Santa Clara-Alameda County CA Archives Biographies.....Brown, George Miller 1843 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 2, 2007, 4:27 am Author: Eugene T. Sawyer (1922) GEORGE MILLER BROWN.—Interesting, instructive and inspiring is the story of the part played by the many sons and daughters of historic old England who, in settling as pioneers in California and the neighboring sister states, have contributed mightily, through hard work, venture and sacrifice, to the upbuilding of great commonwealths. Prominent among such worthy pioneers of the "right little, tight little island" who have helped to lay broad and deep the foundations of romantic California, and in doing so best developed the resources of the Golden State, is George Miller Brown, a native of Gloucestershire, England, long prominent as one of the most successful growers of Bartlett pears in the Santa Clara Valley, and very influential—fortunately always in the direction of ennobling Christian endeavor and moral uplift—as a far-seeing capitalist. Mr. Brown was born at Stow-on-the-Wold, in Southwest England, on August 16, 1843, fortunate in his honorable parentage, but unhappily the family was so soon broken up that at a very early age he was compelled to push out into the world and struggle for himself. He went to school only until his eighth year, but being naturally apt, got more out of his books and teachers than many a child of less necessity. At nine years of age he drove a four-ox team hitched to a plow, being given that responsible job because he could "fill the bill" better than any grown-up workman on the place. Seeing the promise in the lad, his employer remarked, "George, you will beat your master yet," and this prophecy was, in time, literally fulfilled. He continued to work at farm labor on a large English estate, and when he was only fifteen he was made foreman and given charge of the cultivation of 300 acres, with a dairy and sheep, cattle and horses. In 1861 Mr. Brown left England for the United States, and landed in New York, then seething with its first year's participation in the Civil War; and probably on account of the disturbed conditions there, he went on to Hamilton, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. He accompanied his brother, James M. Brown, a tailor, who previously had made a trip to the United States, had gone as far as California, and had seen the stirring life of the gold diggings in 1850. George Brown entered the employ of a Hamilton doctor, and he continued with him until he came out to California. The steerage ticket to San Francisco at that time cost $100, which represented all the money Mr. Brown had been able to save; but a friend who was anxious that he go with him, and who had a small capital of $2,000, advanced him enough cash to enable him to reach the Promised Land. When he reached California, however, he had only twenty dollars left, so he went to work at once on a farm in Alameda County and stayed there a year. He repaid the thirty dollars advanced to him by his friend—repaying in shining gold—all within sixty days after his arrival in the Bay City in April, 1862. When he had been in California two and a half years, Mr. Brown followed his brother to Vancouver Island, where he preempted some land near Nanaimo, taking up 100 acres, and having brought with him, by boat, a yoke of oxen and four cows, he set to work to do the best he could with the undeveloped tract. At the end of two years, however, Mr. Brown was not suited with his location, and so he turned his claim, stock and all other possessions over to his brother and came back to California. He had a capital of $600 when he arrived at Nanaimo, and when he arrived in Alameda in 1866 his last two-bits were gone. He found his place open on Judge Hastings' farm and for ten months continued in his employ; and then he worked for Franklin Pancos, the pioneer strawberry grower, with whom he came to Santa Clara County and formed a partnership. They rented thirty-six acres in the Jefferson district, in Santa Clara County, in 1868, and put the entire tract in strawberries; later he formed a partnership with another young man who had set out ten acres to strawberries on a part of Mr. Brown's present land. About 1871 he bought out his partner, and then he continued to raise strawberries on rented land. He had twenty-two acres in berries and in the height of the season it took ninety-eight men to pick them before they spoiled, and when all his expenses had been paid, he had just ten dollars left. It took him thirteen years to pay for his first. twenty-two acres, the nucleus of his present place; since then he has added by purchasing adjoining until he has 102 acres in a body, and it took forty-four years to pay for it with all the improvements, for he kept right on improving. About forty years ago Mr. Brown helped put out the pear trees on what is now Mrs. Weston's place. There were some trees left, so he set them on his own place, which was the beginning of his present orchard, in what is now the greatest Bartlett pear district in California. Mr. Brown alone has 102 acres, which is said to be the finest Bartlett pear orchard in the United States—decidedly an inspiring triumph after years of hardship and discouragements. Mr. Brown and his wife also have other valuable realty holdings and are active in financial as well as commercial circles. In San Jose, January 29, 1885, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Emma Lobb, also a native of England, who was born at St. Hoswell, a daughter of Henry and Jane Lobb, who emigrated with their family via the Isthmus of Panama in 1869, to Nevada County, Cal.; the father was a miner in Grass Valley until they came to San Jose, where he and his wife passed their remaining years. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Brown has been blessed with the birth of five children: Alfred is the foreman of his father's ranch and is also the owner of pear orchards and a prominent nurseryman, raising all kinds of fruit trees for the wholesale and retail trade. He has come to be known as an authority on horticulture and his advice is frequently sought by others. Albert is engaged in auto transportation, having a fleet of trucks for the purpose; he married Miss Viola Chew and they have three children. His headquarters are in San Jose where he resides with his family. Walter, when only seventeen, enlisted for service, on the Mexican border, was later sent to France, where he was wounded, and was honorably discharged at the completion of his patriotic service; he married Isabel Shirley and they have one son. Ella L. is a graduate of the San Jose State Normal, and during the World War served for ten months in the Red Cross as a field volunteer, paying her own expenses. She went overseas, serving in France, and since her return makes her home with her parents. She is very fond of travel and is somewhat of a globe trotter, having visited every continent, as well as the South Seas, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies and Azores, and has also dug gold in Alaska. She has crossed the Arctic Circle and has sailed almost to the Antarctic Circle. She is now in charge of the relief work for San Jose Post No. 89, American Legion, and is a member of American Women's Overseas League of San Francisco. Edith, a graduate of the Santa Clara high school, was also very patriotic and was placed in charge of Red Cross work for the Jefferson district during the war. She is now the wife of Floyd Jamison, who served with the A. E. F. in France; he is an electrician, and they make their home in San Jose, where she is active in the work of Trinity Episcopal Church. In national political affairs a Republican, and in respect to creed and church membership an Episcopalian, Mr. Brown and his wife are broad-minded citizens, delighted when participating in church work under any acceptable banner. Mr. Brown's life is guided by the Golden Rule of doing unto others as he would be done by. He is one of the most liberal and enterprising men in Santa Clara County, and there is no worthy movement that has for its aim the betterment of the conditions and the enhancing of the happiness of the people of his community that does not receive his hearty support. He is well known as a very liberal contributor to civic organizations and the Red Cross, as well as other humanitarian societies. It is to men of the type of George Brown that California owes much of its present development, for he was not afraid to venture and work to develop the raw land until the orchards of the valley have become a world-famous garden spot. Mr. Brown is well read and well informed, and having a retentive memory and being a good narrator of events, is an interesting conversationalist. He has a comfortable home, and being a big-hearted man, he loves to dispense the old-time California hospitality, so that it is indeed a pleasure to enjoy a visit with this pleasant old pioneer. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH Biographical Sketches OF The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY EUGENE T. SAWYER ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 1922 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/santaclara/bios/brown1218nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 9.7 Kb