Brown - Iral Teal - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Brown - Iral Teal

IRAL TEAL BROWN

Source: Zach, Karen Bazzani. Montgomery Medicine Men and Women. Crawfordsville, Indiana: Montgomery County Historical Society, 2002.

Born October 30, 1826 in Perry County, Kentucky Iral Brown was the son of Anias and Dorcas Gibson Brown who were early settlers of Montgomery County, having purchased a farm near New Ross in 1831. Dr. Brown was proud of his ancestors. John Brown, father of Anias served as an officer in the American Revolution. In the mid-1840s, Iral Teal began the study of medicine under Dr. Thomas W. Fry, a well-known surgeon in our area and whose biography appears in this work. Brown attended Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati. On June 15, 1847, he married Jane Washington. The following year, he opened an office in Waynetown, moving to Alamo the next year, where he practiced for more than a half centry prior to his death which occurred March 18, 1907, after he caught cold while attending a funeral i Crawfordsville. Possessed of a kind heart, Dr. Brown rode his horse mile upon mile administering to his flock, many of whom were pioneers of our county and most of whom preceded him to the grave. Much of his work was free gratis. His son, Alonzo F. Brown, a Wabash graduate took ove rhis practice and remained Alamo's most prominent physicians until his death in mid-October, 1910. Iral Brown was the father of five other children with only one of those, Edna (who married a Judge Stimson of Terre Haute) living to an old age. An active member of the Methodist Church and staunch Republican, Iral left his last wife of three, Susan Layson, as a survivor. Dr. Brown was buried at Alamo.

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Source: Portrait & Biographical Records of Montgomery, Parke & Fountain Counties, Indiana. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1893, p571

IRA L. BROWN, M.D., living on Section 29, Ripley Township, is known and honored throughout Montgomery County as one of the oldest resident physicians of this part of the state, who has been in successful practice here for forty years and more, and is likewise greatly esteemed for the value of his citizenship. The Doctor was born near Layton, Ky., in the year 1826. He is the descendant of an officer of the Revolution, his great-grandfather, a native of South Carolina, having been a lieutenant in the Continental Army.

The grandfather of subject was John Brown, who was born in South Carolina on the Little Pedee river. He was a farmer by occupation. He married Mary Vance, and they had six children, as follows: John, the eldest, born in Virginia, who came to Indiana in 1831, and was one of its pioneer farmers; David, who was born in Kentucky, was a soldier in the Union army several years, and is now farming in his native state; Elijah, who was born in Kentucky, came to this county in 1831, married Sarah Lewis at the crossing of the Raccoon, and subsequently farmed in Boone County until his death; Levi, who was born in Kentucky, and settled on a farm in Iowa, where he died; Desdemona, who was born in Kentucky and married John Kelly, a farmer who is prominent in church affairs, and Amos, who was born in Kentucky, married Miss Gibson, a native of Virginia, in 1825, came to this county in 1831, and purchased eighty acres of land in New Ross, where he settled. To him and his wife were born the following children: Our subject, who is the eldest of the family; Eliza, who was married in 1849 to Henry Long, a farmer of Kansas; John, a carpenter in Union County, Postmaster in his town from the election of Lincoln until Cleveland's administration, and who married Martha Burke; Nathan, who was a member of the Forty-first Indiana Calvary, under Capt. Stewart, was mortally wounded at Stone river in 1863, and returning to the old homestead, died a month later; Rebecca, who died in 1873 at the residence of her brother, our subject; Hiram A., who was born in 1847, and is now a farmer in central Illinois. A mere boy when the Rebellion broke out, in 1863 he enlisted and was made Captain of his company. His regiment was penned in at Knoxville and had a desperate encounter with the rebels.

After obtaining the preliminaries of his education in the district school our subject studied medicine under the instruction of Dr. Hesington, who was one of the first physicians in the county. Having thus gained a thorough practical knowledge of his chosen profession, Dr. Brown entered upon his long and prosperous career at Waynetown in 1848. In 1849 he came to his present place of residence in Ripley Township. During these long years he has enjoyed an active and lucrative practice that has taken him to all parts of the county and even beyond its bounds, and he early established himself in the favor of the people to whose ills he has administered so ably and so faithfully. He had to combat a great deal of malarial fever in an early day, but since the land has been so extensively placed under cultivation and the country has become well settled it has disappeared altogether.

The Doctor is exceedingly happy in his domestic ties, and has a wife who understands full well how to make home a comfortable and attractive abiding place. Her maiden name was Maud E. J. Warbuton, and she was born in 1827, her parents being James and Jane Warbuton. Our subject and his wife have three children, Florence, Jane E. and Alonzo F. Florence was born January 1, 1850, and married Wesley Roundtree, who died, leaving a farm of three hundred acres. Jane is the wife of R. Stumps, a leading lawyer at Terre Haute, and a prominent temperance worker in that city. They have two daughters, who are twins, sixteen years of age. Alonzo was born in 1855, studied medicine with his father, was graduated from the Indiana Medical College, and is in active practice in Fountain County. He was married at Crawfordsville in 1890, to Miss Lillie Remely.

Our subject's name is associated with much that has been done to benefit the township and raise the standard of its morality, and he has always been thoroughly alive to its highest interests. He has been a prominent figure in county politics from the time that he attained his majority. He was a Whig in early days, and is now a Republican, tried and true. The Doctor was an ardent Abolitionist, and is the only one now living in this part of the country who was engaged in the famous "Underground Railroad" service by which so many slaves found their way to freedom in Canada. Our subject was one of the founders and charger members of the Alamo Lodge of Odd Fellows, No. 144. A true Christian gentleman, whose life has been guided by the highest principles of integrity and right living, the Doctor is an exemplary member of the Presbyterian Church, and has given of his means freely to advance its interests. His son is also of the Presbyterian faith, and is an Elder in the church. -- typed by kbz

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Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal, Mar. 19, 1907

Dr. Iral L. Brown, one of the oldest practitioners of the County of the old school type of physicians, and one of the highly respected citizens of Ripley township, succumbed to progressive paralysis last evening at half-past nine at his home in Alamo, after an illness of one year. He attended a funeral in this city about two months ago and has since been getting gradually worse and has been confined to his bed for the past two weeks. Dr. I. L. Brown, as he was familiarly called, has been practicing medicine at Alamo for more than half a century. He was one of the old school of physicians and rode miles and miles on horseback to see his patients during the earlier part of his career when the land surrounding his home was being cleared for the plowshare by the early pioneers who have nearly all preceded him to the grave. Those were the days before a gravel road had been thought of. Possessed of a kind heart, Dr. Brown has ministered to the wants of many a patient from whom he never expected to get a cent. For the past few years he has made little attempt to do any practicing and it was several years ago that he began to retire in favor of his son, Dr. A. L. Brown of Alamo. Besides his son he had one daughter, Mrs. S. C. Stimson of Terre Haute, wife of Judge Stimson. Dr. Brown was born in Kentucky, but came here when he was quite young. He was past eighty years of age. He was thrice married, the last time to Mrs. Susan Layson of this city about two years ago. The deceased was a member of the Methodist churchand in politics a staunch Republican. The funeral will occur at the Methodist church in Alamo at 2 o'clock on Wednesday and will be conducted by Rev. Fisher and Rev. Kenaston of this city, assisted by the church choir. The interment will take place at the Alamo Cemetery. -- typed by kbz

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