BROWN-Norman S. - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Norman S. Brown, farmer, Attica, was born in Ellisburg, Jefferson county, New York, in 1811. His father, Avery, was drowned when he was four months old. At the age of eleven he left home, and when fourteen apprenticed himself to the hatter's trade, but at the end of two years his employer broke up and he never finished it. He then went as a cabin-boy on a steamboat on Lake Ontario, but did not stay in this place long, and the next winter went to school. In the spring he got a place as steward on a packet on the Erie canal, and afterward was bowsman. From the fall of 1828 to the spring of 1831 he was on the canal; at this last date he came to Cleveland and went to work on the Ohio canal, and excepting the years 1837 and 1838, when he was working for a paper-mill and running a livery stable, he was employed on that route till 1844. In the spring of 1843 he came into this state on the Wabash & Erie canal, and early the following winter arrived at Attica, coming down the river on a keel-boat. He at once set up in the grocery and dry-goods trade, which he continued fourteen years. In 1849 and 1850 he kept the Exchange Hotel. From 1866 to 1877, he was express agent. Mr. BROWN has owned a farm of 320 acres, situated on the opposite side of the river, for the past twenty-five years, which he has a part of the time rented, but which he now cultivates. He was married in January, 1833, to Miss Maria E. CARTER, of Summit county, Ohio. They have had three children: William A., born December 25, 1833; Laura A., December 27, 1835, and Harley, January 13, 1838, died in infancy. Mr. BROWN was first a whig and afterward a republican, but with him party ties have now lost their strength, and henceforth he will vote for the best man.