BROWN, Lewis O.

BROWN, THORSON

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 7/14/2006 at 11:32:40

Lewis O. Brown, of Osage, is very successful in conducting a drug store in this thriving little city. He was born in Norway in 1867. His parents were also of Norwegian birth and spent their entire lives in the land of the midnight sun, the father still living there at the age of eighty-six years.

Lewis O. Brown pursued his education in the schools of his native country and came to the United States in 1883, when a youth of sixteen years. He first settled in Northwood, Worth county, Iowa, where he took up the occupation of farming, to which he devoted about three years. Later he attended school at Decorah, Iowa, spending two years there and finishing with the business course. He pursued the study of pharmacy in the University of Chicago, passing the examination upon completing the course. He then returned to Northwood and in connection with Nels Thorson entered the drug business.

He had previously given his attention to the drug trade, before entering college, and was thus well equipped to take up the duties that devolved upon him in the successful management of the store. The partnership continued until 1910, at which time Mr. Brown purchased the interest of his partner, and from that time forward engaged in the drug business at Northwood independently until he sold out in 1913. For two years thereafter he was interested in a drug store in Santa Barbara, California, which he assisted in establishing. In Northwood he became connected with various other business enterprises.

He became a director of the Northwood Telephone Company, with which he was associated from its organization. He was also a director of the First National Bank of Northwood from the founding of that institution and was a director of the Northwood Manufacturing Company, which, under the able management of its board of directors, developed into the leading lumber company of Northwood. Mr. Brown was likewise interested in farm lands from the standpoint of the speculator and bought and sold a number of farm properties. In the fall of 1915 he came to Osage and purchased the stock of W. B. Lamberson in the firm of Lamberson & Company. He has since improved the property, has increased his stock and is today proprietor of the leading drug store in Osage, carrying a large and extensive line of drugs and druggists' sundries, while his reliable business methods, his spirit of enterprise, his honorable dealing and his earnest desire to please his patrons have constituted the salient elements in bringing to him a continually increasing patronage.

In politics Mr. Brown has long been a stalwart supporter of the republican party, and while living in Northwood he served as a member of its city council for twelve years and thus took active part in directing the policy of the town and in promoting its upbuilding and improvement. He is prominent in the ranks of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to the lodge and chapter at Northwood and to the commandery at Osage. He is indeed a faithful follower of the craft and exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit of the order.

Source: History of Mithchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, page 285.