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Submitted by Cheryl VanWormer



					MATHEW BROWN
				MRS. MARY C. (CUMMINGS) BROWN
				  MRS. MELINDA (KYLE) BROWN

	Mathew Brown one of the early settlers and prominent farmers of the township of Keene, 
was born in the town of Cyduff, county of Tyrone, Ireland, Feb. 4, 1822.  His father, Robert 
rown, was a farmer; he married Miss Sarah Kyle and reared a family of twelve children, six boys 
and six girls.; he possessed a finished education, and was in the military service until his 
attained his twenty-second year.  In 1831 the family came to America and settled in the town of 
West Bloomfield, Oakland Co., Mich., where the elder Brown purchased a farm and where he resided 
until his decease, which occurred in his eighty-second year.
	Mathew was thrown upon his own resources when eleven years of age.  He obtained 
employment upon a farm at four dollars per month, and continued to work in that capacity until 
he was twenty-two years of age.  In 1840 he came to Keene and located one hundred and twenty 
acres of land; he shortly after returned to Oakland, where he remained some years.
	In April, 1849, he was married to Miss Mary C. Cummings, of Oakland County.  She was born
in Orange Co., N. Y., June 27, 1828.  After his marriage he made a permanent settlement upon his
property in Keene, in which he has since resided.
	Jan. 1, 1869, Mrs. Brown died, and in December of that year he was again married, to Miss
Melinda Kyle.  She was born in Macomb Co., Mich., Oct. 17, 1841.
	In his religious belief Mr. Brown is a Methodist, in political matters a Republican.  He 
is emphatically a self-made man.  Starting in life at the early age of eleven, he has by his own
 efforts attained merited success in all departments of life, and is in every way worthy of the
prominent position he holds among the representative farmers of Ionia County.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Pages 235-236.  Keene.