BROWN-P.B. - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

P.B. BROWN, Proprietor of Brown Hotel, Covington, was born in Schoharie county New York, July 6 1809, His parents John B.M. & Sallie Brown, were natives of New York, and there the elder Brown followed his trade, blacksmithing. He was one of the heroes of the war of 1812, and died in Wood county Ohio, aged sixty-five. His wife survived him till 1848, when she died at about the same age. The subject of the sketch spent his youth mostly in the school-room and when eighteen years old began clerking in a store. In 1835 he engaged in business for himself in Wood county Ohio, which he continued about five years. In 1851 he located in the same business at Terre Haute Indiana and remained five years. Mr. Brown was then engaged as salesman with a New York house for eleven years. In 1862 he obtained a position as clerk in the interior department at Washington and continued in the government employ until 1873. He next returned to Covington and again became proprietor of the Sloan Hotel. This burning in 1876, he took possession of the Globe House, now known as the Brown House, the largest hotel in the city. Mr. Brown is a prominent Odd Fellow, having been grand master of the state, and was also the first worshipful master of Covington Lodge of Freemasons. Mr. Brown was married in 1838 in Ohio, to Sarah C. Colburn, a native of New Hampshire, She was born in 1818 and died August 15 1878. She was an industrious woman, beloved by her acquaintances and sadly missed by her husband.