BROWN-Joseph - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Joseph BROWN, farmer, Attica, was the fourth child in a family of ten children, by Michael and Hester (Lutz) Brown, and was born in Wythe county, Virginia, July 19, 1804. His grandfather, Andrew Brown, was a soldier in the war of the revolution. In 1815 his father emigrated to Warren county, Ohio, and settled with his family near Lebanon. On February 27, 1827, Mr. Brown was married to Lucy Johnson. In 1829 he came west, and stopped in Tippecanoe county until the following season, when he moved to Fountain county, and bought and improved the eighty acres of land on which he now lives, in Davis township. This is E. 1/2 of S.E.1/4 Sec. 32, T. 22, R 6. Subsequently he made additions to his farm. In 1832, owing to the low state of his wife’s health, and in compliance to importunities of relations, he went back to Ohio with his wife, where she died in three weeks and three days after their arrival, her death occurring October 18. He remained there two years, but prior to his return was married to Sarah Camblin. This event took place January 5, 1834, and the next fall they came to their home in Indiana. By his first wife Mr. Brown had two sons and one daughter, as follows: William, Hester Ann, wife of Nelson Cavitt, of Iroquois county, Illinois; and James J., an interesting child which was living with his grandparents in Ohio, and died there in its third or fourth year. His second wife was the mother of three sons and three daughters: Mary Eleanor, Michael, Lucy Jane, Sarah, Joseph, and George C. All but Lucy Jane died in infancy. She married William Thomas Dickerson, who enlisted September 12, 1861, in Co. K, 33rd Ind. Vols., and served to the end of the war. He was captured and confined four months in Libby prison, and then exchanged. He reenlisted as a veteran volunteer, and was mustered as such March 9, 1864. He served on the Atlanta campaign, the march to the sea, and the campaign of the Carolinas, doing duty continuously, until at the battle of Bentonville he received a very severe wound in his lower jaw. This seriously impaired his health, and was instrumental in producing his death, which occurred November 9, 1877. His last muster out from the military service was on June 26, 1865. Mr. Brown’s second wife died February 14, 1865. He married again August 2, 1866, Louisa J. Dickerson, who died Monday, December 2, 1878. Mr. Brown at one time owned 336 acres of land, but he has given to his children and reduced his estate to 200, nearly all of which is under cultivation and in a good state of improvement. He cleared about 100 acres. The only democratic vote he ever cast was for Gen. Jackson for president in 1828. As the next election he voted with the Clay men, and after that, whig party having assumed a definite organization, he acted with that until it was superseded by the republican. He has belonged to the latter since. For fifty years he has been a devout Christian and faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has acceptably filled the office of class-leader, steward, and church trustee. “Uncle Joe,” as he is reverently called by everyone, is indeed a father in Israel, whose pious life will long be remembered as a sweet savor of good things. His last two wives were communicants in the same church.