My Genealogy Hound

ALONZO D. BROWN, M. D., was formerly a successful physician and surgeon, but of recent years has devoted his attention exclusively to the cultivation of fruit, in which he engages in St. Joseph Township, Berrien County. He was born in Yates County, N. Y., December 21, 1818, and traces his ancestry to England, whence his paternal grandfather, John Brown, emigrated to the United States, settling in Massachusetts, and afterward participated in the Revolutionary War. The father of our subject, Luther Brown, was born in the village of Windsor, Berkshire County, Mass., and was there reared to manhood. He was a participant in the War of 1812, and three years afterward, when Boston was threatened, enlisted for the defense of the city, receiving as a reward for his service a quarter-section of land.

Luther Brown, while yet a young man, moved to Yates County, N. Y., where he married Miss Lora A. Pangborn, and with his bride commenced housekeeping on a farm in that county. In 1828 he removed to Canandaigua, Ontario County, N. Y., where he engaged in agricultural pursuits and remained until his death, in January, 1856. He and his wife were the parents of the following children: Melissa, who married John Benham, of Canandaigua, N. Y., and after his death became the wife of Dr. J. N. Banks, of Chicago; Margaret M., who was married in Canandaigua to Joel B. Norris, a farmer now residing in Hillsdale, Mich.; Philo E., who follows agricultural pursuits in El Dorado, Kan.; Walter J., a ranchman residing near Los Angeles, Cal., and a soldier in the late war; and John S., who is a molder by trade and resides in Battle Creek, Mich. Those deceased are: Seth T., who died of cholera in 1848; Sarah, who passed away in infancy; and George W., who died at Alden, Ill.

A man possessing whole-souled, generous impulses, Luther Brown was prominent in the community where he resided, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He affiliated with the Whigs and gave his hearty support to the principles advocated by that party. In his religious belief he was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which for fifty years his brother Philo E. was a prominent minister. The subject of this sketch was about eleven years old when he accompanied his father to Canandaigua, Ontario County, N. Y., where he grew to manhood, meanwhile conducting his studies in the common schools and at the Canandaigua Academy and later in Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, N. Y.

His literary studies completed, our subject commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. E. W. Cheney, a prominent practitioner of Canandaigua, N. Y. Prior to that, however, and when he was about nineteen, he went to Ohio, where he remained for two years engaged in teaching school in Summit County. He took a course of medical lectures at Willoughby, Ohio, and later entered the medical department of the New York State University, from which he was graduated March 7, 1847. After conducting his practice for one year, he returned to college and took a third course of lectures. Later he opened an office at Canandaigua, N. Y., where he engaged in the practice of his profession for seven years.

Following the famous advice of Horace Greeley, the young Doctor came West, and located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he speculated with fair success. He returned from there to his old home, but in the spring of 1856 he went to Thornton, Cook County, Ill., where he spent one summer. Thence he came to Michigan, and in the fall of 1857 located in St. Joseph, where for several years he taught the only school in the place. In 1862 he purchased his present farm of nineteen acres, upon which he raises apples, pears, peaches, berries, and all varieties of small fruits. The independent life of a fruit-grower is exactly suited to his tastes, and he finds here recreation and pleasure after a life of professional toil.

May 17, 1849, Dr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Ellen, daughter of Dr. Cheney, his medical preceptor, and sister of the illustrious Bishop Cheney, of Chicago. Mrs. Brown was born in Livingston County, N. Y., October 1, 1818, and is a lady of refinement and intelligence. Three children have blessed the union: Alice C, the wife of Albert E. Stephens, who is a traveling salesman for a Cleveland oil company; Frank C, who is in the mercantile business at Olympia, Wash.; and Helen C., who is a teacher of painting and drawing in a school at Duluth, Minn. Politically, the Doctor is a Republican, and in 1840 cast his ballot for William Henry Harrison. He has officiated as Township Treasurer for two years, and in 1861 served as Supervisor of the township of St. Joseph; he also held the same office in Lincoln Township for nine years.