BROWN FAMILY RESEARCH
Mark Douglas Brown
[email protected]
Last update: May 2021
How I Began My Research, and What I Found
I first became interested in our family history when I was a teenager. My
mother’s family was of German descent—we all knew that—but no one could tell me
for sure where and when the Brown family came to the United States.
There was also a story passed on to me by my grandfather, Paul Marquis Brown (whom I never knew), and others, that his mother, Marie Elvira Shuck, was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. This story sparked my interest, and I wanted to find out whether or not it was true.
Off and on over the years I worked on the Brown family genealogy and acquired many valuable and useful documents. My intent here is to pass on some of the information I have collected so it will not be lost to any other Brown family researcher.
This report is limited mostly to the people noted in the Brown Family Bible. I have not included my own family or my generation, only information about the early Brown families. I digitized copies of the original documents I found, both to preserve them and to make them easy to share and pass on to others. Click on a document link, read it for yourself, and make your own conclusions.
The Brown Family Bible was first in the
custody of my granduncle, William Brown (son of F.H.T. Brown), who lived in New
Mexico. William gave the Bible to his cousin, Luther Shuck, who then passed it
on to my uncle Marquis. Marquis eventually passed the bible on to his own son,
my cousin, Charles Brown. My research started when Charles made copies of the
family history pages from the bible and sent them to me. (Note: Some of
these handwritten pages are hard to read. See page 3 of this document for typed
versions of this information.)
Brown Family Bible
01 Marriages
Brown Family Bible
02 Births
Brown Family Bible
03 Births
Brown Family Bible
04 Deaths
Brown Family Bible
05 Marriages and Births
Brown Family Bible 06
Brown Family Bible
07 (Reverse of 06)
The Family Bible came with two letters
enclosed: one from William Brown to Marquis Brown, and the other from William
Brown to Luther Shuck. See:
Brown Family Bible
08-Letter to Luther Shuck from Wm Brown
Brown Family Bible
09-Letter to Marquis Brown from Wm Brown p1
Brown Family Bible
10-Letter to Marquis Brown from Wm Brown p2
William Brown’s letter to Marquis Brown gives information about William’s father, Francis Hendren Taylor Brown, who is generally referred to as F.H.T. Brown. William states that his father (F.H.T. Brown) was in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy from March 1862 to the end of the War in 1865.
In 2018 I found the obituary of Captain James C. Marquis on the Find a Grave’s website. He is the same Captain Marquis my great-grandfather (Frances Hendren Taylor Brown) served under in the Civil War. Captain Marquis’s obituary gives great credence to my great-uncle Edward Brown’s letter to my uncle Mark.
Captain Marquis’s obituary shows that my
great-grandfather, F.H.T. Brown, served in the Civil War as a young boy (as the
letter states), but not officially because of his young age. F.H.T. Brown
officially joined the Confederacy in May 28, 1864, a few days after his 17th
birthday, on May 12, 1864. See:
FHT Brown Civil
War Record National Archives Page 1
FHT Brown Civil
War Record National Archives Page 2
Obituary of Capt.
James C. Marquis
The story my father told me was that F.H.T. Brown liked his captain so much that the middle name of his (F.H.T.’s) son, Paul Marquis Brown, came from the captain’s name. Paul Marquis Brown then named one of his sons Marquis Anthony Brown and his daughter Dorothy Marquis Brown. My parents then named me after my uncle Marquis, who was called Mark. The name continues in the Brown family with my cousin Charles Brown naming his son Marquis.
William Brown also talks about his
grandfather, John Joseph Decature Brown (F.H.T. Brown’s father), being the
supervising architect of the Buckhorn tavern in Staunton, Virginia. The tavern
is still in operation, and I’ve included a flyer from the 1990s in these documents.
See:
Buckhorn Inn 1 Front
Buckhorn Inn 2 Back
William’s letter ends with “…don’t give the boys any rotten meat like they got in 1898.” I found this information about the 1898 rotten meat on the Internet:
“During the Spanish-American War (1898-1901), Armour Packing Company sold 500,000 pounds of beef to the US Army. An army inspector tested the meat two months later and found that 751 cases contained rotten meat. This resulted in the food poisoning of thousands of soldiers.”
Then there is the letter from William Brown to Luther Shuck. In that letter, William Brown gives the Family Bible to his cousin, Luther Shuck, saying that it should only be given to a male member of the Brown family. That way, it would stay in the Brown family.
When I first received copies of the Brown Family Bible, I found them confusing and hard to read, so I had a professional genealogist arrange the information in a more understandable format. This gave me a place to start my own research. See:
Brown Genealogy 00
Brown Genealogy 01
Brown Genealogy 02
Brown Genealogy 03
Brown Genealogy 04
Brown Genealogy 05
Brown Genealogy 06
Brown Genealogy 07
Burch
Brown Genealogy 08
Handley
Brown Genealogy 09
Hill
Brown Genealogy 10
Ritchey O’Friel
Brown Genealogy 11
Shuck
Since the dates in the Family Bible go
back to the 1700s, I decided to check the accuracy of the information. I sent
away to the Virginia State Archives for the 1804 marriage records of Joseph
Brown and Mary Ritchey (Richey). The information was correct. See:
Joseph Brown &
Mary Richey Marriage 1804
[ADDED FALL 2019] In 2019, through my 23andMe DNA account, I contacted my 5th cousin, Robert Russell Ralph, in Northern Ireland. Robert is related to the Brown family through Mary Ritchey, who married Joseph Brown in 1804. Mary’s mother’s maiden name was O’Friel. Ralph sent me a number of interesting documents about the O’Friel family and some background information about Scotch-Irish history in the 1800s. Our correspondence, and the information he sent me, is here:
Morris O’Friel from Robert Ralph email May 23 2019
Morris O’Friel Canada May 24 2019
Morris O’Friel Land-Daughter Married Dr. Hugh Ritchey
Morris and Catherine O’Friel Arrived U.S. June 26, 1740
[END INSERT]
Since the marriage
of Joseph Brown and Mary Ritchey took place in Staunton, Virginia, I contacted
Donna Huffer, a local genealogical researcher, to help me find information
about the Browns in Virginia. Her research gave me a clue where Joseph Brown’s
family came from before they were in Staunton. Donna found a document that
referred to a lawsuit Mary Ritchey Brown’s husband, Joseph Brown, had against a
John Munn in Nottingham Township, Pennsylvania, for rents due. Also included in
the 1992 research document is information about the deaths of J.D. Brown’s two
young daughters from scarlet fever. See:
Donna Huffer 1 re
Virginia Research 1992
Donna Huffer 2 re
Mary Brown Appointing John Brown Attorney 1809
To follow up on this lead, I located Nottingham Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and hired another local researcher, LaJo Stiteler, to see if court dockets could be found concerning Brown vs. Munn. The dockets were gone, but LaJo found other information, as did another local genealogist, Gene J. Gregord, later on.
The two found a series of documents that
showed that William Brown sold property called “Twenty Gon” (because its
borders had 20 different angles) to Joseph, John, and Anne Brown, who were the
heirs of John Brown (deceased). See:
TwentyGon Patent 1790
Nottingham
Township Map- TwentyGon in NW Corner ca 1790
LaJo Stiteler 1 re
Brown vs Munn 1794 Docket Search
LaJo Stiteler 2 re
Brown vs Munn 1794 Docket Search
LaJo Stiteler 3 re
Brown vs Munn 1794 Docket Search
LaJo Stiteler 4 re
Brown vs Munn 1794 Docket Search-WorkSheet
TwentyGon sold to
Samuel Munn 1815 p1
TwentyGon sold to
Samuel Munn 1815 p2
David & Rhoda
Brown Hopkins Give TwentyGon Shares to John Brown Jr. & Polly 1816
GJ Gregord re John
Brown 1816 p1
GJ Gregord re John
Brown 1816 p2
GJ Gregord re John
Brown 1816 p3
GJ Gregord re John
Brown 1816 p4
These handwritten pages:
Wm & Patience
sell TwentyGon shares to John, Joseph, Anne 1794 p1
Wm & Patience
sell TwentyGon shares to John, Joseph, Anne 1794 p2
Wm & Patience
sell TwentyGon shares to John, Joseph, Anne 1794 p3
Transcribed for easier reading here:
William Brown
sells TwentyGon 1794-Transcriptn p1
William Brown
sells TwentyGon 1794-Transcriptn p2
PA Archives Vol 23 p1
PA Archives Vol 23
p240-241
PA Archives Vol 23
p768-769
PA Archives Vol 23
p804-805
PA Archives Vol 26
p1
PA Archives Vol 26
p452-453
PA Archives Vol 26
p454-455
PA Archives Vol 26
p538-539
If you look at the documents, you may wonder why the TwentyGon property is under a Virginia Certificate when the property is in Pennsylvania. At the time, both states claimed the territory. Ultimately, Pennsylvania accepted the Virginia warrants and the property became part of Pennsylvania.
Along with the documents, let me give you an overview of what the documents say. The Brown Family Bible lists the first Brown as Joseph (ca. 1782-1809), saying only that he was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Kentucky. From the documents I’ve researched, I’ve found that Joseph Brown’s father was John Brown, Sr. (d. abt. 1786).
John Brown Sr. and William Brown (relationship unknown) apparently bought the TwentyGon property together, but the property was only put in William’s name. John Brown Sr. married Rhoda, and they had three children: John Jr., Joseph, and Anne.
John Brown Sr. died before 1786, and a man named David Hopkins was the Administrator of his will. Hopkins families lived near the Twenty Gon. After John Sr. died, William sold half the Twenty Gon property to John Sr.’s children (John Jr., Joseph, and Anne) to divide among themselves.
For some reason, William and his wife
Patience raised John Sr. and Rhoda's children for about two years before 1786.
Rhoda and David Hopkins later married, and the children moved to Kentucky with
them in 1792. Even though their mother was still alive, records found by
researcher G.J. Gregord speak of orphan court for Joseph, John, and Anne Brown.
In those days, children were considered orphans if they were fatherless. See:
Reimbursements for
Wm Brown 1786
Then, in 1816, Rhoda Brown Hopkins came back to Washington County, Pennsylvania, from Fleming, Kentucky, and sold her widow’s share of one-third of the TwentyGon to her son, John Brown, Jr.
With the children receiving half the property, and their mother owning a third, that left one-sixth of the property to William Brown. William may have been either the father or brother of John Brown, Sr. (or maybe not).
David Hopkins was a veteran of the American Revolution. I have included some of the papers concerning the Revolutionary War pension that was granted to him. See:
Russell Letter
1-Re David Hopkins Rev War Records
Russell Letter
2-Answer Re David Hopkins Rev War Records
Russell Letter
3-Answer Re David Hopkins Rev War Records
Russell
Resch-David Hopkins Rev War Pension 1832 p4
David Hopkins US
Pensioners KY
You will see from these documents that A.D. Hiller from the Bureau of Pensions in Washington, D.C., wrote back to a woman named Eleanor Russell, who requested information about David Hopkins in 1934. (This used to be a service that was provided for people researching their genealogy.) From these letters you can see that he is the same David Hopkins that married Rhoda Brown, my fourth great-grandmother. If anyone in our Brown family is interested in joining organizations such as the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution, this information should be sufficient to qualify you for membership.
(Note: I have more on David Hopkins’s war
service, but have not included it here because it doesn’t offer much specific
information. If anyone is interested in obtaining this information, however,
contact me or the National Archives Records Administration. David Hopkins’s
records can be found by first looking at “Abstracts of Revolutionary War
Pension Files,” under Hopkins, page 1702. See:
Abstracts of
Revolutionary War pension files p1702
Our David Hopkins is the second David down, #S13307. This information will tell archivists where to find his records. I also looked for John Brown and William Brown in the pension records, but was not able to find any matches. They both could have fought in the American Revolution, but John died before there were pensions, and the same may have happened with William. Little is known about their backgrounds, so it’s difficult to tell one John or William Brown in Revolutionary War records from another.)
So where did the Browns originally come from? Records concerning our family in America that might have been created earlier than those in this document probably do not exist—or at least I have not been able to find them. Recordkeeping in the early 1700s was minimal, and records were often destroyed by fires because there were so many wooden buildings.
Local genealogists and historians identify the people who settled in early Western Pennsylvania as “Scotch Irish.” In Europe, they were called “Ulster Irish”—people who, with the encouragement of King James I, migrated to Northern Ireland in the early 1600s. Then, in the 1700s, thousands of these Ulster Irish migrated to America from Northern Ireland.
Not all Ulster Irish who came to America were originally from Scotland. During that same time period, people from England, France, Germany, and other European countries had migrated to Northern Ireland in an effort to escape religious persecution, and then came to America. As a result, it is possible that our relatives in Western Pennsylvania were not Scottish.
I won’t go into the general history here because there are many books written on the subject, and much information about the Scotch Irish is available on the Internet. However, there is one excerpt from Wikipedia that explains how our relatives may have come to Western Pennsylvania and then found their way to Staunton, Virginia:
“Most Scotch-Irish headed for Pennsylvania, with its good lands, moderate climate, and liberal laws. By 1750, the Scotch-Irish were about a fourth of the population, rising to about a third by the 1770s. Without much cash, they moved to free lands on the frontier, becoming the typical western ‘squatters,’ the frontier guard of the colony, and what the historian Frederick Jackson Turner described as ‘the cutting-edge of the frontier.’
“The Scotch-Irish moved up the Delaware River to Bucks County, and then up the Susquehanna and Cumberland valleys, finding flat lands along the rivers and creeks to set up their log cabins, their grist mills, and their Presbyterian churches. Chester, Lancaster, and Dauphin counties became their strongholds, and they built towns such as Chambersburg, Gettysburg, Carlisle, and York; the next generation moved into western Pennsylvania. With large numbers of children who needed their own inexpensive farms, the Scotch-Irish avoided areas already settled by Germans and Quakers and moved south, down the Shenandoah Valley, and through the Blue Ridge Mountains into Virginia. These migrants followed the Great Wagon Road from Lancaster, through Gettysburg, and down through Staunton, Virginia, to Big Lick (now Roanoke), Virginia. Here the pathway split, with the Wilderness Road taking settlers west into Tennessee and Kentucky, while the main road continued south into the Carolinas.”
Around 2008, I took a DNA test for the National Geographic Society’s “Genographic Project.” It used DNA to track human migration from 60,000 years ago to about 1,000 years ago. The test showed that our Brown male line goes back to Cro-Magnon people—the first to migrate into Europe. They are also the same people who made the famous cave paintings in Lascaux, France. According to the Genographic Project, our male line has DNA markers in common with people who now live in northern Spain, England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In 2018, I took DNA tests from 23andMe and Ancestry.com. These tests found hundreds of people related to me, primarily in the United States and Europe. Hopefully, now I will find where the our Brown family originally came from.
As for the other stories I’d heard about my family, the story of my Cherokee great-grandmother, Marie Elvira Shuck (b. 1852; wife of F.H.T. Brown), seemed amazing to me. I researched the Shucks and found nothing about them in the census records that suggested they could be Native Americans. The census records always listed the Shucks as white, but when I spoke to people at the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, I was told that Cherokee people back then often listed themselves as white, when they could, to avoid discrimination.
My research went on for a long time. I looked at every Cherokee census I could find at the National Archives and found no matches. I even found a Cherokee woman named Shuck and studied her family and found no connections. In our family, Harvey J. Brown was born “on the Cherokee Nation” on August 29, 1888. That seemed to be a clue, but nothing else even vaguely suggested that the Shucks were Cherokee. I was starting to think I would never be able to prove (or disprove) that the Browns were part Cherokee.
Then one day, while searching databases
online for John T. Shuck (the father of our alleged Indian, Marie Elvira
Shuck), I found his family in a book called Genealogies of Virginia Families.
Amazingly, there was the whole correct Shuck family, but with no Cherokees. On
page 434 of the book, however, I noticed the name of Elvira Barbara Madison
Hill, who was the mother of my great-grandmother, Marie Elvira Shuck. I also
noticed the familiar names of Elvira’s parents, who turned out to be the same
parents of my great-great-grandmother, Juliet Amanda Hill. That meant Juliet
Amanda Hill, mother of F.H.T. Brown, was the sister of Elvira Barbara Madison
Hill. So the Cherokee story was apparently made up to cover the fact that
F.H.T. Brown and his wife, Marie Elvira Shuck, were first cousins. See:
Virginia Families
p1 Cover
Virginia Families
p2 Title Page
Virginia Families p434
Virginia Families p435
Virginia Families p436
To follow up, I decided to look for more
evidence that Elvira and Juliet were sisters, so there could be no doubt. I
found evidence in a number of documents. See:
Amherst County VA
Wills 1829- Elvira & Amanda Hill are Sisters
Amherst County VA
1 Hill Research Request 2001
Amherst County VA
2 Letter Re William D. Hill 2-11-2003 p1
Amherst County VA
3 Letter Re William D. Hill 2-11-2001 p2
The documents speak for themselves.
I have scanned all the Amherst County
Documents for anyone that would like to further research the Hill family. See:
Amherst County VA
4 Research- 1820 Census Index, Hill Family
Amherst County VA
1822- Hill Witness
Amherst County VA
Deeds 1803- William & Nancy Hill
Amherst County VA
Deeds 1821- Hill & others
Amherst County VA
Deeds 1822
Amherst County VA
Deeds 1832- Edwards & Hill
Amherst County VA
Marriage Bonds 1783- Hill & Thurmond
Amherst County VA
Marriage Bonds 1801- Wm Hill
Amherst County VA
Marriage Bonds 1814- Hill
Amherst County VA
Marriage Bonds 1822- Edwards
Amherst County VA
Wills 1761-1865 Hill
Amherst County VA
Wills 1844- Hill
Amherst County
Virginia Wills 1831, 1856- Hill
You may notice a Catharine Burch (sometimes
Birch) living in the Brown household in the 1850, 1875, and 1880 census
records. Catharine is a bit of a mystery. I have never found who she was or her
relationship to the family. I’m guessing that she came from Amherst County,
Virginia, probably with Juliet Amanda Hill. I say that because Catharine is
listed as a witness to Hill family land records. The 1880 census lists her as
“Hurt by a cow, is helpless”; John Joseph Decature Brown lists her in his will
to make sure she is cared for. In the 1875 Kansas state census, there’s a J.W.
Burch that pops up, too. However, this is probably Joseph William Brown, born
in 1854. See:
Amherst County VA
Deeds 1821- Witness C Burch
Amherst County VA
Deeds 1823- Hill with C Burch
Will of JJD Brown p1
Will of JJD Brown p2
I’ve included several Brown family census
records you might find interesting, including a John, Anne, and William Brown
in Waynsboro, Virginia (near Staunton), who may be the Browns that were
originally from Pennsylvania. Note that I only list one record before 1850.
That’s because census records before that year list only the head of household
by name, so it’s hard to evaluate the information or tell the specific people
living there. It was not until 1850 that everyone in the household was listed
by name in the census.
The United State has taken a federal census every 10 years since 1790, but the
records aren’t released to the public until 72 years later. That means, for
instance, that the 1940 census won’t be released until 2012. Many census
records were lost over the years, so there are often gaps in the record: the
1890 census, for instance, was destroyed by fire, and I could not find evidence
of the Browns in the 1870 census records. (Records from that period are often
unreliable and incomplete; there were still Union troops in the South, and the
people did not want to cooperate.) See:
1790 PA Census,
Washington County- David Hopkins
1790 PA Census,
Washington County- Wm Brown
1810 VA Census,
Augusta County, Waynsboro- John, Wm, Anna Brown
1850 VA Census,
Augusta County - J.J.D. Brown
1875 KS State
Census- FHT Brown
1880 KS Census,
Butler County p1- Joseph W Brown
1880 KS Census,
Butler County p2- FHT Brown
1885 KS State
Census- FHT Brown Listed as Taylor
1900 MO Census-
FHT Brown
1910 Missouri
Census- FHT Brown
1910 MO Census-
Paul Brown
1920 MO Census-
FHT Brown
1920 MO Census-
Paul Brown
1930 MO Census-
Paul Brown Listed as Marquis
It’s sometimes hard to read the headings
on the original census sheets, so I have also included blanks to help readers
understand what information should be in the columns. Also, note that the 1810
census above was recreated from tax records, which is why it appears as a
typewritten record with just the numbers that would have been inserted into the
columns. The original was lost, but you can find the Browns in the listing and
look at the Blank 1810 Census Sheet to “fill in” the missing information. There
are no blanks for the Kansas state census records. See:
Blank Census Sheet
1790
Blank Census Sheet
1810
Blank Census Sheet
1850
Blank Census Sheet
1860
Blank Census Sheet
1880
Blank Census Sheet
1900
Blank Census Sheet
1910
Blank Census Sheet
1920
Blank Census Sheet
1930
I hope that any Brown family researcher finds this information useful. I would also like to thank my wife Ruth for editing this report and my son Alexander for digitizing this information. There’s still a lot research to be done and a lot of interesting information to be found. Good luck and have fun.
A family genealogy follows.
BROWN FAMILY GENEALOGY
Note: Included in the family genealogy below are several notes from the Brown Family Bible. I have copied them as they were written, so you will find many odd abbreviations and incorrect spellings. They are as original to the document as I could reproduce here. This list, which includes five generations, ends with my parents’ generation (TAYLOR MELKA BROWN and FRANCES ELIZABETH WAECHTLER), with the hope that new generations will eventually continue this work.
Mark Douglas Brown
Spring 2010
============================
Descendants of John Brown
Generation No. 1
(1) JOHN BROWN. He was born Unknown; died abt. 1784. He married RHODA, born Unknown. After John Brown dies (abt. 1784), Rhoda marries David Hopkins. In 1792, Rhoda, David, and Rhoda’s three children (John, Joseph, and Anne Brown) move to Kentucky.
Children of RHODA and JOHN BROWN are:
2. i. JOSEPH BROWN, b. abt. 1784, Pennsylvania; d. February 26, 1809, Staunton,
Virginia
ii. JOHN BROWN JR., m. MARY.
iii. ANNE BROWN.
Generation No. 2
2. JOSEPH BROWN was born abt. 1784 in Pennsylvania, and died February 26, 1809, in Staunton, Virginia. On January 19, 1804, he married MARY RITCHEY/RICHEY (b. September 4, 1783; d. April 12, 1836), in Staunton, Virginia.
Notes for MARY RITCHEY
Mary was the daughter of DR. HUGH RITCHEY from Ireland (d. abt. 1791) and MARY
O'FRIEL (b. May 2, 1755; d. October 15, 1832). She had two brothers: Jeremiah
H. and David (d. 1807) Ritchey. Her mother, Mary O’Friel, was the daughter of
MORRIS O’FRIEL, from Ireland.
Children of JOSEPH BROWN and MARY RITCHEY
are:
3. i. JOHN JOSEPH DECATURE BROWN, b. May 8, 1804, Staunton, Virginia; d. March
11, 1864, Staunton, Virginia.
4. ii. NANCY ELENOR BROWN, b. April 16, 1806; d. April 13, 1843.
5. iii. RHODA MARIA BROWN, b. May 30, 1808; d. February 8, 1844.
Generation No. 3
3. JOHN JOSEPH DECATURE BROWN (JOSEPH, JOHN) was born May 8, 1804, in Staunton, Virginia, and died March 11, 1864, in Staunton, Virginia. He married JULIET AMANDA HILL on February 19, 1846.
Notes for JULIET AMANDA HILL
Juliet Amanda Hill, daughter of WILLIAM HILL and NANCY WILLIAMS, was born
February 16, 1821, in Amherst County, Virginia. She died February 9, 1914, in
Havehill, Kansas.
JULIET AMANDA HILL Association with Catherine Burch:
[CATHERINE BURCH, (b. 1805; d. December 1880, Kansas) is listed as a witness
in 1821 and 1823 for deeds of the Hill family. In 1850, she is listed living
with J.J.D. Brown and Juliet Amanda Hill Brown. The first census I can find
that shows her relationship to the head of household is the 1880 census which
lists Catherine as a friend to F.H.T. Brown. This census lists Catherine as
being crippled and unable to read or write, with the notation, “Hurt by a cow,
is helpless.” It lists her parents as being from Maryland; other than that,
nothing is known. Catherine probably lived with the Hill family and then with
the Browns after Juliet Amanda Hill married John Joseph Decature Brown.
Catherine is listed in J.J.D. Brown’s will. Oddly, another Burch, J.W., pops up
in the household in the 1875 Kansas state census, but this is probably Joseph
William Brown, not Burch, born 1854 (see below).
–M.D.B.]
Children of JOHN JOSEPH DECATURE BROWN and
JULIET AMANDA HILL are:
6. i. FRANCIS HENDREN TAYLOR BROWN, b. May 12, 1847, Staunton, Virginia; d.
April 24, 1928.
ii. NANCY CAMELA BROWN, b. March 11, 1849, Staunton, Virginia; d. July 17, 1853, Staunton, Virginia.
Notes for NANCY CAMELA BROWN:
From Brown Family Bible:
Nancy Camela Brown was born March 11 in the morning between 5 & 6
o'clock, A.D. 1849. Baptized by Rev. D. D. Hendren Sept. 23 same year, died
July 17th 1853, 35 minutes after 1 o'clock in the afternoon P.M.
iii. MARY AMANDA JOSEPH BROWN, b. July 29, 1850, Staunton, Virginia; d. July 17, 1853, Staunton, Virginia.
Notes for MARY AMANDA JOSEPH BROWN:
From Brown Family Bible:
Mary Amanda Joseph Brown was born July 29th 1850 in the eavning between
6&7 o'c. Baptized 1st day of June 1851 by Rev. D.D. Hendren. Died July 17th
1853, 30 minutes after 1 o'clock after noon. Sermon by Rev. D.D. Hendren, Math.
2 ch. 18 verse.
iv. JOSEPH WILLIAM BROWN, b. April 11, 1854; m. S. BELLE FULLER, February 28, 1878, M.E. Church, South; b. Butler County Kansas.
Notes for JOSEPH WILLIAM BROWN:
From Brown Family Bible:
Baptized by the Rev. D.D. Hendren May 21st 1854.
Marriage Notes for JOSEPH BROWN and S.
FULLER:
From Brown Family Bible:
Married by Rev. W.H. Comes
v. HARVEY JOSIAH BROWN, b. May 21, 1856; m. PRENETTIA A. MAXEY, November 22, 1888, M.E. Church South; b. Council Grove, Kansas.
Notes for HARVEY JOSIAH BROWN:
From Brown Family Bible:
Harvey Josiah Brown was born May 21st 8 OC in the eavening 1856. Baptized by
Rev. Solomon I. Love May 23d 1857 at school house.
Marriage Notes for HARVEY JOSIAH BROWN and
PRENETTIA MAXEY:
From Brown Family Bible:
Rev. T.C. Downs of the M.E. Church south officiating
vi. JOHN LUTHER HILL BROWN, b. August 23, 1860; d. December 26, 1862.
Notes for JOHN LUTHER HILL BROWN:
From Brown Family Bible:
John Luther Hill Brown was born Aug. 23d 5 minutes after 3 OC in the morning
of A.D.1860. Baptized by the Rev. Robt. Walker Pastor of Union Church Sunday
9th day of July 1861. John Luther Hill Brown departed this life Dec. 26 half
after 8 OC in morning in the year of our Lord 1862. Ages 2 yrs. 4 m's 3dy's.
Sermon preached by Rev. Robt. Walker Text 94 PS 12& 13 vs.
4. NANCY ELENOR BROWN (JOSEPH, JOHN)
was born April 16, 1806, and died April 13, 1843. She married JOHN DANIELS
February 10, 1825.
Children of NANCY BROWN and JOHN DANIELS are:
i. JOHN JOSEPH BROWN DANIELS, b. August 1, 1826.
ii. MARY ELIZABETH DANIELS, b. May 10, 1828.
iii. RHODA FRANCIS DANIELS, b. September 4, 1830.
iv. WM. WASHINGTON DANIELS, b. February 5, 1833.
v. DAVID DANIELS, b. August 24, 1835.
vi. NANCY VIRGINIA DANIELS, b. April 18, 1838.
vii. MARGARET DANIELS, b. December 2, 1840.
5. RHODA MARIA BROWN (JOSEPH, JOHN)
was born May 30, 1808, and died February 8, 1844. She married DANIEL HARRISON
April 23, 1834.
Children of RHODA BROWN and DANIEL HARRISON are:
i. JOHN HARRISON, b. February 20, 1835.
ii. ELIZABETH HARRISON, b. February 3, 1837.
iii. MARY HARRISON, b. January 25, 1839.
iv. JOSEPH HARRISON, b. August 13, 1840.
v. WM. HARRISON, b. March 15, 1842.
vi. NANCY MARIA BROWN HARRISON, b. 1844.
Notes for NANCY MARIA BROWN HARRISON:
From the Brown Family Bible:
Nancy Maria Brown Harrison Born Dec. 30th 1844
(In the Family Bible, it looks like "Dec." was written over "Feb." in this birth notation. This cannot be true because Nancy Maria’s mother, Rhoda Maria, died February 8, 1844. I'll guess that Rhoda died giving birth to Nancy, and the original February notation was correct. –M.D.B.)
(Notes for sisters Juliet Amanda Hill Brown and Elvira B. M. Hill Shuck, and their brothers A.G.A. (Ajax) Hill and Richard John Hill, added March 2012: After I finished the Brown Family genealogy, I found another researcher on the Internet who was researching the same Hill family. His name was Christos Christou, a descendant of Richard John Hill, who was one of the brothers of Juliet Amanda Hill. Christos sent me obituaries for Juliet Amanda Hill Brown, her sister Elvira B. M. Hill Shuck, and their brothers, A.G.A. (Ajax) Hill, and Richard John Hill. I have included these texts below, as they originally appeared.
Note that the obituaries are from
different newspapers, so names and ages are not all consistent, but the articles
are very interesting and tell us about what their lives were like.
Unfortunately, Christos did not have any information about Catharine Burch.
OBIT: Mrs. Julia Amanda Brown, aged 93, died at the home of her son, J.W.
Brown, at Haverhill this morning at 11:14. No time has been set for the
funeral, awaiting word from her son at Washington DC. Augusta Gazette Feb 9
1914
OBIT: Mrs. Julia Amanda Brown of Haverhill, 91, mother of ex-Representative
Joseph Brown, of Haverhill, one of the most notable of Butler County's
pioneers, died Monday evening, Feb. 9. She had suffered several months from the
effects of a fall in which her right hip was broken. Many Eldorado people knew
Mrs. Brown. During the closing days of James Monroe's first presidential term,
Juliet Amanda Hill was born within the shadows of the historic Blue Ridge
mountains in Amherst County, Virginia, February 16, 1821. Her father William
Davis Hill, died when Juliet was 9 years old. He left his family in comfortable
circumstances, hence Juliet could continue her school work. It was four miles
to the school house from the hills. Juliet trudged these four miles each day.
In 1838 young Miss Hill went over to Augusta, Butler County, to teach school
near her brother's home farm. She taught there eight years and then married
Joseph Decatur Brown of Jennings Gap, VA. Of the six children born to Mr. and
Mrs. Brown, three boys survived the father. Like many other patriotic
southerners, Mrs. Brown had invested the residue of her father's fortune in Confederate
bonds. With the collapse of the Confederacy her fortune vanished. Bravely she
turned back to her old profession of teaching. She taught in Jennings Gap until
1871, when she struck out with her three sons for Kansas. They detrained at
Kansas City and began the overland journey to their future home in Spring
Township, Butler County, with a yoke of oxen, one prairie schooner, two cows,
one pig and a dozen chickens. The household goods had to be hauled through by
wagon freighters from Kansas City. Mrs. Brown filed on an 80-acre tract in the
Little Walnut River valley in Spring township. The three brothers rented land
adjoining. Times were very hard. Mrs. Brown again turned to teaching to keep
things going. In the spring of 1872 they planted their first crop of corn. It
was a good year, and they got a bumper crop. But in 1874 the grasshoppers
devoured everything in sight and left the new settlers almost on poverty row.
Relief agencies were established in the various school centers of the county
where clothing, flour, beans, meal, and bacon from the East were distributed to
the needy settlers. But the Browns did not ask for aid and Mrs. Brown stuck to
her teaching. Several times the boys got thoroughly discouraged and wanted to
give up the fight and move out. But each time this staunch pioneer encouraged
them with the words, "Be still and see the Salvation of God". She was
right. They began to prosper. The oldest boy is a well to do farmer. The second
served with distinction as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
The third is one of the richest men in Spring township today and has served his
district as a member of the legislature - Eldorado Republican. The funeral will
be held Thursday February 12th, at 2:30pm from the Christian church at Haverhill.
Augusta Gazette Feb 11 1914 p1
OBIT: Mrs. Juliet Brown, 93, is dead at Haverhill. Mrs. Juliet Brown, 93, died
Monday at Haverhill, after a two weeks illness from pneumonia. Juliet Hill was
born February 16, 1821, in Virginia. She married Joseph Brown in Virginia. She
came to Kansas in 1871 and settled in Spring township. Mrs. Brown had been
living for a year at home of her son, Joseph Brown, of Haverhill. Two other
sons survive. Walnut Valley Times Feb 13 1914 p. 1
OBIT: Aged Woman dies. Mrs. E.B.M Shuck aged 90 years passed away at the home
of her daughter, Mrs. F.H.T. Brown about noon Friday after a lingering illness
of several months. The funeral will be held at the Johnstown Holiness church at
11 o'clock today, conducted by Rev. R. F. Morris and interment will be made in
the Carterville Cemetery. Mrs. Shuck was born in Amherst Co, VA in 1815. She
was therefore 90 years old at the time of her death. She has made her home with
her daughter since the death of her husband two years ago, previous to which
time she lived in Leon, Kan.
OBIT: A. G. A. HILL had obituary in The Lynchburg Daily Virginian for 12
January 1861 on page 3, column 2. It says A. G. A. HILL, formerly of Amherst,
Va died in Lebanon, Missouri, after a long illness at age 43. It does not give
the date of his death.
ARTICLE: Mr. Richard I [John]. Hill, formerly of this county, was murdered in
the village of Fallmanton, in Effingham county, Illinois, on the 14th of April
[1842], under most singular and shocking circumstances. It appears as he rode
in the village, some one who saw him approaching remarked "there will be a
difficulty,"--two individuals who were named, (with whom Mr. Hill had
probably some misunderstanding.) being in the village. Mr. Hill rode up and
shook hands with the gentleman to whom the foregoing remark was made,
while the one who made it passed into a neighboring black- smith shop. About
this time a gun was fired, and Mr. Hill fell from his horse, and expired in
about fifteen minutes, without speaking! Most strange to say--and certainly it
tells badly for the justice of the country--notwithstanding these
circumstances, and the open manner in which the murder was committed, the
investigation of the case failed to fix the bloody and cowardly deed on any
one. Mr. Hill was a married man, and we believe has left a family of children.
End of note)
Additionally, here's another obituary I found of Juliet Amanda Hill Brown, with photo.
Generation No. 4
1. FRANCIS HENDREN TAYLOR BROWN was born May 12, 1847, in Staunton, Virginia, and died May 4, 1920. He married MARIE ELVIRA SHUCK November 5, 1876, in New Santa Fe, Missouri, daughter of DR. JOHN THOMAS SHUCK and ELVIRA HILL. Marie was born May 26, 1852, and died April 24, 1928, in Washington State.
Notes for FRANCIS HENDREN TAYLOR BROWN
From Brown Family Bible:
Francis Hendren Taylor Brown was Born May the 12th 1847 about 7 o'clock in
the evening and Baptized 22nd April 1848 D.D. Hendren.
Francis Hendren Taylor Brown (often referred to as F.H.T. Brown) served in the Civil War (see war records from the National Archives; also see letter to Mr. Marquis Brown Jr. from his uncle William E. Brown).
Marriage Notes for FRANCIS BROWN and MARIE
SHUCK:
From the Brown Family Bible:
Dr. Watson of Santa Fe Missouri officiating
Marie Shuck’s name in their marriage
records (see documents) is Mary. I found
the marriage record in Jackson County, Missouri, in a small town called New
Santa Fe, south of Kansas City MO., near the Kansas border. The town is now a
historic site: See www.newsantafe.org.
–M.D.B.
Children of FRANCIS BROWN and MARIE SHUCK
are:
i. WILLIAM EDMUND BROWN, b. June 23, 1877.
Notes for WILLIAM EDMUND BROWN:
William was living in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1943, when my uncle, Marquis
Anthony Brown, apparently wrote him concerning Brown family information. (See
letter to Marquis Brown Jr. from William Brown.) Note that, for some reason,
William Brown refers to my uncle as Marquis Brown Jr. He was not a junior. His
mother, brother, and sister always called him Mark; I never heard anyone call
him Marquis.
Later, my uncle Marquis Brown did receive the Family Bible, which is now in the possession of his son, Charles. I saw the Family Bible in 1977 when I was in St. Louis for my father’s funeral. As I recall, the bible itself had been published in 1890. I'll guess it was William Brown’s confirmation bible, since his father was a clergyman and William would have been 13 in 1890. Charles Brown made copies of the Family Bible for me, which is how I began my research. –M.D.B.
ii. FRANCES P. BROWN, b. October 3, 1878, Butler County Kansas; d. October 18, 1878.
Notes for FRANCES P. BROWN:
From Brown Family Bible:
[Born] At 6 A.M. Died 15 days afterward
7. iii. PAUL MARQUIS BROWN, b. August 21, 1884, Butler County Kansas 7 a.m.; d. 1950, St. Louis, Missouri.
iv. BARBARA BEATRICE BROWN, b. March 29, 1886, 11 a.m., Butler County, Kansas; m. CHESLEY H. JUDY, June 1, 1902, Carterville Missouri.
Marriage Notes for BARBARA BROWN and
CHESLEY JUDY:
From Brown Family Bible:
by Bro. J.J. Howel, High Noon
v. JULIET A. BROWN, b. June 30, 1886, Butler County Kansas, 12 O.C.M.; m. NEWTON O. SNYDER, December 22, 1917, Scotts Bluff Nebraska.
vi. HARVEY J. BROWN, b. August 29, 1888, Cherokee Nation Oklahoma/Cherokee Co., OK; d. September 12, 1889, Leon, Kansas.
Notes for HARVEY J. BROWN from Brown
Family Bible:
Harvey J. Brown was born in Cherokee Nation August 29th 1888 on Powel Rapers
Ranch
[Born] on Powel Rapers place close to the Grand River Cherokee Nation
[Died] at Dr. Shucks nere Leon, Kansas, Sept. 12th 1889
vii. MARIE A.C. BROWN, b. June 28, 1891, Carterville, Missouri; m. RAY V. WEATHERBY, December 4, 1917, Olympia Washington.
Notes for MARIE
A.C. BROWN:
From Brown Family Bible:
Marie A.C. Brown was born in Carterville, Missouri in a tent close to Samuel
Kellers property, June 28th 1891 At 12 O.C.M.
Was married Decm 4th 1917 at Olympia, Washington, m. Ray V. Weatherby
[Died Feb 19 1954, Longview, Cowlitz, Washington]
Generation No. 5
7. PAUL MARQUIS BROWN (FRANCIS HENDREN TAYLOR, JOHN
JOSEPH DECATURE, JOSEPH, JOHN) was born August 21, 1884, in Butler County,
Kansas, 7 a.m., and died 1950 in St. Louis Missouri. He married BARBARA B.
MELKA, daughter of ANTON MELKA and BLANCHE SWANTNER. She was born December 22,
1885, and died June 30, 1965 in St. Louis County, Missouri.
Children of PAUL BROWN and BARBARA MELKA are:
i. MARIE BLANCHE BROWN, b. April 5, 1908; d. February 1985; m. JOSEPH ZERR.
ii. TAYLOR MELKA BROWN, b. November 17, 1909, St. Louis County, Missouri; d.
July 16, 1977, St. Louis County Missouri; m. (2) FRANCES ELIZABETH WAECHTLER,
July 27, 1933, St. Louis, Missouri; b. April 25, 1916, St. Louis County,
Missouri; d. February 13, 2007, St. Louis County, Missouri.
iii. MARQUIS ANTHONY BROWN, b. August 26, 1911, St. Louis, Missouri; d. April
19, 1975; m. GOLDA DILLARD; b. September 29, 1913; d. February 8, 2011.
iv. DOROTHY MARQUIS BROWN, b. April 15, 1914, St Louis, Missouri; d. December
24, 2000, Lees Summit, Jackson County, Missouri; m. ERNEST WILLERTH; b. November
19, 1906; d. November 2, 1986, Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri.
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