William H. Brown

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William Hugh Brown (1842-1936)
William married Ana Robinson on 16 July,1864 in O'Brien County and settled there in April 1871.
William homesteaded the southwest quarter of section 8, Center Township. and safely went through the grasshopper period of devastation in O'Brien County.
Unlike others who left the county, they were too poor to get away from the county.
He added acreage, reared a family of seven children including Steve's (my husband) grandfather Samuel Lewis, and had two hundred and forty acres of the finest land in the county. He lived there for 33 years and nine months and then retired and moved to Primghar in 1904.
William was one of the first trustees of Center Township and in concert with other settlers organized and named the township.
He was a comrade of Sanborn Post, Grand Army of the Republic; a Freemason member of A.F. and A. M. since 1868, and a charter member of the Primghar Lodge of Masons.
From Past and Present of O’Brien and Osceola Counties, Iowa. 1914
"His character has been established through the estimation in which he is held by his friends and neighbors. Like many successful pioneer settlers of the West, he is self-made and, from modest and small beginnings, he has amassed a competence through the experience of industry and a close application to the promotion of agricultural pursuits.
"William H. Brown, retired veteran farmer of Primghar, is one of the respected and substantial citizens of the town. His sterling worth and great personal integrity are beyond question in the land of his adoption."
"Mr. And Mrs. Brown have reared and educated an excellent family who are a credit to their parents and well known for their sterling qualities. They are among the most highly esteemed people of the county and enjoy the confidence and good will of all who know them. Kind and courteous in their relations with others, in private life and in the home they shine with a spirit which is always wholesome and elevating to those who come within the range of their influence."
At the time of this writing from this book their children were as follows:
1. Frances Ann Barkley—served three years in India as a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal church and married to a Methodist minister.
2. Samuel L. Brown, who is a resident of Madison, South Dakota
3. Hugh Ernest, who resides two miles south of Primghar
4. Alice, who is working in the county treasurer’s office
5. Edith M, a teacher in the Sheldon, Iowa schools
6. Clara Emma, who teaches in South Dakota
7. William, a farmer
William H. Brown Civil War Soldier
Buried Pleasant Hill Cemetery

Contributed by Sue Erickson



O'Brien County Iowa Genealogy - The IAGenWeb Project