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We now feel quite secure that Benjamin
Brown's parents were John and Catherine
Hull Brown.
John Brown and Caty Hull were married 17
Mar 1807 in Greene County Tennessee.
One of our first big clues was the
biography of Alfred Brown which Donna
had found in a history of McDonough
County Illinois, which has previously
been published on this list. Although
we certainly view biographies with a
jaundiced eye, we can't discount their
value as a starting point. This
biography placed Alfred Brown's birth in
Greene County Tennessee, just 3 years
after the Birth of Benjamin Brown.
"History of McDonough County Illinois,
its Cities, Towns, and Villages, with
Early Reminiscences, Personal Incidents
and Anecdotes, and a Complete Business
Directory of the County" by S. J. Clark,
Springfield, Ill.: D.W. Lusk, State
printer and binder 1878
Page 578---
"Alfred Brown was born in Green county,
East Tennessee, June 18, 1810, a son of
John and Catherine (Hull) Brown. He a
native of Virginia, and she of
Pennsylvania, and both were buried in
Indiana. The family removed to White
county, Tennessee, and subsequently to
Harrison county, Indiana, living a
portion of the time in the adjoining
county, Crawford, where they lived at
the time of their death. Alfred was
married March 27, 1835, to Sarah V.
Shields, of Harrison county, a daughter
of Robert and Naomi (Little) Shields. In
the fall of 1835, with his family,
Alfred removed to Fulton county,
Illinois, where he lived till 1852, at
which time he came to McDonough and
settled on section 1, where he bought 80
acres, afterwards buying 94 acres more.
He has lived on this place since; at
first living in a small house, but in
1877, he built a fine residence 32x25
and 24x16 feet, one and one-half stories
high, costing $1,800. His wife died
August 3, 1871, and was buried at
Blandinsville, leaving one child--Marinda,
now the wife of J. D. Isom, living at
the old home, where her father lives
with her. She was born May 1, 1849. Mr.
Brown is a member of the United Brethren
in Christ, as was also his wife and
daughter, in which church he has been
class-leader for some time. This
gentleman is highly respected by all his
neighbors, and is considered a very
worthy man in every respect."
We were shocked when Kathy presented us
with information from her Aunt June's
files, showing that Benjamin Brown had
served in the Civil War and that
Elizabeth Brown had filed for a widow's
pension. Donna followed up by getting
copies of all the original documents and
consolidating the information. This set
of documents gave us the personal
information about Benjamin, letting us
know that he was 5 feet 8 inches tall,
with dark complexion, gray eyes, and
gray hair. This was the place where we
finally learned that Elizabeth's maiden
name was Elizabeth Spears, by her own
testimony, and that she and Benjamin
were married in White County Tennessee
in 1825. This finally corrected the bad
transcription made by a county clerk
when he mistakenly srote Elizabeth's
maiden name as "Spencer", rather than
Spears". Donna's synopsis of Benjamin's
Civil War experience has already
been previously published on the
Illinois Genweb:
"BENJAMIN BROWN’S CIVIL WAR PENSION
Submitted by:
Donna Walker Wefenstette
He joined Company C, 103rd Illinois
Infantry Volunteers on August 11, 1862
and was mustered in Oct 2, 1862. The
muster roll reads: 55 years old, 5' 8"
tall, dark complexion, gray eyes,
grizzled hair. He was discharged on
disability March 28, 1863 for chronic
dysentery.
On June 17, 1879 Benjamin Brown went to
lawyers, Searns & Learnan, in Canton,
Illinois who helped him fill out papers
for a pension. Six affidavits were taken
on the following dates: July 31, 1879
from Thadeus Knott, M.D., Ben's doctor
before & after the war August 9, 1879
from Carey Westerfield, in same regiment
August 16, 1879 from Jeremiah Vion, in
same regiment August 18, 1879 from T. H.
Fleming, M.D., regimental surgeon August
29, 1879 from Amos Lawrence, in same
regiment August 18, 1879 from Ben
himself. All these affidavits were sent
to the Department of the Interior,
pension office in Washington, D.C.
On Feb 7, 1880, the commissioner gave
the application number 310.215 but
returned it for more information
regarding his health and medical
treatment both before and after the war.
(Since they had the affidavits,
including one from Dr. Nott his family
physician, it's not clear why they
wanted more information!)
November 11, 1880, the pension office
requested a full military history from
the adjutant general's office in
Washington D.C. January 20, 1881, the
adjutant general's office returned a
form to the commissioner of pensions
with the military history. February 5,
1881, the surgeon general's office
returned a form to the pension office
for a report of hospital treatment and a
form with the certificate of discharge
for disability. By then, Ben had died
and the application is stamped
ABANDONED.
February 3, 1881, Ben's wife, Elizabeth,
went to a different lawyer, Charles J.
Main of Canton to file an application
for a widow's pension. ( This form
confirms her maiden name of Spears and
the date of her marriage as October 25,
1825 in White County Tennessee)
The pension office again took up the
application, this time for a widow’s
pension, assigning the number 480.475,
and on June 22, 1881 they requested
information from the adjutant general's
office regarding the military records of
Amos Lawrence, Jeremiah Vion and Carey
Westerfield as to the presence or
absence on or about the time they were
with Co C, 103 Ill Vol Co.
August 6, 1881 the adjutant general's
office returned information on these
three, that they were indeed with the
103rd regiment at the time of Ben's
disability.
On June 22, 1883 the pension office sent
P.M. Slaughter a letter regarding the
standing in the community and general
reputation for truth of T. H. Flemming,
M.D. The handwritten reply is: "Canton,
Ill June 25, The general reputation for
truth and standing in the community of
Dr. T. H. Flemming is good (underlined)
Yours Resp P.M. Slaughter"
June 22, 1883, a letter was sent to Dr.
Thaddeus Nott but was returned by the
postmaster with a handwritten note on
the letter: T. Knott m.d. is dead J H
Hyde pm (post master) psd (initials)
asst (Dr. Nott died Aug 5, 1881)
Feb 7, 1887 the pension office sent a
letter to Mrs. Benj Brown but it had a
hand written note on the envelope
"return to writer".
March 22, 1887 a letter was sent to the
postmaster in Bryant, Illinois for "the
last known post-office address of Mrs.
Elizabeth Brown who lived in your
vicinity in 1881." There is one line on
a piece of paper "Died at this place
three or four years ago."
Her application is also stamped
ABANDONED.
It appears that neither Ben nor
Elizabeth received a pension. I believe
if he had filed a claim in 1865 or 1870,
he would have received a pension, but 18
years after the fact made the pension
office suspicious. The claims floundered
in the bureaucratic paperwork and time
ran out, first for Ben and then for his
wife, Elizabeth."
The next step was to connect Benjamin to
some parents. Although we had been
pretty sure that Ben and Alfred were
either brothers or cousins, there was
really no proof. Their closeness was
further indicated by the fact that Hiram
Brown named one of his sons John Isom
Brown, apparently in honor of Alfred's
son-in-law, John Isom.
We knew that Benjamin Brown lived in
Harrison County Indiana, along with
other Greene County Browns, Trobaughs,
and other collateral families, and that
they mostly lived near the Crawford
County line, in Western Scott Township
(present day Harrison township), and
that a Benjamin owned a farm in Crawford
County for a brief time, just before Ben
made his move to Fulton County
Illinois. It took a long time to figure
out that John and Catherine Hull Brown
moved from Greene County to White County
TN and to Harrison County Indiana, where
Catherine died in about 1833, and that
John Brown subsequently remarried, to a
wopman named “Elizabeth”, either
Elizabeth Snowden or Elizabeth Stewart,
but that can be ironed out a bit later.
In 1820 and 1830, John's wife is
enumerated as being in the same age
bracket as John. From 1840 onward, his
wife is ten years younger, and,
beginning in 1850, she is named
Elizabeth. Phyllis and I finally
identified the following census records
as being the John Brown who married Caty
Hull
++ Federal Census of 1820 of White
County Tennessee, page 316
Brown, John 3 2 0 0 1 0 -- 2 0 0 1 0
0
3 males under 10 (John H. Brown; George
A. Brown; & ?)
2 males 10-16 (Benjamin Brown; Alfred
Brown)
1 male 26-45 (John Brown, HOH)
2 females under 10 (??)
1 female 26-45 (Catharine Hull Brown)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
++Federal Census of 1830 of Harrison
Township, Crawford County Indiana, page
086
Brown, John -- Head of Household --
Enumerated next to brother Frederick
Brown and two names from brother George
Brown Jr.
2 males under 5 (Samuel Brown & ?)
2 males 5-10 (George A. Brown; John H.
Brown)
2 males 15-20 (Alfred Brown & ?)
1 male 20-30 (?)
1 male 40-50 (John Brown)
1 female 10-15 (?)
1 female 15-20 (?)
1 female 40-50 (Catharine Hull Brown)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
++Federal Census of 1840 of Sterling
Township, Crawford County Indiana, page
375
Brown, John -- Head of Household
one male 10-15 (?);
one male 15-20 (Samuel);
one male 50-60 (John Brown);
one female 40-50 Second Wife, Elizabeth)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
++Federal Census of 1850 of Sterling
Township, Crawford County Indiana, page
31
384 384 John Brown 66 M Farmer 300
Virginia
Elizabeth
" 56 Kentucky
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
++Federal Census of 1860 of Ohio
Township, Crawford Co Indiana, page
571[?]
1433 1434 John Brown 76 M Farmer
390 200 Virginia
Elizabeth
65 F Kentucky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
++Federal Census of 1870 of Ohio
Township, Crawford Co Indiana, page 61
51 51 Brown, John 87
M Farmer 700 150 Virginia
Elizabeth 75 F Keeping
House Kentucky
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We still didn't have anything tangible
to tie Benjamin Brown to Alfred and back
to John Brown and Caty Hull. I found a
will abstract for John Brown's will in:
"Slevin, Ruth M. Will records: books
1-2. 1974. 71 pp.", but although the
abstract mentioned Benjamin, it did not
mention Alfred, and we already had a
biography that tied Alfred to John
Brown. Karyn got tired of my dragging
my heels, so she wrote off to Crawford
County for a copy of the original will,
and I did a verbatim transcript, which
we'll publish in part two. |
