My Genealogy Hound

NATHAN BROWN. One of the oldest of Jamestown’s citizens, and in his active days the leading and most enterprising business man of that section, who took the manufactured wares of that city’s early factories down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and exchanged them for cash, is Nathan Brown. He is a son of the late Nathan, Sr. and Levia (Smith) Brown, and was born in Eaton, Madison county, New York, November 19, 1812. The family is of English extraction in both branches; the paternal grandfather, Joseph Brown, was a native of Boston and was born about the middle of the eighteenth century. Following the sea for many years, he rose to the rank of captain of a merchant vessel, plying between Boston and Liverpool, prior to the Revolutionary war, and he was lost at sea during a west bound voyage.

He married a Miss Jones and had three children, Nathan Brown, Sr. being the youngest. Samuel Pomeroy Smith, the maternal grandfather, was of English Puritan stock and a native of New London, Connecticut. He married Rebecca Armstrong and emigrated to Onondaga county, this State, and settled at what was then Geddesburg, now Syracuse. His union gave the world ten children, five sons and five daughters. The mother of Nathan Brown was born in 1786. Nathan Brown, Sr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts, June 30, 1782 and went to Madison county about 1806; later, in 1822 he came to Chautauqua county and bought a piece of land of the Holland Land Company, in the town of Ellington, and followed farming so successfully that he became one of the largest land owners of his neighborhood. Mr. Brown possessed a superior education for his day, and it enabled him to reach a pinnacle, which, without it, would never have been attained. Politically he was a whig, without ambitious aspirations. In 1808 he married Levia Smith, and became the father of nine children, two of whom died in infaucy; all are now dead except Nelson, the twin brother of subject, who lives in Ellington, this county, and has retired from business; Daphne, living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the widow of a Mr. Waterman; Albro S., late mayor of the city of Vineland, N. J., a practicing lawyer for twenty years at that place, died December l6, 1890.

Nathan Brown was reared and passed his early life in the uneventful manner usual with country boys. In 1823 he first came to Jamestown, but did not begin a permanent residence until 1832, when he engaged in manufacturing pails, and followed that line of business until 1843, when he commenced running store-boat cargoes of building materials down the Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi rivers and selling at the larger towns. He enlarged his business until its scope included agricultural implements, doors, sash and everything manufactured at Jamestown.

August 17, 1841, he married Caroline E. Le Fevre, a daughter of Daniel and Henrietta L. (Colson) Le Fevre, who was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1822. Her father was of French extraction and took a prominent part in the politics of the Keystone State and served at Harrisburg in the Legislature; he was a prominent Mason, having attained the degree of Royal Arch Mason. The mother of subject, is still living with her daughter, at Jamestown. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are the parents of children as follows: Henry LeFevre, born May 30, 1842, married N. Alcesta Fisher, March 27, 1865 and now lives in Jamestown. He entered the United States army in Co. B, 72nd regiment, N. Y. Infantry, in 1861; he re-enlisted, and served during the entire war. Leon G., was born July 18, 1844 and married Lucy Hayes, January 31, 1870; he now resides at Huntingdon, W. Va. He enlisted September 12, 1862, in Co. F, 112th regiment, and served to the close of the war. Amelia Marvin was born May 15, 1848, and married Theodore W. McClintock, a son of the late Dr. James McClintock, of the Philadelphia College of Medicine. Theodore W. McClintock was born May 28, 1846 and was the author of “The Analysis of Zell’s Encyclopedia,” a work of extensive circulation, consisting of an outline of universal history. He died May 12, 1889. Charles N., was born October 21, 1851, and married Alice Ross, January 13, 1881. He is engaged in manufacturing plush at Jamestown, the firm name being the “Jamestown Plush Mills Company.” George B. W. was born September 15, 1853, and married Blanche A. White, July 20, 1884. He resides at Titusville, Pa., and conducts a pharmacy, being a graduate of the Philadelphia School of Pharmacy in the class of 1878.

Nathan Brown spent forty-four years in business and did not retire until 1885, after passing three-score and ten years of age. During his career he took one hundred and fifty-four store boats down the river, the aggregate value of the cargoes being over half a million dollars, and most of it was manufactured articles made in Chautauqua county. With the advent of the railroads in the South and other conditions arising soon after the close of the war, the business became unremunerative; prices and profits being much smaller than before. Since 1885 Mr. Brown has led a retired life. He is a republican in politics and has been a member of the Presbyterian church since 1836; he is the oldest male member in the Presbyterian church of Jamestown; Mr. Brown also out-ranks all others in term of membership in Lodge No. 221, I. O. O. F., at Jamestown, having been continuous for over forty years. For some years past he has devoted much time, as a recreation, to writing the local history of Jamestown and its environments, and so well is he posted, that he is considered authority upon local historical matters.

Nathan Brown’s has been a life well spent; public confidence rests with him implicitly, and it may be truthfully said “he is a good man,” an assertion to which posterity may point with pride. Mrs. Brown came to this county in 1827, with an uncle, Augustus Colson, who married a niece of Andrew Ellicott, named Sarah Kennedy, after whose family the village bearing that title was named. Mrs. Brown lived in Kennedy but a short time and then went to Buffalo, where her young ladyhood was passed and she remained until her marriage. Since that time she has lived continuously in the same home, in Jamestown.