Napa-San Bernardino-Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Brown, Smith 1819 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 29, 2007, 6:33 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

SMlTH BROWN is the manager of the Eshcol Vineyard and Winery, of which James H.
Goodman & Company are the proprietors. This ranch contains 300 acres, 200 in
vineyard and about twenty-five in orchard, and a portion was originally planted
in 1882. It has been largely replanted by the present owners. The winery has a
storage capacity of 300,000 gallons; building, 125 x 75, of three stories; the
first floor devoted to storage, the second floor to fermenting and storage, and
the upper floor to the crushing of grapes. This product is sold to the trade in
Napa and San Francisco. Mr. Brown has been a resident of California since 1852,
and of Napa County since 1855. Born in Burrillsville, Rhode Island, In 1819, he
attended the public schools of his native place, and later an academy in Fall
River, up to the age of eighteen. Two years afterward he embarked in the grocery
business in Providence, under the firm name of Brown & Steere, Selling out to
his partner, he assisted to organize and was chosen president of the first
company to establish a factory and engage in the manufacture of India rubber,
before Goodyear's experiments were known to the world. With three friends he
furnished one-third the capital which enabled the original discoverer of the
vulcanizing process, Martin, to perfect and develop that great invention. They
began with the manufacture of rubber shoes in a small way. For their own
amusement the girls employed in the factory made little toys and animals, and
gradually the business extended into new directions. After one trip through the
west Mr. Brown arrived home to find his factory destroyed by tire, and Goodyear,
who had meantime patented his process for preparing rubber, brought suit
enjoining the company from further manufacturing. As so much had been lost by
the tire he sold out his interests and removed to Baltimore, where he
established the first stove foundry in the State of Maryland. Of this he made
quite a success, increasing the plant to $50,000, but in 1849 his foundry was
burned, leaving only a lot of scrap-iron as the result of his labors there. He
then went to Massachusetts and engaged in the woolen manufacture wiht [sic] an
uncle; but, his health failing, he spent one winter in Missouri, and in the
spring of 1852 started on his trip across the plains, coming by way of Salt Lake
and the Mojave Desert, and arriving at the little Mormon town of San Bernardino
in 1852. He spent the winter there and at Los Angeles, coming to San Francisco
in the spring of 1858, where he opened a livery stable on the corner of
California and Webb streets, which he carried on for about two years. In 1855 he
put on the first line of stages running between Sonoma, Petaluma, Napa, the
White Sulphur Springs and Sacramento, meantime, for one year, owning and
conducting the Napa Hotel in connection with his stage line. He sold out both in
1858, and, buying 1,000 acres of land from Cajetano Juarez, he engaged in grain
and stock farming until 1866. During this time, with Sam Brannan and others, he
built the railroad from Soscol to Calistoga, and was its president until it was
sold to Ryder & Roelofson in 1872. Mr. Brown was interested in quartz mining in
California, Nevada and Mexico from 1858 until he sold out his last mine at
Angel's Camp, in Calaveras County, in 1887.

  Mr. Brown was married in 1840 to Miss Chloe Thayer, a native of Douglas,
Massachusetts, who was the daughter of Marvel and Lucinda Thayer. Both were
descended from old New England stock. They have three children living: Frances
B., now the widow of Henry Edgerton; Summit, now the wife of Homer S. King, of
San Francisco, and Dana W., now residing in Nevada, and in the employ of the
Carson & Colorado Railroad. For many years of his earlier residence in
California Mr. Brown dealt largely in cattle, driving them from Mexico and
Southern California. During his entire manhood he has been actively engaged in
large business interests. He has property in Seattle, Washington, and large
landed interests in this State. He was appointed a member of the State Board of
Equalization by Governor Newton Booth in 1872.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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