Bio of BROWN, Rome G. (b.1862), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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ROME G. BROWN - Vol II, pg 142-146
Distinctively American in its lineal and collateral lines through many
generations, is the family of which Rome G. Brown is a representative, the
ancestry being traced back to Chad Brown, who as a passenger on the ship Martin
came from England in 1638 and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also
descended from John Putnam, ancestor of the New England Putnams, which branch of
the family included Generals Rufus and Israel Putnam of Revolutionary war fame.
On the maternal branch of the family tree appear the names of Anthony Stoddard
and Solomon Stoddard, the latter a Harvard graduate of 1662 and the first
librarian of Harvard College, so serving from 1667 until 1674.
Rome G. Brown, born in Montpelier, Vermont, June 15, 1862, is a son of Andrew
Chandler and Lucia A. (Green) Brown. He graduated from Harvard University in
1884 with the degree of A. B., magna cum laude, and with honorable mention in
mathematics, English composition, philosophy and history. After three years law
study in the office of B. F. Fifield, in his native city, he was admitted to the
Vermont bar in November, 1887, removing to Minneapolis in December. Here he
entered the law office of Colonel R. C. Benton and William P. Roberts, partners,
and was admitted to the firm under the style of Benton, Roberts & Brown, January
1, 1890. The death of Colonel Benton caused the dissolution of the firm in 1895,
and Mr. Brown then practiced alone until January 1, 1900, when he was joined by
Charles S. Albert and on the 1st of January, 1908, by Arnold L. Guesmer, under
the name of Brown, Albert & Guesmer. Mr. Albert removed to Spokane, Washington,
in 1911, and since then the firm name has been Brown & Guesmer, the partners
being Rome G. Brown, Arnold L. Guesmer, Harry S. Carson and Edwin C. Brown, with
their offices at 1000-12 Metropolitan Life building, Minneapolis.
In the course of an extensive general legal practice Mr. Brown has been
associated with many notable water rights cases before the state and federal
courts and the United States supreme court and has become a recognized authority
on the law relative thereto. Since 1910, he has performed important work in
remedying defects in state and federal laws handicapping water power
development. For ten years he rendered effective service in formulating and in
bringing about the passage of the Federal Water Power Act of 1920. Since 1910 he
has been professorial lecturer on the law of water rights in the University of
Minnesota Law School and in other law schools of the Northwest. Many of his
discussions on this subject have been published and widely distributed. His
discussion of the "Limitations of Federal Control of Water Powers," before the
National Waterways Commission in November, 1911, was published by the Congress.
Among his publications on other phases of this subject have been: "The
Conservation of Water Power"; "Federal Control of Water Power at Niagara Falls";
"Legislative Obstacles to the Improvement of Navigable Rivers"; "The Water Power
Problem in the United States"; and "Laws and Regulations Regarding the Use of
Water in Pan-American Countries."
From 1911 to 1919 Mr. Brown was chairman of the American Bar Association
Committee to oppose judicial recall and upon this subject he has been heard from
coast to coast before bar associations, professional societies and the laity.
His many arguments against judicial recall and socialism were so widely
published and distributed that they reached a total circulation of over two
million five hundred thousand. His Boston address of December, 1919, on
"Americanism v. Socialism," which included an exposè of the then spreading
Townley-Socialism in the Northwest, was used as a part of the educational
campaign against Townleyism in several state elections. Under Mr. Brown's
direction the Minneapolis Tribune led the fight in the Northwest against
Townleyism, which resulted in its overthrow in North Dakota, and its defeat in
Minnesota and in Nebraska and Kansas and other states in the elections of 1920.
In this connection Chief Justice William Howard Taft, in one of his syndicated
articles of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, wrote in June, 1921: "The American
Bar Association is entitled to great credit for its useful activity in a
campaign of education against the judicial recall and particularly against the
recall of judicial decisions, which for several years it carried on throughout
this country, and especially in those states where the idea had obtained a
dangerous foothold. The energies and abilities of Mr. Rome G. Brown of
Minneapolis, the chairman of the committee of the American Bar Association
charged with this task of popular education, were completely absorbed for years
in the work without reward, except the merited gratitude of his countrymen and
his fellow members of the legal profession."
On other subjects Mr. Brown has been a well known publicist. Besides his many
other published discussions are those on: "The Right to Refuse to Sell"; "The
Law of the Press"; "Legal Ethics"; and "The Minimum Wage"; also, a discussion on
"Three years course for the degree of A. B. at Harvard," the latter being a
report of a committee specially appointed to investigate the subject.
In connection with his general law practice Mr. Brown was for over twenty-five
years confidential legal adviser for William J. Murphy. Upon the death of Mr.
Murphy in 1918 he was called upon to assume the active management of a number of
corporations of which Mr. Murphy had been the principal owner and head. From
1918 to 1921 he was the president and executive manager of the Minnesota Tribune
Company (publisher of The Minneapolis Tribune) and of the Manistique Pulp &
Paper Company (owner of the large pulp and paper mill at Manistique, Michigan),
which supplies The Tribune with newsprint; also executive manager of the
Manistique Light & Power Company, the Crookston Water Works, Power & Light
Company and Electrical Development Company, both of Crookston, Minnesota, and
the William J. Murphy Company, the Frederick E. Murphy Company and the Red River
Farm and Land Company, all of which companies belonged to the W. J. Murphy
estate. The Manistique Pulp & Paper Mill, construction of which was only started
by Mr. Murphy, was completed and put into successful operation by Mr. Brown. The
financing of this enterprise, which had been undertaken by the Tribune Company
and other of the Murphy interests, covered that period following the war during
which the conditions of costs and credits were most abnormally unfavorable. The
entire assets of the Murphy estate were back of the Manistique enterprise, and
at times were threatened with being wiped out by reason of the burdens that had
been assumed. Late in 1921, however, Mr. Brown turned over all these properties
to the owners in a sound financial condition with earnings, net assets and
prospects exceeding anything experienced at any time in their history, having by
extraordinary effort and persistence brought them successfully through the
financial crises of those years. After this accomplishment Mr. Brown resumed the
active practice of his profession, in which he is still engaged. He also
maintained the highest journalistic standards in the publication of The
Minneapolis Tribune.
On the 25th of May, 1888, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Mary Lee Hollister.
daughter of Samuel Dwight and Flora (Coburn) Hollister of Plainfield, Vermont.
By the marriage of their only son, Edwin Chandler (partner in the law firm of
Brown & Guesmer), with Josephine Wilcox, was born on February 14, 1921, Rome
Hollister Brown. Their only daughter, Dorothy Hollister, resides in Minneapolis.
During his senior year at Harvard Mr. Brown was made a member of the Phi Beta
Kappa fraternity and he also has membership in the Pi Eta Society of Harvard. He
belongs to the Harvard clubs of Boston, New York and Minnesota, was president of
the Associated Harvard Clubs of the United States, 1906 to 1907, and has
membership in the American Universities Club of London, England. His local
affiliations are with the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Minneapolis Athletic and
Automobile clubs. He belongs also to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion and
to various economic, scientific and reform societies. Mr. Brown was honored with
the presidency of the Minnesota State Bar Association in 1906 and 1907 and from
1906 until 1909 was a member of the executive committee of the American Bar
Association. Since 1911 he has been chairman of the Minnesota State Board of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and in 1913 and 1914 was vice president of
the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.