Browne, Joseph M.

BROWNE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/28/2021 at 23:08:57

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.472

JOSEPH M. BROWNE
Joseph M. Browne is now living retired in Indianola, but for forty years was closely associated with agricultural and mercantile interests in St. Charles. The rest which has come to him is well merited, being the direct result of close application and indefatigable energy in former years. Now in the evening of life, he is living at ease in the midst of many friends who entertain for him the kindliest regard and good will. He was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania July 11, 1820, and has therefore passed the eighty-eighth mile­stone on life's journey. His father, Mather Browne, was a native of county Tyrone, Ireland, and came to the United States in 1798, taking up his abode in Pennsylvania, where he followed the occupation of farming. In his busi­ness affairs he prospered, becoming quite well-to-do. He married Miss Jean­nette McCaskey, also a native of Ireland. Both were members of the Reformed church and Mr. Browne gave his political support to the Democracy. He died at the age of fifty-five years, while his wife has also passed away. They were the parents of nine children.
Joseph M. Browne, the youngest of this family, spent his youth as do most farm boys and in the public schools he acquired his education. He afterward engaged in teaching for three or four years and later clerked for a time in stores. He afterward embarked in merchandising on his own account in Pennsylvania, and in 1855 he came to Iowa, settling at St. Charles, where he established a store, which he conducted for more than forty years. In 1895 he retired and removed to Indianola, where he now resides. As the years passed he won a gratifying measure of success and made judicious investments in real estate, now deriving a good income from two farms in Madison County, while he also owns property in Indianola.
In 1852 Mr. Browne was married to Miss Mary Stilling, of Union County, Ohio, who died in August 1881. They had three children, of whom one is living, Walter, a farmer residing in Madison County. In January 1885, Mr. Browne was again married, his second union being with Jennie Watt, who was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. They have two children: Kenneth, who is farming, and Agnes J., who is attending college at Monmouth, Illinois.
The parents are members of the United Presbyterian church and Mr. Browne belongs to James Randolph Post, G. A. R. [Grand Army of the Republic]. He is entitled to mem­bership in this organization from the fact that he loyally served his country in the Civil War. He enlisted in August 1862, at St. Charles, as a member of Company F, Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry. He organized the company and went to the front as its captain. While he never needlessly sacrificed his men he inspired them with his own zeal and valor. At the battle of Parker's Crossroads in Tennessee on the 31st of December 1862, he was seriously wounded. He then resigned his commission and returned home but after partially recovering from his injuries he again went to the front and resumed his command. He found, however, that he was unfit for duty and was obliged to give up his position. In politics he was originally a Whig and was identified with that progressive movement which resulted in the organization of the Republican Party. Long prominent as one of its leaders, he represented Madison County in the state legislature in 1866. His life has been an active and useful one, characterized by fidelity in every relation, whether in social circles, on the field of battle, or in the pursuits of private life, whereby industry and enterprise have won for him gratifying success. He now receives the veneration and respect which should always be accorded one of his years whose life has been long and whose days have been honorably spent. He has for fifty-three years been a resident of this part of the state and has witnessed much of its growth and development, while in the work of progress and im­provement in many ways he has borne his full share.