This is an amazing newspaper article, full of family information.
Moses Brown, Jr.
15 Jan 1820 MS - 22 Apr 1912 Iowa
Moses Brown, Jr. was the son of Moses Brown, my 4th great grandfather & his second wife, Nancy Perkins. His half brother, Edward S. Brown was my 3rd great grandfather.
Moses Brown was a Cass County Pioneer
Passed away in Iowa a Few Months Ago
Moses Brown was a Cass county pioneer
known to many of the older residents of this community, where the family
settled in 1845, for which reason the following account of his death, together
with a brief history of the family will probably be of interest here:
Moses Brown was born Jan 15th
1820 in Marion Co., Miss. A little more than fourscore and twelve years were
rounded out when, after an illness of several weeks, he laid down the burdens
of life and passed to the great beyond at 6:30 a.m. Monday, April 22, 1912, at
his home in Mitchellville, Ia. He was married, May 12th, 1841, in
Logan Co., Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Monroe, a native of Culpepper Co., Va. They
were the parents of thirteen children, all of whom grew to mature years except
two. He is survived by his wife 88 years old and seven children, Mrs. Mary
Mulligan of Phillips, S. D., Mrs. William Huff of Des Moines, Mrs. Arthur Thorp
of Los Angeles, Calif., A> R. Brown of Cherokee, Ia., M. M. Brown, A. L.
Brown and C. B. Brown of Mitchellville. There are sixteen grandchildren,
twenty-three great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. Funeral
services were from the Christian church, where he and his wife had been active
members since tis organization, at 2 p.m. April 24th. Rev. J. D.
Arnold delivering as address that well fitted the occasion [sic] being fully
aware that it was an unusual event to pronounce an eulogy over the body of a
man who witnessed the wonderful changes that had taken place within a period of
almost one hundred years. Business houses were closed during the services.
Appropriate music was furnished and floral offerings were numerous and
beautiful.
He was the last living member of his
family, his brother Aaron having died eight years ago aged 82 years. Uncle
Moses Brown had an interesting history and could relate many incidents of his
early life and events which he had learned from his parents. His grandfather, Edward
Brown, was born in Newburn, N. C. His family were Scotch Quakers, opposed to
war but in favor of independence, and he with the resident Quakers of the
county attended the Mechlinburg convention where the first constitution of the
United States was framed, a year before the Jefferson, and was one of the eight
signers; was a soldier in the army until the close of the war.
His father [Moses Brown] was born in
NC Feb 2, 1777. In 1804 he emigrated to Georgia and later to Mississippi and
some years later to Louisiana, Although born and raised in the southland where
slavery was an institution, the family were abolitionists in principle, and in
1825 they moved to Logan Co., O., where his two oldest brothers had settled in
1806, which formed the beginnings of a Quaker society among the Wyandotte
Indians near Zanesfield. On reaching Cincinnati he freed his slaves. He was a
soldier in the war of 1812 and participated in the battle of New Orleans, under
Gen Jackson. On reaching Ohio a farm was purchased of Gen. Simon Kenton, which
the family occupied until they settled in Cass Co., Mich., in 1845. His mother,
Nancy Chandler Perkins, was born Feb 1st 1787, in South Carolina,
was of German descent, and a near relative of Gen. Wade Hampton and lived in
his father’s family when a girl. Her father emigrated to Georgia and later on
to Mississippi where she was married in 1811 to Moses Brown.
The first school Moses attended was
taught by Polly Kenton Murry, daughter of Gen. Kenton in her farm home. At age
17, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith at his own request, which occupation he
followed through his life.
In 1844 he settle down in Brownsville,
Cass Co., Mich., and lived in that vicinity until 1865, when he removed his
family to Iowa. Mr. Mitchell, the founder of Mitchellville, told him if he
would build a shop in the new village he would give him a lot. He accepted the
offer. He bought more land, erected a home for his family and paid for it all
in blacksmithing. Years later the Union school building occupied the block just
across from his shop, which was a rendezvous [sic] for the school children
until the last bell would call them to their work through all the following
years.
He was ‘uncle’ and ‘grandpa’ to old
and young, and children were never in his way. Sunday morning they would call
for the pleasure of being lead or leading him to Sunday school.
He had a number of heirlooms, which he
prized very highly. One was his mother’s family Bible given him by her mother
while he still lived in Michigan and which she covered with the skin of a deer
he had killed and dressed. He also owned a flintlock gun, which his father
carried in the battle of New Orleans. In later years the stock became worn and
broken and a new one was made from a walnut log.
He enjoyed hunting and fishing but
never allowed the sport to interfere with his business except to make a trip
farther north each year as the deer became scarce in Cass county.
Wm Ingling, a neighbor, and he once
made a boat, and late in the afternoon loaded it on a wagon and went to Diamond
Lake and fished the greater part of the night and came home for an early
breakfast with 600 fish, which they divided among the neighbors.
Source: Moses Brown Cass County Pioneer. (n.d.). Vigilant, Cassopolis, Michigan. Retrieved February 15, 2017 from newspapers.com.
