The village of Brownville was founded about 1852 in the northeast corner of Burr Oak Township and was named for Alphorns Brown who in 1858 purchased the mill site on the Little Cedar River from a Lyman Amsden.
The early settlers in this part of Mitchell County were American born and migrated here from Pennsylvania and New York. The western part of the county was settled by immigrants from Denmark, Norway, and Germany, as well as small colony of Bohemians. The first settlers in Burr Oak Township came in 1852 which is the same year Rev. Clausen came to the St. Ansgar area and started his colony.
Practically all early settlements were on or near the banks of streams so water could be used to power the sawmills needed to say lumber for building homes, and to grind grain for family use and feed for livestock.
Brownville was platted in 1857 and in its history had a hotel, a post office, two or three general stores, a blacksmith and machine repair shop built in 1881 by C.H. Woolridge, a creamery which is reported to have been destroyed by fire, a church, a schoolhouse were the present one still stands, and at least 13 residences were left by 1906; there had been a few more earlier between the hotel and schoolhouse and the present Pioneer Park but they had disappeared by 1906.
One might say the history of Brownville began at the mill site and its eventual doom as a ghost town also began at the mill site.
Every winter farmers would bring in big logs on horse drawn sheds to the area north of the mill; then, in summer when there was water power enough to operate the sawmill, these logs were sawed into lumber. What a contrast to visit a Weyerhauser sawmill today that covers acres and acres of ground. Shuyler Ammon was the last owner of the grist and sawmill and; when a spring flood washed out a portion of the dam, he deeded all the mill property to the state of Iowa in 1940, hoping it might become an extension of Pioneer Park.
The demise of the mill business marked the end of an era as portable mills were just coming on the market and fewer farmers had timber to cut and make home sawed lumber. It had been the lifeline of Brownville for many decades and with its passing went the demand for a grocery store in the village so it too closed its door for the last time in October 1951, its last owner being Mrs. Geo. D. Nelson.
The only building in use as of August 1, 1972 is the former hotel, known as "Brownville House" north of the south driveway into Pioneer Park. "Brownville House" was built about 1861 by A.F. Kerr and operated as a hotel under several landlords until it closed in 1881. As a hotel it was complete with a bar in the basement, a dace hall on second floor, sleeping rooms, separated parlors on first floor for the ladies and men, and a spacious dining room. The cooking was done in a large stone addition on the west side of the hotel adjacent to the dining room. "Brownville House" was a favorite stopover for stage coach passengers and farmers hauling grain to McGregor.
Brownville Store, 1940. Former owners: E.E.
Smith, Fred Reeves, 1900; A.E. McRorie, 1906;
George D. Nelson, 1933.
(Click photo to see original - 103K bytes)A post office was established in Brownville in 1857; after 1881 it was used as a private residence, with Joseph Saville acting as postmaster, However, it was not an official U.W. Post Office until October 12, 1861. Its last location was in the southeast corner of the A.E. McRorie general store located between the former "Brownville House" and the present south entrance to Pioneer State Park. A.E. McRorie served as Brownville postmaster from March 4, 1904 until the post office was closed May 16, 1914. Osage was made a rural free delivery office June 1, 1903, so after that date the mail was taken to little post offices throughout the county. Joe Eagen delivered the mail from Osage to a little post office on the corner of the Sy Kuhn farm north of the County Home, Little Cedar, and Brownville. If there were other stops, it is not known to this writer. Willard Tyrell was the carrier from Riceville to Brownville. After the Brownville post office was closed May 16, 1914 and the residents of the village set up mail boxes, Brownville became part of the Osage R.F.D. route No. 3 and Joe Eagen continued to be the carrier until his retirement in the early 1920's. Remembering the horse drawn buggy or the buggy sled Joe used in the winter and that he never missed delivering the mail each day regardless of the often impassible roads or a stormy weather presents quite a contrast to the present rural delivery of the mail. Many a time Joe wouldn't get to Brownville until after dark and he still had 12 miles left to go before reaching Osage. Truly, he exemplified the policy of the U.S. Post Office the "rain or snow, the mail must go."
The first Sunday school in Burr Oak Township was organized in Brownville in 1860 by a Mrs. Phoebe White. She used a vacant log cabin and solicited funds herself by a door-to-door campaign, sometimes getting a quarter, sometimes nothing, but she finally raised $7 to buy Sunday school material. One pupil came to the first Sunday school session, two more in the afternoon, and 20 attended the next Sunday. It grew until it had 40 scholars--by then they were meeting in the schoolhouse.
Church services were held in the schoolhouse and were usually conducted by an educated person of the community as ministers were few and far between in those days; occasionally a circuit rider came through to conduct services and perform graveside rites for those who had been buried in the interim period since his last call.
Finally it was decided in the late 1800's to build a Community Church and records show that nearly every denomination was represented by the donors who finally raised $1200. As was the custom in those days, men of the community hauled the stone for the foundation, hauled the lumber, and donated their labor to help build the church. It was an example of the sacrifice and dedication of our early pioneers. It maintained its non-denominational status until its later years when it was "adopted" by the Methodist Church. Sunday school and church services were held in it for many decades until it was sold about 1948 and remodeled into a residence now located about three miles east of Brownville.
In 1883 the Brownville School was designated as Burr Oak No. 4 and had 26 pupils. There were three male and nine women teachers in the township at the time. The men received $31 per month and women $25. What constituted the length of a school year at that time is unknown to this writer but eventually it became eight months when I attended the Brownville School. Teachers were originally hired for only a term at a time, so often a school might have two or three different teachers during a school year; when the custom changed to giving a contract for a year is unknown to me. The rural schoolhouse on the Fairgrounds is a fairly typical one although ours at Brownville was larger and had two separate cloakrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. Many a game of "pump-pump-pull-away", "ante-I-Over", "New Orleans here we come" and other games present day school children have never heard of made our morning and afternoon recess periods and noon hours happy times of every school day. In the wintertime the teacher would let us go to sled and skate on the river. The school was closed at the end of the 1958 school year with Mrs. Russell Spring of Riceville as its last teacher. The children are now bussed to Osage.
When a church goes, a school is closed, businesses are discontinued, and one by one families die out or move away, a happy little village can become a ghost town and that was Brownville's fate until a family bought the former "Brownville House" and moved there in May 1971 and are now the sole residents of the village of Brownville that in its lifetime had been home to several hundred persons.
But Brownville will never completely be forgotten because it is the site of the only state park in Mitchell County, Namely Pioneer State Park, dedicated in 1938 to the memory of those early pioneers who braved the rigors of a new land to settle in this part of Iowa and transform it into a prosperous farming community.
Author:
L. Elaine Nelson Dieterich
(Mrs. Ervin H. Deiterich)
August 1, 1972
Reproduced with the approval of the Mitchell County Historical Society; from THE STORY OF MITCHELL COUNTY 1851-1973.
LOCATION: Approximately at 400th St. and Shadow Ave. Brownville was located for the most part was on the western portion of that intersection. In 2002 we are told there is little that remains except a few hard to find foundations.
Please respect landowners property, ask before you enter.
NOTE: The original Brownville Bridge was moved to a walking trail, which follows the old rail road track between McIntire and Riceville. Drive north out of Riceville on Addison Ave., continue north until you reach 430th St. (approximately 1 1/2 mi from Hwy 9). Turn left (west on 430th St) and watch for the old Rail Road right of way. Walk about a mile northwest following the rail road grade and you will find the Brownville Bridge (past the Pennyville Bridge). Approximately 1/2 mile on this path and you will find the old Pennyville Bridge.
Transcribed in June 2002 by: Neal Du Shane
Contact information:
BROWNVILLE MCHS 071002
