Lake-Porter County IN Archives Biographies.....Brown, Mathew J. 1857 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 7, 2006, 10:17 pm Author: T. H. Ball (1904) MATHEW J. BROWN. Mathew J. Brown, who is popularly and extensively known throughout Lake and Porter counties as "Matt" Brown, has agricultural, live-stock and commercial interests perhaps as important as those of any other man in the county of Lake. He resides on section 19 of Eagle Creek township, where he has one of the beautiful homes of the vicinity. He has spent his life since birth mainly in this township, and has made himself by capacity for business transactions and integrity of personal character one of the influential factors of industrial and social activity. Mr. Brown was born in Eagle Creek township, October 31, 1857, being the third child of William and Mary J. (Wallace) Brown, whose individual history will be found on other pages of this work. He was reared and educated in his native township, attending first the country schools and afterward the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso. He began his career of activity by teaching in the winter and farming in the summer, continuing this manner of living until he was twenty-nine years old and meanwhile making his home with his father. At that time he took unto himself a wife, and then located on a farm about one mile east of his present residence. He rented eleven hundred and twenty acres for ten years, and carried on very extensive operations in general farming and stock-raising. At the same time he bought and sold much land, his transactions involving over two thousand acres altogether. At one time in his career he was engaged in farming two thousand acres. In 1900 he built his present residence at a cost of about eight thousand dollars, it being one of the model country homes of Lake county. He owns about a thousand acres, not a foot of which does he rent out to other parties. He pays out thousands of dollars for help and carries on all his extensive operations under his own direct supervision. He also has an extensive mercantile business at Hebron, in Porter county, and at one time he was a merchant of Lowell. He has a general store of his own at Hebron and also a half interest in a store with his brother. He has spent nearly all of the years of his active career in the hay and grain and live-stock business, and in fact will deal in nearly everything subject to barter, exchange or purchase. He is also senior member of the Hebron Lumber and Coal Company, which has extensive trade in its lines. Mr. Brown, on his farm, makes a specialty of raising fine Hereford cattle, and keeps about one hundred head of this beautiful stock. He has been highly prospered in all his enterprises, and for about twenty years has been recognized as one of the men of power and ability in trade and agricultural circles of eastern Lake county. Besides the multifarious duties and business interests of Mr. Brown, we may add that he has been extensively engaged as a thresher for twenty-five years in Eagle Creek and adjacent territory, and has met with his usual degree of success. He introduced the first steam thresher in Eagle Creek township and even at the present time (1904) has two or three outfits at work. He has been a stanch Republican since casting his first presidential ballot, and has not been content to sit idle while others performed the duties of citizenship. He was elected to the office of county commissioner in 1902, and is the nominee for a second term. He was serving as township trustee just before election to his present office. He is a member of the Masonic order at Hebron, Lodge No. 502, and also of the Knights of Pythias, Lodge No. 405, at the same place. March 31, 1886, Mr. Brown married Miss Mary A. Crawford, who was born in Eagle Creek township of Lake county, being a daughter of John and Adaline (Staley) Crawford. She was educated in the home schools and at the Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio. There were eight children born of this union: Joseph E., who is attending the Crown Point high school; Harry also in the Crown Point high school; William Jay, John Crawford, Ruby A., Kenneth D., Bessie and Mary H. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/brown407gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb