Biography - John Brown
JOHN M. BROWN. Probably there is no better known family in Johnson
county than that of Brown, which was established here as early as the year
1820, and members of which have been prominently identified with the
agricultural and political life of Southern Illinois for many years. It
traces its ancestry back to the time when the county included the greater
part of Southern Illinois, and its founder, James Brown, was in all
probability the first sheriff of this section. One of the worthy
representatives of this old and honored family is found in the person of
John M. Brown, one of the leading farmers and stockmen of Cache township,
who owns an excellent tract of farming land two miles west of the city of
Vienna. He was born on a farm in the western part of Johnson county, near
the Union county line, September 21, 1867, and is a son of Samuel T. and
Amanda (Dubois) Brown.
James Brown, the grandfather of John M., was born in 1784, in the state of
North Carolina, and in 1820 migrated to Johnson county and became one of the
earliest settlers here. He took up a tract of Government land, cleared and
cultivated it in pioneer fashion, and rose to a prominent position among his
fellows, being elected sheriff of Johnson county. He maintained headquarters
at Kaskaskia, and during the years that he held his official position his
duties caused him to travel on horseback all over the southern part of the
state. His death occurred in 1861. James Brown married Betty Carter, a
native of Orange county, North Carolina, and among their children was Samuel
T. Brown, the father of John M., of Cache township. Samuel T. Brown was born
June 29, 1825, and like his father he became a successful agriculturist and
well-known public official. He accumulated a vast property, but during his
later years retired from active pursuits, and at the time of his death,
September 25, 1897, had disposed of all of his land except one hundred and
twenty acres. A man who was held in high esteem by his fellow-townsmen, he
served for more than forty years as a justice of the peace, and in every
walk of life was known as a man of strict honesty and sterling integrity.
From his boyhood he was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church,
and was always an active participant in all of its work. Mr. Brown was
married to Miss Amanda Dubois, who was born in Madison county, Illinois,
March 1, 1830, daughter of Joel Dubois. Mr. Dubois, who was a native of
Tennessee, migrated to Madison county at an early date, but while making a
trip to Tennessee by flat-boat was murdered in a tavern on the Mississippi
river, when Mrs. Brown was a child. She died in November, 1907, having been
the mother of eleven children, of whom one died iu infancy, while the others
were as follows: Mrs. Nancy J. Mulkey; James M., who resides at Mount
Vernon; W. J., a resident of Carbondale; Wilson B., baggage master at the
Cairo railroad depot; Mary A., the widow of James Enos; Samuel T., Jr., who
is engaged in farming in West Vienna; Mrs. Amanda J. Jones; John M.; Alonzo
V., who lives at Cypress; and Mrs. Ella Wilhelm.
John M. Brown was given the best of educational advantages, attending first
the common schools, and later the Southern Illinois Normal University at
Carbondale, Illinois. In 1885, when only eighteen years of age, he began
teaching school, his first charge being at Moscow, in Union county. During
the nine years that followed he taught in Union, Pulaski and Johnson
counties, and followed farming during vacations. The first land of his own,
a tract of eight acres which he purchased in 1892, was located near the old
homestead, and when he was married he erected a home thereon. In 1895 Mr.
Brown gave up teaching in order to give his whole time and attention to
agricultural pursuits, and in that year sold his first small farm and
purchased seventy acres situated some distance north of his present place.
An enterprising and energetic farmer, Mr. Brown invested his earnings in
more property, and he is now the owner of four hundred and twenty-six acres
of land. The present home place, a tract of eighty acres, was purchased by
him in 1908, and during the following year he erected a handsome residence,
which is modern in every respect. Since then he has built substantial barns
and outbuildings and a fine silo, and has improved his property in many
ways. Mr. Brown has always been a successful stock-raiser, and since 1907
has given the greater part of his time to specializing in Angus cattle,
having an excellent herd of forty-five head, and for five years has been a
large buyer and shipper of corn and hay. Most of his shipping is done from
West Vienna, and his product is about ten carloads of hay and fifty of corn
annually. Scientific methods in both tilling the soil and breeding cattle
have always found a stanch adherent in Mr. Brown. He has devoted a great
deal of study to soil and climatic conditions, his land is well drained and
tiled, and he makes a regular practice of crop rotation, while among his
neighbors he is acknowledged to be an excellent judge of registered stock.
Although his operations have been so extensive as to make him a remarkably
busy man, he has found leisure to participate in events of a social nature,
and is a popular member of the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Brotherhood,
the Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Neighbors, being affiliated with
the lodges of these orders at Vienna. He and his family are members of the
Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Brown was married (first) in 1892 to Miss Ellen Enos, daughter of James
Enos, and she died in January, 1901, leaving two children : Edith, who is
fifteen years of age; and Blanche, who has reached her eleventh year. On
December 2, 1906, Mr. Brown took for his second wife Miss Leila Mackey,
daughter of John C. Mackey, and to this union there has been born one child:
Waldron M., who was born December 9, 1907.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 630-631.
