Farwell T. Brown (1910-2010)

BROWN

Posted By: Ames Tribune
Date: 9/4/2010 at 11:04:50

THE AMES TRIBUNE, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Thursday, September 2, 2010.

Farwell T. Brown, 99, longtime Ames resident, died Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, at Northcrest Health Care Center. Memorial services are pending with Grandon Funeral and Cremation Care, 414 Lincoln Way, in Ames.

THE AMES TRIBUNE, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Thursday, September 2, 2010.

Editor’s note: Longtime Ames resident and historian Farwell Brown, 99, died Wednesday at Northcrest Health Care Center in Ames. Brown was born in Ames on Dec. 17, 1910. He graduated from Ames High School in 1929 and from Iowa State in 1934.

Following is a story that first ran in The Tribune on Dec. 18, 2007, a day after Brown’s 97th birthday.

There was a time when Ames pioneer Kendrick Brown would walk into the small apple orchard behind his home, retrieve some shiny red specimens, and peel them for the boys who would stop by on their way home from school.

“When the children came, he would tell them stories from the Civil War,” remembered Ames historian Farwell Tilden Brown, who celebrated his 97th birthday Monday at Northcrest Community.

Kendrick Brown was an upstate New York native who had served in the Union Army. He was at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant.

It was from Grandpa Brown’s after-school storytelling young Farwell acquired his fascination with history.

“I think one reason why history is important is continuity,” said Brown, sitting in his Northcrest living room with Ruth, his wife of 67 years. They would soon join a crowd of well-wishers at a party that included a salute to Brown’s more than 30 years of service to his community, including four books, untold numbers of newspaper stories and a collection of thousands of historic photos from Ames’ past, now available on the Ames Historical Society website.

“If you don’t know how your ancestors got here, you’re missing something,” Brown said. “They had a reason for coming. They were going in some direction, after all.”

After a career in what started in his father’s insurance business and ended in real estate appraisal with the Iowa Department of Transportation, Brown began to pursue his interest in history, appropriately, during the Bicentennial year of 1976.

He started speaking to local groups, delivering a slide presentation. Later, he helped move the one-room Hoggatt School house to its present site near Meeker Elementary School, and acquired and catalogued the photo collection.

“When you think about it, Farwell is carrying on the same tradition started by his grandfather,” said Dennis Wendell, Historical Society collections curator.

By his side was Ruth, who said she had been introduced to him by an aunt after a church service. She said she’d come to Ames to do graduate work at Iowa State University, after earning a degree from the University of Illinois.

“We began seeing each other shortly after,” Farwell said.

“Actually, it took him only two days,” Ruth said.

For more about the life of Farwell Brown, visit www.ameshistoricalsociety.org.

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