Bibb County AlArchives Biographies.....Brown, Jesse August 6, 1765 - May 3, 1833
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Laurel Baty laurelbaty@comcast.net June 20, 2008, 7:11 am

Author: S. L. Johnson

Brief History of Bibb County
By S. L. Johnson
[This is a clipping marked 1947 and sent to me by a cousin, Margaret 
Griffith.  My guess is that it comes from the Bibb County Newspaper.]

   Among those who came as pioneers to Bibb County before Alabama became a state 
was Jesse Brown, the elder.  The lands which he entered upon were between what 
is now known as Gary Springs, and Town Branch, that is the small stream which 
crosses the highway between Centreville and Smith creek on the Montevallo 
road.  The lands which made up the Jesse Brown homestead are now in the 
forest.  His lands were bounded on the west by Hardy Johnson, and on the east 
by the present Gary Springs tract, and which was later entered upon by his son 
Jesse.
   Jesse Brown was born in South Carolina on August 6th 1765, and married 
Obedience Leggett.  Their children were Asa, Leecy, Charlotte, Obedience, 
David, Martha Carroll, Jesse and Harriett.  From these many descendants have 
lived in many parts of the land, and many live now in Bibb County.  These are 
Arnolds, Cottinghams, Wilsons, Perrys, Rices, Johnsons and others.  Martha 
Carroll Brown was my own grandmother.
   But here I wish to speak of the descendants of Charlotte who was born February 
3rd, 1796. She married Wyatt Arnold about the year 1825, and they entered upon 
lands and built a house on it south of and adjoining the David Brown place at 
Brown Branch six miles east of Centreville. They lived all their lives out at 
this place and reared a large family. Their children were named Vincent, 
Elizabeth, Obedience, Pressley, Marion and William.
   Marion I knew best, and it is of him that I wish to write now.  His full name 
was Francis Marion, and like the illustrious warrior for whom he was named, he 
made a good soldier.  He enlisted in the Confederate Army at the beginning of 
the war and served until the end and was only very slightly wounded.  When he 
returned from the war he found a girl living in the home of his Aunt 
Martha Johnson (my grandmother) about a mile from his home, who had been left 
an orphan in Perry County and had found a home with my grandmother.  Her name 
was Mary Fulton, and Marion courted and married her, and they built a house 
on his father's lands and directly south and half way to grandmother's house.
Marion and Mary reared four children, named Lee, Sidera, Ella and Frances.  Of 
these the two youngest are dead, while Lee lives in Montgomery and Sidera 
lives in Ensley.  One of Frances' daughters is Mrs. J. E. Cates of near Rocky, 
and one of Lee's sons, Hudson Arnold lives at West Blocton.
   Except for his war years, Marion Arnold lived all of his life at the home he 
built. He was a man of strong character and made a deep imprint upon the life 
and times in which he lived and moved.  He was a life long member of the 
Baptist church and served as church clerk perhaps fifty years.  He was devoted 
to his home and family and never spent much time away from his house when he 
was not away at work.  He was sober, honest and industrious to a remarkable 
degree.  He had little or no patience with idlers and pitied poor managers.
He was so frugal and stern in his attitude towards laziness and bad morals 
that he was called stingy and curious.  On poor lands and with no better start 
after the war than others, he seemed to make better progress and made an 
easier living than his neighbors.  He always had fatter stock, made better 
crops and was never in debt. 
   As a child I saw him every week and as I grew old enough to observe I wondered 
how he could do it.  After we had moved away from the farm to Blocton I came 
back one spring season and plowed for him about a month. I was a ten year old 
lad, but I observed while I was there how he did it. He had a good mind and he 
had learned how to plan ahead and by using all advantages he was able to do 
more with the little he had in hand than his neighbors.
   He represented a fertilizer concern in Selma for many years and he ordered car 
loads which arrived at Ashby and all of our community went each Spring to haul 
it home for fertilizing cotton.
   Marion and his wife, Mary, and daughter, Frances, who married Crockett 
McKinney are buried in the cemetery at Rocky Church.
Marion's oldest brother Vincent settled at Six Mile and reared a large family 
of four sons and three daughters.  The sons were LaFayette, Wyatt, Felix and 
Elbert.  The daughters were Averzina, Avo and Maude.  Elbert at about 85 lives 
and carries on at Six Mile, one hundred and eighty-five years from the day his 
great-grand-father Jesse Brown was born in Carolina.

Additional Comments:

Jesse Anderson Brown's memorial on Find-a-Grave gives his birth date
as August 6, 1769.  He is buried in the Brown Family Cemetery in
Bibb County.


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