fire.

1848-1858

California gold rush.

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1848

W. H. Brown partnership with Alexander Miller, nd Mr. Black & Mr. Lloyd in coal mine on 2 pool of Monongahela river at 9 Mile Run. Lloyd & Black are owners of Kensington Iron Works and primarily interested in mining coal for their business’s own consumption. W.H. Brown was interested in shipping surplus coal to lower river markets”. (from: A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, by C.H.Ambler, 1932).

The new company is Lloyd, Black & Brown Company, ships coal to Cincinnati, OH and Louisville, KY and then also to New Orleans and to St. Louis. “From the date of this new business alliance Brown’s success was phenomenal. It is said to have had its impetus in the use of an improved coalboat, heavier and more durable than those then in use but lighter and less expensive than the standard barge of that day.” (from: A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, by C.H.Ambler, 1932).

The coal mine, known as the Brown Mine was 6.5 miles up river from the Point, “on the east side of the river near Logtown, now called Brown’s Station.

[W.H. Brown] constructed a slide tipple, gravity plane and check house and ran coal to the river trade until the mine was exhausted, about the time of his death in1875”.

Bown & Tetley establish the Enterprise Gun Works at 136/138 Wood Street, Pittsburgh.

Later would be bought by W.S. Brown and become W. S. Brown Co., Enterprise Gun Works, Cutlery and Sporting Goods Andrew Carnegie, 12 years old, arrives in Pittsburgh with parents from Scotland.

Anesthesia (chloroform) is first used in Pittsburgh, for tooth extraction.

January 1848

Gold is discovered in California.

February 25, 1848

Stephen Foster publishes “Oh Suzanna”.

April 24, 1848

Alice Winders Brown (future Mrs. James M. Schoonmaker) born.

1849-1850

John Herron is the Mayor of Pittsburgh.

1849

Henry Clay Frick born.

October 18, 1849

William Smith Brown born at Brown’s Station, in the 23 Ward (formerly Peebles Township) to Peter and Jane McCauley Brown.

1850

William Brown is Burgess of Monongahela City.

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Population of Allegheny County is 138,290, Pittsburgh has less than 50,000 people.

.

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Pittsburgh 1850 A lithograph from 2 miles below the City on the Ohio River

February 1850

Stephen Foster publishes “Camptown Races”

June 6, 1850

William Hughey “Willie” Brown born.

September 10, 1850

The Pennsylvania Railroad begins operation between Philadelphia and Johnstown.

1851

The map of Pittsburgh shows Smith Street extending up Herron’s Hill to the south. Samuel th Smith owned property at 30 Street and Penn Street and also owned property on Herron Hill.

In downtown, Smithfield Street (Smith’s Field Street) was named for the English settler, Devereaux Smith.

Thomas Fawcett &Sons miners and shippers of coal founded in Pittsburgh.

Horner & Roberts miners and shippers of coal founded in Pittsburgh as Horner & Hyatt Co.

October 1851

Stephen Foster publishes “Old Folks at Home” The Pennsylvania Railroad begins operation from Pittsburgh to Turtle Creek, passengers then must travel by stage coach over a 28 mile gap to Pittsburgh.

1852

No less than 69 steamboats are constructed in the Pittsburgh area.

January, 1852

Amanda Brown born, daughter of Peter and Jane Brown, sister of W.S. Brown. She marries a Mr. Cavagna.

Emma Lucas born, daughter of Rev. Valentine Lucas and wife of W.S. Brown.

February 1852

Stephen Foster travels by steamboat to New Orleans.

November 29, 1852

The Pennsylvania Railroad closes gap and now operates complete rail service between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

1853

Stephen Foster publishes “My Old Kentucky Home” Allen Brown patents two parcels of land on Turtle Creek adjacent to the 1833 patent of George Brown.

April 4, 1853

Charles Smith Brown born.

December 9, 1853

William Hughey ”Willie” Brown dies, 3 years old.

1854-1855

W. H. Brown purchased Steamer Walter Forward and ½ interest in Steamer Tempest to ship coal down river to Cincinnati.

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1854

W.H. Brown buys controlling interest in coal mines and cokeries of James Cochran & Bros. and creates Brown & Cochran Co. Now is the largest producer and shipper of coal and coke in Pittsburgh and Connellsville region. Ships 10.95 million bushels of coke annually, employs 400 men and pays annual wages of $180,000. Mine and coking improvements are valued at $200,000 with 441 coke ovens 180 rail cars and 13 miles of track. (from: Tables of Cokeries on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad).

The biggest concerns on the rivers were river flood stage, snags, and other hazards. Between Pittsburg and Wheeling, 17 lives, 70 coal boats, and "sixteen hundred thousand bushels of coal were lost on the Ohio River. (from: Kenton County Historical Society Newletter, January 1993)

September 1854

400 people die in two weeks in the city’s worst cholera epidemics.

1855

Bessemer patents idea of converter to make steel and enables steel to be mass produced.

March 24, 1855

Andrew W. Mellon is born.

July 9, 1855

Dollar Savings Bank is open for business.

1856

World’s 1 oil refinery in Romania.

st

Edwin Carson Brown born, son of Peter and Jane Brown and brother of W. S. Brown.

August 11, 1856

William Harry Brown born, son of W. H. Brown and brother of Samuel S. Brown.

1857

William Kelley patents idea for the blast furnace to make steel.

John A. Wood & Son miners and shippers of coal founded in Pittsburgh as Horner, Wood & Co..

A total of 84 steam boats were built at Pittsburgh.

August 1857

Financial panic hits Pittsburgh as all banks except the Bank of Pittsburgh suspend payments.

Fall 1857

Pennsylvania Railroad buys the Pennsylvania Canal $7,500,000.

1858

W. H. Brown buys Steamer General Larimer and begins to ship coal to New Orleans. First shipment is taken by Captain Sam Brown using Grampus and General Larimer towing 12 boat loads of coal lashed together with a total of 230,000 bushels of coal. This is first towed shipment of coal to New Orleans, all previous were flatboat floats. S. S. Brown returns with 329

Young Captain Samuel S. Brown

the steamers full of molasses, rice, sugar and other stuff, sells all at a very good profit.

W.H. Brown’s “…policy was to sell as much of his product as possible in Pittsburgh and to ship the remainder to the lower markets. The sales in the latter instance were abundant and profitable and money was made in this particular. Directly he turned his attention exclusively to river transportation, his area increased rapidly and he could not find coal in quantities sufficient to supply his demands. His markets were Cincinnati and Louisville. He was towing on a fairly large scale to these ports in those days and selling all he could send to these cities.

Louisville was the lower limit of steam towing at the time, the flats carrying the coal to the mouth of the Ohio and to New Orleans. Mr. Brown conceived the idea that he could tow coal to New Orleans at a big profit, but in this concept he encountered the opposition of others. He persisted and found he had vastly underestimated the outcome of his adventure. He sold his coal in the barges carrying it, at New Orleans, loaded his towboats with return cargoes of sugar, molasses, rice and southern products generally and carried these north at a fine profit. He first sent twelve boats lashed together and towed by two steamers in command of his son, Captain Sam Brown, who subsequently became internationally famed in the daring and successes of his racing stables and also because of his success in the conduct of the towing businessa after the death of his father in 1875.” (from: Western Pennsylvanians: a work for newspaper and library reference/compiled under the direction of the James O. Jones Company; editors Charles Alexander Rook, et. al.; 1923).

J.C. Risher & Co. miners & shippers of coal founded in Pittsburgh.

April 10, 1858

Mary Oliver Brown dies, 11 years old.

November 22, 1858

General William Larimer founds the city of Denver, CO., by crossing cottonwood sticks and laying out a one square mile town platt, named in honor of James Denver, governor of the Kansas Territory.

In truth, Larimer simply pirated the land and gold claims of William Russell and others from Georgia who later returned to serve in the Confederate Army. Larimer was born in Westmoreland County, PA, and made a fortune selling PA railroad bonds. He was also a politician and ran for governor of PA. He built a mansion on Larimer Avenue in Pittsburgh. He later fled west when his railroad bond scheme went bust, squatting on a piece of land in the area around Fort Levenworth in the Kanaas territory and running a sawmill. When gold was discovered in the Pikes Peak Colorado area he moved west. (from: Nebraska State Historical Society)

General Larimer left before Indian wars troubled early Denver.

Like many other boosters, Larimer’s loyalties were transferable. When Denverites failed to elect him mayor or territorial representative and President Abraham Lincoln refused to appoint him territorial

330

General William Larimer

Governor, Larimer soured on his promised land. He returned to Kansas, denouncing Denver’s "lack of comforts."

1859

Charles Darwin publishes Origin of Species.

O’Neil & Co. miners and shippers of coal founded in Pittsburgh.

July 1859

James Laughlin builds two Eliza blast furnaces and bee hive coke ovens in Hazelwood, begins Laughlin and Company.

August 27,1859

Oil is discovered in Titusville, PA by Colonel Edwin Drake. Oil was known to exist there, but there was no practical way to extract it. Its main use at that time had been as a medicine for both animals and humans. In the summer of 1859 after many difficulties Drake and his men finally drilled a well that could be commercially successful.

Drake's oil well

1860

W. H. Brown owns many towboats and scores of coal boats, he is now the largest shipper of coal on the rivers.

William Shakespeare Hays of Pittsburgh, PA publishes “Way Down in Dixie/Away Down in Dixie’s Land”, the song now known simply as “Dixie”. The Hays family owned coal mines and homes across the Mon River from Brown’s Station and the families were close friends. Will Hays would also write songs dedicated to Samuel S. Brown and Harry Brown. His songs were generally in the full negro dialect of the time and the music was full of life and melody.

Hays was also a steamboat captain and two steamboats are named after him. During the Civil War he was jailed in New Orleans for writing songs thought to be sympathetic to the Confederate cause.

Hays wrote 350 songs in all and his song “Mollie Darling”, written in 1872 sold over 1 million copies. (from: Way’s Towboat Directory) Population of Pittsburgh is 49,221 and Allegheny County is 178,031.

September 19, 1860

Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) age 24 and Samuel Brown (age 18) serve as co-pilots on the steam boat Alonzo Child. They worked together from this date until May 8, 1861 and would become friends for life. This exceptional first class packet boat ran from Memphis to New Orleans carrying passengers and freight.

Clements noted: “I grounded the “Child” on the bank, at nearly flood-tide, where we had to stay until the “great” tide ebbed and flowed again (24 hours), before she floated off.” (from: Letter to Orin Clemens, November 21, 1860).

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Clements and Brown were on board the Alonzo Child for its last voyage. The ship was taking contraband cannon from the arsenal in Pittsburgh to Vicksburg and other southern forts during the days ramping up to the Civil War. The ship was seized by the Confederacy and taken up the Yazoo River to prevent capture. Parts of the boat were salvaged for use on a Confederate ram boat. Sam Clemens and Sam Brown were witnesses to these events. Their fellow co-pilot, Will Bowen wrote Clemens on Dec. 10, 1889 recalling, "with your own eyes you saw it all. Do you recall the first Gun of the war directed at you from the Vicksburg Fort, expecting to capture the Boat that had Floyd’s Pittsburg armament, going to Baton Rouge.

You were on watch on the 'Alonzo Child.’" November 6, 1860

Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States

December 20, 1860

South Carolina secedes from Union, followed in 2 months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

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TIMELINE - BROWN FAMILY HISTORY Part II1.

1861-1865

1861 to 1865 - CIVIL WAR

CIVIL WAR – W. H. Brown has government contracts to supply coal to Union Army & Navy at Cairo, Memphis, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Vicksburg.

“During the Civil War Captain W. H. Brown, senior, was a national character in the service of delivering coal for the Government at vital Southern points at the crucial moment.

He served General Grant in this particular at the siege of Vicksburg and other stations, such as Cairo, Memphis and Ohio and Mississippi and Missouri River ports. He coaled the Federal Fleets in those rivers during the Civil War. He had contracts for furnishing coal for the manufacture of gas for the St. Louis gas works and other city utilities. He was tireless in the four years of the War of the Rebellion and therein laid the foundation of his great fortune. He was also interested in the manufacture of iron in those days, being president of the mill of Brown, Reis and Berger of New Castle, PA. (from: Western Pennsylvanians: a work for newspaper and library reference/compiled under the direction of the James O. Jones Company; editors Charles Alexander Rook, et. al.; 1923).

General U. S. Grant at Vicksburg

The struggle for control of the sea lanes and the inland waterways played an important role during the Civil War, so as in every other war in our history, the Merchant Marine was called upon to fight. One of the first steps taken by the North against the Confederacy was establishment of a blockade of all southern seaports, thus cutting off imports of war materiel, medical supplies, and household goods. By preventing the sale of cotton abroad in exchange for war materiel, the Union blockade changed the balance of power in the war.

At the outbreak of the war, the U.S. Navy had just a few dozen vessels-- inadequate to enforce a blockade. The Navy drew six hundred vessels from the Merchant Marine, exceeding one million tons, and manned by about 70,000 seamen, for blockades and armed service. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, the Quartermaster General disposed of the major portion of the fleet and increased the use of rail for troop movements. Hundreds of vessels, both purchased and chartered, were employed by the Army in the transportation of men and supplies.

1861

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was extended to Pittsburgh via connecting railroads.

February 15, 1861

President-elect Lincoln stops in Pittsburgh on to Washington. In a speech from a balcony of the Monongahela House Hotel, he says the secession of southern states from the Union is "no crisis but an artificial one."

February 22, 1861

Delta Tau Delta Fraternity was founded at Bethany College, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1858. The impact of the Civil War thinned the ranks of the fraternity’s initial three Virginia chapters to such an extreme that the future of the Fraternity was in jeopardy. Henry King Bell of Lexington, Kentucky, heard of the Civil War's effects on Bethany College and the membership of Delta Tau Delta. After riding to Bethany and realizing that the longevity of Delta Tau Delta at risk, Bell travelled to Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and found two men of distinction: S. Sutton and Samuel S. Brown. On February 22, 1861 the three rode on horseback during a snowstorm of mythic proportions from what was then Jefferson College 333

(later to merge with Washington Academy to become Washington & Jefferson College) to Bethany to be initiated and bring the designation of the Alpha Chapter and the governance of the Fraternity back to their home campus and becoming legendary saviors of the continuous existence of the fraternity.

April 24, 1861

Eighty men in "Turners Rifles" leave for Harrisbug to join the Union army and will become the first soldiers from Pittsburgh to see action in the war.

September 21, 1861

A flood in Pittsburgh reached a level of 30 feet 9.5 inches and causes heavy property damage.

1862

Brown and Jones Company organized – a partnership with N. M. Jones for coal mining and shipping in the Cincinnati area.

Margaret Boyle (future Mrs. W. Harry Brown) born.

Gen. Grant's victories in TN, depend on coal supplied by W.H. Brown Co. James Bown becomes sole owner of Enterprise Gun Works, formerly Bown & Tetley, later W.S. Brown Firearms and Sporting Goods Company.

April 7, 1862

CSS Grampus, a 252 ton stern-wheeled river steamer was scuttled off Island Number Ten on the Mississippi River. Grampus was built in 1856 at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, for civilian employment and owned by W. H. Brown.

Seized by the Confederate Army in early 1862, she served as a transport and gunboat on the Mississippi River. The scuttled Confederate Grampus was resurrected by Union forces which raised her and used her, as Grampus No. 2, until she was destroyed by fire on January 11, 1863.

Grampus is the same ship used by Capt. Sam Brown in 1848 in his historic run of coal to New Orleans. In all, 7 ships of the US Navy have borne the name Grampus incuding several submarines. (from: US Naval Historical Center)

September 17, 1862

Seventy-eight people were killed and twice that number injured in an explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville. Most were boys and girls employed there manufacturing munitions for the Union army.

September 30, 1862

William H. Brown, a 200 ton, side-wheel steamer, built in Monongahela, PA in 1860 for commercial employment. It was transferred to the Navy by the War Department; and she served as a transport and dispatch vessel for the Mississippi Squadron for the duration of the Civil War. The ship carried supplies and messages between the squadron's base at Cairo, IL, and its ships at various locations on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Her only recorded engagement came on 13 April 1964 during the Red River expedition when she fired on Confederate shore batteries while assisting the grounded boat Chillicothe.

Confederate return fire hit her drum and

Steamer William H. Brown

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disabled her so that she had to be towed back to Cairo for repairs. After hostilities ended, the ship was placed out of commission at Mound City, IL, on 12 August 1865. Five days later, she was sold at auction to Mr. R. R. Hudson and operated as a merchant steamer until about 1875. (from: Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, SwGbt: t. 800; a. 2 12-pdrs.).

The struggle for control of sea lanes and inland waterways played an important role in the Civil War. To support this effort, the Merchant Marine was called upon to fight. One of the first steps taken by the Union against the Confederacy was establishment of a blockade of all southern seaports, to cut off imports of war materiel, medical supplies, and other goods. The Union blockade tried to stop the sale of cotton in Europe in exchange for war supplies.

Hundreds of vessels were purchased or chartered by the Army to transport men and materiel.

During 1865, the Quartermaster General owned or chartered 719 vessels for use in oceans and lakes and the Rail and River Transportation division owned 91 steamers, 352 barges, 139 boats.

At the start of the war, the Navy had only a few dozen vessels. It would command six hundred vessels from the Merchant Marine at the war's end.

November, 1862

James M. Schoonmaker brevetted to rank of Colonel.

At 20 years, 5 months of age, he is believed to be the youngest Colonel in the Army.

Colonel James M. Schoonmaker and Family

The Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce was organized with the first board of directors including Samuel S. Brown, H.C. Frick, J.W. Mellon and P.C. Knox (Andrew Carnegie’s attorney who would become US Attorney General in 1901, Secretary of State in 1908, and later a US Senator from PA).

December 21, 1862

1863

January 1, 1863

Rear Admiral Porter, in charge of Union ships on the western rivers wrote a dispatch showing the importance and value of coal in military movements of troops and supplies: “Get me coal and send it to Vicksburg without delay. . . There is not a pound of coal at Helena excepting what belongs to the army, who are sending it down in large quantities. Every boat of theirs is supplied, while we are helpless. Obtain tonnage and send me coal to Vicksburg at once, no matter what the cost may be. Do not stop to turn off coal barges, I must have coal." (from: US Naval War Records, Official Records, ser. I, vol. xxiii, 644).

Elizabeth Smith Brown, daughter of W.H. Brown called “Lizzie”, marries James Ward. They have six children: James, Jr., of Pittsburgh; William H., also a resident of Pittsburgh; Charles S., who died at the age of 21; Mary, who married Jonathan Warner, manager of the Sheet Iron Mill at Strouthers, Ohio; Elizabeth, who died at the age of 14; and a daughter, who died in infancy.

James Ward was the owner of the James Ward Co., manufacturers and rollers of iron with plants in Ohio & Lawrence County, PA.

Old Town Hall in Allegheny City, torn down in 1863

Andrew Carnegie buys his first company, the Piper-Shiffler Company, later Keystone Bridge Company and then American Bridge Company, a future division of US Steel Corporation.

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June 14, 1863

In a Sunday meeting at the Monongahela House, Pittsburgh businessmen and manufacturers, fearing a raid by the Confederate cavalry forces of Jeb Stuart, decided to suspend business and set up a defense.

June 16, 1863

Two thousand men, paid at rate of $1.25 per day by their own employers, began digging rifle pits on hills as a line of defense around the city.

June 25, 1863

Pittsburgh militia and home guard prepared for an attack on receipt of a telegraphic message that Jeb Stuart’s troops had occupied McConnellsburg and were moving toward the city.

June 26, 1863

There were 11,828 men at work on 32 separate defense installations in the city.

May-July, 1863

Battle of Vicksburg, TN – W.H. Brown is captured and arrested by union army soldiers while delivering coal to Gen. Grant, he is nevertheless accused to aiding the Confederates. He is saved from execution only when Gen. Carlos Buell intervenes. This may be because, “. . . he retained his former friends in the South and was even accused of entertaining sympathies for the Confederacy.” (from: A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, by C.H.Ambler, 1932).

General Carlos Buell

July, 1863

President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation.

1864

Samuel S. Brown marries Lizzie P. Pollock of Pittsburgh. The would have four children: William H. (August 24, 1865-July 22, 1889, 24 years old), Alexander (June 6, 1867-October 14, 1867, four months old), Clarence (January 16, 1872-August 20, 1872, seven months old), and Nellie (June 1, 1876-November 3, 1889, 13 years old).

The Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce is organized. Board members include Henry Clay Frick and Philander Knox and Samuel S. Brown. This bank would eventually print a total of $3,022,050 dollars worth of national currency. This national bank stopped printing money in 1903, which equals a 40 year printing period. That is a fairly normal lifespan for a national bank.

July 1864

Brown, Reis & Berger buy a rolling mill in New Castle, PA. This is often called the Shenago Furnace.

January 13, 1864

Stephen Collins Foster dies broke and destitute at 38 years old.

March 21, 1864

W. H. Brown attends dinner at the Monongahela House where the guest of honor is Ulysses S. Grant. Grant stopped in Pittsburgh en route to take command of the Army of the Potomac.

Shenango Furnace

May 2, 1864

Andrew Carnegie enters the iron producing business. He buys a 1/6 interest along with other shareholders in the Iron City Forge Company for $8,925.

June 6, 1864

First train runs between Pittsburgh and Erie.

July 1-3, 1864

Battle of Gettysburg

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August 24, 1864

William H. Brown born, son of Captain Samuel S. and Lizzie Pollock Brown. Marries woman whose name is unkown and has a daughter, Grace M. Brown whose dates of birth and death are unknown but who is mentioned in Captain Sam’s will.

September 19-22, 1864

The Battle of Winchester, Virginia (Opequon Creek). Col. James M. Schoonmaker commands a PA cavalry unit attacking Star Fort at Battle of Winchester, VA and “at a critical period led a cavalry charge against the left side of the enemy’s line of battle, drove the enemy out of his works, and captured many prisoners.” (from: Schoonmaker’s Medal of Honor Citation) A painting “Cavalry Charge of Colonel Schoonmaker” by Thor Thulstrup, hangs in Soldier’s and Sailor’s Memorial Hall. His Medal of Honor was issued on May 19, 1899 and is on display at the Virginia Military Institute.

Union Colonel James M. Schoonmaker (on white horse), leads the 1st Brigade of Averell's cavalry division against entrenched Confederate troops; the wildly charging Federal troops broke through the line, causing a widespread Rebel retreat

Cavalry Charge of Colonel Schoonmaker

James M. Schoonmaker left the Western University of Pittsburgh (later the University of Pittsburgh) at the age of nineteen and volunteered in the army in the Civil War. First, he was attached for one year to the Union Cavalry of Pittsburgh that joined the Army of the Potomac. Next, he was made a lieutenant of Company A of the First Maryland Cavalry Regiment.

On August 18, 1862, Lieutenant Schoonmaker was authorized by Secretary of War Stanton and PA Governor Curtin return home from the front and recruit and take command of a battalion of cavalry. Recruits came in so rapidly that his authority was extended to recruit a full regiment of twelve companies as the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Regimental flag of the14th PA Cavalry

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Colonel J. M. Schoonmaker

In November, 1862, James was commissioned a colonel and took his regiment into the field. At that time Col. Schoonmaker was a little less than 20 years and 5 months and was believed to be the youngest officer of his rank in the Federal army. He would command the regiment until January 1, 1864, when he was assigned to the command of the First Brigade, First Cavalry Division of the Army of the Shenandoah with which he would remain until the end of the war. During his military career Col. Schoonmaker was constantly in the field. He participated in all the battles of the Army of the Shenandoah under Gen. Philip Sheridan.

At one time his brigade was in the saddle for forty-two consecutive days and nights engaging the enemy daily.

At Winchester Virginia, on 19 September 1864, Schoonmaker led a charge on Star Fort and “at a critical period, gallantly led a cavalry charge against the left side of the enemy's line of battle, drove the enemy out of his works, and captured many prisoners.�

The cavalry saber of Colonel J. M. Schoonmaker

The President Of The United States In The Name Of The Congress Takes Pleasure In Presenting The Medal of Honor To James M. Schoonmaker Rank and Organization: Colonel, 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry Place and Date: At Winchester, Va., 19 September 1864.

Entered Service At Maryland.

Born: 30 June 1842, Pittsburgh, Pa. Date Of Issue: 19 May 1899.

Citation: During the Battle of Star Fort Virginia, at a critical period, gallantly led a cavalry charge against the left of the enemy's line of battle, drove the enemy out of his works, and captured many prisoners.

The Battle of Winchester (Opequon). On the morning of September 19th, Union General Sheridan assaults Confederate placements under the command of General Jubal Early. The Confederates number about 8,300 infantrymen and 3,000 cavalry with three artillery 338

battalions. Sheridan's Union force has 25,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry but are held at bay

by Confederates on higher ground. Both side continue to pound on each other for hours but neither gains the advantage. Finally, General Sheridan orders a full-scale assault and his cavalry charges forward and overwhelms the Confederates forcing them back into Winchester. In one particular action, Col. James Schoonmaker and the 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry charges the enemy's left flank causing the rebels to retreat. This gallant charge helps to change the tide of the battle.

Commemorative Marker and Battle Map

Union casualties in this battle total 693 dead, 4,033 wounded and 623 missing in action. The Confederates sustain 3,250 killed or wounded and 3,600 captured. Among the Union casualties was Colonel George S. Patton of the 22nd Virginia Regiment. He was shot in the leg and captured. The wound proves fatal. He is the grandfather of World War II General George S. Patton III. August 19, 1864

The Quarterly Trade Circular reported that there were 58 oil refineries in the city with a weekly capacity of 26,000 barrels.

September 2, 1864

"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won": the immortal words of General William T. Sherman when he captured Atlanta on this date. Sherman had taken the Deep South's major manufacturing center and railroad hub, a huge loss for the Confederacy.

1865

The Sisters of St. Francis converted a frame building into a hospital for 12 patients.

Dr. J. Homer McCready would later become Medical Director of St. Francis Hospital.

The new Pennsylvania Railroad Station went into service. Located at 11th Street and Liberty Avenue, it was a four-story structure with upper floors assigned to a hotel.

Joseph Walton & Co. miners and shippers of coal founded in Pittsburgh as Coal City Coal Co.

January 31, 1865

Brown & Jones Coal Company established with N. M. Jones of Memphis, TN. Jones married Ann Pollock of PA in 1858 and they had two children a boy and a girl. Ann Pollock died August 12, 1885. (from: History of Shelby County in Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, 1887) (The records of the company are in the Manuscript Collection of the Paul Meek Library at the University of Tennessee at Martin campus in MS 76 NW TN & SW KY Ephermeral Papers 1850-, File No. 71, Brown Coal Co., Memphis TN). (note: could Ann Pollock be a sister of Elizabeth “Lizzie” Pollock Brown, wife of Captain Sam Brown).

February, 1865

After an eight month strike, the first trade union agreement in America was made between the Sons of Vulcan and the iron industry.

April 9, 1865

Congress approves 13 Amendment to US Constitution – slavery is abolished.

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April 14, 1865

CIVIL WAR ENDS. General Robert E. Lee surrenders to General Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House, VA. Although the Civil War was horrific in human costs, the war brought some men their destiny.

By the end of the Civil War, W. H. Brown's wealth and holdings had increased significantly. ". . . his personal fortune from coal and coke was further enhanced by large Army and Navy demands." (Ambler) The growing needs of the military during that time had boosted Pittsburgh's economy with increase production of iron, armaments and demand for coal.

The Allegheny Arsenal was a primary munitions producer and other firms manufactured rails and railroad engines, iron clad warships and heavy artillery guns. Foundries in Pittsburgh produced 3,000 cannons. By the war's end, more than half of the steel and more than a third of all US glass was produced in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania produced 80 percent of the iron the Union used and 100 percent of the anthracite coal, about 5.5 million tons. Coal was the fuel of the day. All of the foundries, railroad engines and steamboats needed coal to operate. All of Brown's coal mining, river transportation and foundry businesses and investments prospered during the war. River transportation of coal was particularly important to the war effort as railroads were used primarily for moving troops and munitions.

The fuel needs of the federal army and navy, along with their military suppliers, promised a significant increase in the demand for coal. Brown and other mine operators planned for rising, or at least stable, coal prices for the duration of the war. Their expectations proved accurate. Even when prices are adjusted for wartime inflation, they increased substantially over the course of the conflict. Over the years 1860 to 1863, the real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) price of a ton of anthracite rose by over thirty percent, and in 1864 the real price had increased to forty-five percent above its 1860 level. In response, the production of coal increased to over twenty-four million tons nationwide by 1865.

July 31, 1865

Early in 1865, Col. James Schoonmaker is assigned command the First Brigade based at Fort Levenworth, KS to guard the Overland Stage Route from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains.

The Brigade served until July 31, 1865 and then was mustered out of service at Fort Levenworth when Col. Schoonmaker returned to Pittsburgh where he entered into business with his father.

1865-1877

Reconstruction of the United States

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TIMELINE - BROWN FAMILY HISTORY Part IV.

1866 to 1899 - INDUSTRIAL AGE

1866-1867

W. S. Brown works as a captain on W. H. Brown Co. Steamboats, became intimate friend of Samuel M. Clemens (Mark Twain). The Round Table, a history of the Duquesne Club notes: “Engaged in the coal business, the paternal ancestor of Uncle Bill started him off in the workaday world with a job on a steamboat. In 1866-1867 he ran principally on the lower rivers, and then while navigating the raging Mississippi, he became an intimate buddy of Samuel Clemens, the beloved and lamented American humorist – Mark Twain.”

1864-1890

Indian Wars throughout the West. Destruction of the bison herds.

1866

1 successful transatlantic telegraph cable

st

Lincoln shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth.

Amount of business activity in Pittsburgh total $83,731,242.

Smith and Porter (H. K. Porter Company) begin manufacturing steam locomotives in Pittsburgh.

April 10, 1866

Elizabeth Smith (mother of Mary Smith Brown) dies at 74 years old, “a good woman of English ancestry.”

1867

Andrew Carnegie acquires control of Union Iron Works.

From: Duquesne Club, History of the Round Table

United States purchase of Alaska from Russia.

April, 1867

W.A. Herron is listed as President of the Pittsburgh Minersville Line. This is one of five existing horse drawn passenger trolley lines. Cars ran every 15 minutes from 6am to 11pm, leaving Minersville stables to Pittsburgh via Center Ave, to Fulton, to Wylie, to Fifth, to Grant, to Fourth to Market Street. (from: The Iron City, G.W. Pittock & K. McFall, April, 1867).

April 9, 1867

W. S. Brown, 17 years old, departs Mingo Landing on Mon River by packet boat on trip West to Fort Leavenworth, KS, Pinos Altos, NM and then on to the Pacific coast and back home to Pittsburgh. His journey is filled with Indian skirmishes, gold mining, buffalo hunting and more. During this trip, he forms a long lasting friendship with William F. Cody, later known as "Buffalo Bill".

1867-1868

“Seeking adventure, Uncle Bill crossed the plains in 1867 starting from Junction City, Kansas, then the extreme western end of the Union Pacific Railroad.

He journeyed by ox-team all the way to the

Wagon train heading west

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Pacific Coast and in New Mexico, his caravan was joined by William F. Cody, famed in fact and fiction as Buffalo Bill. Together they hunted the elusive bison, and together too, after a harrowing adventure, they survived an attack by the red men. A human scalp – one of the trophies of that adventure – hangs in Uncle Bill’s well filled,

Fort Leavenworth, KS

memento-fluxed “den”. (note: W.S. Brown’s personal journal of this trip also records his fight with Pecos Bill, who he knocked out by hitting him on the head with a cast iron frying pan.) “Uncle Bill came back home and broke.” “He had failed to find any gold or silver and worked his way back home for a dollar a day and “keep” driving a team of government mules. The “keep” came largely as the fruit of his own trusty rifle and unerring aim. On his way home he bagged his first buffalo.” (From “Uncle Bill Brown,” History of The Round Table, a history of famous men of the Duquesne Club)

June 6, 1867

Photos of William F. Cody "Buffalo Bill" circa 1870s

US Army Scouts (left to right) "Wild Bill" Hickok, Texas Jack, "Buffalo Bill" Cody

Alexander Brown born, son of Captain Samuel and Lizzie Pollack Brown. Lives 4 months.

In 1865, Cody was mustered out of the army - still a private. He was at Fort Leavenworth, KS at the same time that Colonel James Schoonmaker was in command of the First Brigade at the fort. This connection could have served as an introduction for W.S. Brown. In 1866, Cody was married and moved to Leavenworth to establish a hotel and tavern. He did not like being confined to town and the business failed. During the winter of 1866-1867, his friend Wild Bill Hickok helped get Cody a job as a scout for the military. In 1867, Brevet Major General George Custer arrived in the West and Cody worked for Custer as a scout.

In 1867, Cody continued to travel widely as a scout and guide. In the fall of 1867, Cody hunted buffalo for the crews building the railroad and they were the first to nickname him "Buffalo Bill." By his count, he killed 4,280 buffalo in eighteen months.

On November 26, 1867, the Daily Conservative, a Leavenworth newspaper, mentioned "Buffalo Bill and other scouts" in an article. It was the first time that Cody's new nickname appeared in print. During his buffalo hunting days with the railroad, Cody had frequent contact with hostile Indians and a number of adventurous stories began to accumulate around his persona. Increasingly his name appeared in print and gradually the reputation of "Buffalo Bill" spread throughout the country. It was during these early days before Cody became famous that he traveled with W.S. Brown.

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After General Philip Sheridan (Colonel Schoonmaker's commander at the Battle of Winchester) took over the Department of the Missouri in 1868, the de-facto policy of the U.S. Government called for the elimination of the buffalo as a way of helping to force the Indian onto the reservation. At the same time, market forces provided economic reward for buffalo hides. Professional hunters decimated the herds and popular buffalo hunts were organized for rich hunters from the east and from Europe.

This public interest in buffalo hunting further stimulated popular interest in "Buffalo Bill."

In 1868, both Cody and Hickok were employed as scouts for the Army. In September 1868, Cody was captured by hostile Indians, but managed to talk his way to freedom. Later that same year he made several long rides through hostile territory carrying dispatches for various military officers.

As a result of the outstanding performance of his duties, General Sheridan appointed Cody Chief of Scouts for the Fifth Cavalry and served until 1872. In July 1869, while scouting for the Fifth, Cody met Edward Zane Carroll Judson who wrote dime novels using the pen name of Ned Buntline. Buntline published the first installment of a serial story featuring "Buffalo Bill" on December 23, 1869, in the New York Weekly and the legend of "Buffalo Bill" was established.

1868

Brown Mansion completed at Brown’s Station. Built by Captain W. H. Brown, the mansion was a 3 story building measuring 44 ft. x 85 ft. and had 24 rooms. This house would later be moved to the top of the mountain overlooking the river in 1903, a legendary engineering and construction feat.

Brown Mansion at Brown's Station

McClure & Co. miners and shippers of coal founded in Pittsburgh.

Lawrenceville was one of several areas annexed by the City of Pittsburgh. Other townships made part of the city at that time were Pitt, Peebles, Oakland, Collins and Liberty.

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Boston journalist James Parton reported finding 50 glass factories, 16 potteries, 46 foundries, 31 rolling mills, 33 machinery works, and 53 oil refineries in the city--some 500 centers of production in all. Parton gave Pittsburgh its metaphorical title of "Hell with the Lid Taken Off," not to condemn the city (as Lincoln Steffens later used it, in his Shame of the Cities of 1904) but in amazement at its scale and energy. (from: Pittsburgh an Urban Portrait) May 20, 1868

Rev. Valetine Lucas, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Allegheny, dies. He is 44 years old and the father of Emma Lucas, wife of W.S. Brown.

June 30, 1868

Pittsburgh’s eastern boundary is extended with the annexation of Pitt, Peebles, Liberty, Collins and Oakland townships

August 9, 1868

Mary Smith Brown dies, wife of W. H. Brown.

1868-1872

W.S. Brown returns home from his western adventure and is educated at Waynesburg College, California Normal School (now California University of PA) and Duff’s College. He works in the coal mine business of W.H. Brown as a Captain and later as head of river fleet operations on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for W.H. Brown Co.

1869-1874

W. H. Brown is shipping 6-7 million bushels of coal each year (35.7143 bushels = 1 US short ton). This would yield an annual gross revenue of $1,200,000 in 1875 US Dollars or $24,000,000 a year in 2010 dollars. His Pittsburgh offices were located at 113-118 Water Street. Captain W.H. Brown’s sense of humor was as legendary as his feats of navigation or business. “On one occasion when the captain of a steamer was unable to make the trip to Cincinnati, the boss took his place. Prior to leaving Cincinnati, the mate was directed to fill the larder – boat supplies – for the return trip. Shortly after the boat headed for Pittsburgh he called the mate and clerk to check up the invoices. There were soap, candles, crackers, cheese, flour, apples, ‘one barrel of whiskey and one loaf of bread.’ When his eye caught the last two items he dryly said to the mate, ‘What do you want with so much bread!’” (from: Light’s Golden Jubilee, Ohio River Celebration, Vol. 1, Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, 1929).

1869

Suez Canal opens linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. st

Golden Spike driven at Promontory Point, UT, completes 1 transcontinental railroad across US. Wall Street financial panic after Jay Gould and James Fisk attempt to corner gold market.

H. J. Heinz Company begins with planting of a field of horse radish in Millvale.

December 11, 1869

Pennsylvania College for Women founded, later Chatham College.

1870

Margaret Elizabeth Brown dies, daughter of Peter and Jane Brown and sister of W.S. Brown.

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Peebles Township School No.2 at Brown’s Station is recorded in the School Directory. (from: Directory of

William Hughey Brown

Pittsburgh and Allegheny Cities, 1869-1870, by G.H. Thurston).

School at Brown's Station circa 1915

Population of Pittsburgh is 139,500. Population of Allegheny County is 262,000.

Battle of Little Big Horn – General Custer and troops massacred.

Henry Clay Frick uses his Overholt inheritance and a loan from Thomas Mellon to invest in coal business of his cousin Abraham Tinstman, builds first coke ovens.

Pittsburgh Coal Exchange is chartered for coal companies engaged in river transportation.

T. Mellon & Sons opens, later Mellon Bank.

1871

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad begins continuous service.

March, 1871

Paul Hay born, later marries Nelle Brown, daughter of W.S. Brown.

1872-1876

Attendance at Brown’s School at Brown’s Station is 32. The school still stands today at Desdemona Street on a hill overlooking the Monongahela River, Homestead Grays Bridge, Waterworks Mall and Sand Castle water park. This small, old building is the oldest existing school building in Pittsburgh.

1872

James H. Brown, Burgess of Brownsville

School at Brown's Station circa 2010

William Henry Brown Schoonmaker born, son of James M. and Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker.

W. H. Brown invests in Paull, Brown & Co. – builds 100 coke ovens on Col. James Paull’s farm in Fayette County. This company also owned and operated the Mahoning Mine & Coke Works and the Cambria Iron & Steel Co. in Johnstown, PA. Mahoning Mine late 1800s from the Reports of Inspectors of Mines of Pennsylvania 1890

Ruins of one of the bee-hive coke ovens of the Mahoning Mine & Coke Works near Dunbar, PA

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January 16, 1872

Clarance Brown born, son of Captain Samuel S. and Lizzie Pollock Brown. Lives only 7 months.

Monongahela Incline begins operation.

Yellowstone National Park created.

The Herron family sells 13 acres of land to the City of Pittsburgh at a cost of $100,000. This land is later used for the reservoir on Herron Hill. (from: “The first stop on the East Busway. . . is called Herron Avenue�, by Chris Potter)

September 2, 1872

Andrew Carnegie meets Bessemer during trip to London, England to sell railroad bonds.

1873

W. S. Brown manages wholesale coal business of W.H. Brown Co. in Cincinnati, OH.

The Duquesne Club is founded by a group of businessmen, industrialists and financiers. W.S. Brown, Sam Brown and Harry Brown are founding members.

Duquesne Club, Pittsburgh, PA

W. H. Brown has mental breakdown and is committed to PA Hospital for the Insane, Philadelphia, PA, under innovative care of Dr. Kirkbride.

Kirkbride was a strong advocate of "moral treatment," a philosophy based upon compassion and respect for the insane. He sought to create a humane environment where both rich and poor were treated with dignity. He believed patients responded to greater freedom with better behavior. Persons suffering from insanity, he insisted "are not disabled from appreciating books...or enjoying many intellectual and physical comforts."

"Since the opening of this institution in 1844, no less than 4,323 patients have been admitted within its walls. Of this number, 4,044 have been discharged, leaving 279 patients still in the hospital at the beginning of the present year. The annual report of Dr. Kirkbride, who has control of this asylum, contains some singular and interesting figures. Of the 4,323 patients admitted into the institution since its opening, 727 appear to have become insane from ill-health of various kinds; 286 from intemperance; 149 loss of property; 5 dread of poverty; 64 disappointed affections; 45 intense study; 94 domestic difficulties; 35 fright; 227 grief, loss of friends, etc.; 35 intense application to business; 146 religious excitement; 12 political excitement; 1 metaphysical speculations; 8 want of exercise; 1 engagement in a duel; 17 disappointed expectations; 6 nostalgia; 2 stock speculations; 37 want of employment; 3 mortified pride; 1 celebacy [sic]; 2 anxiety for wealth; 15 use of opium; 6 use of tobacco; 3 use of quack medicines; 169 puerpal state; 12 uncontrolled passion; 1 tight lacing; 54 injuries of the head; 278 mental anxiety; 4 exposure to cold; 38 exposure to direct rays of the sun; 1 exposure to intense heat; 4 exposure Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride in the army.

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Of the whole number of patients admitted from the beginning, 323 were farmers; 217 merchants; 176 laborers; 174 clerks. The other occupations are not so heavily represented. For instance, there are 45 physicians; 41 lawyers; 25 clergymen; 36 teachers; 78 carpenters; 36 machinists; 26 weavers; 29 blacksmiths; 30 hotel keepers; 38 tailors; 75 shoemakers. Of the females admitted, 205 were seamstresses or mantuamakers; 229 domestics; 99 daughters of farmers, and 180 widows of farmers; 107 daughters of merchants; 40 widows of merchants, and 128 wives of merchants." (From: Valley Spirit, March 1, 1865, p. 2, c. 4) Dr. Kirkbride's humane alternative to the jail or almshouse for the mentally ill in the U.S. attracted a growing number of patients. The growing population here and at similar facilities along with increasingly vocal advocate for the mentally ill put pressure on state governments to provide humane facilities for the mentally ill.

Captain Samuel Smith Brown assumes leadership of all W. H. Brown business interests.

Financial panic in Europe, collapse of Vienna stock market.

Bank firm of railroad tychoon Jay Cooke goes bankrupt, starts st financial panic in US and 1 Great Depression. Railroad stock bubble bursts, NY Stock Exchange st closes doors for 1 time for 10 days. Of 360 railroads in US, 25% go broke, 20,000 businesses of all types fail, 1/6 of all workers are out of work.

Henry Clay Frick owns 200 coke ovens selling all they can produce. Frick with backing of Thomas Mellon begins buying coal lands and coke ovens of his failed and failing competitors.

Carnegie, McCandless and Company is organized to build a steel rail mill in Braddock, PA. Carnegie has 1/3 interest. This is the Edgar Thompson Steel Works.

January or June 19, 1873

W. S. Brown married Emma Lucas, daughter of Rev. Valentine Lucas. They would have five children: William McCandless, Edward Carson, Samuel Smith, Nelle (Mrs. Paul Hay) and Jean (Mrs. J. H. McCready).

1874

Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce is organized with Gen. Thomas H. Howe as first president.

March, 1874

William McCandless Brown born, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown.

March 24, 1874

Ehrich Weiss born in Budapest, Hungary. He comes to the US with his family when he is four years old and later the world knows him as Harry Houdini, the World’s Greatest Magician, Escape Artist.. Later he purchased throwing knives from his friend of W.S Brown.

August 2, 1874

Peter Brown, father of W. S. Brown and brother of William Hughey Brown, dies. He is 51 years old.

October 12, 1874

Edgar Thompson Steel Co. Limited is organized and takes over Carnegie, McCandless and Co. Coke, a product of heating coal, replaced wood charcoal as the primary fuel for iron blast furnaces.

1875

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Ascension finishes 10 in the 1 running of the KY Derby, owned by Captain Sam Brown, 33 years old. This is first record of his involvement in horse racing.

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Pittsburgh 1874

Cynthia Avarilla McCready born, daughter of James C. and Mary Ann McIntosh McCready, sister of Dr. James Homer McCready.

Col. M. Lewis Clark Jr., inspired by the Epsom Derby in England, inaugurated the Kentucky Derby at his newly opened Louisville Jockey Club Course (Churchill Downs wouldn't get its current name until 1886). The race was designed to be the centerpiece of Thoroughbred racing in Kentucky, as well as being the major social event of the year in Louisville. The race was first run at 1-1/2 miles--the same as the Epsom Derby--but the distance fell out of favor with owners

and breeders after several decades, and the distance was changed to its current 1-1/4 miles in 1896.

Scandal, mismanagement, and Churchill Downs's status as a western track also conspired to diminish the race's stature for most of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Derby, which had been raced for most of the early 1900s, was moved to the first Saturday in May in 1932 and has remained there ever since.

First Clubhouse at Churchill Downs

Mark Twain publishes The Guilded Age. Mrs. William A. Herron and Mrs. William Thaw organize the Pittsburgh Association for the Improvement of the Poor.

25% of all iron rolled in US is done in Pittsburgh, PA August, 1875

Edwin Lucas Brown born, eldest son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown.

September 1, 1875

First steel rails are produced at Edgar Thompson steel mill in Braddock, PA. This is the first use of the Bessemer process in the United States.

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October 12, 1875

W. H. Brown dies. He is 60 years old with an estate valued at $6 million (about $1.25 billion today) including $½ million in cash in banks. One dollar in 1875 had the purchasing power of $20 in 2014. He was controlling or part owner/investor in coal mines, coke works, iron works, blast furnaces, iron mines and various other enterprises in Pittsburgh and throughout the US. At time of death, he was in the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, an asylum for the insane.

Grave of William Hughey Brown at Allegheny Cemetery Pittsburgh, PA

“Many attributed his success to luck, but those who knew him best attributed it to a rare combination of brains, industry, and opportunity.” (from: Waterways Journal, March 9, 1912).

Always know as a man of good character, one story makes this point: One of W.H. Brown’s strongest competitors was a man who had worked for him and broke away and started his own business in partnership with others. The man’s partners soon tried to freeze the man out of the business by demanding the he either buy them out or sell his interests. At this early time in his career he lacked the resources to buy and no credit for financial backing. “In his stress, he went to Mr. Brown, who received him cordially, as though nothing had happened between them, and learning of the situation, cheerily said: “If you think you can make it go, buy him out.’ But said the man, ‘I haven’t any money, or any banking facilities.’ Well, said Mr. Brown, “I have both and will be on hand with the cash, when you cinch the bargain.” And he was, and for many years his friend and sons carried on an extensive opposition business in coal mining, with Mr. Brown among his devoted friends.” (from: Light’s Golden Jubilee, Ohio River Celebration, by Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, 1929)

Harry Brown, 19 years old, is attending PA Military College (now Widener University), Chester, PA, prior to this he had attended Allegheny College and before that Duff’s Business College and Ayres Latin School.

Mid-1870s

Pinkerton Detective Agency crushes miner strike and the Molly Maguires.

1876-1882

W.S. Brown is Superintendent and Paymaster for all W.H. Browns Sons Coal Mines in Saltzburg, PA.

1876

Brown & Jones Company reorganized to W. H. Brown Sons & N. M. Jones. “By death or purchase, Captain Samuel S. Brown and W. Harry Brown succeeded their father as coal carriers and developers of coal territory in the Monongahela and Youghiogheny valleys, some of it bought in the lifetime of their father who provisioned its development years before his death. Either by comparison or by contrast it is interesting to note the progress of the coal trade in the valley of Pittsburgh. From 1869 to 1874, the last five years of Captain W. H. Brown’s life and career, he carried from 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 bushels of coal annually to his various markets, while in 1879, four years after his death, 9,000,000 bushels (worth $1.6 million) were carried and in 1880 over 12,000,000 bushels (worth $2.1 million) were towed.

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At the end of the century, W.H. Brown's Sons boats and businesses would be merged with other major coal businesses to form the Monongahela River Coal and Coke Company.

The resume of the career of the Browns in the river coal business is but an epitome of that of the Waltons, the Buntons, the Woods, O’Neils, and scores of other mining and transportation firms, corporations and individuals in those stirring years from 1865 to their merger into the River Coal Company.” (from: Western Pennsylvanians: a work for newspaper and library reference/compiled under the direction of the James O. Jones Company; editors Charles Alexander Rook, et. al.; 1923). st

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W. Harry Brown, graduates from school as 1 Sergeant, 2 Company of Cadets, PA Military College - escorts General Grant at the Philadelphia Exposition - Centennial Association at the Centennial of American Independence.

W. H. Brown's assets now become W.H. Brown's Sons and would be owned by his children Captain Samuel S. Brown, Captain William Harry Brown, James Herron Brown, Charles Smith Brown, Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward (and husband James Ward), and Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker. Col. James Schoonmaker would oversee the substantial coal and coke interests in the Connellsville, PA area. Ward would oversee Brown furnaces and foundries in northwest PA and Ohio. W.H. Brown's Sons was the largest of the coal and coke producers and shippers in the US at the time.

Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.

Almost 50% of all railroads in US were in or close to bankruptcy.

June 1, 1776 1877

Nelle Brown born, daughter of Captain Samuel S. and Lizzie Pollock Brown.

William Shakespeare Hays writes the song “Early in de Morning” and dedicates it to his friend Captain Sam Brown of Pittsburgh, PA. Strike and riots by railroad workers disrupts deliveries of coal st and coke. May be world’s 1 nationwide labor strike.

James Bown & Sons gun works looted by a mob during labor strike riots.

Pittsburgh’s first telephone is operated.

Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad is reorganized and begins building line from Pittsburgh to Youngstown.

Luxury steamboat J.M. White is launched. The most magnificent steamboat of its day, the boat is owned by the Greenville and New Orleans Packet Co. that included among its principal investors Capt. Sam Brown and N. M. Jones. The boat was 321 ft. overall length and 91 ft. beam, with 10 boilers and 44 ft. diameter paddle wheels.

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Steamboat J.M. White

Main Stairs Steamboat J.M. White

Pilot House

This fantastic style included stained glass skylights and doors; veneered sunk panels, which are laid in the finest rosewood and walnut burl; large French mirrors in the Gothic style, very massive, with gold carving; a bridal chamber paneled in mahogany and satinwoods; gold-gilt chandeliers of "Egyptian design, acknowledged the most costly and elegant on any vessel in the United States'; silverware monogrammed J.M.W.; Haviland table china, and two concert grand pianos.

Water Cooler Steamboat J. M. White

Grand Mirror Ladies Cabin Steamboat J.M. White

Main Salon Steamboat J.M. White

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February 24, 1877

W. S. Brown becomes a Master Mason in Bradock’s Field Lodge #510, later rising to the highest levels in free masonry and the Shrine. He was 33 degree, Sovereign Grand InspectorsGeneral of the Supreme Council, Potentate of the Syria Temple and Imperial Treasurer of the Shrine from 1884 until his death.

1878

W. H. Brown Sons ships 9 million bushels of coal.

Carnegie signs exclusive contract to supply all steel for Brooklyn Bridge Profits of Edgar Thompson mill are $400,000.

First commercial telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut.

1879

Captain Samuel S. Brown’s wife, Lizzie Pollock, leaves him.

Thomas Edison invents the electric light bulb.

New telephone service in Pittsburgh has 777 subscribers.

1880s

Steel becomes more important in metals industry and demand for coke rises.

Life expectancy of someone born in the United States is 45 years. st

215 of 1,000 children born did not survive 1 year. 25% of children did not live to 18.

Epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, typhoid, influenza are common. Physicians are debating “germ theory”.

1880

W. H. Brown Sons ships 12 million bushels of coal. nd

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Kimball, a race horse owned by Captain William Cottrill, finishes 2 in the 6 running of the KY Derby. Captain Samuel S. Brown would later acquire all of Cottrill’s horses, stables and racetracks.

Population of Pittsburgh is 235,000.

Population of Allegheny County is 355,869 Pittsburgh builds a reservoir on Herron Hill to provide potable water to the city.

November 18, 1880

3 a.m., fire is discovered at Enterprise Gun Works factory of James Bown & Son. The factory is destroyed, the third time in 352

Ad for Enterprise Gun Works - 1877

12 years that the Bowns have been burned out of business, “. . . besides having their gunworks gutted by a mob during the riots of 1877. (from: The New York Times, November 19, 1880) 1881

Homestead mill is built by the Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Company owned by a group of industrialists.. The town has 600 people.

Frick buys Carnegie coke interests becomes exclusive supplier for Carnegie iron and steel works.

January, 1881

Nelle Brown born, daughter of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown.

October 7, 1881

Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker dies at Denver, CO, 33 years old. James M. Schoonmaker leaves W. H. Browns Sons taking with him coal and coke properties in the Connellsville area including the Alice Mine named after his wife and creating his own company.

1882

Runnymede finishes 2 and Harry Gilmore finishes 4 in KY Derby and Babcock finishes 2 in the Belmont Stakes. Harry Gilmore is owned by Captain Sam Brown and the other horses are owned by Captain Cottrill and later acquired by Captain Brown.

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First electrical power plant and grid in Manhattan.

Henry Clay Frick and J. M. Schoonmaker partner in the largest coal operation in Fayette County, the Morewood Coke Company which had 470 coke ovens. Morewood Coal and Coke Company was originally owned by W. H. Brown.

Harry Ward Brown born, son of W.S. Brown and Emma Lucas Brown.

Henry Clay Frick now owns 3,000 acres of coal lands and 1,000 coke ovens, almost 25% of all in region – is a millionaire.

February 18, 1882

James Homer McCready born, later marries Jean Brown, daughter of W.S. Brown.

353of Pittsburgh Views published in The Daily Graphic: New York, Friday, September 29, 1882 (bottom center is a picture of the old Horse Race Course that was located ???)

July 9, 1882

James Herron Brown dies.

1883

Brown & Cochran Coal Company organized, Dawson, PA with major investment by W.H. Brown Sons.

W. H. Brown Sons ships 15 million bushels of coal (valued at $2.6 million) and owns 5 tugs, 14 steamships, over 1,000 barges, flats and coal boats, 5 railroads and is the largest miner and shipper of coal in the world. 2 large coal elevators in Cincinnati, OH (Lawrence St. & Keystone Elevator), depots: Natchez, MS; Cincinnati, OH; Cairo, IL; Memphis, TN; Helena, AR; New Orleans, LA; St. Louis, MO and more. Ships to Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean.

W. S. Brown buys Enterprise Gun Works from James Bown. Firm is incorporated first as Brown & Hirth and will later be wholly owned

by W.S. Brown. This is will soon become the primary gun manufacturing shop, athletic apparel and equipment company in Pittsburgh.

Natural gas is first piped into the city of Pittsburgh.

Carnegie, Phipps & Co. is organized to purchase and operate the Homestead mill.

Carnegie and partners buy majority interest from Henry Clay Frick and reorganize as H.C. Frick Coke Company.

The unlovely aspect of Pittsburgh was not lost on the writer Willard Glazier, who described Pittsburgh in 1883 much more harshly than Parton had just fifteen years earlier: "Pittsburg is a smoky, dismal city, at her best. At her worst, nothing darker, dingier or more dispiriting can be imagined. The city is in the heart of the soft coal region; and the smoke from her dwellings, stores, factories, foundries and steamboats, uniting, settles in a cloud over the narrow valley in which she is built, until the very sun looks coppery through the sooty haze." (from: Pittsburgh an Urban Portrait)

March 15, 1883

William Shakespeare Hays publishes his song, “God Bless the Loved Ones at Home,” dedicated “to my friend Captain.

Harry Brown.

October 4, 1883

James McSteen was hung for killing his wife. “His case aroused much interest in Pittsburgh although the crime was not perpetrated there. . . McSteen, a hard working, sober and trustworthy man. . .” (from: Our Police. A History of the Pittsburgh Police Force., by Henry Mann). He became jealous of his wife having an affair with another man and stabbed her to death “. . . and aimlessly walked from their little log house near Brown’s Station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad just beyond Glenwood and boarded a train for Pittsburgh. By the time he reached the Baltimore and Ohio station he was suspected and was arrested before he could leave the train.” (from: The Bicentennial History of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Vol. 1., by G. Swetnam and Charles Locke, 1956)

1884-1885

Brown & Cochran Company wins medals for quality for their Connellsville Coal & Coke at the 354

World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, New Orleans, LA. 1884

Captain Sam Brown buys a half interest in all the horse breeding operations, stables and race tracks of one of the legendary founders of American thoroughbred racing, Captain William Cottrill. Cottrill was a Confederate Army captain, who after the war, imported English race horses to the Kentucky area and began many famous blood lines. He was also a successful owner of southern race tracks and a promoter of horse stakes racing in America. The Alabama Stakes race in Saratoga, NY was to be named in his honor but he refused it, requesting that it be named after his home state of Alabama. Following Capt. Cottrill’s illness and death in 1886, Sam Brown assumed full ownership of all Cottrill interests.

Buchanan an American thoroughbred racehorse th wins 10 Kentucky Derby – Captain Sam Brown is half owner.

Horse races at Saratoga Racetrack

Kentucky Derby Day 1884 was warm with clear skies. Buchanan and eight other horses lined up at the starting post. The track condition was good and the colt carried 110 pounds, including renowned African-American jockey Isaac Burns Murphy. Captain Sam Brown had already been to the Derby several times: his Ascension finished tenth in 1875, Kimball was second behind Hindoo in 1880, and Harry Gilmore placed fourth in 1882.

These were the days before automatic starting gates, so the signal to start was given by an official waving a flag. A horse named Bob Miles jumped out just before the flag was dropped and gained an immediate two length lead with Powhattan III, Audrain, and Admiral next. Buchanan, who had been unruly in the line-up, had a poor start. Isaac Murphy guided him close to the inner rail in order to save ground and waited for the lead horses to tire. Near the three-quarters of a mile mark, Buchanan and Murphy zoomed around the pack into the lead. As the horses entered the stretch, Buchanan Buchanan was in front by two lengths with no challengers, so Murphy slowed him for the final eighth of a mile. The winning time was 2:40 1/4. Behind Buchanan, the order of the finish was: Loftin, Audrain, Bob Miles, Bob Cook, Boreas, Admiral, Exploit, and Powhattan III. Buchanan earned $3,990 for his work that day and he was the first maiden (non-winner) ever to win the Derby.

Buchanan (1881- c.1897) was also the winner of the Ripple Stakes and Clark Stakes. He was third in the Barrett, Belle Meade, Hindoo, and Granite Mountain Stakes and the Latonia Derby. Buchanan had not achieved a race win before competing in the Kentucky Derby and by contemporary accounts was a difficult and unruly mount. He was ridden in the 1884 derby by the great African-American jockey Isaac Burns Murphy, who won a record 628 of 1412 races in his fifteen year career, including three Kentucky Derbys (1884, 1890, and 1891).

In his racing career, Buchanan had 35 starts, 8 wins, 14 seconds, and ten thirds. He finished in the money in all but three races and earned a total of $13,110. Buchanan retired from racing

355

at age three and lived the remainder of his days at the Senorita Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, site of the present day Kentucky Horse Park. He had limited success as a stud, siring only three stakes winners. His most successful son was the Latonia Derby winner Buck McCann, who also placed second in the Clark Stakes, and finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby in 1893. His son Sun Up was third in the Carter Handicap and sixth in the 1895 Preakness Stakes. In 1897 another son, Dr. Sheppard, placed second in the Eclipse Stakes and fourth in the Kentucky Derby. Buchanan does not appear in the stud books after 1897 and was reported to have died in the 1890s by a 1900 Daily Racing Form article.

George Eastman invents film in roll form.

First electric light used in a Pittsburgh residence.

August 5, 1884

William F. Cody, “Buffalo Bill�, visits the city spending time with his friend W.S. Brown.

1885

Chicago Haymarket labor riots.

Captain Samuel S. Brown and Dr. P.G. Kelsey acquire controlling interest in the Illinois Central Railroad and direct its affairs until selling it to the Huntington Railway System in 1891.

Captain Samuel S. Brown now owns the Bascombe Downs racetrack in Mobile, AL and uses this as the winter training track for his race horses. He also now owns Magnolia Racetrack in Baton Rouge, LA (acquired from Cottrill).

March 14, 1885

Magnolia Racetrack 1850 (From: East Baton Rouge Parish Library)

Charles Smith Brown dies at 31 years old. Son of W.H. Brown and brother of Samuel and Harry Brown.

1885 - Lock and Dam Operation on Monongahela River (from: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper)

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May 4, 1885

BROWN v. HOUSTON, 114 U.S. 622 (1885). US Supreme Court rules against W.H. Browns Sons who had contested that Louisianna’s assessment of tax on PA coal shipments was unconstitutional. Court later overturns decision as state interference in interstate commerce which is to be regulated only by the federal government. (Moran v. New Orleans, 112 U.S. 69.)

1886

Captain Samuel S. Brown acquires full ownership of the horses, stables and racetracks of Captain William Cottrill following the latter’s death. nd

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Blue Wing finishes 2 and Masterpiece finishes 10 and last in the KY Derby. Both are owned by Captain Sam Brown.

Troubadour wins the Suburban Handicap, and is named American Champion horse of the year – owned by Captain Sam Brown.

The Suburban Handicap was a major thoroughbred horse race run annually at Belmont Park in NY. Open to horses age three and older, it is run at the classic 1 ¼ mile distance on dirt for a $400,000 purse. In 2009, this race will be downgraded from a Grade I to a Grade II event.. The Suburban Handicap was contested at a distance of one and one half miles in 1975 and at a mile and three-sixteenths in 1976. Beginning in 1978, the race was started on Belmont Park's clubhouse turn and set at a mile and a quarter.

Troubadour American Champion Horse of the Year

Named after the City and Suburban Handicap in England, the Suburban had its 120th running in 2006. First held at Leonard Jerome's Sheepshead Bay Race Track in 1884, it stayed at that location until 1913. For 1915 alone, the Suburban was held at Empire City Race Track; afterward, it was moved to Belmont Park and there it has remained except for the races of 1961 to 1974 and 1976. During that time, the Suburban was hosted at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The race was not run for three years: 1911, 1912, and 1914.

The Suburban is the final of the three races that compose the New York Handicap Triple series of races, following the Metropolitan Handicap and the Brooklyn Handicap. Four horses have won the NY Handicap Triple: Whisk Broom II (1913, sired by Captain Sam Brown’s horse Broomstick), Tom Fool (1953), Kelso (1961), and Fit to Fight (1984).

1887

Troubadour is American Champion horse of the year – owned by Captain Sam Brown. nd

The Annual Report of the Adjutant General of Pennsylvania notes that Battery B, 2 Brigade of the National Guard of PA has “. . . two (2) Gatling guns, with improved Accles feed, 45 cal. bore. These guns are in good condition and are serviceable, and are kept at the gun factory of Lieutenant W. S. Brown, Inspector of Rifle Practice, Fourteenth regiment infantry, National Guard of Pennsylvania. . . .The Gatling guns are both in good condition at present. I have had them thoroughly cleaned and the working parts are now swimming in oil. On taking a gun apart, in which a cartridge became stuck at the competitive firing of the Galling guns, one of the locks was found to have been misplaced in the assembling of the guns before the firing and to have probably caused the cartridge to have jammed. The guns have not been known to stick in our practice, when they were in proper order and assembled correctly. The locks for the cases upon the gun carriages and to the limber chests we were obliged to force off at Camp Hancock owing to the keys having been misplaced by the lieutenant who had them in 357

charge. These locks have not yet been mended, but are the only things about the guns that are not in good condition.” nd

Troubadour is named American Champion Horse of the Year. Blue Wing finishes 2 in the Brooklyn Jockey Club Stakes.

Troubadour an American thoroughbred champion was bred by Joseph Swigert, and later owned by Captain S. S. Brown of Pittsburgh. Described as a dark bay with a crescent-shaped star, a snip on his nose, and with four white feet, his head was said to be plain, and his shoulders, splendid. At two he won the Barrett, Criterion, Kimball and Sensation Stakes. At three he won the Charles Green, Palmer House and St Louis St Leger Stakes. At four he won the Suburban Handicap and beat the legendary filly Miss Woodford in a match race. At five he won the Monmouth Cup and Ocean Stakes. In stud he bred the Kentucky Derby winner Lookout, the Lawrence Realization winner Daily America and Ethel Pace the dam of the Hopeful stakes winner Leonardo.

March, 1887

Jean Brown born, daughter of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown. She later marries Dr. James Homer McCready.

May, 1887

Mine workers strike at coal mines and coke works – Col. J. M. Schoonmaker writes to Frick “stay strong, don’t settle”.

1888

George Eastman invents the hand held camera.

July 9, 1888

James Herron Brown died, 43 years old.

1889

Brown & Hirth becomes W.S. Brown Co., as he acquires sole ownership. In addition to Wood Street building, they have a machine shop and factory on Virgin Alley (later renamed Oliver Avenue). He is the agent in Pittsburgh for Winchester Repeating Arms, Colt Fire Arms, Marlin Fire Arms, King’s Quick Shot Powder and Parker Guns, in addition to manufacturing firearms himself as proprietor of the Enterprise Gun and Machine Works. He is the sole manufacturer of the celebrated Kentucky Muzzle Loading Rifle.

Brown & Hirth Enterprise Gun Works Percussion Half-Stock Rifle

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The Carnegie Library of Braddock is built. This is the first of Carnegie’s gift libraries in America (he had given a small library to his hometown in Scotland in 1881) and it and it set the pattern for the others in the Pittsburgh mill towns, with a gym, a pool, and baths in addition to a music hall and books. When Andrew Carnegie dedicated the Braddock Library in 1889, he intended it primarily for the benefit of his employees of his first major steel mill, the Edgar Thomson Works, and their families. The Music Hall, Pool, and Gymnasium were added in 1893. At a time when few homes had indoor plumbing and a bath was a rarity, this was the place where employees could come to shower or bathe, take a swim, enjoy a book, play billiards, and get a haircut! Carnegie names his good friend W.S. Brown as a member of the first Board of Trustees.

Frank Miller Brown born, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown. th

Pittsburgh Traction Company begins operating a cable car system which replace the 5 Avenue Horse Car System.

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Schenley farm is donated to the city by Mary Schenley for its first park, Schenley Park.

January 14, 1889

Henry Clay Frick becomes chairman of Carnegie Brothers & Company.

May 10, 1989

Buddhist, ridden by G.B. Anderson wins the Preakness Stakes, owned by Captain Sam Brown.

George B. “Spider” Anderson is considered one of the greatest African American jockeys in horse racing history. There are no details available on George Anderson's early life, not even the place or date of his birth. Anderson achieved his greatest accomplishment by being the first African American jockey to win the Preakness Stakes held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD. The Preakness Stakes is the 2nd stage of the Triple Crown series, between the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes in New York.

On the day of the race, Anderson struck one of his coaches, James Cook, across the head with a whip. The reason for this altercation between the two remains unknown. There is however speculation that because the 1889 Preakness Stakes only consisted of two horses; Buddhist, rode by Anderson, and Japhet, owned by former Maryland Governor Oden Bowie, there was tension between Cook, who was a friend of Governor Bowie, and Anderson. There may have been words George B. "Spider" Anderson exchanged before the race which led to Anderson's attack. Despite the altercation, Anderson was allowed to participate in the Preakness Stakes before receiving any punishment for his assault on Cook by authorities.

Anderson won the race riding Buddhist and easily beating Japhet. Anderson finished the race with an astonishing time of 2:17.50 and became the 17th winner of the Preakness Stakes.

In 1891, Anderson had two other significant victories to his career, the Alabama Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course in Upstate New York and the Philip H. Iselin Handicap at the Monmouth Race Course in New Jersey.

Anderson's career ended like many other African American jockeys’ with the passage of Jim Crow Laws which pushed many of them out of the sport in the early 1900s. The date and place of Anderson's death are unknown. (from: Edward Hotaling, The Great Black Jockeys: The Lives and Times of the Men Who Dominated America's First National Sport, Rocklin, California: Forum, 1999).

May 31, 1889

Johnstown Flood. The Johnstown Flood disaster was the result of the failure of the South Fork Dam situated 14 miles upstream of the town of Johnstown, PA, made worse by several days of extremely heavy rainfall. The dam's failure unleashed a torrent of 20 million tons of water (4.8 billion U.S. gallons). The flood killed over 2,200 people and caused $17 million of damage. After the flood, victims suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempt to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted a major 360

development in American law—state courts' move from a fault-based system to one of strict liability.

W.S. Brown goes to Johnstown and is a leader of relief efforts. He and two others were “appointed as an advance guard to leave for Johnstown immediately, to learn the state of affairs and gain such information as would aid the members of the relief corps in making a proper distribution of supplies when they arrived.” They left at noon with several carloads of supplies, arrived at 5 p.m. “and at 6 o’clock had established a commissary and were distributing supplies to the sufferers.” (from: The History of the Johnstown Flood) Col. J. M. Schoonmaker, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Philander C. Knox, Andrew Mellon and other rich and famous businessmen were shareholders and members of South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club that owned the dam.

July 22, 1889

William H. Brown dies, son of Captain Samuel S. and Lizzie Pollock Brown. He is 24 years old and the husband of Grace M. Brown.

November 3, 1889

Nellie Brown dies while traveling in Italy, daughter of Captain Samuel S. and Lizzie Pollock Brown. She is 13 years old.

1890

Captain Samuel S. Brown buys the Monongahela House Hotel on Smithfield Street, Pittsburgh, PA.

W. Harry Brown builds 50 room stone residence on “millionaires row” at corner of Fifth Avenue and Murray Hill Avenue (now Chatham College) – old carriage house and servants quarters still stand on Murray Hill Avenue as does original stone wall and house number at 5742 Fifth Avenue.

Dining Room

Frank Miller Brown dies, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown, 1 year old.

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Living Room

Population of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City is 344,000. Population of Allegheny County is 552,952.

The Second Avenue Line, the city’s first electric trolley line begins operating between Pittsburgh and Glenwood.

Nellie Bly completed her trip around the globe in 72 days 6 hours and 11 minutes.

January 25, 1890

Steamboats on the Pittsburgh Levee circa 1890

November 25, 1890

W. Harry Brown marries Margaret Boyle (b: 1862, d: 1938) (daughter of John Dawson Boyle and Mary Halstead Boyle). Children: Margaret “Marnie” Brown (b: 1892, d: 1907), Mary Alice Brown (b: 1893, married Charles A. Painter, Jr.), William H. Brown, Jr. (b: 1901)

December 29, 1890

Battle of Wounded Knee. Massacre is last battle of the American Indian Wars.

1891

Andrew Carnegie gives the city of Pittsburgh $1 million in trust for a free library and museum.

Coke workers strike at H.C. Frick and J. M. Schoonmaker owned Morewood Mines.

November 12, 1891

Charles A. Painter, Jr. born.

December 9, 1891

First telephone line between Pittsburgh and New York City was in operation.

1892

Harry Ward Brown dies, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown, 10 years old.

January, 1892

Western University of Pennsylvania institutes a Department of Medicine and absorbs the Western Pennsylvania Medical College. The will become the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Medical Center.

January 15, 1892

Margaret “Marnie” Brown born, daughter of W. Harry Brown.

“Zipper” invented and displayed at Chicago World’s Fair

May 16, 1892

U.S. Supreme Court, THE CORSAIR, 145 U.S. 335 (1892), BARTON et al. v. BROWN et al. This was an appeal from a decree of the circuit court dismissing a libel for damages sustained by the death of Ella Barton, against the steam tug Corsair and her owners Samuel S. and W. Harry Brown. Suit was begun on April 5, 1888, by the filing of a libel by Edward S. Barton and Elizabeth Barton, his wife, against the steam tug Corsair, upon two distinct causes of action, viz., one for damages for the pains and suffering endured by Ella Barton, a daughter of the said Elizabeth Barton, in a collision caused by the tug Corsair, on which the said Ella Barton was at the time a passenger, running at full speed into the right bank of the Mississippi river, on the 14th of April, 1887, at a point about 10 miles above Algiers, (which is opposite the city of New Orleans,) in consequence of which said tug filled with water and sank in 10 minutes.

The other cause for action was for damages sustained by the said Elizabeth Barton in the loss 362

of the life of her said daughter, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the officers and crew of the tug. The lower court dismissed the suit as it failed to comply with admiralty law and was sustained by the Supreme Court.

July, 1892

Steelworkers strike at Homestead Works. W.S. Brown sells guns to both sides of strike. W. H. Brown & Sons riverboats transport both Pinkerton men and striking steelworkers.

Three hundred Pinkerton men attempting to disperse thousands of striking workers were engaged by millworkers in a day-long pitched battle at the Homestead works of Carnegie Steel.

After the detectives arrived via the Monongahela River on two barges; 16 men were killed and many more wounded. The strikers later burned the barges in which the detectives were transported. National Guard troops were ordered to Homestead by the governor to prevent further violence and the strike ended soon thereafter.

Homestead Strike - 1892 Burning barges set on fire by strikers

November 12, 1892

First professional football game played Reservation Park in Pittsburgh between members of Allegheny Athletic Assn Pittsburgh Athletic Assn. AAA paid W. Heffelfinger $500 to play and won 4-0. Edwin L. Brown, son of W.S. Brown played in this game for PAA.

1893

Lookout wins 18 Kentucky Derby - sired by Troubadour, owned by Captain Sam Brown.

th

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The 19 KY Derby was run on a muddy track with a field of six horses. A day and night of hard rain at Churchill Downs before the Derby competition lined up seemed to favor those not adverse to traveling in hoof-sucking weather. Lookout and his stable mate Boundless both were known to run well in the mud, so they were made co-favorites by the bettors.

Lookout

A record breaking crowd looked on in the biggest turnout since the race's founding in 1875. The Derby audience for the first time included betting women, who helped swell the cheering throng to 30,000, a Derby race day record. Lookout jumped to an early lead and was out in front throughout the race, being continually pulled back by his jockey, and won the race easily by 5 lengths. Buck McCann (son of Captain th Brown’s 1884 winner Buchanan) spent the race struggling for second place but finished 4 .

Lookout ran the 1893 Kentucky Derby in 2:39-1/4 when it was still a 1-1/2 miles endurance run.

Lookout was a brightly colored chestnut colored beauty with a very wide blaze that ran across his entire face and three white stockings that were striking in their lengths. The leg markings reached right to Lookout's knee and hocks. Several other Derby champions have sported white stockings but only legendary Secretariat had stockings as high as Lookout.

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Lookout was later sold to Canadian Joseph E. Seagram, founder of the Seagram Distillery and the last record of him racing was in a September,1896 race where he finished last. Lookout is rumored to have been killed in 1896 while participating in a steeplechase.

“W.H. Brown Sons are the largest miner and shipper of Youghiogheny coal and manufacturer and shipper of Connellsville coke. Offices are at No. 7 Wood Street, Conestoga Building.

Mines are: Youghiogheny 1 and 2, Elk Horn Station mine, Brownsdale Station mine, Black Diamond mine and shares of many others. They own 15 steamboats, including: Harry Brown, Alice Brown, Charles Brown, Sam. Brown, Mariner, Percy Kelsey, Jim Brown, Valiant, Voyager, Corsair, Vanguard, Volunteer, Charley Clarke and Cruiser; also one thousand barges; and have retail yards at Cincinnati, Memphis and New Orleans; and steamboat supply stations at Cairo, IL, Natchez, MS, Arkansas City, AR, and Helena, AR . . . . Samuel S. Brown is also owner and proprietor of the Monongahela House – the leading hotel of Pittsburgh – and a director of the Ohio Valley R.R., the Ohio Valley Coal and Mining Co. and other corporations. Harry Brown is a director of the First National Bank and the Commercial National Bank and both are prominent members of the Pittsburgh Coal Exchange. . .” (from: History and Commerce of Pittsburgh and Environs: consisting of Allegheny, McKeesport, Braddock and Homestead, 1893-1894).

“Troubadour”, an iron hull steam propeller driven yacht is built for Captain Samuel S. Brown.

The yacht is 74 ft. long overall with a 10.5 ft. beam and has 10 staterooms and is handsomely appointed. The boat is named for one of Captain Brown’s race horses. She has a compound condensing engine and a single prop. Under Captain Brown’s ownership the boat travelled to New Orleans and back to Pittsburgh on several occasions.

After Captain Sam’s death in 1906, his brother W. Harry Brown and the Union Trust Co. of Pittsburgh sold the boat to Steam-driven Yacht Troubadour

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Captain Rodgers of the Rodgers Sand Co. and the boat was little used and remained tied to their fleet until 1930 when she was sold again. Finally, she was beached during high water near the Sixth Street Bridge on the Allegheny river and was later dismantled. The Waterways Journal of November 21, 1936 noted that she “now is officially abandoned after having been sunk by ice several years ago.”

April 10, 1893

Troubadour on the Monongahela river

Other boats owned by the Browns include: Resolute, Alarm, Dexter. (from: US Supreme Court, CASEMENT v. BROWN, 148 US 615, April 10, 1893) This case affirmed that contractors doing work on the river are obligated to place suitable buoys or other warnings for river traffic, and that failure to do so is negligent.

The steamboats Carondelet and Liberty were owned by the Brown & Jones Co. and the company was part owner of the Greenville and New Orleans Packet Co. which built and operated the luxury steamer J.M.White.

Mary Alice Brown born, daughter of W. Harry Brown. Later she will marry Charles C. Painter, Jr. An electric trolley line begins operation along Forbes and Murray Avenues opening Squirrell Hill. The area becomes “fashionable and populous” as The trolley system sparked the building of hundreds of large but nearly identical homes for the middle management of the

steel companies. Capt Sam Brown is a principal investor in this and other electric trolley lines, most notably the Homestead and Highland Line. This line began running cars regularly bringing hundreds of people from Homestead to Schenley Park over the new bridge across the Monongahela River. The fare from Homestead to Schenley Park was 5 cents.

Captain Brown also realized that connecting Squirrell Hill to Homestead, PA via a trolley bridge was needed and would be profitable. Before he built Brown's bridge across the Monongahela River, trolley riders from Homestead who wanted to go to Pittsburgh’s East End had to take a very long journey all the way to the South Side, cross the river near the Point, and take another trolley east out of town. For Captain Brown to undertake this huge venture was not unusual. Private investors regularly built a city's infrastructure in the 1800s.

These operation were then funded with fees and tolls. At that time, most of Pittsburgh’s bridges and electric trolley lines were privately owned. "Captain Brown contracted with two 365

electric trolley companies to run their tracks across his bridge. An article in the Homestead News stated, “One of the things which made the erection of the bridge possible at this time was the construction of the Schenley Park & Highland and the Homestead & Highland electric railway lines, … which early concluded a bridge privilege, which it is stated pays the interest upon investment.” The trolley line in Squirrel Hill ran from Forbes to Murray to Hazelwood Avenue and then down what is now Browns Hill Road to Old Browns Hill Road to the bridge. . ." The new 1,300-foot truss bridge Brown’s Bridge, also called the Homestead & Highland Bridge, opened in 1895. It cost $150,000 to build and was 54 feet above water level. Beside connecting commuters between Homestead and the East End of Pittsburgh it also helped passengers to connect with trains along the river to Braddock and Hazelwood and Pittsburgh.

The city would eventually buy Brown's Bridge in 1915. (From: Connecting Squirrel Hill and Homestead

by Helen Wilson, Vice-President, Squirrel Hill Historical Society)

October, 1893

Samuel Smith Brown born, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown.

1894-1896

W. S. Brown elected and serves as Treasurer of Allegheny County -- a Republican. His annual salary is $5,000. (from The Handbook of Greater Pittsburgh).

1894

Captain Sam Brown buys Senorita Stud Farm in Lexington, KY. Creates and builds an innovative watering system. This farm will later become the KY Horse Park.

Senorita Stud Farm

June 15, 1894

“W.H. Brown & Sons’ saw mill at Brown’s Station, about twelve miles up the Monongahela River from here [Pittsburgh] was destroyed by fire this afternoon. The total loss will reach about $50,000, as follows: Machinery, $30,000; building, $8,000; lumber, $4.500. Three barges and two flats lying in the river were also burned, causing a loss of $5,000. There was no insurance on any of the property.” (from: New York Times, June 16, 1894 ).

September 10, 1894

The 28th National Encampment, Grand Army of the Republic, this the national fraternal association of Civil War veterans. These veterans held regular reunions and encampments after the war, sometimes on the battlefields where they fought. Col. James Schoonmaker was one of the leading organizers of this reunion and W. S. Brown, the Allegheny County Treasurer at the time, served on the Allegheny County One Dollar Bill

366 issued on June 1846 and redeemed in 1894 by W.S. Brown

Finance Committee for the Encampment. At the encampment, a veteran presented him with a one dollar bill issued by Allegheny County, PA in 1848. The bill, believed to be the only one in existence and is now in the possession of William Brown McCready, a great-grandson of W. S. Brown.

November 20, 1895

Samuel S. Brown and Lizzie P. Pollock divorce. “The grounds on which he secured his divorce was desertion. In his petition he says his wife left him in 1879. He claims that his wife was influenced by outsiders, who caused her to leave him . (from: The New York Times, November 30, 1895)

1895

W. Harry Brown and Andrew Carnegie along with others are named as Incorporators in a bill presented to Congress for a US Charter for the Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal. Often called the “Pittsburgh Ship Canal”.

In 1894 the city of Pittsburgh was deeply interested in a project to connect by a ship canal the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio river. At that time steel manufacturers found it cost imperative to connect with the iron ore mines of the Great Lakes. These economic conclusions were widely heralded, and occasioned some apprehension that Pittsburgh might cease to be the chief iron center of America. A number of public spirited businessmen advocated the construction of a ship canal which might bring lake ore to Pittsburgh at a low cost, and enable the city to maintain its ascendancy. While debate over this project continued, Carnegie, Brown and other built the Pittsburgh, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad connecting Pittsburgh with Conneaut, OH, thinking this would cause Congress to see the value of a canal. Time passed with no immediate and serious loss to Pittsburgh. The new railroad reduced the transportation cost of ore and the canal idea waned. (from: Standard History of Pittsburgh, Erasmus Wilson ed.; and, John E Shaw’s letter to W. Harry Brown)

Eye & Ear Hospital receives a charter to operate. James Homer McCready will later become Medical Director of this hospital.

December 23, 1895

“PITTSBURGH, Pa., Dec. 23.--At about 4 o'clock this morning 75 masked men put in an appearance at the old Eagle mines of W. H. Brown & Co., near Monongahela City, and the working miners as they approached were halted and compelled to return to their homes under a heavy fire. The strikers seemed more desperate than upon any previous occasion.” (from: Hartford Daily Courant, December 24, 1895)

1896-1897

W. Harry Brown serves on Board of Director of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh.

1896

Commission recommends a public water filtration system because of recurring typhoid epidemics.

Olympic Games revived in Athens, Greece.

1897

W. H. Brown Sons & N. M. Jones Company is dissolved.

Brown’s Bridge near the outlet of Nine Mile Run is completed connecting Brown’s Hill Road (Salt Works Road or Saline Ave) on the right descending bank of the Monongahela River with Second Avenue between Ann St. and Amity St. in Homestead. This bridge is the predecessor to the 1936 Homestead High Level Bridge, now the Homestead Grays Bridge. Brown’s Bridge is named for the Brown family who lived at Brown’s Station.

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In the summer of this year, when the locks on the Monongahela River were declared free of toll, Captain Sam Brown’s boat “Mariner”, was the first to go through the locks without paying a toll.

Pennsylvania chartered the privately owned Monongahela Navigation Company to make the Monongahela River navigable year-round using a system of locks and dams to ensure that river traffic could flow smoothly. The lock and dam system was established in the 1840s Lock on Monongahela River - 1883 with dams creating pools water at increased depth for steamboat passage. The series of pools along the river's length also serve as steps raising in elevation. The system of locks and dams float river traffic up to a high pool in the river or back down to a lower one from Brownsville to Pittsburgh. All of the major migration came over the Allegheny Mountains to and the town fathers of Pittsburgh didn't want this traffic to bypass the city.

The US government wasn't involved in river navigation until after the Civil War. By then locks and dams were completed in Pennsylvania so the government looked at other states for improving river transportation. The federal government followed the example set by the Monongahela Navigation Cmpany began building additional locks and dams. Boats paid tolls to use the company locks in Pennsylvania, but the federal locks were not allowed to charge tolls. And in Pennsylvania, the coal barons had to pay the tolls, so they lobbied Congress to acquire the Pennsylvania portion of river locks and dams so the tolls would be eliminated. In 1897, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took control of the entire Monongahela locks and dams system.

1898

Spanish-American War. US gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands.

1899

W. H. Brown Sons sells its interests to Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company of Pittsburgh. Captain Samuel S. Brown is a founding Director and serves for years a Master of River Transportation without taking any salary.

Known as “the Combine”, it was formed from 85 mines and related industries along the Monongahela River banded together under the leadership of Monongahela City banker John Barclay Finley and formed the M.R.C.C. & Co., (commonly known as River Coal, the River Combine, or R.C.). This was the first large scale mining corporation in Western Pennsylvania, perhaps in bituminous mining history. Combine steam boats of 368

all sizes were recognized by the letters R.C. painted on the pilothouse sides. The initials stood for River Coal or River Combine.

W. Harry Brown remains a major investor in the independent Washington Coal & Coke Co. where he is vice-president and the Washington Run Railroad where he is president. He is also now a vice president of the Marine National Bank and the owner operator of Alicia Mines No. 1, a coke works and Alicia Mine No. 2, a coal producing plant. th

Duquesne Club builds building on 6 Avenue. W.S. Brown among first resident members.

Frank M. Brown born, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown. Survives only 1 year.

Pittsburgh Coal Company of Pennsylvania is organized.

First automobile race in Pittsburgh is held in Schenley Park.

Captain William Harry Brown

By end of century, coal is supplying over 100,000 coke ovens, mostly in PA and WVa.

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TIMELINE - BROWN FAMILY HISTORY Part V. 1900 to 1939

1900

W.S. Brown moves Sporting Goods Store to new building across Wood Street using an aerial trolley to transport goods.

Wood Street Pittsburgh, PA circa 1900 (note sign on right side of street for W.S. Brown Building)

Population of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City is 451,500. Population of Allegheny County is 775,058.

50% of all US iron and steel is produced in Pittsburgh, PA. The Carnegie Company is formed with the merger of H.C. Frick Coke Company and Carnegie Steel Company.

1901

William H. Brown, Jr. born, son of W. Harry Brown.

Andrew Carnegie sells Carnegie Steel Co. to J. P. Morgan and others – United States Steel Corporation is created.

March 7, 1901

City charter amended and the office of mayor is abolished and A.M. Brown, first president of the Allegheny County Bar Association and a judge of Common Pleas Court, becomes the first city recorder.

June 5, 1901

Capt. Sam Brown buys yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Auction. “The largest buyer of the sale was the Pittsburg coal millionaire, Capt. Samuel S. Brown, who paid the top price, $10,000, for the Sir Dixon-Bonnie Blue II colt, brother to the sake winners Blues and Blue Girl. Capt. Brown bought in all six head for a total of $26,400.” (from: The New York Times).

Included in this lot was Broomstick who would become a legendary sire of winners including: Whisk Broom II, and Regret.

Broomstick

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Broomstick was a good, but not great runner, but he later became one of the cornerstones a great breeding program, and as a son of Ben Brush, carried on one of the strongest American sirelines of the 20th Century.

The mating that produced Broomstick, however, was problematic. The mare *Elf had been imported from England as a foal with her dam in 1893. An unraced mare, in 1900, *Elf was bred to Castleton's top sire, Ben Brush, but, believed to be barren. She,was sold for a measley $250 and purchased by commercial breeder Col. Milton Young. Much to Young's good fortune, *Elf produced a foal the next spring and as a yearling was sold as part of a 10 yearling package for $17,000 to coal magnate Captain Samuel S. Brown of Pittsburgh.�

The colt, Broomstick, was small and matured early. He made nine starts at two, winning his first three including the Juvenile, Expectation and Great American Stakes, but tailed off after this. At three, he won six of 15 races including the Brighton Handicap, setting a new American record time of 2:02 4/5 for the mile and a quarter, a time not bested until 1913, and then by Broomstick's own son, Whisk Broom II in a time many consider invalid.

That season, Broomstick also won the Travers Stakes and Flying Handicap. As a four-year-old, he won five of 15 starts, but no stakes. He retired from racing with 39 starts, 14 wins, and $74,730 and had earned a reputation as a game competitor who could carry weights.

Broomstick retired to stand at stud to a harem of exceptional mares on Capt.

Brown’s grand spread north of Lexington, KY, called Senorita Stud, named for his favorite mare. Capt. Brown died in 1906, but it took his heirs two more years to decide to disperse the bloodstock, which was sold on November 23, 1908. On that day, Broomstick was purchased by Harry Payne Whitney for $7,250 on the advice of his trainer, Andrew Jackson Joyner, who had just broken a yearling colt from the first crop by Broomstick that he liked very much. The colt, bred by Capt. Brown (out of the Kentucky Oaks winner Audience, by Sir Dixon) and named Whisk Broom II, became a high class handicapper and broke his father's American record in the Suburban Handicap of 1913, winning in 2:00 flat, as well as coming home victorious in the Brooklyn and Metropolitan Handicaps. Broomstick would later sire st Regret, the 1 filly to win the KY Derby.

Broomstick was used sparingly but effectively up until his death at the age of 30 in 1931, and when Whisk Broom II was retired to the same stud, father and son competed for the best mares. When H.P. Whitney died in 1930, Broomstick was part of the inheritance of Whitney's son, Cornelius Vanderbilt "Sonny" Whitney.

Broomstick sired 280 foals, 69 stakes winners, the vast majority of which were bred by 372

Whitney. He was the Leading Sire in America in 1913, 1914 and 1915, and continued as a top ten sire through 1927. His first three crops sired while at Senorita Stud included, besides Whisk Broom II, the Kentucky Derby winner Meridian (1908 out of Sue Smith by Masetto) and Sweeper II (1909 out of Ravello II by Sir Hugo), sent abroad to win the 2,000 Guineas in England.

His very best runner was the outstanding filly Regret (1912 out of Jersey Lightning by Hamburg), also winner of the Kentucky Derby, besides becoming a tremendous handicapper against males. Broomstick also sired the outstanding runners Cudgel, Wildair, Bostonian, Tippety Witchet, Dr. Clark, Spot Cash, Transmute, and Cantankerous.

Broomstick was truly a sire of sires. His successful stallion sons included Whisk Broom II (sire of champions Whiskaway, Whiskery, Diavolo), Sweeper II (sire of Golden Broom), Thunderer, Cudgel (sire of Fluvanna, Milkman), Wildair (sire of Canter, Draymont, Potheen), Runantell, Transmute, Blondin (sire of Advising Anna), Bostonian, Brooms, and Halcyon.

Broomstick was America's Leading Broodmare Sire in 1932 and 1933 due in large part to the success of Whitney-bred Equipoise, out of a daughter of Broomstick. Other daughters produced Maud Muller, St. Brideaux, On Hand, Brazado, Erin, Gilded Knight, Traffic Court, King Saxon, Flag Pole, Bunting, Frilette, Elf, Rosebloom, and Valdina Orphan.

Like his sire, Ben Brush, Broomstick was small and built on the same long, low lines, producing speed and early maturity as well as durability and classicity. But Broomstick wasn't quite as long-bodied as his sire, and had more quality about him. He also had more of a sloping rump than his sire.

Broomstick, who died in 1931 at the age of 30, is buried in the equine cemetery at the former C.V. Whitney Farm, now owned by Gainesway Farm, Lexington, Kentucky. The cemetery also includes his son, Whisk Broom II (who he outlived by three years), daughter Regret, grandson Equipoise, and other descendants Boojum and Counterpoint.

1902

Drs. Chevalier Jackson and James Homer McCready working together at Jefferson Medical College and later at the University of Pittsburgh invent a significant improvement to the bronchoscope. They would place a small light at the end of a bronchoscope, a metal tube, to improve the tool’s use in exploring and removing small items from the throat, bronchial tubes and lungs. This is in essence the beginning of modern bronchoscopy and endoscopy. They later added an ocular mechanism and suction port. Other developments include the tracheostomy tube, laryngoscope and forceps, unchanged to this day. Prior to these developments, pediatric foreign body aspiration (suffocation due to a child inhaling or swallowing an item that would become lodged in the windpipe) had a mortality of 90%. Using these newly developed techniques, mortality dropped to 2%. Dr. McCready was married to Jean Brown daughter of W. S. Brown. (from: The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman, 1995).

March, 1902

Captain Samuel S. Brown and W. S. Brown with friends and family travel to Eqypt, the Holy Land and Europe aboard the White Star Line ocean liner RMS Celtic. (from: Waterways Journal, February 8, 1902) The cruise was documented in a souvenir book titled The Cruise of the Celtic Around the Mediterranean 1902, written by Robert Houston McCready and H. M. Tyndall. The Celtic was built by Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Ireland and operated by the White Star Line. Both the shipyard and cruise line would later build and operate the ocean liner Titanic. The Celtic was the premier luxury cruise liner of her day. Details of journey are recorded in W.S. Brown’s Journal.

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White Star Luxury Liner - Celtic

1903

W. S. Brown is a Director of the State Bank of Braddock. ( from: A Century of Banking in Pittsburgh, by Edward White, 1903).

October 13, 1903

The office of mayor is restored to the city charter.

Pirates defeated by Boston in the first modern World Series played in Pittsburgh.

December 19, 1903

John Eichleay, Jr. Company moves Brown Mansion to the top of the mountain overlooking the Monongahela River. The house is raised 160 feet and moved 600 feet up a steep and precipitous incline because it was directly in the path of expansion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks. Captain Sam Brown paid $40,000 to have the house moved. The house would later be destroyed by fire in 1913.

“Captain Brown, the owner, was a wealthy coal operator, to whom the old residence had a great sentimental value. It had been built by his father, and the captain had been born and reared in it. In addition to all this, it was a fine old place. Artists had come from Europe to embellish its walls, work which of course would be destroyed forever if the old house had to come down.” “We studied the situation, and finally concluded that it would be possible to raise the house to the top of the bank, though the height was a sheer 168 feet. Once at the top it would be necessary to move the house 500 feet inland.” “‘You may be able to do it,’ agreed Captain Brown doubtfully; ‘but if you fail, I won¹t hold it against you.’”

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Brown Mansion before move

“Thirty-five men worked three months in the accomplishment of that operation. The bank was somewhat irregular, receding upward in a series of roughly outlined rock ledges. We worked from ledge to ledge, first raising the house by jacks, then cribbing it up, raising and cribbing again, until, at the level of the ledge above, we were able to slip the house onto it.”

“The main danger was in the character of the rock, which was treacherous. The least slipping or crumbling of the ledges under the unaccustomed weight would have meant disaster, and possibly the death of a number of men. But we proceeded cautiously, testing our way, and finally gained the top of the bank. From there it was an easy matter to move the house 500 feet back onto its new site . . . . By many, this is regarded as the greatest feat of buildingmoving ever accomplished.” (from: an article interviewing John P. Eichleay, the third generation to lead the Eichleay organization, from The April American Magazine, Sherman Gwinn, 1925)

This move is so legendary that for the Pittsburgh Sesquicentennial Parade in 1908, Eichlay Co. built a float showing a scale model of moving the Brown Mansion.

Eichleay Corp. Float - Moving Brown Mansion Pittsburgh375 Sesquicentennial Parade

1904

Captain Sam Brown installs innovative fresh water system at Senorita Stud that still exists today at Kentucky Horse Park.

Sam Brown Water Tank And Plaque at KY Horse Park

Broomstick owned by Captain Sam Brown win the Travers Stakes.

Visitor, a steam yacht is built by Lawley Shipyards for Captain W. Harry Brown.

March 21, 1904

Virgin Alley, one of the first streets in the city, is renamed Oliver Avenue in honor of Henry W. Oliver who died the previous month. Oliver opened the Mesabi iron ore regions to Pittsburgh iron and steel manufacturers.

1905

The “Nickelodeon” the country’s first motion picture house opens in Pittsburgh.

April 3, 1905

Agile wins the Tennessee Derby – owned by Captain S. S. Brown, by 5 lengths over a muddy Memphis Racetrack. This Derby was one of the richest ever run in the South up til that time with a gross purse of $10,535 with $8,800 going to the winner. (from: New York Times, April 4, 1905).

May 5, 1905

st

Agile wins 31 Kentucky Derby – owned outright by Captain Sam Brown. The win brought Capt. Brown great joy as he lay in his sick bed 7 months before his death of bladder cancer.

Agile Agile, was foaled in 1902 at Senorita Stud in KY, was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that was the winner of the 1905 Kentucky Derby. In 1904, Agile won the Waldorf Stakes and the Sapphire Stakes as a two year old. In 1905, Agile won the TN Derby, the KY Derby and the Phoenix Stakes as a three year old. Agile won the KY Derby against only two other competitors, Ram's Horn and Layson, in one of the smallest racing fields in Derby history.

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Agile had 66 starts, 14 wins, 12 seconds and 8 thirds, with total earnings of $39,800. Following the death of Capt. Samuel S. Brown, Agile was sold by his brother Captain W. Harry Brown for $5,700 in the July 1906 dispersal sale of the entire racing stable. The last record of Agile racing was in a November 1907 claiming race at the Aqueduct race track in New York, where he finished dead last. Agile sired three registered Thoroughbred offspring, the fillies Lady Eloise (1913), Chancy M (1915) and Katie Strand (1913) out of Texas bred mares. Lady Eloise is the third dam of American Quarter Horse Champion, Statue of Agile Hyatt Regency - Louisville, KY

May 28, 1905

Woven Web, who was also a Agile Winning Kentucky Derby 1905 Painting courtesy of sibling of Assault. A statue of Mrs. Alice Brown Thompson Agile now stands in the courtyard of the Louisville Hyatt hotel.

The congregation of the Mary S. Brown Memorial M. E. Church conducted a special memorial service for the Early Settlers of Squirrel Hill. Captains Samuel S. and W. Harry Brown were among the speakers. A commemorative book was published with copies of the speeches given and a history of the area. (From: In Memory of the Early Settlers of Squirrel Hill and Their Descendants, especially including many who are interred in the Turner’s Burial Ground Squirrel Hill.

October 19, 1905

Auditor, owned by Captain S. S. Brown, wins the Huntington Selling Stakes race at the Jamaica Racetrack on Long Island, NY, while Capt. Brown was in the NY Post Graduate Hospital following serious surgery and could not attend the race. Auditor was bought at auction after the race by one of the owners of a losing horse. Another horse of Capt. Brown, Ascot Belle, won the last race of the day.

November, 1905

Magician and Escape Artist Harry Houdini makes “…his first visit to Pittsburgh” His sell-out show was in The Grand Opera House (today the Warner Center on Fifth Avenue. “He defies anyone to come on the stage of the Grand next week and bind him successfully.” (from: The Jewish Criterion 1905). The show was a blockbuster with so many sell-outs that Houdini stayed a third week “…so everyone around town could have a chance to experience the mind-jarring show. No one ever defeated him.” (from: “The Next Page: Harry Houdini and Pittsburgh–the ties that bind”, by C.Morgan, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, March 22, 2009).

Houdini bound with handcuffs and chains leaps from a bridge Pittsburgh, PA 1908

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On this trip or others to Pittsburgh, Houdini purchased his personal set of custom made throwing knives, made for him by his good friend W.S.Brown. “They mesure an awesome 16.5” and have cork handles. Made by W. S. Brown Co., Pittsburgh, PA.” (from: knifethrower.com) These knives are on display in the collection of The Great Throwdini.

November 17, 1905

W. Harry Brown is elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Dollar Savings Bank of Pittsburgh.

December 11, 1905

Captain Samuel Smith Brown dies at his home from cancer of the bladder, just 4 days short of his 63 birthday. His death, “which had been expected for several weeks, was due to a stomach trouble form which he had suffered for a year.” He had shrunk from 360 pounds to 130 pounds at the time of his death.

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“He left Washington and Jefferson College in his junior year to volunteer with the Tenth PA Reserves in the Army of the Potomac for the civil war. He later took charge of the handling of coal and hay at Memphis, TN for the Federal government at the time of the beginning of Gen. Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg, but was finally compelled by malarial fever to relinquish his post.

At the close of the war he entered business with his father. Capt. Brown owned a controlling interest in a railroad in the South, together with several hotels in various parts of the country. He controlled the product of six coal mines, employing 15 steamboats and 1,000 barges, with retail yards in Cincinnati, New Orleans and Memphis.

He owned numerous horse race tracks and stables around the country including at one time Churchill Downs, the old Bascombe Race Track in Mobile, AL, Magnolia Racetrack, Baton Rouge, LA, the race track at Lexington, KY now Keenland Racetrack, was a part owner of the Saratoga Race Track with the Belmonts.

He owned many famous race horses including: Toubadour, winner of the Suburban Handicap of 1886, Agile, winner of the KY Derby Broomstick, Lookout, Senorita, Whisk Broom, Conjurer, Proceeds, Audience, Auditor, Lamplighter and the famous stud Buchannan. He was the breeder of Regret, the first filly to win the KY Derby. The racing colors of his stable were cherry and blue. His jockeys wore a bright solid cherry colored silk shirt without any other pattern or color and a deep blue hat.

He was a director in the Union Trust Co., the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Co., the National Bank of Commerce of Pittsburgh {later PNC} and the First National Bank of Dawson, Penn., and President of the Ohio Railway Company. He was the sole owner of the Brown Hoisting Machinery Co.

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Old King Coal

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He was twice a member of Pittsburgh City Council from the 23 Ward. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Order of the Elks, Manhattan Club of NY, the Pendennis Club of Louisville, the Tennessee Club of Memphis and the Americuss Club and Duquesne Clubs of Pittsburgh.” (from: New York Times, December 12, 1905; and, America’s Successful Men of Affairs, Henry Hall, 1895; also, American Turf, History of the Thoroughbred, by John H. Davis)

He also headed the Pittsburgh & Morgantown Packet Co., was a officer in the Arkansas River Packet Co., and a shareholder in the steamers Kate Adams and J. W. White and others. In addition to the steamboat S.S. Brown, three other tow boats were named for Sam Brown, built in 1866, 1881, and 1896. A year after his death, a new packet was built at Pittsburgh and named in honor of Capt. Brown. This vessel was 228 by 50 x 8 foot hull and built by the Riter-Conley Co. This S. S. Brown would later be renamed the Majestic. (from: article by James V. Swift, “Capt. Samuel S. Brown Was a Coal Baron Who Loved Horses, in the Memphis “Commercial Appeal”, April 28, 1979).

Captain Sam Brown - 1905

Other steamers owned by W.H. Browns Sons include: the Harry Brown, Alice Brown, Charles Brown, Jim Brown, Nellie Brown, Alicia, Alarm, Alex Swift, John Penny, Percy Kelsey, Delta, Will S. Hays, Voyager, Corsair, Vanguard, M. Dougherty, the Charlie Clarke. Also noteworthy is Captain Brown’s personal steam yacht Toubadour.

Captain Brown also owned a magnificent county estate on the hill above Uniontown now known as Mount St. Macrina. Brown sold his property to a friend and associate J. V. Thompson, an early 20thcentury Uniontown coal and coke magnate and president of City National Bank. After his bankruptcy, the property became the home of the Sisters of St. Basil and the site of a large religious pilgrimage each Labor Day weekend. Capt. Brown also owned a horse farm in Bridgeport, PA in Lucerne Township.

1905 -1906

A special memorial service was held for Captain Samuel S. Brown by the Capt. S.S. Brown Division of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Capt. Brown after whom the division is named had long been connected with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in an executive capacity and well liked by the men who worked for and with him.

1906

W. Harry Brown is president of the Kentucky Racing Association in Lexington, operators of what would become Keeneland Racetrack.

W. Harry Brown, his wife and daughter Mary Alice travel to the Middle East retracing the earlier journey of his brother Sam and cousin W. S. Brown.

Brown Family in Egypt

Number of typhoid cases in Pittsburgh was 1,853 vs 2,969 in 1905 and 5,730 in 1906

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March 22, 1906

W. Harry Brown sends daughter “Marnie� a mother of pearl necklace that he had placed on the Altar of the Star and Manger in the Church of the Nativity in Jerusalem. (from: W. H. Brown letter to Margaret Brown).

1907

Whisk Broom II (1907-1928) an American-bred thoroughbred racehorse who raced in the United Kingdom (under the name Whisk Broom) and in the United States is foaled at Senorita Stud farm. A grandson of Ben Brush, Whisk Broom II was sired by the U.S. Hall of Fame stallion, Broomstick. He was bred in 1907 by the late Sam S. Brown's Senorita Stud Farm.

Purchased by Harry Payne Whitney, the colt was sent to England where in his second start he earned his first win in the Prince of Wales Plate at York Racecourse. In four years of English racing, the horse (known in England as Whisk Broom) won 7 of his 23 races, his most important victories coming in the 1910 Select Stakes and at Ascot Racecourse, the 1912 Victoria Cup Handicap.

At age six, as Whisk Broom II, he was brought back to race in the United States and he became the first of only three horses to win the three races that compose the New York Handicap Triple Crown Series. He won the New York Handicap Triple in 1913, (Metropolitan Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap, Suburban Handicap), a feat unmatched until Tom Fool did it forty years later. In 1961, Kelso and Fit To Fight in 1984 joined them as the only other horses to win the Handicap Triple. For his performances, Whisk Broom II was voted U.S. Champion Older Male Horse and United States Horse of the Year.

In the Suburban Handicap Stakes, Whisk Broom II, carrying 139 pounds, was officially clocked at 2:00 minutes flat for the one and one quarter mile race. This was almost three seconds faster than the record set by his sire, Broomstick. No other clocker's figures matched that of the official clock. But even at the slowest estimate, he had beaten the American record for the distance.

Retired to stud, Whisk Broom II sired 26 winners of what now would be a considered a graded stakes race, including Kentucky Derby winner Whiskery, Preakness Stakes winner Victorian, and the 1922 U.S. Champion Colt, Whiskaway. Whisk Broom II also sired the dam of Seabiscuit. In 1979, Whisk Broom II was inducted in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Pittsburgh Stock Exchange closes for 3 months because of nationwide depression.

Pittsburgh annexes Allegheny City on the north side of the Allegheny River.

The Combine towboat Sprague tows 60 coalboats and barges measuring 925 feet long, 325 feet wide, covering ''seven acres of surface," and carrying 70,000 tons. (from: Kenton County Historical Society Newletter January 1993).

Pittsburgh Great flood of 1907

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January 16, 1907

Margaret “Marnie” Brown dies suddenly at the Hotel Gramatan in Bronxville, New York at age 15. She is the daughter of W. Harry Brown. She had been sick for a number of years following scarlet fever. She was a member of the “Shut-in Society” organized “To relieve the weariness of the sick room by sending letters and other tokens of remembrance; To testify of the love and presence of Christ; To pray for on another daily; To stimulate faith, hope, courage and patience by the study and presentation of Bible promises.”

1908

Pittsburgh Sesqui-centennial (150 year) Celebration. W. Harry Brown and W.S. Brown were prominent on organizing committees. W. S. Brown chaired the Entertainment Committee, W. Harry Brown served on the General Committee and chaired the Marine Reception and Parade Committee. Both joined other prominent Pittsburghers on the flagships Duquesne and Henry Lourey lashed together to begin a parade down river of over 400 watercraft.

Eichleay Corporation's float in the parade depicted the move of the Brown mansion move up the sheer cliff alongside the Monongahela River.

Margaret "Marnie" Brown

Western University re-chartered as the University of Pittsburgh.

September 19, 1908

Visitor II, is launched for Captain W. Harry Brown, a member of the New York Yacht Club, at Lawley Shipyard at South Boston, MA. The vessel is scheduled for completion and delivered in December, 1908. The vessel is a 3 masted auxiliary schooner and is the largest schooner yacht afloat. The ship was built at a cost of $300,000, and is the largest private yacht in the world of her day. She was designed by Swasey, Raymond & Page. Mr. Brown already owns the steam yacht Visitor, built by Lawley in 1904. (from: Pittsburgh Press of this date; and also: Pittsburgh Post Gazette, September 20, 1908).

Visitor I (above)

Visitor II (right)

November 23, 1908

Harry Brown sells Senorita Stud bloodstock – Broomstick goes to Whitney Stables.

1909 – 1914

Pittsburghers are embarrassed by the scathing indictment of social conditions in the Russell Sage Foundation's six-volume Pittsburgh Survey of 1909-14. The rates for typhoid fever and industrial accidents in Allegheny County were regarded as the highest in the world. H.L. Mencken later said of Pittsburgh: "Here was the very heart of industrial America, the center of its most lucrative and characteristic activity, the boast and pride of the richest and grandest nation ever seen on earth--and here was a scene so dreadfully hideous, so intolerably bleak and forlorn that it reduced the whole aspiration of man to a macabre and depressing joke. Here was wealth beyond computation, almost beyond imagination--and here were human habitations so abominable that they would have disgraced 381

a race of alley cats. I am not speaking of mere filth. One expects steel towns to be dirty. What I allude to is the unbroken and agonizing ugliness, the sheer revolting monstrousness, of every house in sight." (from: Pittsburgh an Urban Portrait) 1909

Pittsburgh’s first taxi cab company begins operation.

University of Pittsburgh moves from North Side to Oakland.

Rioting workers of the Pressed Car Co. fight with State Police with many killed and injured.

February 14, 1909

Mary S. Brown Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church is dedicated on Beechwood Boulevard at top of Brown’s Hill Road, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. The present building is the third at this location bear this name. Mary S. Brown is the mother of Captain Samuel S. and W. Harry Brown and aunt of W. S. Brown. The original society of this church was established in 1840 and the present building replaced another smaller church of the same name. The church sits on the site of the Turner farm and beside the church is the Old Turner Graveyard with graves of the oldest settler of Squirrel Hill.

Second Mary S. Brown Church First Mary S. Brown Church

Mary S. Brown Church today

Mary S. Brown Church at dedication

Turner Graveyard at Mary S. Brown Church

Stain glass windows at Mary Smith Brown Church Interior Mary S. Brown Church

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The Anne Ashley United Methodist Church located at 22 Street, Munhall, PA, has a Mary Brown memorial window in honor of Mary Smith Brown.

March, 1909

W. Harry Brown and W. S. Brown with families and friends attends Mardi Gras in New Orleans aboard Harry's new yacht Visitor II. “She is proclaimed as the finest creation of pleasure yacht ever turned out. She is 197 feet 7 inches over all, 150 on the water line, extreme beam 42 feet 6 inches, beam at water line 31 feet. Average condition 15 feet, 650 tons displacement, 223 tons water capacity, and has a speed of 11.3 knots. Her machinery consists of one triple-expansion link-motion engine and one Scotch boiler of 14 feet diameter. Her engines are of 1750 horse power. The Visitor is under the command of Captain E. D. Prior. She carries a crew of 38 men all told.”

“The yacht is complete in every detail. She is equipped with modern and expensive ventilating funnels, has seven guest rooms, and each connected by telephone. The main saloon runs the width of the vessel. The magnificent baths adjoin the staterooms. There is a library, reading room, and reclining shelters on deck. Under the bridge is a chartroom and shelter for the captain.” “The hull is constructed of steel. The interior finishings are of various woods. The main saloon is finished in white. The staterooms are covered with a charming combination of mahogany and white.”

“On board the yacht are Mr. and Mrs. Brown, and a party of friends from Pittsburgh. The party will remain in New Orleans until after the Carnival. . . .

After the Carnival Captain Brown will make a tour of Southern Waters and then proceed to the West Indies and from there start on a cruise around the world.” (from: The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, LA) W. Harry Brown and W.S. Brown travel to Havana, Cuba aboard Visitor II. Harry Brown (third from left and W.S. Brown (second from right)

1910

W. Harry Brown builds village and opens Alicia Mine on lands formerly race horse training facility of Captain Sam Brown. Today a large concrete wharf bears the words “ALICIA MINE #1, W. HARRY BROWN 1914” cast into it.

Alicia coal tipple and coke ovens

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W. Harry Brown experiment creates first “road train”, trucks pulling linked trailers over the new brick road to Alicia. “We are likely to witness a revolution in the transportation business and much of the traffic that now goes by rail, will be handled by state highways. All of which tends to indicate that state road building is in its infancy.” (from: “Trains on State Roads”, Uniontown Herald Standard, date unknown) November 23, 1910

W. Harry Brown with W.S. Brown and families and friends sail yacht Visitor II through a section of the Panama Canal and are thus the first vessel to navigate on the Canal sailing up to the uncompleted Gatun lock. (Reported by the Associated Press to the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1910).

Visitor II First on the Panama Canal

Population of Pittsburgh is 553,905. Population of Allegheny County is 1,018,463.

1911

General Electric Company sells first commercial refrigerator.

April 18,1911

Ruth Catherine Lawson born, first child of Frank Edward and Minnie Burlingham Lawson, Batavia, NY.

1912

“Mrs. Jane Brown, aged 89, widow of Peter Brown, a pioneer in the coal industry in Western Pennsylvania, died shortly before yesterday midnight at her home 5510 Stanton Avenue, East End, the immediate cause of her death was a cold which she contracted several weeks ago. She was born near Ligonier, her father being Col. John McCauley who served throughout the Revolutionary Was as a member of Gen. Washington’s army. Mrs. Brown was married about 65 years ago to Peter Brown and soon after their marriage they went to Pleasant Hills a short distance from what is now Turtle Creek to make their home. He died about 36 years ago and several years after his death his wife went to Newport KY, to reside where she remained until some years ago, when she came to Stanton Avenue, East End and had since resided there with her only daughter, Miss Amanda Brown. She was a member of the Stanton Avenue United Presbyterian Church. She is survived by her daughter and two sons, Capt. William S. Brown of 5652 Stanton Avenue and Edward Brown. (from: The Pittsburgh Press, 1912)

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Syria Mosque is dedicated in Oakland.

1913

The landmark Captain Sam Brown Mansion is destroyed by fire. The house at this time is owned by James Ward, Jr., grandson of W.H. Brown and nephew of Captains Sam and Harry Brown. Lost are an estimated $200,000 in heirlooms and art objects. The foundation can still be found in woods at top of the hill overlooking Monongahela River off Desdemona Street and Johnston Avenue.

September 20, 1913

James Homer McCready, Jr. born, son of Dr. James Homer and Jean Brown McCready. He is a grandson of W.S. Brown.

February 10, 1913

Elizabeth Smith Brown Ward dies, older sister of Captain Sam and W. Harry Brown.

1914 – 1918

WORLD WAR I.

June 28, 1914

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated, World War I begins.

Mrs. W. Harry Brown donates an ambulance named “Billy Brown of Pittsburgh” to the American Field Service in France. She would during the course of the War donate several ambulances.

Ambulance "Billy Brown of Pittsburgh" at war front in France

1914

Cornerstone laid for Syria Temple on Fifth Avenue in Oakland.

Pittsburgh Stock Exchange suspends operations for four months because of economic effect of WWI. Eugene “Wild Bill” Heth pilots a Wright brothers bi-plane to Pittsburgh, first plane to carry a passenger.

August 27, 1914

W. Harry Brown rescues 700 Americans marooned in Europe by declaration of war and hostilities.

While traveling with his family, and servants (a total of 11 in the party), they became stranded for 3 weeks with 700 fellow citizens who had fled from throughout Europe to Lucerne, Switzerland and were also stranded. All trains at the time were mobilized for troop transportation. “Captain Brown rose to the emergency and chartered a special train. He superintended the entraining of the tourists, saw them safely aboard a channel boat, and finally placed them in London. Captain Brown is now the hero of the hour among Americans in the British metropolis.” “We saw houses torn down, and trees uprooted and others shot clean off.” The Browns later returned to the US aboard the Mauretania and in New York were celebrated at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. (from: Pittsburgh Press, Post Gazette; also, New York Times).

November 4, 1914

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Mary Alice Brown, daughter of W. Harry Brown, marries Charles Painter at 3 Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.

Church decorated for the wedding of Mary Alice Brown

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Mary Alice Brown's wedding reception at W. Harry Brown's Mansion on Fifth Avenue

1915

Regret becomes first filly to win Kentucky Derby – daughter of Captain Sam Brown’s champion sire Broomstick.

Edwin Carson Brown dies, son of Peter and Jane Brown and brother of W.S. Brown.

March 25, 1915

John Dawson Boyle dies at W. Harry Brown’s home. He is the father of Mrs. W. Harry Brown.

1916

W. S. Brown is Inspector of Rifle Practice of the 14 Regiment, PA National Guard, and trains Pittsburgh troops sent to patrol Mexican border because of unrest in that country.

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The Pittsburgh Coal Company is created with the merger of the Pittsburgh Coal Company and the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company.

William Penn Hotel is completed on Grant Street.

January 20, 1916

W. Harry Brown is a delegate to the National Security Congress in Washington, D.C. (from: Proceeding of the National Security Congress).

February 26, 1916

At the Home of Mrs. W. Harry Brown, chairman, the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Pennsylvania Women's Division for National Preparedness holds an organizational meeting.

This group “is a patriotic movement to organize women throughout the state for preparedness in the event of war, to be ready to work in those fields in which women can most effectively aid in times of state or national calamity. It invites all women to join regardless of politics or religion. Answering the prevailing impression in some quarters that the organization is identified with the Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage it was explained that the women who are working for national preparedness are affiliated with no political body. At the meeting yesterday working units were formed. These include instruction in nursing, first aid, diet cooking, hospital service, clerical assistance, sewing and other personal service.

In addition the general service will include financial aid to the cause. (from: “Women Organize for Preparedness. Pittsburgh Chapter, Pennsylvania Women's Division, Meets to Prepare Plans." Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, 26 February 1916).

April 3, 1917

William Brown McCready born, son of Dr. James H. and Jean Brown McCready. He is a grandson of W.S. Brown.

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April 17, 1917

Visitor I, W. Harry Brown’s steam yacht is acquired by the Navy and placed in service as the USS Rivelen (SP 63) on May12, 1918 as a shore patrol vessel. The vessel is 43 ft in length, 9 ft in beam with a 2 ft 7 inch draft and a speed of 19 knots. The Navy fitted the ship with a 1 pound cannon and it operated with a crew of 7. The ship was placed out of service on May 5, 1919 and returned to W. Harry Brown. The ship was later sold and renamed Tremont in 1921 and remained in use as a pleasure craft into the 1930s. (from: Naval Historical Archives,

USS Rivalen - 1917

USN Photograph NH 98410)

1918

Visitor II lost off coast of France in service of US Navy in WWI. Pittsburgh begins development of a master plan to cover streets, playgrounds, transit problems, parks, railroads and waterways.

June 1, 1918

A Red Cross benefit show organized by Mrs. Harry Brown and others stars George M. Cohan and establishes a box office record for the city with raising $138,000.

July 4, 1918

Margery Eleanor Lawson born in Batavia, NY. She is the daughter of Frank Edward and Minnie Burlingham Lawson. She will later marry William Brown McCready, grandson of W.S. Brown. Frank Lawson was an attorney in Batavia, NY who served for a time as its District Attorney and also was a lawyer for George Eastman (Eastman Kodak Co.) in Rochester, NY.

October, 1918

An influenza epidemic kills 23,268 people in Pittsburgh.

November, 1918

WWI ends.

1919

W. Harry Brown sells all business interests and retires. Alicia Mine sold to Pittsburgh Steel Company.

Sir Barton is the first horse to win the KY Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes in the same year. As part of increasing winnings, horse owners began sending their successful Derby horses east to compete a few weeks later in the Preakness Stakes, followed by the Belmont Stakes. The three races offered the largest purses. However, the term Triple Crown didn't come into use for another eleven years. In 1930, when Gallant Fox became the second horse to win all three races, sportswriter Charles Hatton coined the phrase “winning the Triple Crown”.

May 2, 1919

James Ward dies. He is the husband of Elizabeth Ward, daughter of W.H. Brown. He had managed and expanded the iron manufacturing and rolling interests begun by his father and uncles, including mills at Niles and New Philadelphia, Ohio. In 1884 his interests in the iron industry were relinquished, and in 1886 he moved to New Castle to handle interests of the William H. Brown estate in the Shenango Furnace and other iron works in that area.

August 11, 1919

Andrew Carnegie dies.

September 24, 1919

Elizabeth Pollock Brown dies in Asbury Park, NJ, former wife of Captain Samuel Brown.

December 2, 1919

Henry Clay Frick dies.

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December 19, 1919

W. Harry Brown is elected vice president of Dollar Savings Bank.

Population of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City is 588,343. Population of Allegheny County is 1,018,463.

KDKA originates broadcast radio.

January 22, 1920

B.F. Jones, Jr. of Jones and Laughlin Steel, buys the old Monongahela House Hotel for $750,000 from W. Harry Brown, intending to convert it into an office building.

December 31, 1920

Andrew W. Mellon attends New Year’s Eve dinner at W. Harry Brown’s house where friends and family greeted and congratulated him on being named Secretary of the Treasury by President Harding. (from: Judge Mellon’s Sons, by William Larimer Mellon) 1921

Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh financier, was appointed Secretary of Andrew Mellon the Treasury, and James J. Davis, former union steelworker of Pittsburgh, Secretary of the Treasury was named Secretary of Labor in the cabinet of President Warren G. Harding.

The Boulevard of the Allies was dedicated.

January 1, 1921

Mrs. W. Harry Brown listed on the executive committee of the Pittsburgh Chapter, American Red Cross. (from: The Pittsburgh Chapter, American Red Cross, a history. . .from its organization to January 1, 1921).

April 28, 1921

Captain W. Harry Brown dies at his Pittsburgh mansion, 65 years old.

He is entombed in a 1,300 pound cast bronze sarcophagus embellished with symbolic Egyptian motifs which match the architectural details of the famous pyramid in which he rests in Section 14, Lot 40 of Homewood Cemetery. His tomb is surrounded in death as in life with famous neighbors: Fricks, Mellons, Heinz, Benedum, and Colonel James Schoonmaker.

W. Harry Brown

W. Harry Brown Mausoleum Homewood Cemetery - Pittsburgh, PA

At the time of his death, he was a partner in the Brown and Cochran Coal Co., chairman of the board of the Washington Run Railroad Co., president of the Washington Coal and Coke Co., vice president and director of the Marine National Bank, vice president and director of the Pittsburgh Coal Exchange, director of the Union Trust Co., trustee and vice president of Dollar Savings Bank and owner of Alicia Mines 1 and 2 and Nellie Mine owned by the Brown and 388

Cochran Coal Co. He is credited as a pioneer in use of steel barges for coal transportation, and invented and perfected the crane still in general use for transferring coal to and from barges.

He served on term on the Pittsburgh City Council. He was a member and trustee of Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh and the Board of Managers of Homewood Cemetery. He was a member of the Duquesne Club, Union Club and Pittsburgh Athletic Assn., Pittsburgh County Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Adirondack League Club of New York, the rd American Universities Club of London, and, he was a 33 degree mason and a member of Syria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

In addition to his home in Pittsburgh, he had a residence in Beverly, MA. (from: Pittsburgh Press, Post Gazette and New York Times)

July 4, 1921

Cornerstone laid for W.H. Brown Masonic Home for Boys, Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, PA.

1922

The first Liberty Tube tunnel was completed.

April 8, 1922

Emily Jean McCready is born, daughter of Dr. James H. and Jean Brown McCready. She is a granddaughter of W.S. Brown.

September 22, 1922

The Duquesne Slag Products Company purchases 94 acres around Nine Mile Run and for the next 70 years uses the valley to dispose of slag from Pittsburgh steel mills.

1923

The first traffic-light system installed as an experiment at all corners intersecting the Boulevard of the Allies downtown.

May 24, 1923

The W. Harry Brown Home for Boys is opened and dedicated. W. Harry Brown was a member of Pittsburgh Lodge No. 484 and donated the funds to create "a Home for the physical, mental and moral education of dependent orphan sons of Free and Accepted Masons in Pennsylvania, who are under ten years at the time of admission."

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July 26, 1923

Mrs. W. Harry Brown is first presented to the Court of St. James at Buckingham Palace. (from: Palace Invitation of Lord Chamberlain - on right)

October 22, 1923

Mrs. Harry Brown honored by the Bakule Institute, Prague, Czechoslovakia for her work with the Red Cross in saving Czech orphan children during World War I. (From: a letters in Brown family research files.)

May, 1924

General of the Army, John “Blackjack” Pershing visits his good friend W.S. Brown in Pittsburgh and autographs his photo, “With cordial good wishes and sincere friendship.”

July 22, 1924

Mrs. W. Harry Brown dazzles London high society with many famous parties and receptions while staying at Norfolk House. (from: “London’s Latest American Hostess”, The Evening News, London)

1925

Amanda Brown Cavagna dies, daughter of Peter and Jane Brown and sister of W.S. Brown.

July 21, 1925

Mrs. W. Harry Brown along with Charles and Mary Alice Brown Painter are presented to the Court of St. James at a party in the garden at Buckingham Palace. Mrs. Brown was a frequent hostess to Edward, Prince of Wales who became Edward VIII King of England in 1936 and soon abdicated to marry Wallace Simpson.

December 10, 1925

Mrs. W. Harry Brown has dinner with President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. (from: White House Invitation).

1926

Ground was broken for the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning.

1927

Forty-five thousand miners in the district joined in a nationwide coal strike.

October, 1927

Emma Lucas Brown dies, wife of W.S. Brown.

October 11, 1927

Col. James M. Schoonmaker dies following an appendicitis operation. At time he was the owner of James Schoonmaker Coal and Coke Co. and the W. T. Stockton Co. manufacturers of white lead and paint, Chairman of the Board of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE), a Vice President of the Tradesmen’s National Bank, the Union Trust Company and a Director of Mellon National Bank and Union Savings Bank, Pittsburgh Trust Co., the Pittsburgh & Steubenville Railway as well as President of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind and a trustee with the Western Theological Seminary.

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General of the Armies "Black Jack" Pershing

The legendary Great Lakes ore boat, Schoonmaker, called the “Schoonie”, was named after him following his suggestion during a tour of the locks at Sault St. Marie that a freighter would be more manageable if they had greater beam. The steamer Schoonmaker was built with a 4 ft. greater beam than all others on the lakes and named after him. The Schoonie was built in 1911 and retired in 1980 and was the largest bulk freighter in the world when launched. Today she is a museum ship in Toledo, OH. Westinghouse staged what was said to be the world's first demonstration of "motion pictures broadcast by radio" -- "television" -- in its East Pittsburgh laboratories.

Air passenger service from the city was instituted.

1928

The first film "talkie," titled Tenderloin, was introduced at the Stanley Theater.

September 8, 1928

W.S. Brown dies, 79 years old.

June 24, 1929

Alice Brown Schoonmaker marries Stephen Campbell Cleaves. She is the daughter of William Henry Schoonmaker and granddaughter of Alice Winders Brown Schoonmaker.

1930

“Mrs. W. H. Brown is decorated in Paris by General Dubail, Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor, and becomes the first American woman to be made an officer of the French Legion of Honor for service with the Red Cross and her work on behalf of French orphans in WWI. She is the first woman to receive this honor since Empress Eugenie the last French empress. She is also the only woman honored personally by General Dubail. Residence of Mrs. th W. H. Brown 5742 5 Avenue, (now Chatham College) servants quarters still exit. Also, Beverly, MA.” (from: History of Pittsburgh, Men Widely Famed, Vol. 1, by G. T. Fleming; and also, material publish in “The Homewood Cemetery Newsletter”).

“Without the co-operation of the women of Pittsburgh who worked with me so faithfully during the war, I could have accomplished little.” “. . . at Mrs. Brown’s call, debutantes would slip out of their party frocks into uniforms and hurry to make coffee for transient troops, or women already tired from over work would make an extra effort to finish five 391

hundred sheets in a single afternoon for an emergency hospital.” “For years the French government had been gathering together records and I knew nothing about it until I received word to come to Paris.” Through her program the Fatherless Children of France she adopted 20 children and assured that they were fed, clothed and educated. (from: Pittsburgh Press, Post Gazette and New York Times)

Population of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City is 669,817.

1931

The Brown estate at Brown’s Landing off Brown’s Hill Road is purchased by the Jewish Home for Aged.

Their funds exhausted, relief agencies warned that approximately 47,750 Pittsburgh district residents would "begin starving" immediately.

Pittsburgh's first police radio "cruisers" were patrolling the streets

1932

Led by Father James R. Cox, an army of 15,000 jobless men left Pittsburgh and headed for Washington DC walking in a driving rain. Exhausted and hungry, Father Cox's jobless army arrived home after making a plea to Congress and President Hoover for immediate relief and jobs and warning that "something must be done to avert violence." Later, more than 55,000 persons, in a rally at Pitt Stadium, cheered Father Cox, "Shepherd of the Unemployed," as he announced formation of the "Jobless Party" and himself as its candidate for president.

1933

Jewish Home for Aged opened a new 3 story building adjacent to and connecting with the Brown Mansion.

This expansion allowed for 140 residents. (note: This is a very confusing item as the Captain Sam Brown mansion was reported destroyed by fire in 1913. This could be another of several homes and buildings on the Brown property). (from: New Era for Our Aged, a Greater Responsibility for Our Home: Jewish Home for Aged, 1953).

Modern professional football began in Pittsburgh when the Pittsburgh Pirates, under ownership of Arthur J. Rooney, lost to the New York Giants before 25,000 at Forbes Field.

Ruth C. Lawson graduates magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, S. Hadley, MA 1934

Ruth C. Lawson receives masters degree from Bryn Mawr College

March 30, 1934

Mrs. Harry Brown and Lord Mountbatten help to calm a crowd of 700 at a restaurant in Cannes, France when a performing lion broke out of its cage and jumped onto the dance floor. “A fire hose was turned on the lion and it was driven back to the cage.” Through everything the orchestra continued to play. (from: New York Times, Vol. 131, No. 114)

1935

The Monongahela House, where policy-making party caucuses were held prior to and during the first Republican convention in 1856 and said to be, for that reason, the "birthplace of the Republican Party," closed its doors. A plan to convert it to Jones and Laughlin office building failed to materialize.

1936

Floodwaters reached a crest of 46.4 feet, highest in the city's history, and began receding; some streets were inundated by 20 feet of water. The flood death toll was reported at 46 known dead and 384 injured; the Red Cross was attempting to assist 50,000 homeless persons; drinking water was restored; bandits and vandals roamed the area.

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1937

Ruth Lawson receives Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College.

January, 1937

William McCandless Brown dies, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown, 63 years old.

September 3, 1938

Margaret Boyle Brown (Mrs. W. Harry Brown) dies, 76 years old, leaving an estate worth $495,000. She attended Bishop Bowman Institute and Madame Essart’s School for Girls in Montreaux, Switzerland. She was a director of the American Red Cross and a member of Calvary Episcopal Church and of the Colonial Dames of America. She was the recipient on numerous awards and recognitions from Europe and America for her compassionate service during and after WWI. (from: Pittsburgh Press, Post Gazette, and New York Times).

1938-1942

Ruth Lawson taught economics and political science at Tulane University.

1939

William Brown (W.B.) McCready and his future wife Margery Eleanor Lawson graduate from Amherst College and Mount Holyoke College respectively.

W.B. McCready joins with his cousin William S. Brown to create the AVO-CLEAN Company, to market a unique oriental rug cleaning compound developed by the aunt, Cynthia Ave McCready.

Margery E. Lawson moves to Washington, D.C. and begins working in the medical laboratory at Georgetown University

November, 1939

William "Pudge" Heffelfinger First professional football player

Edwin Lucas Brown dies, son of W.S. and Emma Lucas Brown, 64 years old. He played college and professional football and many other sports. For many years he was employed with W.S. Brown Sporting Goods serving as company President following the death of his father. Ed Brown at age 18, played for the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in what would be the first professional football game on November 12, 1892 at Pittsburgh's Reservation Park (site of today's Heinz Field). On that day, 3000 fans watched a grudge match between rivals Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Edwin Lucas Brown Club. All players were amateurs except that William "Pudge" Heffelfinger accepted $500 to play from the Allegheny Athletic Association making this the first pro football game. AAA won this game 4-0. (From: History: Birth of Pro Football, on the Pro Football Hall of Fame website; also an article in the Pittsburgh Press ROTO magazine showing picture of team with Ed Brown)

Mid - Late 1930s February 8 approx

Mrs. C. A. Painter, Sr, mother-in-law of Mary Alice Brown Painter was confronted and threatened by an 18 year old Canadian man with a 32 caliber gun. The young man had come to Pittsburgh looking for work without success and was penniless and starving. He stole the gun from a neighbor in his rooming house and went to the Painter house where he had been the day before asking for work.

Pointing the gun he yelled at Mrs. Painter, “I’m starving and desperate and must have money.

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Give it to me or I’ll kill you!” Regaining her composure, Mrs. Painter replied: “Young man, don’t be foolish. Put up that revolver, or give it to me, and I will give you some money. You must be very desperate to act in this manner.” “No.” was his reply, “I’ll not give you the gun, but if you give me money I’ll do you no harm. All I want is money to keep me from starving.”

Seeing the necessity of disarming the man, Mrs. Painter suggested: “Well, then, take the shells out of your revolver – it is loaded and may explode before I can give you some money.”

“I’ll take the shells out, but I won’t give up the gun.” He proceeded to eject the cartridges but one stuck in the cylinder.

“See here – give me the revolver!” demanded Mrs. Painter. “I don’t believe your know how to handle it.” And, she snatched the weapon from his hands before he could react. Mrs. Painter took the gun to a back room and calmly worked the cartridge out with a crocheting needle and returning to the front door way handed the gun back saying: “Wait here and I’ll go upstairs and get you some money.” She returned and handed the man a silver dollar saying: “This is all the change I have in the house but you are welcome to it.” The man took the money and ran but was quickly caught by police.

Mrs. Painter said she would not prosecute if the police could determine that the man is not a bad character. (from: Pittsburgh Press; and also Post Gazette)

Ettie Morrow Speer Painter (Mrs. C. A. Painter, Sr.)

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TIMELINE - BROWN FAMILY HISTORY Part VI. 1940 to Present

1940

Highland Park Zoo, completely overhauled and modernized, was reopened to the public

1940s

The yacht Visitor II, owned by William H. Brown is taken over by the government during World War II and became a permanent Coast Guard vessel. Another yacht built from solid mahogany was called Visitor IV and owned by William H. Brown.

July 18, 1941

William Henry Brown Schoonmaker dies at Glenn Ridge, NJ. He is 68 years old and his next of kin are listed as Genevieve B. Schoonmaker of 86 Clinton Avenue, Montclair, NJ.

1942

Annie M. Brown dies, daughter of unknown brother of W.H. and Peter Brown.

Ruth Lawson returns to teach at Mt. Holyoke College until she retires in 1976.

1944

Air raid drills were organized.

Technical Sergeant Charles E. "Commando" Kelly, Pittsburgh's first Congressional Medal of Honor winner in World War II, received a hero's welcome when he arrived home.

October, 1944

Paul L. Hay dies, husband of Nelle Brown Hay, daughter of W.S. Brown. He is 73 years old.

Stockholders of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. approved a merger with the Consolidation Coal Co..

1945 Japan surrenders ending World War II. August 14,1945 1946

In the largest single walk-out in the nation's history, 800,000 CIO United Steel Workers -227,000 of them in the Pittsburgh district -- closed down the steel industry after President Truman's 11th hour fact-finding efforts failed. The first picket line appeared at the Irwin works and National Tube plant. All mills in the district were silent, steel production hit a 50 year low; Philip Murray, in nation-wide broadcast from Pittsburgh, accused American business of an "evil conspiracy" to destroy labor unions.

December 30, 1947

William Brown McCready, Jr. born, Pittsburgh, PA, eldest son W.B. and Margery Lawson McCready

1949

Jewish Home for Aged completes another expansion adding 2 floor and increasing capacity to 265 residents.

Pittsburgh's first television station -- DuMont's WDTV, Channel 2 -- went on the air.

The Aluminum Company of America announced plans for the nation's first all-aluminum office skyscraper.

More than 200,000 persons lined the banks of the Monongahela River to watch CarnegieIllinois's Homestead defeat Jones and Laughlin's 'William Larimer Jones by inches in a modernday race of stern-wheelers.

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October 4 & 5, 1951

Hundreds of people gathered at the 50 room mansion of W.H. Brown at 5742 Fifth Avenue on Pittsburgh’s “Millionaire’s Row” for an auction of more than 800 pieces of furniture, art objects and incidentals including priceless family heirlooms. Noteworthy are: a 10 foot high Chinese palace vase, an 8 piece Louis XV bedroom set, elaborate mirrors, chandeliers, silver wall sconces, desks, grandfather clocks, oil paintings, a harpsichord and more. The house itself is for sale for $75,000 to either institutions or apartment house developers. It contains many hand-carved fireplace mantels in every major room, inlaid mosaic floors, rich wood paneled rooms, hand painted ceilings and gold leaf patterns on the walls. There is a massive onyx sideboard said to have cost $1,000 a square foot and a dining room oriental rug measuring 14 x 38 feet. The house sits on 1 acre of land and was cared for by a staff of 15 servants. Since Mrs. Brown’s death, the house has been maintained by her son William H. Brown. (from: Pittsburgh Press) (Note: the mansion was sold by William H. Brown, W. Harry Brown’s son, who owns a cattle ranch in AZ, but maintained an apartment in Pittsburgh for many years.)

1952

President Truman ordered steel mills seized, and the United Steel Workers called off a scheduled strike. Later, Truman’s seizure of the steel industry was declared illegal by Federal Court and district steel workers joined 650,000 throughout the nation in a walkout that paralyzed the industry.

1953

Dr. Jonas E. Salk, 38-year-old University of Pittsburgh researcher and professor, reported success of a new polio vaccine tried on 90 human beings; the vaccine was developed by him and his staff at Pitt.

January 31, 1953

Mary Alice Brown Painter dies at her home in Sewickley Heights. She is 60 years old. She was a charter member of the Sewickley Hunt, a member of the Women’s Industrial Exchange, the Women’s Club of Sewickley, the Sewickley Child Health Assn., Allegheny County Garden Club, Pittsburgh Golf Club and Allegheny Country Club. Surviving are: two daughters, Alice Painter (Mrs. LeRoy) Thompson of Fox Hill Farm, Sewickley, PA, and Margaret Painter (Mrs. Donald B.) Spear of Tucson, AZ and a son Charles A. Painter III of Laguna Beach, CA and nine grandchildren.

1954

In one of the largest grants of its kind ever made, the Mellon family, represented by three foundations, gave $15,000,000 to the University of Pittsburgh for medical education. The money was designated chiefly for development of Pitt's first full-time medical school teaching staff.

Powered by the world's first atomic engine, built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the submarine USS Nautilus, christened by Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, was launched at Groton, Connecticut.

January 26, 1955

Charles A. Painter, Jr. dies, husband of Mary Alice Brown Painter (see above for descendants).

1956

The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning was officially dedicated The last canvas tent performance of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows was given at Heidelberg Raceways, marking the end of an era of entertainment.

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September 28, 1959

Dr. James Homer McCready dies, husband of Jean Brown McCready, daughter of W.S. Brown.

He was 77 years old. Dr. McCready was a medical pioneer and worked with Dr. Chevalier Jackson in pioneering developments in the use of the bronchoscope, an instrument that could remove lodged articles from the larynx. In 1902 they placed a tiny light on the end of it and in essence began modern endoscopy. In addition to his innovative work in bronchoscopy (removing foreign objects from the body with the bronchoscope), Dr. McCready was a leader in moving Eye and Ear Hospital to the medical center complex in Oakland. He was born in Wellsville, OH and graduated from Jefferson Medical College and did post-graduate work at the University of Vienna. He was professor of Otolaryngology (ear and throat) at the University of Pittsburgh from 1932 to 1949 and was emeritus professor after that. From 1936 until 1949 he was president of Eye and Ear Hospital. He was also for a time the Medical Director of St. Francis Hospital. He was on the senior staff at St. Francis, Eye and Ear, Sewickley Valley and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hospitals. He was a fellow with a number of professional boards and a member of national, state, and county medical societies. He was also a president of the Pittsburgh Field Club. He is survived by his wife, Jean Brown McCready, three children: J.H. McCready, Jr, William Brown McCready, and Emily McCready Sieber, and seven grandchildren.

1959

Cynthia Avarilla McCready dies, sister of James Homer McCready. She never married and had no children. She was born in 1875 and was 84 years old.

1961

The Post-Gazette celebrates its 175th birthday.

Civic Arena opens for the public.

June, 1962

1963

Nelle Brown Hay dies, wife of Paul Hay and daughter of W.S. Brown. There are no children.

Charles C. Harris, one of seven founding members of the United Negro Protest Committee in 1963, initiated the “Let’s March!” campaign that resulted in protest marches on local businesses to press for job opportunities and the demand for more black administrators and professionals on the Community College faculty. At a time when few blacks were employed in sales, he held sales positions with W.S. Brown Sporting Goods Company and Meadow Gold Dairies. He is included in the Freedom Corner Memorial that includes pavers with the names of leaders who played a role in the struggle for social justice over the years in the civil rights movement. (from: Legends of the Movement, www.freedomcorner.org). (Note: This is Charles “Teenie” Harris who was also a prolific African-American photographer who chroniciled black life in Pittsburgh from 1936 to 1975.

Also, worked for the Pittsburgh Courier and whose photo collection is the Pittsburgh Digital Image Library).

January 15, 1965

Jean Brown McCready dies, wife of Dr. James Homer McCready and daughter of W.S. Brown.

1966

Pittsburgh is granted National Hockey League franchise.

1967

US Steel breaks ground for its new skyscraper headquarters, the world's second largest high-rise office building. William Brown McCready, USS manager of construction purchases, oversees the design, engineering and construction of the building. This is one of many major USS and USS Engineers and Consultants projects where McCready served a leading role from the 1950s to 1980s. Others include: building complete steel mills such as Fairless Works outside of Philadelphia, PA, renovating or improving virtually every existing USS mill and collateral plants, building major condominium 397

buildings for USS Realty on the gulf shore of Clearwater, FL, construction of the Monorail, Disney's Contemporary Resort (1961) and Polynesian Resort (1971) at Walt Disney World.

McCready also traveled the world for the corporation acquiring innovative components and processes for steel making. His business contracts were influential in bringing many international companies to the US for the first time including Seimens. McCready would finally retire as Special Assistant to Chairman and CEO David Roderick in the mid-1980s.

Contemporary Resort and Monorail at Disney World

April 3, 1967

“Samuel S. Brown, former head of W. S. Brown Sporting Goods, Inc., downtown, died at St. Francis Hospital. Mr. Brown of 4733 Wallingford Street, Oakland, was a graduate of Washington & Jefferson College. A veteran of World War I, he was a member of the First Methodist Church of Pittsburgh in Shadyside. A life member of the Syria Temple and the Scottish Rite and a member of the Fellowship Lodge No. 679 F. & A. M. He is survived by his wife Eve Provonche Brown.� (from: The Pittsburgh Press, April 3, 1967)

1968

After sweeping the Indiana Pacers, the Pittsburgh Pipers soon faced the Minnesota Muskies in the Eastern Division Finals of the American Basketball Association. The Pipers went on to win the ABA Championship.

Gangs of black youth wreaked destruction in the Hill District and in other sections of the city following the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the black civil rights leader.

January 23, 1968

James H. McCready, Jr. dies in Miami, FL. He was married and divorced from Jean Jenks McCready, the father of Gail Diane McCready James of Cincinnati, OH and grandfather of Courtenay James Wolfe and Whitney James.

1969

W.B. McCready, Jr. enlisted in the PA Army National Guard, Battery B, 2nd Missile Battalion, 176th Air Defense Artillery ("The Duquesne Greys" - site PI-71). McCready would later serve as a missile fire control crewman from 1973 to 1975 at a similar unit outside of San Francisco, CA. These units were part of a ring of air defense missile sites surrounding Pittsburgh and other major cities across America equipped with state of the art Nike Hercules missile systems. Troops at these facilities were dubbed "Buck Rogers boys" because they were tasked with fighting the war of the future and defending against Soviet nuclear attack and would regularly practice by conducting computer generated war games of global thermonuclear war. Nike, named for the Greek goddess of victory, was the name given to this program which ultimately produced the world's first successful, widely-deployed, guided surface-to-air missile system. The Nike Hercules was designed to carry either nuclear and/or high-explosive warheads that Nike Hercules could combat sophisticated Soviet supersonic offensive weapons, including aircraft Bombers that reached speeds of Mach 2, as well as air-supported missiles and rockets operating at velocities of Mach 3. The systems High Power Acquisition Radar (HIPAR) was an important component with an extended acquisition range of 175 nautical miles, allowing more than 400 seconds from the time of target acquisition to the time of intercept. With the increasing speed of enemy aircraft and ballistic missiles, every extra moment was essential.

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1971

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts opens.

November 25, 1972

William H. Brown, Jr., son of W. Harry Brown, dies at his cattle ranch “Rancho El Mirador� in Sasabe, AZ. He is 71. Married and divorced twice: Elizabeth Reed and Sheila Moore. Surviving are two daughters: Mrs. Elizabeth Brown Isaman and Mrs. Constance Brown Berkley, both of Bethesda, MD, and three grandchildren.

Dedication of the Point State Park Fountain. After three decades of planning and construction, Point Park is finally completed.

William H. Brown, Jr.

1973

William B. McCready, Jr., graduates cum laude from Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA with a BA degree in History.

1974

Steelers win Super Bowl for the first time. 10,000 people invade Downtown area after victory; 224 were arrested for drunkenness.

1974-1976

W. B. McCready, Jr. served as a special assistant to the Representative in the United Kingdom of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in London, England. During this time he also served on the support staff of the Command and General Staff School of the US Army War College in Frankfurt, Germany.

1976

William Brown McCready, Jr., receives two masters degrees in Political Science and International Studies from the Institute of Foreign Studies, Montery, CA.

1976-1978

W. B. McCready, Jr. served as Intelligence Analyst/Section Chief/Czech Linguist at the Defense Language Institute and 3rd Psychological Operation Company, 99th ARCOM.

1978

William Brown McCready, Jr. marries Paule Langelier, of St. Prosper, Quebec, Canada. The two were married in Pittsburgh, PA. McCready had just completed a year of training as a Czech linguist at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, where he met his future wife. In this year, McCready also began working for the Swindress Bond division of Pullman, Inc, ultimately becoming the youngest division general manager in the corporation's history.

Palacio del Sol, Inc. formed by W. B. McCready, completes the 36 unit condominium building and forms the Palacio del Sol Condo Association in Punta Gorda, FL.

Palacio del Sol Condominium Punta Gorda, FL

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1978-1981

Ruth C. Lawson serves on the board of advisors of the US Naval War College.

1980

U.S. Steel reported a loss of $293 million, the largest quarterly decline in the firm's history. The steel lay-offs might reach 60,000 by September. U.S. Steel will temporarily shut down its third and last furnace at the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock.

Unemployment in the Pittsburgh area reaches 7.8%.

J&L Steel will close the continuous strip and sheet department of its Pittsburgh works.

Thousands of steelworkers will lose their jobs.

A grand jury identifies WTAE-TVs personality Nick Perry as the planner of the $1.8 million lottery fix.

At the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Company, 40% of the work force is laid off.

April 4, 1981

William Brown McCready, III born, eldest son of W.B. and Paule L. McCready Jr.

1982

Mount Holyoke College creates the Ruth C. Lawson Chair in Politics to honor her service.

The Crucible Steel Plant in Beaver County is up for sale.

Colt Industries begins closing its Crucible Steel Plant. 400 employees will lose their jobs.

The USW rejects the steel industry's plea for concessions from 300,000 basic steel employees.

The National Football League players go on strike.

Unemployment in Pennsylvania hits 11.5 percent.

US Steel cuts 5,574 district jobs- 3,827 in the Mon Valley.

1982

W.B. McCready, Jr. begins a 25 year career with United Way serving people in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

1983

U.S. Steel and National Intergroup cancel their merger plans.

January 14, 1983

Andrew Langelier McCready is born, second son of W.B. and Paule L. McCready, Jr.

1984

Fortune magazine lists Pittsburgh as the nation's third largest corporation center. Fifteen of Fortune's 500 companies have their headquarters in the city.

The 56-year-old Stanley Theatre will become the Benedum Center for Performing Arts as a result of a $5 million gift from the Benedum Foundation. The new center will be the permanent home of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Pittsburgh Opera and the Civic Light Opera.

Helen Clay Frick, the daughter of steelman Henry Clay Frick, dies at the age of 96. "Clayton," the Point Breeze home of Helen Clay Frick, according to her will, will be opened to the public.

Rand McNally's Places Rated Almanac lists Pittsburgh as the most livable of the nation's 329 metropolitan areas.

1985

The city's first subway opens to traffic. It cost $90 million to build.

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The Monongahela River is closed from Pittsburgh south to the West Virginia border after floodwater dislodges 62 barges from their moorings.

An earthquake shakes Pittsburgh for the first time in 23 years.

1986

U.S. Steel Corporation, formed in 1901, changes its name to USX Corporation and plans a major corporate restructuring.

William Brown McCready retires from USX. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the city's oldest newspaper, celebrates its 200th anniversary.

1987

W. B. McCready, Jr. purchases 45 foot motoryacht Mc3D in Louisville, KY and cruises up the Ohio and Monongahela rivers to private dock.

United Steelworkers ratifies a four-year concessions pact with USX Corporation. The agreement brings to an end the longest shutdown at a major steelmaker in U.S. history.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Pittsburgh has lost 18,300 people since 1985.

USX's National Plant in McKeesport closes. Employment was down to 186 from a high of 4600.

The population of Allegheny County declined by 5.3%.

The former Braddock Public Library, the oldest Carnegie Library in America, has received donations of $80,000 to restore the closed building.

The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts opens. After a three-year restoration of the Stanley Theater, the Benedum is the third largest stage house in the country and one of the best equipped in terms of modern technical capability.

1989

David M. Roderick, chairman of USX retires after a ten year period of historic change including the longest steel strike in history, the closing of over 140 facilities, and the transformation of USX's focus from steel to energy.

Schenley Park celebrates its 100th anniversary.

1990

Despite public and union protests, Dorothy Six, a blast furnace at USX Corporation's Duquesne works, is demolished.

December 14, 1990

Ruth C. Lawson dies at age 79. She was a professor of political science at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, for 34 years. Among Dr. Lawson's many accomplishments was founding the International Internship Program linking students to service in government and international organizations. This program was the first of its kind in the US. She was a specialist in international politics, organizations and law. Miss Lawson also taught at Smith College, University of Massachusetts, Hampshire College, Wheaton College and Amherst College as well at all of the US service academies and the War College and in 1970 was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Sussex in England. She held Guggenheim, NATO and American Society of International Law fellowships and received a special scholarship from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. An author of many books and articles on international law, security and organizations, she also served as a director on the boards of the Atlantic Council, the International Studies Association, the International 401

Institute for Strategic Studies, the American Society of International Law, the US Naval War College and was Secretary of the American Political Science Association.

1991

"Friends of the Riverfront" is formed with the mission to "promote public access to and appreciation on for Pittsburgh's riverfronts" according to John Stevens, a co-founder and director of the nonprofit group. In addition to general riverfront cleanups, the group is working toward the opening of a 12-mile-long "Three River's Heritage Trail."

The Pittsburgh Penguins win their first Stanley Cup. 20.000 fans greet the Pens when they arrive back in Pittsburgh the following day.

1992

Kennywood Park is designated a historical landmark by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Dedication of the new $783-million Pittsburgh International Airport.

1993

Congress designates the Pittsburgh Aviary as the "National Aviary in Pittsburgh."

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission awards a $100,000 grant to the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania to help secure and interpret a rockshelter near Avella which was used by Native Americans 16,000 years ago and is one of the oldest such sites in North America.

July 6, 1993

William Brown McCready dies, grandson of W.S. Brown. He is 76 years old. He is survived by his wife, Margery Lawson McCready, three sons: William Brown McCready, Jr., Edward Lawson McCready and James Lawson McCready, and five grandchildren: William Brown McCready, III, Andrew Langelier McCready, Margery Lawson McCready, James Lawson McCready, Jr., and Anne Lawson McCready. Mr. McCready was a graduate of Arnold School (later part of Shadyside Academy), Amherst College and the graduate executive program at the University of Michigan. He was a sergeant in the US Army during WWII at the intern camp in Lordsburg, NM, until receiving a medical discharge. He was the president of Avo-clean Company, specializing in cleaning oriental rugs, until he sold the business. He then joined the purchasing department of the United States William Brown McCready Steel Corp., retiring as Special Assistant to the President in the mid 1980s, during which he worked on the merger of USS and National Steel and also on development of a unique form of cast ingot mold to reduce the cost of steel production. He is best known for his work as manager of construction purchases where he secured all the design, engineering and construction contracts for the corporation, including steel mills and the innovative US Steel Building on Grant Street in Pittsburgh. Following his retirement from the steel company, he became president of a Florida real estate development company Palacio del Sol, Inc. He was very active in local charities particularly the Boy Scouts where he served on the board of the Pittsburgh Council and was the District Chairman of the Council. For many years he also ran a family owned seasonal golf course, Pen Lake Farms Golf Club near Huntsville, Ontario, Canada.

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December 22, 1994

Margery Lawson McCready dies, wife of William Brown McCready. She is 76 years old.

She was the daughter of Frank Edward and Mary Burlingham Lawson of Batavia, NY. In 1939, she graduated from Mount Holyoke College in biology and received a fellowship to study medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. World War II, marriage and children interrupted her studies but began a lifetime of community service volunteering at Pittsburgh's Childrens Hospital and other charities.

1997

LTV Steel, Pittsburgh's remaining link to its once dominant steel industry, will permanently close the old Jones and Laughlin Steel Co. Hazelwood coke plant.

2003

Edward Lawson McCready dies, son of W.B. and Margery L. McCready. Born in 1950, he was 53 years old. A graduate of nursing studies from Clemson University, Ed remained a South Carolina resident until death. He was a distinguished emergency room nurse at Greenville Hospital and very active in his community. He was a recipient of the James Cash Penney Golden Rule Award a distinguished honor for community service. He is survived by his daughter, Anne Lawson McCready Rogel.

July 21, 2005

J.C. Devine, Inc. auction sets a record price of $43,125 for an early Colt Model 1921 Thompson Submachine Gun, serial number 114 in caliber .45 ACP. This firearm had the early fire control markings of "automatic" and "semiautomatic" and the early actuator slot with a square end. The firearm was shipped to W.S. Brown Company in Pennsylvania in April 1921 for delivery to the Aliquippa, Penn., Police Department.

February 23, 2006

W. B. McCready, Jr. is ordained a minister of the Universal Life Church.

October 1, 2006

Emily McCready Sieber dies, granddaughter of W.S. Brown and daughter of Dr. James Homer and Jean Brown McCready. She is 84 years old. She is survived by three children: Paul Rothrock Sieber, III, Nancy Sieber Tucker, and Richard Brownlee Sieber; six grand children: Lauren Rister, Scott Sieber, Reed and Drew Tucker, Riley Sieber and Kelly Sieber; and great grandchild, William Rister. She is the sister of James H. and W.B. McCready. Emmy attended Ellis School, Mary Lyons School and Bennett Junior College. She was long active and associated with a variety of community organizations.

2007

W. B. McCready, Jr., retires after enjoying a 25 year career in the United Way beginning at the United Way of Allegheny County and then for 23 year was the President and Chief Professional Officer at the United Way of Washington County (PA).

In his United Way career, McCready raised more than $75 million for local community services and created many innovative programs. He retired in 2007 to spend time with his family and enjoy life.

2009-2013

W. B. McCready, Jr, came out of retirement to assume leadership of the Allegheny Valley Hospital Trust. Here he would lead and close a successful $15 million capital campaign to fund construction of a new emergency medicine department. Additionally, during these years he served on the Hospitals seven member senior 403

management team, a member of the strategic planning group of the West Penn Allegheny Health System and was a director of the Allegheny Valley Chamber of Commerce. In 2013, he retired again to relocate to Charleston, SC to be near his two sons (William B. III and Andrew L. McCready) and three grandsons (Maximus William McCready, born January 21, 2010; Marc Lawson McCready, born May 11, 2012; and Xavier Andrew McCready May 24, 2012).

McCready spent over 40 years researching and writing on the history of the Brown and McCready families as well as the history and economics of western Pennsylvania.

COPYRIGHT by William Brown McCready, Jr.: 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and June 1, 2015

404

CONCLUSION

The story of the Brown family begins with our Scots-Irish heritage based on faith, determination, the importance of family and hard work.

We have learned about many relatives of prominence and others who led more normal, average lives. None is more important than the other. Our lineage is simply one of good people leading good lives as best they can.

Some were adventurers who pioneered the exploration and westward expansion of America in 17th and 18th centuries. Some were settlers who claimed and cleared lands and raised families. Some were warriors and barons of the Gilded Age. A few amassed great fortunes. Overall, the most important conclusion is that the Brown family has endured. With faith, hard work, charitable compassion and jovial spirit each generation of our family successfully paved the way for the next through both prosperous and hard times.

I’ve spent enough time learning about the various generations of Browns to feel a real family connection to those who came before us. It has also given me a greater appreciation for the family that I am blessed to be a part of and the legacy that I will leave behind. I have walked over Brown family lands, traveled the same rivers, gone underground in coal mines and spend too much time in cemeteries visiting Browns long gone.

But, there are still many sites of family importance that I hope to visit. I can’t think of a more interesting way to spend a vacation.

This book began as a search for roots. It then sought to be the definitive history of the Brown family. Now, I realize this is not an end but a beginning. Our story is a continuing project.

This is not to deny the importance or scope of the work presented. Much of our known family history has now been collected, catalogued and recorded in one place. Lost relatives and friends met, shared and built this story. Along the way, new branches of our family were discovered. And, readers will have gained new insights and interest in our family saga.

Now, my hope is that people care about where they come from and realize that it is important to know. Our family defines who we are and may even help us chart where we are going. The reality is that this story is less text on paper and more in our blood.

This work, if you value and appreciate it, is simply a step stone for your own research. There are many loose ends to our story and much more detail to learn. Pennsylvania is the Keystone state. Pittsburgh is the Gateway to the West. Our family played important roles in establishing our country and American and World industry. I encourage others to continue to research Brown history and help to expand our story.

In this effort, I wish you well.

Bill McCready June 2015

405

SOURCES - BROWN FAMILY HISTORY Sources - William Hughey Brown - Rags to Riches: Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System Since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America, by Frederick Way, Jr., 1994.

Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History, by Louis C. Hunter, Beatrice J. Hunter.

Master of the Mississippi: Henry Shreve and the Conquest of the Mississippi, by Florence L. Dorsey.

America And The Sea: A Maritime History, by Benjamin Woods Labaree..

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The Mississippi Steamboat Era in Historic Photographs: Natchez to New Orleans 1870-1920, edited by Joan W. and Thomas H. Gandy, 1987 Life On The Mississippi, by Mark Twain Way's Steam Towboat Directory, by Frederick Way Gunboats Down the Mississippi, by John D. Milligan Lloyd's Steamboat Directory and Disasters on Western Waters, by James T. Lloyd, 1979 Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863, by George Merrick Coal Timeline, by the Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy Timeline of Coal in the United States, by th American Coal Foundation, 2003-2004 History of Coal, Janet M. Geitner, 1991.

A Brief History of the UMWA, by the United Mine Workers of America.website The Black Diamond, Vol. 34, January 7, 1905.

History of Pittsburgh—Men Widely Famed, Vol. 3, History of Pittsburgh and environs, from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution, by George Thornton Fleming History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania,, Genealogy and Biography, Volume 2, edited by Dr. Thomas Cushing, . 1889.

Our Coal Barons of the 70s, Life in Pittsburgh Over Fifty Years Ago, Pittsburgh First, Semi Centennial of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh 18741924, the official publication of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh. (Mentioned as Directors are: Norman F. Brown, Paul Brown, W.S. Brown on Reception Committee, and W. Harry Brown. Only 1 is listed under Our Coal Barons of the 70s - W. H. Brown) The Iron City: A Compendium of Facts Concerning Pittsburgh and Vicinity For Strangers and the Public Generally, by George W. Pittock and Kinsey McFall, April 1867.

Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. 1-4, by John Newton Boucher and Fenwick Y. Hedley. 1918.

Pittsburgh and Environs, Directory to the Iron and Steel Works of the United States, published by The American Iron and Steel Association, September 1, 1878 Transportation in the Ohio Valley Monongahela, the river and its region, by Richard T. Wiley, circa 1937. (good list of Pittsburgh Coal Co. boats) 20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County PA, edited by Hon. Aaron L. Hagen, 1968.

407

The Coal Regions of America, by James MacFarlane, 1873 Fayette County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, edited by Sarah H. Held, 1990.

Henry Clay Frick, Life of the Perfect Capitalist, by Quentin R. Skabec, Jr., The Coal Trade Bulletin, Vol. 30, December 1, 1913.

Coal Age Empire: Pennsylvania Coal and Its Utilization to 1860, by Frederick Moore Binder, 1974.

The US Coal Industry in the Nineteenth Century, by Sean Patrick Adams, August 15, 2001.

Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America. by Sean Patrick Adams,2004.

"Anthracite Coal and the Beginnings of the ‘Industrial Revolution' in the United States," by Alfred Chandler, Business History Review 46, 1972 Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania, by Carmen DiCiccio, 1996 History of West Virginia Coal Industry, by Phil Conley, 1960 The First Century and a Quarter of the American Coal Industry, by Howard Eavenson, 1942.

Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry, by Priscilla Long, 1989.

The Coal Industry: A Study in Social Control, by Glen L. Parker, 1940.

Triumphant Capitalism: Henry Clay Frick and the Industrial Transformation of America. by Kenneth Warren, 1996.

Sources - Captain Samuel S. Brown - Celebrity: Measuring Worth.com, this website offers a great deal of information about how to determine the value or worth of something in history. The site also include calculators for setting a historical value of funds.

The Last Will and Testament of Samuel S. Brown, 1905.

The National Encyclopedia of American Biography, vol. 6, 1898.

America's successful men of affairs. An encyclopedia of contemporaneous biography (1895) Author: Hall, Henry, 1845-1920; Volume: 2; Publisher: The New York Tribune All Sorts of Pittsburgers Sketched in Prose and Verse; Burgoyne, Arthur; Pittsburg, PA; The Leader; 1892.

(Note: The correct spelling of Pittsburgh in 1892 was Pittsburg. The spelling Pittsburgh was officially restored in 1911).

In memory of the early settlers of Squirrel Hill and their descendants : especially including many who are interred in the Turner's burial ground, Squirrel Hill.

Vol.10 Light's golden jubilee: Ohio River celebration.

Western Pennsylvanians : a work for newspaper and library reference, compiled under the direction of the James O. Jones Company ; editors Charles Alexander Rook , [et al.].

A century and a half of Pittsburg and her People, by John Newton Boucher; illustrated. Vol. 4.

History of Pittsburgh and Environs, from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American Revolution. Vol. 3. Byy George Thornton Fleming.

History of Lodge no. 45, F. & A. M., 1785-1910, Freemasons. Pittsburgh. Lodge no. 45.

Pittsburgh of Today, Its Resources and People, Vol. 2, by Frank C. Harper.

Our police. A history of the Pittsburgh Police Force, Under the Town and City, Ed. by Henry Mann.

Allegheny County's Hundred Years, by George H. Thurston.

408

Report on the Coal Mines of the Monongahela River Region from the West Virginia State Line to Pittsburgh, Including the Mines on the Lower Youghiogheny River, Part I. By J. Sutton Wall.

Way’s Packet Directory 1848-1983, Frederick Way Jr., Compiler, Ohio University, Athens, 1983.

American Turf, by John H. Davis, 1907.

The Kentucky Farmer and Breeder, March 5, 1905.

Message of the Governor John J. Pettus to the Senate and House of Representatives of Mississippi, Jan. 15, 1861, Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi, Jackson, 1861.

The Brown Mansion Fire, unknown newspaper clipping.

The National History of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 1, 1853-1866, University of California Press, 1988.

Will Bowen letter to Samuel Clemens, December 10, 1889.

Samuel Clemens letter to his brother Orion Clemens and Family, November 21, 1860.

The Charm of an Old Bell, by Louise Haynes Lewis, printed in an unknown old newspaper.

The Brown Family Historical Collection of Mrs. Alice Thompson.

Collections of the Pennsylvania Department, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Various articles about Captain Samuel S. Brown can be found in the Waterways Journal, American Turf, the Thoroughbred Record, and many other publications on river transportation, coal mining, and thoroughbred horse breeding and racing.

Waterways Journal, Dec. 30, 1939 Various U.S. newspapers including: Cincinnati Enquirer, January 23, 1861.

Illinois True Republican, May 30, 1906.

Lexington Herald, July 9, 1906.

Marble Rock (Iowa) Journal, June 7, 1906 Memphis Appeal, January 17, 1861.

Memphis Avalanche, January 17, 1861.

Missouri Republican, January 25, 1861.

New Orleans Times Democrat, December 12, 1903.

New York Times, June, 1901; December 20, 1905; November 29, 1940, Obituary of John P. Eichleay.

New York Evening Telegraph, November, 1905; December 9, 1905.

New York World, June 7, 1906.

Pittsburg Dispatch, November 27, 1889.

Pittsburgh Gazette, December 10, 1913.

St. Louis Republic, Sunday February 6, 1910, CAPTAIN MASSIE'S RIVER RECORD UNEQUALED.

Sources - W. Harry Brown & Family: In memory of the early settlers of Squirrel Hill and their descendants : especially including many who are interred in the Turner's burial ground, Squirrel Hill.

Imprint: Pittsburgh : Mary S. Brown Memorial M.E. Church, 1905.

Physical Extent: 30 p., 8 p. of plates : ill. ; 18 cm.

The Story of the sesqui-centennial celebration of Pittsburgh, July 4, September 27 to October 3, and November 25, 1908 : illustrated with portraits of prominent men and women and views taken during the sesqui-centennial, of marine parade, Greater Pittsburgh day, University of Pittsburgh and Memorial hall day, etc. / edited by W.H. Stevenson ... [et al.] ; Sidney A. King, managing editor and compiler ; R.W. Johnston, art adviser. 5 matches in 3 of 370 pages The Twentieth Century Club of Allegheny County, 1896-1904.

Vol.10 Light's golden jubilee : Ohio River celebration.

1 match in 1 of 104 pages

2 matches in 2 of 154 pages

409

Western Pennsylvanians : a work for newspaper and library reference / compiled under the direction of the James O. Jones Company ; editors Charles Alexander Rook ... [et al.]. 11 matches in 4 of 620 pages American Red Cross. Pittsburgh Chapter. The Pittsburgh chapter, American Red cross; a history of the activities of the chapter from its organization to January 1, 1921, with an appendix containing all available names of those who rendered Red cross service during that period. Compiled and prepared for publication by the chapter History committee. 10 matches in 5 of 936 pages Citizens Committee on City Plan of Pittsburgh.

Railroads of the Pittsburgh district : a part of the Pittsburgh plan.

1 match in 1 of 84 pages

Citizens committee on city plan of Pittsburgh.

1 match in 1 of 42 pages

Pittsburgh playgrounds : a part of the Pittsburgh plan / Citizens committee on city plan of Pittsburgh.

Fleming, George Thornton, 1855-1928. Vol. 3 History of Pittsburgh and environs, from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution.

By George Thornton Fleming 13 matches in 7 of 506 pages Fleming, George Thornton, 1855-1928. Vol. 5 History of Pittsburgh and environs, from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution.

By George Thornton Fleming 1 match in 1 of 694 pages Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce 1 match in 1 of 176 pages Harper, Frank C.

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Vol.2 Pittsburgh of today, its resources and people, by Frank C. Harper...

4 matches in 1 of 546 pages

Kelly, John M. J. M. Kelly's handbook of greater Pittsburg: Historical, an encyclopedia, political and statistical, The Proposed Ship Canal, Directory and Guide ; Including a Comprehensive Street Directory and Lithographed Map in Colors. 2 matches in 2 of 346 pages Leahy, Ethel Carter. Who's who on the Ohio River and its tributaries, the Ohio River from the ice age to the future, history, biography, statistics by Ethel C. Leahy.. 1 match in 1 of 980 pages Pittsburgh (Pa.). Citizens Committee on City Plan of Pittsburgh. pages

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Transit, a part of the Pittsburgh plan.

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Pittsburgh, Pa. Sesqui-centennial Committee. account. 1 match in 1 of 116 pages Walkinshaw, Lewis Clark.

1 match in 1 of 66 pages 1 match in 1 of 64 pages

1 match in 1 of 84 pages

1 match in 1 of 402 pages

Pittsburgh sesqui-centennial celebration, July 4, September 27-October 3, November 25, 1908. Official

Annals of southwestern Pennsylvania, by Lewis Clark Walkinshaw ... Vol. 4. 1 match in 1 of 938 pages

Western Pennsylvania Hospital.

White, Edward, 1851-

1 match in 1 of 76

Vol.14 Report of the directors of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, 1924-1929.

A century of banking in Pittsburgh / Edward White.

2 matches in 2 of 156 pages

1 match in 1 of 86 pages

Sources - William Smith Brown - Gunsmith: J. M. Kelly's handbook of greater Pittsburg: Historical, an encyclopedia, political and statistical, The Proposed Ship Canal, Directory and Guide ; Including a Comprehensive Street Directory and Lithographed Map in Colors, by John M. Kelly.

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The Story of the sesqui-centennial celebration of Pittsburgh, July 4, September 27 to October 3, and November 25, 1908 : illustrated with portraits of prominent men and women and views taken during the sesqui-centennial, of marine parade, Greater Pittsburgh day, University of Pittsburgh and Memorial hall day, etc., edited by W.H. Stevenson, [et al.], 1910..

Light's golden jubilee: Ohio River celebration, Vol.10.

410

The unwritten history of Braddock's Field (Pennsylvania), by the Braddock (Pa.) History committee, ed. by Geo. H. Lamb, 1917.

Official history of the Johnstown flood, by Frank Connelly and George C. Jenks, 1889.

Charter and by-laws of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh.

History of Lodge No. 45, F. & A. M., 1785-1910, by Freemasons. Pittsburgh. Lodge no. 45.

The 28th National Encampment, GAR, September 10th 1894. by the Grand Army of the Republic. Dept. of Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh of today, its resources and people, Vol. 2, by Frank C. Harper, 1931-1932.

Municipal year book / City of Pittsburgh / W. S. Brown Ad. Memory's milestones: reminiscences of seventy years of a busy life in Pittsburgh, by Percy F. Smith, 1918.

The greater Pittsburg real estate reference book : containing full data concerning over 1,000 real estate transactions in greater Pittsburg from 1899 to July 1, 1903, including names of buyers and sellers of all properties valued at $20,000 or more each, together with their dimensions, locations, prices and prices per fromt foot and square foot, compiled by William Fell Smith, 1903.

A century of banking in Pittsburgh, by Edward White.

The Beginning of the West 1540-1854, compiled by Louise Barry, Kansas State Historical Society, 1972.

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The Terrible Wave, by Marden Dahlstedt, 1972.

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The Day it Rained Forever: A Story of the Johnstown Flood, by Virginia Gross, 1991.

Clara Barton, Founder--American Red Cross, by Leni Hamilton, 1988.

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Head for the Hills!, by James Walker, 1993.

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Patriots in Petticoats, by Patricia Edwards Clyne, 1976.

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Bicentennial Plays and Programs: A Collection, by Aileen Lucia Fisher, 1975.

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Monmouth: Road to Glory, by Col Malcolm B. Gilman, 1964.

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"Arlington House, The Seat of G. W. F. Custis, Esq.," by Benson J. Lossing, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 7:60 (September 1853).

The Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution; Or, Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence, Vol. II, by Benson J. Lossing, 1855.

Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by his Adopted Son, George Washington Parke Custis, with a Memoir of the Author, by His Daughter; and Illustrative and Explanatory Notes, by Benson J. Lossing, 1860.

The Battle of Monmouth: A Work Book, by Joan J. Lucky, 1978.

The Real America in Romance. The Age of Independence, 1763-1783, Volume IX, by Edwin Markham, 1912.

A Molly Pitcher Sourcebook, by David G. Martin, 2003.

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"Molly Pitcher," Monmouth County Historical Association Newsletter, 2:2 (January 1974).

"Two Hundredth Anniversary-Battle of Monmouth" Freehold, June 28, 1978.

Battle of Monmouth, by Samuel S. Smith, 1964.

A Molly Pitcher Chronology, by Samuel S. Smith, 1972.

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Molly Pitcher, Girl Patriot, by Augusta Stevenson, 1960.

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412

Watch Yourself Go By, by Al G. Field, can be found online at gutenberg.org.

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Sheffield, G. (2001). Forgotten Victory: The First World War: Myths and Realities (2002 ed.)

Buckley, Gail Lumet (2001), American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm, Random House “Masonic Portrait: A close look at one of the workers in Freemasonry’s quarries; Brother John Joseph ‘Blackjack’ Pershing.” The Missouri Freemason, Spring 2002.

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"Missourians Abroad - Major General John J. Pershing, by Ivan H. Epperson, Missouri Historical Review, vol. 11, nos. 3-4, April-July 1917.

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Shenango, by The Shenango Furnace Company, 1954 The Lake Carriers Association Bulletin, Volume 58, No. 1, April-May 1969 Freighters of Fortune, The Story of the Great Lakes, by Norman Beasley, 1930 Allegheny County Medal Of Honor Recipients, by Wes Slusher & Joe Pulgini, 1982

413

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OTHER SOURCES: HEINZ REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER ARCHIVES The Brown brothers and their descendants, compiled by Samuel C. Reed, Jr., 1984 The Brown family in America Our family album : a pictorial history of the Browns and the McCaughans, by Jessie Etheridge Summers, 1993.

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A flatboat hornbook, by Gail King ; with illustrations by Sally Ann Hill, 1975.

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414

Coal barges on Pittsburgh rivers, print from Harper's Weekly, June 14, 1890.

Coal men of America, a biographical and historical review of the world's greatest industry, by Arthur M. Hull and Sydney A. Hale, 1918.

Coal mining, by Donald C. Jones and Joseph W. Hunt, 1952.

Common lives of uncommon strength : the women of the coal and coke era of Southwestern Pennsylvania, 1880-1970, compiled, written and edited by Evelyn A. Hovanes, 2001.

Description of properties and geological report of coal lands : on the line of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad and Youghiogheny River, 28 miles from Pittsburgh, 1868.

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Introduction to a history of ironmaking and coal mining in Pennsylvania contributed to the final report of the Pennsylvania Board of centennial managers, by James M. Swank, 1878.

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Pennsylvania's coal industry, by Robert D. Billinger, 1954.

The Pittsburgh coal bed : its early history and development, by Howard N. Eavenson, 1938.

Rainey's map of Monongahela River coal region from Pittsburg to West Virginia, by C. T. Rainey, 1896.

Report on the coal mines of the Monongahela river region from the West Virginia state line to Pittsburgh, including the mines on the lower Youghiogheny river, by J. Sutton Wall, 1884.

Sketch of a coal fleet departure from Pittsburgh, from Harper's Weekly, December 18, 1886 Special report on the coke manufacture of the Youghiogheny River Valley in Fayette and Westmoreland counties, by Franklin Platt, 1876.

Two centuries of industry : the rise of manufactures in western Pennsylvania, by Arthur Pound, Arthur, 1935.

The first century and a quarter of American coal industry, by Howard N. Eavenson, 1942.

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The beehive coke years: a pictorial history of those times, by John K. Gates, 1990.

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Mississippi steamboatin'; a history of steamboating on the Mississippi and its tributaries, by Herbert Quick and Edward Quick, 1926.

Pilotin' comes natural, by Frederick Way, 1943.

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Three days on the Ohio River, by Father William, 1854.

415

Way's Steamboat Directory, by Frederick Way, 1944.

Western rivers towboat directory, Compiled by Capt. Frederick Way, 1943.

A history of transportation in the Ohio valley, by Charles Henry Ambler, 1932.

Tin stackers: the history of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company, by Al Miller, 1999.

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Packets, compiled by J.W. Rutter and Frederick Way, Jr., 1947.

Steamboat in a cornfield, by John Hartford, 1986.

Way's Packet directory, 1848-1983, compiled by Frederick Way, Jr, 1983.

Way's steam towboat directory, compiled by Frederick Way, Jr., 1990.

Inventors in action; the story of the steamboat, by James T. Flexner, 1944.

A history of the Mary S. Brown Memorial Methodist Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by Lorin D. Burt, 1961.

In memory of the early settlers of Squirrel Hill and their descendants: especially including many who are interred in the Turner's burial ground, Squirrel Hill, by the Mary S. Brown Memorial M.E. Church, 1905.

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A history of transportation in the Ohio valley, with special reference to its waterways, trade, and commerce from the earliest period to the present time, by Charles Henry Ambler, 1932.

History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, by Samuel W. Durant, 1876.

Pittsburgh of today, its resources and people, by Frank C. Harper Light's golden jubilee: Ohio River celebration, by the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, 1929.

Who's who on the Ohio River and its tributaries, the Ohio River from the ice age to the future, by Ethel C. Leahy, 1931.

History of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, 1889.

Pittsburgh and Allegheny County almanac, 1867.

Western Pennsylvanians, compiled by Charles Alexander Rook [et al.], 1923.

The 28th National Encampment, GAR, September 10th 1894, by the Grand Army of the Republic. Dept. of Pennsylvania, 1894.

Allegheny County's hundred years, by George H. Thurston, 1888.

Pittsburgh and Allegheny in the centennial year, by George H. Thurston, 1876.

Sesqui-centennial and historical souvenir of the Greater Pittsburgh, edited and compiled by Henry Brownfield Scott, 1908.

SOME HISTORY . . . FROM HELEN WILSON, SQUIRREL HILL AND MARY S. BROWN CHURCH HISTORIAN: The Turner Graveyard is located beside the Mary S. Brown/Ames Memorial United Methodist Church on Beechwood Boulevard at Browns' Hill Road.

This cemetery has approximately 20 to 30 stones left standing but not all are legible. "What I am about to tell you about the Turner Cemetery is from a small homemade book in the Squirrel Hill Branch of the Carnegie called "Keep The Home Fires Burning" by Paul Keith Heckethorn - 1989. He writes of

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many things in the area and on page 27, he tells of the land being given on the TURNER FARM by John TURNER. It is less than half acre and many pioneer families of the city's 14 & 15th wards are buried there. The first burial in this lot is said to be that of John TURNER's mother, Mrs. Mary Newton GIRTY TURNER who died July 31, 1785. Establishing TURNER's Graveyard the second oldest in Allegheny County, with Trinity Episcopal in Downtown, Pittsburgh, first oldest. The list on pages 28 & 29 lists 52 church members and two Shanwnee Indians, who were said to be killed by John Turner. The book makes for interesting reading, but I had to photocopy the pages I needed as it is the only one they have and is for reference only. On page 30 is a Chronological History of the Church since 1904 which is very informative; it also says that some of the corpses were moved to other cemeteries at different points in time. When I called the Minister of the Church, after many tries, he advised that they had no records whatsoever on the Cemetery but wished that they did as manytimes they have inquiries. I sent him a copy of the 8 pages that I made. They will be the only record he has, I'm sure.

Interments at the Turner Cemetery =============================================================== SURNAME, FIRST NAME, BIRTHDATE, DEATHDATE, OTHER =============================================================== ATTISON, Elizabeth, d: Nov. 28, 1828 age 73, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) BELL, William, d: July 6, 1851, age 38, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) BLASHFORD, James Jr., March 15, 1795 / May 14, 1859, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) BLASHFORD, Violet, d: July 30, 1830, age 68yrs 6mo., late consort of James Blashford, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) BOOTHER, Abraham, bur: abt 1820, Revolutionary soldier, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) BREWNO, Henry, (no dates), Mexican War soldier, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) BURCHFIELD, Adam, d: April 24, 1826, 65y/o, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) CARR, Edward, d: Oct. 5, 1834, age 76, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) CARR, Elizabeth, Nov. 16, 1778 / Oct. 19, 1818, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) CASTLEMAN, Rachel, d: Oct. 13, 1832, 82y/o, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) CLARK, John D., (no dates), Co. 103 PA Inf., War of the Rebellion participant, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) CRAIG, Mrs. William, d: 1804, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) DUKE, James, d: Sept. 18, 1835, age 13, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) EBE??, Edward Schenley, d: Apr. 21, 1880, 23 yrs, (worn) FOWKES (Fawkes?), Samuel, d: March 30, 1863, age 57, Co. K. of 102 Reg. Vt., War of the Rebellion participant, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) GRUEBAUGH, David, d: Dec. 19, 1845, 56 yrs JEMISON, Henry, d: Sept. 5, 1848, age 62, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) JONES, Delmont, d: Dec. 30, 1878, age 76, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) LITTLE, Joseph, d: Oct. 25, 1860, age 72 LITTLE, Maria L., Mar. 2, 1821 / June 13, 1852, ?/o John C. LITTLE, Mary, d: Feb. 20, 1852, 77 yrs, w/o Joseph McCASLIN, John, d: March 13, 1846, age 51yr 6 mo., (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) NELSON, Wm. Co. G 2 US Cav. (War of the Rebellion) PATTERSON, Anna, d: Feb. 12, 1800?

READING, Jane, July 31, 1783 / Aug. 17, 1855, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) READING, John Jr., d: Feb. 17, 1829, age 15, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) READING, John, July 21, 1772 / March 27, 1844, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) READING, Nancy, d: Sept. 24, 1816, 15y/o, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) SCHOONAKER, Col. John, lst rec. of the Nation Cong. Medal of Honor, (indicated in book history) SUTCH, Margaret, Jan. 1, 1776 / July 29, 1849, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) TOMKINS, Thomas, d: Mar. 1851 (worn), Native of Wales TURNER, John, d: May 20, 1840, age 85, fought in different campaigns against the Indians, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) TURNER, Mrs. Mary Newton GIRTY, d: July 31, 1785, (mother of John Turner--first burial here--indicated in book history) TURNER, Susanna, d: April 1, 1833, age 71, consort of John Turner, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) WINDERS, Ann, d: Mar. ??, 1850?, 27 yrs, w/o James, nee TOMKINS, d/o Thomas TOMKINS WOODROW, Robert, d: Dec. 11, 1836, age 7, (Source: Historic Pittsburgh website) ZSCHOEGNER, William, (stone buried) ?????, Thomas, d: Apr. 22, 18?? (broken off) ???CASTLE, William, s/o John & Leah MITC??LL, (worn)

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