Brown, Frank E.

BROWN, TOOGOOD, FOX

Posted By: Janelle Martin (email)
Date: 5/20/2009 at 22:23:49

History of Hamilton County Iowa, Vol.II 1912, p.70

FRANK E. BROWN

The successive steps in the business career of Frank E. Brown are easily discernible and have brought him to a prominent position in commercial circles. His present enterprise is one that contributes to general business activity and prosperity as well as to his individual success. He is now president and was the organizer of the Brown Spring Ice Skate Company, which was organized in 1896. New York claims him as one of her native sons, his birth having occurred in Elmira in 1846. His father, Isaac M. Brown, was an inventor as well as a pictorial painter of note. The later years of his life were spent in Canada where he died in 1886. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Emily Alice Gardner, survived him for almost two decades, passing away in 1905.

Frank E. Brown was educated in the common schools of Elmira and at the age of fourteen years began learning the carriage builders' trade in that city. He was about eighteen years of age when in 1865 he offered his services to the country in defense of the Union cause, enlisting in the One Hundred and Ninety-fourth New York Volunteers, with which he served until the end of the war. He then came to Iowa and spent two years in Cedar Rapids and in Springville, Iowa. He afterward worked in various capacities in the state until 1870, when he took up his abode in Webster City and opened a carriage and blacksmith shop. His business was extended in its scope to include the manufacture of speed carts and this business he carried on until 1889, when he sold a two-thirds interest in his speed cart business. He then went to Des Moines, to which city the enterprise was removed, being there conducted under the name of the Brown Carriage Company. About 1891 he disposed of his remaining third interest and went to Anamosa, Iowa, where with his son, William E. Brown, he established a drug business under the name of Brown & Son, the store, however, being known as the "Two Brownies." Operations were there continued for five years, at the end of which time Mr. Brown disposed of the store and came to Webster City. Having patented a spring ice skate, in 1896 he organized the Brown Spring Ice Skate Company and began the manufacture of skates. He has continuously served as president of the company and is now at the head of a large and growing business. The enterprise has been developed along substantial lines and has been a paying one almost from the outset. A number of employees are now engaged in the manufacture of skates and the output is sent over a wide territory. In 1870, Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Phillips Toogood, a daughter of Sidney Toogood, who is a farmer of Linn county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have two sons. William Earl was born February 17, 1873, and wedded Miss Jeannette Fox, of Iowa Falls, Iowa. He is now engaged in the drug business in Webster City and is known as "Buster Brown." Bernice R. Brown is the secretary of the Brown Spring Ice Skate Company. The family residence is at No. 902 First street. Mr. Brown maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in Winfield Scott Post, No. 66, G. A. R. He is also a loyal representative of the Elks lodge of Webster City. His life has been one of unfaltering industry and his intelligently directed efforts have brought him to a creditable position in business circles where success crowns his efforts. He is justly accounted one of the substantial citizens here and the sterling traits of character which he has ever displayed have firmly established him in public regard.

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