Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Brown, Nathaniel J 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com September 5, 2007, 9:41 pm

Author: Biographical Publishing Company

NATHANIEL J. BROWN. A record of the life of Nathaniel J. Brown is, to a large 
degree, a record of the development of the middle western states. Few of his 
colaborers of pioneer days are now living. He stands, a link between the 
living, prosperous present and the distant, frontier past, and in his 
declining years may view, with just pride, the civilization and advancement of 
Illinois, toward which he was so important a contributor. Like the majority of 
pioneers, he started out a poor boy, without special advantages. Possessing a 
rugged frame and extraordinary business ability, his early youth foreshadowed 
his successful career. The high position he attained and the influence he 
wielded were the result of his sagacity, foresight and his talent for marking 
out a new course in the business world. His ability to grasp alike great 
enterprises and minute details aided him from the first, while his 
perseverance and force of character also proved potent factors in his 
progress.  

While circumstances have entirely changed from the conditions of seventy and 
eighty years ago, and a young man could not now make the start that he made in 
his youth, yet there is much in his career to be emulated; and the sequel of 
his success shows how, with industry, determination and an active mind, a man 
may attain wealth and prominence in any community.

The life which this narrative sketches began in Windsor, Vt., January 27, 
1812. The family was a large one, comprising twelve children, but Governor 
Brown (for by his honorary title our subject is best known) alone survives. 
His father, Daniel B. Brown, a Vermonter by birth and ancestry, removed to 
Oswego, N. Y., thence to Niagara County, the same state, and finally settled 
in Ann Arbor, Mich., in a very early day. At the time of his last removal 
Nathaniel J. was a boy of fourteen years. He had received a common-school 
education and after settling on the frontier turned his attention to business 
pursuits, for which he showed decided talent.  

As an agent he became connected with a stage line projected by his older 
brother, Anson, from Detroit to the mouth of the St. Joseph River. This 
position afforded him an opportunity to gain information regarding the 
possible location of new towns. One less quick-witted might not have perceived 
this opportunity, but Mr. Brown was far too keen and sagacious to permit an 
advantage to pass by unheeded. It was in this way that he was led to make 
investments in Kent, Ionia and Clinton Counties, all of which investments 
brought him large returns. In Kent County he bought a large tract of timber 
land, and, although the lumber business had not yet been developed, he saw in 
this land a chance to make gratifying profits, so he built a mill on the 
property and engaged in sawing lumber. In the spring of 1835, as soon as the 
Grand River was clear of ice, he and an assistant took six schooner loads of 
lumber from Grandville to Grand Haven a perilous undertaking, and one that was 
never made before or afterward. Arriving at Grand Haven, he loaded the lumber 
on the "White Pigeon," which he had chartered. With the cargo he proceeded to 
Chicago, where he arrived April 4. He sold the lumber there for $28 per 
thousand feet. In one year he sold enough lumber to pay for all of his land, 
together with the mill and the expenses connected with its operation.

It was during this first visit to Chicago that Governor Brown made the 
acquaintance of Augustus Garrett, now best known as the founder of Garrett 
Biblical Institute of Evanston, Ill. Mr. Garrett, who was engaged in selling 
drygoods and town lots, proposed to Mr. Brown that they form a partnership, 
and an arrangement was made that did not interfere with Mr. Brown's 
speculations in Michigan. The firm platted a town site at the geographical 
center of Ionia County, Mich., and Mr. Brown went to the new town of Ionia, 
where he remained for a time, and, when he sold all of his holdings in the 
place, he realized a small fortune therefrom. The money was invested in 
Chicago property. He and his partner purchased from John Bates, the first 
postmaster of Chicago, a lot on Dearborn street opposite the present site of 
the Tremont House. On this lot was a large building, and in it they started 
what soon became the most famous auction house in the west. Their store was 
filled with goods of all kinds, sent from the east to be sold at auction or 
traded for town lots. In time the firm owned three large establishments, and 
consignments of merchandise wrere received by them every day. Their sales of 
real-estate, however, were more important than those of dry goods. Not only 
did they sell Chicago property, but also land in other parts of Illinois and 
in Wisconsin and Michigan. At one time they owned nine thousand acres in and 
around Chicago, and their holdings would now represent an almost fabulous sum. 
After the decay of the real-estate boom in 1837 their partnership dissolved.

When the first territorial legislature of Wisconsin met at Belmont in 1836, 
they decided upon the site of the capitol. No one knew what town would be 
selected as the capital, but speculators were alive to the importance of the 
occasion and all wished to invest in property in the town selected. In order 
that he might have first choice in selecting land, Mr. Brown sent Jerry Ford 
to Belmont to watch legislative proceedings, while he himself remained in 
Milwaukee. Mr. Ford took with him three of the fastest horses he could find, 
stationing them on the road between Milwaukee and Belmont. When the act 
locating the capital was passed, Ford conveyed the news to him on horseback, 
reaching Milwaukee eighteen hours in advance of any other official or 
messenger. This gave Mr. Brown abundant opportunity to make a selection of 
such lands as he desired in the neighborhood of Madison, and he located for 
himself and friends fifty-six tracts of eighty acres each, for which he paid 
$1.25 an acre. In addition he sent a special messenger to Buffalo and 
purchased from a  man there more than fourteen hundred acres of land, on a 
part of which the State University of Wisconsin is now located. Another 
profitable investment was the purchase of a quarter section of land at the 
mouth of the Milwaukee River, which he bought for $4,000 and sold for $27,000.

When work on the Illinois and Michigan canal commenced, Mr. Brown, at the 
solicitation of the president of the board of canal commissioners, accepted a 
contract to complete two sections of the canal, running through what is now 
the village of Lemont. The sections embraced one mile of a deep cut through 
solid rock, where the famous limestone quarries have since been developed. The 
work was rapidly and successfully carried forward by Mr. Brown. However, 
through the removal of the government deposits from the United States Bank, 
that institution and allied interests were brought into serious financial 
difficulty. A panic was precipitated. The state of Illinois was one of the 
greatest sufferers and was unable to meet its obligations. Consequently Mr. 
Brown suffered an enormous loss. In compliance with an act of legislature, 
passed some years later, his claim against the state was placed on file with 
others at Springfield, for the purpose of adjustment, but that adjustment has 
never been effected. However, what seemed to be a total loss for Mr. Brown was 
by his shrewdness made the basis of a future profit; for during his work as a 
contractor he had noticed the splendid quality of the deposits of limestone 
and recognized that it would become very valuable in future days. He therefore 
acquired a large body of stone land, erected a residence at Lemont, and turned 
his attention to the development of the stone quarries that are now among the 
most famous in the country. Some very substantial and prominent buildings of 
the west were built of stone from his quarries, among them the old court house 
in Chicago, the Illinois state capitol at Springfield and the Iowa state house 
at Des Moines. For some years the quarries have been leased, the owner being 
paid a liberal royalty on all stone taken out.

During early life Mr. Brown was a Democrat, but at the time of the Civil war 
became a supporter of the Union and President Lincoln's administration, since 
which time he has affiliated with the Republicans. When he had in his employ 
hundreds of men he often found it difficult to secure those who were sober and 
reliable. Those employed on the canal in early days were, as a class, 
turbulent and riotous. Drinking and carousals frequently led to serious 
altercations between the men.   

Believing that the men should be taught the wisdom of temperance, Mr. Brown 
called to his assistance a number of Roman Catholic priests and had them 
organize a Father Mathew Temperance Society, the first of the kind in northern 
Illinois. About three hundred Irishmen took the pledge and put on the badge of 
the order, in consideration of which Mr. Brown paid them $1 a month in 
addition to their regular wages. For more than two years either Father 
DuPontavos, a French priest, or Father Plunkett, an Irish priest, made his 
home with Mr. Brown, and worked with him for the bettering of the workmen's 
condition. The result was that, during the five years of his canal work, not a 
saloon was to be found on the section of which he had control, nor could any 
intoxicating liquors be obtained there. Drunken orgies were no longer known. 
The men were said to be the most orderly of any on the line of the canal. Nor 
was a man injured at his work during all of this time.

In looking back over the past, Mr. Brown can justly reflect with pleasure upon 
his connection with the growth of northeastern Illinois. From the frontier 
days to the present time he has been interested in every worthy movement in 
his locality. His life stretches almost through the entire century at whose 
close we now stand. He has seen railroads introduced, and now long trains of 
cars sweep through lands over which the lonely frontiersmen once roamed; the 
clanking of machinery, the curling wreaths of smoke from innumerable 
factories, the busy streets, magnificent stores and offices, form a striking 
contrast to the Chicago of his youth. He remembers the beginning of the 
Illinois and Michigan canal and the throwing of the first shovelful of earth 
in inaugurating that enterprise; and he has lived to see the opening of the 
new canal, with its remarkable reversal of the laws of gravity and of nature—
an enterprise justly deserving of being classed among the wonders of the 
world. For sixty-five years intimately associated with the history of 
Illinois, he has made an enviable record as a business man and a citizen, and 
may well be congratulated on the fruition of his early hopes and efforts.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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