January Birthday: Allen Moses Brown

Allen Moses Brown

 26 Jan. 1836 MS – After 1870

Son of Edward Stewart Brown & Mary Polly Spurlock
Husband of Emmaline Smith

my 2x great grandfather

Allen Moses Brown was born 26 January 1836 in Liberty, Amite County, Mississippi. On 28 April 1858 he married Emmaline Smith, daughter of Wyatt Smith and Euseba Fortenberry.[i],[ii]

            In 1860 Allen and Emmaline lived with his widowed mother and younger brother, James, in Amite County, Mississippi. Allen was a planter whose personal estate was valued at $600.[iii]

            The lives of the Brown family were about to change with the political unrest and upcoming war. In 1861 after the secession of the Southern States and the formation of the Confederate government there was military activity all over the south. Companies of men were formed to fight. Many of Allen’s neighbors and friends enlisted. Allen’s brother, James Pascal Brown, was a member of the Liberty Guards. In August 1862 this 18 year old was killed at the Battle of Baton Rouge.[iv]

            Because of Mississippi’s strategic location on the Mississippi River it was the scene of several major battles of the war. The names of Vicksburg, Jackson, Raymond, Port Gibson, Corinth, Iuka and Meridian all became associated with tragic battles.[v]Every town and home, every adult and child was affected by the fighting and loss of resources.   

 In 1862 Captain Rhodes from Baton Rouge, LA, raised a company of Calvary in Osyka, Pike, MS. Rhodes’ Calvary including A. M. Brown. This group became part of the 14^thConfederate Calvary Regiment. This unit was comprised of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama companies.The 14th Confederate Cavalry was organized on 14 September 1863 by the consolidation of Garland's Mississippi Cavalry Battalion, Rhodes' Mississippi Partisan Rangers Company, the Cavalry Battalion of Miles' Louisiana Legion, and Mullen's Louisiana Scouts and Sharpshooters Company.[vi]

Once the war was over lives were changed. Reconstruction began.

Being the center of slavery and cotton culture, heavily agricultural places such as Mississippi seceded first and returned to the Union last. Planters, who had produced cotton for the world market, emerged from the Civil War in a state of shock. They had enslaved their workforce for generations. After emancipation and Confederate defeat, many white Mississippians still thought they had been right to own slaves and secede from the Union. This position, within a state where the population was 55 percent black, foreshadowed a difficult Reconstruction. Black and white Mississippians grappled with a devastated economy and a new social structure.[vii]

            By 1870 Allen Moses Brown had moved from Amite County to Pike County, Mississippi. He was a farmer whose real estate was valued at $350. Their three children were living at home: Mary E. Brown, eight years old; Jasper Pascal Brown, six years old; and Alvira E. Brown, two years old.[viii]

            Allen Moses died between 1870 and 1880. Family stories say Allen was haying and got very hot. He went into the river to cool off and he drown.[ix]Stories say Allen is buried in an unmarked grave in the Wyatt Smith cemetery.[x]

            In 1880 Emmaline was still in Pike County with her three children who were all attending school.[xi]In 1900 Emmaline was living with her daughter, Mary and Mary’s family in Amite County. Mary had married William Schilling. In 1900 they had five children: Jessie, Maude, Gertrude, Moses and Serena.[xii]By 1910 Mary had died. At this time it is unknown where Emmaline lived between 1900 and 1920. She died 3 August 1920 at is buried in Silver Springs Baptist Church Cemetery where her stone calls her ‘Aunt Emmaline S. Brown’.

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[i]Brown Family Papers; 1700's to 1900's; Gathered by Rayleen Hall Brown from Various Family Members; in possession of author; Includes Alford, Brown, Dillon, Fortenberry, Kennington, Ott & Smith. 

[ii]Criminger, A. F. (1984). The Fortenberry families of southern Mississippi: with early records concerning the Faulkenberry/Fortenberry families of the South. Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press.

[iii]1860 US Census, MS, Amite; Post Office, Liberty; M653-577. Mary Brown family. 

[iv]Casey, A. E. (2001). Amite County, Mississippi, 1699-1890.Volume 3: The Environs. Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, Inc.. (Original work published 1957).

[v]  ‘Mississippi Soldiers in the Civil War’, Mississippi History Now; mshistorynow.mhad.ms.gov.

[vi]14th Confederate Cavalry Regiment; The War for Southern Independence; researchonline.net.

[vii]‘Reconstruction in Mississippi’, Mississippi History Now; mshistorynow.mhad.ms.gov.

[viii]1870 US Census, MS, Pike, Osyka; Page 3, Line 19; Allen M. Brown family.

[ix]Interview with Ivy Mark Brown by author (Sept. 1993) NY. Notes held by author. 

[x]Brown Family Papers; 1700's to 1900's; Gathered by Rayleen Hall Brown from Various Family Members; in possession of author; Includes Alford, Brown, Dillon, Fortenberry, Kennington, Ott & Smith. 

[xi]1880 U. S. Census, MS, Pike, Beat #1; Page 56, Line 467; Emmaline Brown family.

[xii]1900 US Census, MS, Amite, Beat 5; digital image, Ancestry (ancestry.com: accessed August 2018) William Schilling.