Brown, Hon. B. F.

BROWN HOOD KINCADE

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 8/7/2020 at 11:39:24

Hon. B. F. Brown resides upon section 26, Cedar Township. He is a native of Knox County, Ohio, born May 3, 1833, and is a son of Joseph and Rachel (Hood) Brown, the former a native of Brooks County, W. Va., and the latter of Baltimore County, Md. When twelve years of age, the family moved to Brooks County, W. Va., where our subject grew to manhood, received the rudiments of an English education in the common schools, and then entered Bethany College, which was founded by Alexander Campbell, of the Christian Church, and of which Mr. Campbell was then President. Mr. Brown continued in this college three years, taking the scientific course, and graduating therefrom in 1857. After graduating he returned to his father’s farm, where he remained until 1858, and then came to Washington County, Iowa. Here he engaged in teaching school, and remained fourteen months.

During this time Mr. Brown formed the acquaintance of Miss Sarah Kincade, a native of Union County, Ohio, and daughter of Eleazer Kinkade, a native of Brooks County, W. Va. They were married on the 21st of August, 1860, by Rev. Willian Vanatta, of the United Presbyterian Church. By this union there are two children, a son and a daughter. Charles R. was born in Brooks County, W. Va., Oct. 1, 1862. After attending the district schools of his neighborhood, he entered the academy at Washington, Iowa, from which institution he graduated in 1880. The following year he entered the State University at Iowa City, from which he graduated in 1883. He then read law one year in Davenport, with Davison & Lane, of that city, and then went to Des Moines, where he worked as a stenographer in the Hawkeye insurance office. Having been converted, and believing that he was called upon to preach the Word, he entered the Theological Seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Boston, Mass., where he is still a student, spending his vacations as a minister in charge of a congregation at Plympton, seven miles from Plymouth Rock. He is a young man of excellent promise, and intends taking a thorough theological course. Ella M., born June 25, 1871, resides at home.

Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Brown, with his young bride, went back to West Virginia, where he remained, engaged in farming till 1873, when he again returned to Washington County, Iowa, and located in Jackson Township, where he bought 180 acres of land, and there lived three years, when he sold the same and bought 200 acres of land on section 26, Cedar Township, where he now resides, having one of the finest and best improved farms in the county. His dwelling-house and barn were erected at a cost of over $4,000. In the fall of 1879, Mr. Brown was elected a member of the Fifteenth General Assembly of Iowa, and served one term with credit to himself and to his constituents. He was elected on the anti-monopoly ticket.

In addition to general farming, Mr. Brown is engaged somewhat extensively in stock-raising. He is a practical farmer and in that work has been quite successful. As already stated, his farm is one of the best in Washington County, the improvements all being of the better class. A full-page lithographic view of the place is shown on an accompanying page. Mr. Brown is a thorough business man, and was one of the organizers of the Washington County Savings Bank, and has been one of its Directors since its organization. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which body his wife is also a member. In the work of the Church both take special interest, and do all in their power to advance the cause. Politically, Mr. Brown is a Republican. He is a man well informed on all subjects of general interest, and is able to express himself in a forcible manner. As a citizen, no man stands higher in the estimation of the people.

Joseph Brown, the father of our subject, also came to Washington County, Iowa, in 1873, and settled in Marion Township, where he lived till his death, in 1882. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and had been for over fifty years. Few men were more highly respected or had the confidence of the people in a greater degree. Shortly after coming to the county, he was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors as a representative of Marion Township, and served two terms.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of Hon. B. F. Brown, pages 260-263. (These pages include the lithograph)