Brown County IN Archives Biographies.....Brown, Elisha 1840 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 27, 2007, 5:26 pm

Author: B. F. Bowen (1904)

ELISHA BROWN.

   The prosperity and substantial welfare of a community depend very largely
upon the character and enterprise of its leading citizens. It is the
progressive, wide-awake men of affairs that make the real history of a county or
state and upon them also rests the responsibility of giving moral tone to the
body politic, of directing thought and shaping opinion, and of taking the lead
in all progressive measures for the public good. To this class of strong, virile
men belongs the well known and enterprising citizen whose name appears at the
head of this review, an individual of sterling character and sturdy worth, whose
influence has always been on the right side of every moral issue and whose name
stands for what is best and noblest in manhood.

   Elisha Brown is a representative of one of the oldest families of Brown
county, his father, Thomas Brown, having come to this part of the state when the
country was an unbroken wilderness, and it is said that he assisted in cutting
the road from Story to Columbus, one of the oldest highways in south central
Indiana. Thomas Brown was a native of North Carolina, and his wife, who bore the
maiden name of Mary O'Neil, was born in the state of Tennessee. They were
married in Jackson county, Indiana, and from there moved to Brown county, where
they spent the remainder of their lives, rearing a large family of seventeen
children.

   Elisha Brown was born in Brown county on January 21, 1840, and spent his
early life on his father's farm, with the rugged duties of which he became
familiar when quite a small boy. He was reared with a proper conception of life
and its responsibilities, early developed habits of industry and while still a
youth could perform a man's duty at almost any kind of outdoor manual labor.
Educational facilities being quite meager in the early day, he enjoyed few
school advantages, but such opportunities as presented themselves he improved
and in due time not only mastered the fundamental branches, but by reading and
studying at home, acquired a fund of valuable general information, a habit which
he has kept up to the present day, being at this time one of the best posted men
in his neighborhood.

   Mr. Brown was reared a farmer and when the time came to sever home ties and
begin life for himself he selected agriculture as best suited to his tastes and
inclinations, and has pursued the same with success and financial profit ever
since. He now owns a well cultivated farm of one hundred and fifty-three acres
in Van Buren township, on which he has made a number of substantial improvements
and in addition to tilling the soil devotes considerable attention to the
raising of live stock. Like all intelligent and enterprising men, Mr. Brown has
been fully cognizant of his duties as a citizen and of his obligation to the
public, in consequence of which he has long been an influential factor in the
affairs of his township and county, having served both in various official
capacities. For three years he held the office of constable and in 1890 was
appointed a member of the board of county commissioners to fill out an unexpired
term; so ably and faithfully did he discharge the duties of the latter position
that at the end of six months he was duly elected to the office by the
Democratic party for the regular term of three years, during which time he
rendered the people valuable service and added to his reputation as a capable,
painstaking, courteous and obliging official. He was again chosen in 1898, and
in 1902 was again re-elected, being at this time in his third term in one of the
most important and responsible public trusts within the power of the people to
bestow.

   Mr. Brown's official career has been characterized by duty well and
faithfully discharged and his record is above the slightest suspicion of
anything savoring of disrepute. Honorable and upright, he has made his
obligations to the public paramount to every other consideration, and his course
has met with the unqualified approval of his fellow citizens irrespective of
political ties, as is attested by the endorsement of his official acts and the
high esteem in which he is held. In addition to his long and honorable career as
a farmer and stock raiser and his record as a public servant, Mr. Brown points
with pardonable pride to a military experience during the latter part of the
great Civil war, which is replete with service rendered the government in one of
the darkest and most trying periods of its history. On December 19, 1864, he
enlisted in Company K, Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and immediately
thereafter accompanied his command to the front, where he conducted himself as a
brave and gallant soldier until the downfall of the rebellion, being honorably
discharged on June 26th of the year following. Although of brief duration, his
period of service was quite active and, as already indicated, it demonstrated
not only his loyalty to the government but a willingness if need be to lay down
his life in its defence.

   On the 10th day of May, 1859, Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Ellen
Noblet, of Brown county, daughter of Levi Noblet, a fortunate and in every
respect happy union, resulting in the birth of six children, namely: William H.,
Serene A., Esther N., G. W., Rive M. and Nancy E., all but G. W. living and
doing well, their homes being in Van Buren township not far from the old.
farmstead on which they were born and reared.

   Mr. Brown's career has been one of great activity and signal usefulness and,
having always lived within the limits of his native county, it is but natural
that he should become widely acquainted throughout the same and achieve worthy
prestige as an enterprising and progressive man of affairs. He has succeeded
well in all of his undertakings and is how the possessor of an ample competence'
for his declining years, while his high social standing and honorable dealings
have won him both friends and popularity among all classes and conditions of
people. His long period of residence has enabled him to become familiar with the
history of this part of the state and today there are few men in Brown county as
well posted in local annals as he. He has literally grown up with the country
and' has not only seen it developed from a comparative wilderness to its present
prosperous condition, but to the extent of his ability he has contributed of his
labor and influence to bring about the results that now obtain. He is a strong
minded, manly man of progressive ideas, liberally endowed with good common sense
and discriminating judgment, and his character and integrity are of the sturdy
kind that bear the test of the most searching criticism. His standard of manhood
is high, as is also his estimate of citizenship, and he has endeavored to
realize in himself these correct ideas. Living with noble objects in view and
shaping his conduct in harmony therewith, he has been an influential factor for
good and for years to come his worthy deeds and honorable name are destined to
live in the hearts and affections of the people among whom he bore so long and
so well his part in affairs of his native county.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
INDIANA

INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA

ILLUSTRATED

1904

B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER


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