Brown Family History

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Chapter 3

Meet My Father, John D. Brown

In writing this chapter I am aware that some of you do not remember meeting him. Some never did meet him. Others did not know him well. Some saw in him an honest, hard working man with a large family, on a small farm with ground impossible to raise more than the bare necessities of life, with mothing for the market. Then there may be some who found fault with him and think very little of him.

In writing this short article I will endeavor to appraise him with as little feeling caused by family ties or blood relationship.

First of all I think one could truthfully say he was a man's man. He was well liked by men. One thing sure, he was not a ladies' man. That is to say he never flirted with or leaned toward but the one woman, his wife. Neither did any women, to my knowledge, ever make advances toward him.

He was honest to the letter, therefore dependable; he was a poor man and a hard worker. he, under extremely difficult circumstances, provided food, clothing, and a fair education, for the time he lived.

At this point I think it well to state that my great grandfather, Rev. John Brown, and my grandfather, Rev. John H. Brown, were well-fixed. They both had considerable land. So much so that William H. Brown, the oldest son of John H. Brown, was sent to Valparaico Teachers College, also to Theological Seminary, and married Alice Trobridge, a well-to-do daughter.

Rev. John H. Brown, my grandfather, was among the earliest men to enlist when the Civil War or 1860 broke out, and he was one of the early men to be slain on the battlefield. In fact Father was born after his father was slain by a few days. His mother was grieved because of this and never got along well at father's birth. She died when father was four days old. The land coming to my father was put into the hands of a guardian. The laws were "loose" in that "day" so the "guardian" lived up and ran through with his property. he never got a cent of it.

The result was simple. Just as soon as father got old enough to do a little work, he had to work to pay for his keep. He went to school about two years.

All this greatly affected my father and his ordinary way of life.

You will recall, from the first chapter in this treatise, that the land he was on was almost worthless. So extra dollars father had to earn aside from his farm came from clearing land, digging ditches, digging wells, sawing timber, helping in harvest fields, etc., etc. All extremely hard work. Twelve hours was considered a day and the average wage then was 75 cents to $1.00 per day - not per hour.

Shoos, boots, cloth for clothing, yarn to knit with, thread to sew with, sugar, coffee, salt, etc., were hard to come by. Then there were school books for all of us.

When father received his wages, he gave it all to Mother to go and buy as many necessities of life as it would buy. They never bought things on time or charge accounts. they never had enough.

Father chewed tobacco, his only bad habit. At the age of 55 when he was converted, he gave that up and never chewed any more, though he lived for some thirty years after that.

The tobacco he chewed, he raised, tended, cut, cured, twisted his own "long green".

In fact they raised all their eats and made all their own clothing except for a few basic necessities.

Father was stern with the children. he required strict obedience. he did not have to whip a child often. Once punishment usually lasted six months or a year. He had a high temper. Did not yeild "the wearing of the pants" to anyone.

He was a good singer and played the french harp and jews harp, inexpensive instruments.

The township and county spelling bees were about all he ever attended, except Church, and an occasional public auction.

Father was an expert at most kinds of hard labor jobs. Never allowed any man to do more than he did. He was a free sweater, always drank lots of water. Coffee, one cup for breakfast only, and cold well water the rest of the time.

When I was large enough to do about as much work as a man, our next door neighbor, north of us, Mr. Jim K. whetaker, came to Father and wanted him and myself to clear 40 acres of land, except several large trees for shade. He wanted this for a fine herd of sheep he had. Finally a bargain was struck. Both Father and I wwere to work twelve hours per day for 75 cents each per day. We were to do this work in the winter time so we would have work during the slack work time. Of course we were to board and keep ourselves. There was one more consideration. We were to deaden all the hallow beach trees. (There were scores of them, and they were ours to cut for wood; all we had to do was burn the brush.) We could cut them at our own choosing.

The contract brought in $1.50 per day, for I never had a thin dime for my work. And I had to stay out of school one whole year. But we got the job completed in about six months.

To use up the beech trees, Father took a contract from the lewis bros. to cut, split and haul to them (1 1.4 miles) five hundred cords of wood at $1.00 per cord. This we also completeed.

One more thing I will relate about my father that reveals another side. He liked to hunt and fish. He did both of these things partly because he liked the sport and partly for what he made.

A winter's catch in furs usually brought about $150.00. This went a long way, in those days. The fish, if we got any, we all liked them. As Father aged, he never could get used to the higher prices as compared to when he was a boy. I can now fully sympathize with him. You would have liked him!

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