Mercer County PAGenWeb

James Wilson Brown


JAMES WILSON BROWN,  deceased, was born in Fayette County, Penn., October 2, 1794, and died in Greenville February 10, 1885, in his ninety-first year. His father, Hugh Brown, was a native of County Down, Ireland, who immigrated to Maryland, and there married Sarah Wilson,  born near White Hall, in that State. They afterward removed to Fayette County, Penn., and in 1799 came to what is now Mercer County, and located on a tract of 500 acres, immediately north of the site of Greenville. They reared a family of four sons and five daughters, all of whom, excepting one, became heads of families. Hugh Brown  died on his homestead November 25, 1845, aged eighty-three years, his wife having died June 15, 1838, aged sixty-eight. He was an elder of the Associate Presbyterian Church, of Greenville, about thirty years. James W. was nearly five years old when his parents settled in the Shenango Valley, and his subsequent life was spent in the vicinity of Greenville. He was married October 27, 1825, to Jane, daughter of Robert King, an early settler of Kinsman, Ohio. The following children were born of that union:  H. Wilson and Robert K., of Cincinnati, Ohio; James C., editor of the Greenville Advance Argus; Mary A., wife of Conrad Bittenbanner, of Greenville; Isabella, wife of Rufus Thompson, of Piper City, Ill.; John E.,  of Greenville; William A., killed by a runaway horse in 1848; Lizzie E., wife of John Annett, of Greenville, and Maggie J.,  a teacher in the public schools of this borough. Politically James W. Brown was originally a Democrat, subsequently joined the anti-Masonic and Whig parties, and finally became a Republican, being from early manhood a stanch opponent of slavery.

Source: History of Mercer County, 1888, page 779


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