DAVID A. BROWN

BIOGRAPHY

AS RECORDED IN:

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF TOLLAND AND WINDHAM COUNTIES CONNECTICUT.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS AND OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLED FAMILIES.

PUBLISHER: J.H.BEERS & CO., CHICAGO; 1903 P. 1257

DAVID A. BROWN was born Sept. 7, 1862, in Tolland, Conn., and is a son of Smith Harness Brown, who was born in Smithfield, R.I., Oct. 1, 1829.

Smith H. Brown was taken by his parents when he was about four years old to Tolland, where his life was spent. They had bought a farm, and there he spent his boyhood and youth in attendance on the local schools, which he left when he was nineteen years old to devote himself to the cultivation of the soil. A very successful farmer, when he died he owned more land than any other man in Tolland county, having over 1200 acres in his hands. His death occurred Aug. 19, 1900, and his reputation was that of an honest and thoroughly industrious man. After leaving school he taught for nine winters in Tolland. Mr. Brown was a man of domestic habits and was devoted to his family. He was a Democrat and represented his town in the State Legislature in 1864, and was first selectman for a number of years. He served on the
board of relief, was assessor, school visitor and constable at different times, and for many years was a justice of the peace.

Smith H. Brown was married to his first wife, Roxanna Crandall, Oct. 25, 1854. She was born in 1829, and died without issue, May 31, 1855. In January, 1857, Mr. Brown was married to his second wife, Maria M. Crandall, a sister of his first wife. She was born April 7, 1825, and is a daughter of Amos and Eunice (Day) Crandall. To this marriage were born: Emma R., born March 26, 1858, who married Arthur P. Kingsbury, of Coventry, and died Jan. 19, 1879; Elisha P., born Sept. 11, 1859, now living in Bloomfield, Conn., foreman for the Hartford Lumber Company, who married, Jan. 11, 1890, Emma R. Hall, of Coventry; Seth, born April 12, 1861, who is living in Chicago, where he is engaged in the grocery business, and who married Hattie Hodgkin, of West Superior, Wis.; David A.; George M., born June 15, 1865,
who died Nov. 27, 1893, in Waterbury, where he was engaged as a telephone operator; Lizzie M., born March 10, 1866, deceased Dec. 6, 1884; Smith H., Jr., born Aug. 20, 1867, now living in Newport, R.I., where he has charge of a wholesale grocery house.

Seth Brown, the grandfather of David A., was born in 1804 and died April 10, 1870, in Mansfield, Conn. Farming was his life business, and he is remembered as an industrious and hard-working man. As he was a man of more than ordinary ability, he was called upon to fill various town offices, and served as selectman for several years. Almina Green, his wife, was born in Smithfield, R.I., and died in Worcester, Mass., in 1892. Their children were as follows: Smith H., noted above; Abbie Matilda, born in 1835, who married Charles Wesley Charter; Jane Malinda, born Jan. 13, 1839, married to Samuel C. Bradley, of Rockville; Albert Arnold, deceased in infancy; Lotina Almina, born in 1844, who married Frank A. Foster; Martin Arnold, born in 1846, who married Lydia Slade; Harriet Eunice, born in 1848, married to Arnold Richardson.

David A. Brown received his education in the common schools of Tolland, which he left at the age of seventeen, to apply himself to the work of life. For several winters he taught district schools and worked on his father’s place during the summer. When he married, in 1886, he leased the old Jonathan Webster farm in the town of Berlin, where he continued for three years. At the end of that time he came back to Tolland and purchased a farm in the south part of the town on “Grant’s Hill.” Six years later this farm was sold and Mr. Brown bought the Joshua Griggs farm of 140 acres, situated in Tolland street, and is engaged in general farming and dairying.

Mr. Brown is a Democrat and takes an active part in town affairs. He represents his town in the State Legislature of 1903, and has held many
offices in the town, including first and second selectman, assessor, member of the board of relief, and justice of the peace. He has been a member of the board of school visitors since 1889 and acting school visitor for eight years.

Mr. Brown is an attendant at the Methodist Church, of which his wife is a member, and she is also a member of the ladies’ societies connected with the church.

Mr. Brown was married March 24, 1886, to Ida Augusta Webster, who was born Feb. 10, 1864, and is a daughter of Gardner and Martha (Drake) Webster, of Tolland. Their children are: (1) Howard Gardner, born Aug. 18, 1888, in Berlin, Conn., who dropped dead Nov. 10, 1900; Lizzie Maria, born Feb. 5, 1891, in Tolland, who died Aug. 13, 1892; Ruby Evelyn, born Nov. 21, 1893; George Smith, born April 21, 1895; Doris Miriam, born April 22, 1897.

Mrs. Brown is a great-granddaughter of Simeon Webster, who was a soldier in the Revolution, and had a yearly pension of $96 until his death in 1841, at the age of eighty-four. Her grandfather, Milton Webster, was a prosperous farmer of Tolland.

Mr. Brown comes of an old and honored New England family and he well sustains the honor of the name. He is a prosperous and successful farmer, and is much esteemed by his neighbors for his sterling worth and genuine character.

Reproduced by:

Linda D. Pingel – great-great granddaughter of Cyrus White of Rockville, Ct.