BIO: Joseph T. Brown, Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Blair County, PA Contributed April 2003 for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches By J. N. Tillard Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 Eventful Life of JOSEPH BROWN Veteran of Civil War and Pennsylvania Railroad Company Defied Wounds, Accidents and Physical Hardship - Social Leader in His Younger Days THERE is no more conspicuous figure in the ranks of the Union Veteran Legion in the days when they turn out to bid a last farewell to a comrade who has obeyed the summons of the Great Commander, than Joseph T. Brown of the East end. His gigantic frame, leading the depleted column of world-worn and weary men who nearly a half century ago marched so blithely to the rescue of our imperiled liberties, always attracts attention. Wounds, railroad accidents and other physical hardships that would long ago have put most men out of the running have been unable to conquer that strong spirit and splendid physique. Though badly battered, he is still in the ring and ids fair to stay there for many years yet. One spring day in the early sixties, while riding a raft of longs down the turbulent water of the Susquehanna, after having spent the previous winter in cutting and dragging them to the banks of the Clearfield Creek, he heard that Fort Sumter had been fired upon. Dropping pike pole and peevy, he picked up the musket and started south. In the course of his marches he got quite a long way south. After many vicissitudes, he found himself, one hot Fourth of July morning, celebrating the Declaration of Independence at Pocotaligo, South Carolina. It was a very busy day with the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania. They had made up their minds to celebrate by planting "Old Glory" on the ramparts of Fort Wagner. Some enthusiastic, if misguided, gentlemen behind the aforesaid ramparts strenuously objected to any such proceeding. They were celebrating themselves, and were not using Chinese crackers either. They were firing all sorts of projectiles at the devoted Seventy-sixth. Joe stopped one of them, or, to be more accurate, the projectile stopped Joe. It went clear through his thighs and, finding his powers of locomotion seriously interfered with, he lay down in the hot sands to rest. He lay there until hostilities had ceased, when a squad of Confederates picked him up, laid him on the sun- heated pitch pine deck of a boat and sent him to Belle Isle to recuperate. After nine more months of the sort of treatment provided in a Confederate prison, the wound healed, but it is safe to say that he had not taken on any superfluous flesh. When paroled from the prison, he came home to get something to eat and then went back to see it out. After Richmond had fallen and Lee surrendered, finding the steering of rafts a little tame, he became a brakeman on the mountain division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He got jolted off his train in the Alleghany tunnel, fell over a bride or two and got his bumps generally. Tiring of such activities, he found employment in the Altoona car shops, where he, by and by, became foreman of the metal yard. Several years ago he was relieved of his active responsibilities and now find leisure to discuss the incidents of his active and adventurous life, sitting under his own vine and fig tree at his pleasant residence on Pottsgrove Avenue. Here he sits reviewing the past with the few remaining cronies of his youth. The Tuckahoe boys who went with him into the fierce conflict of the sixties were not all mustered out. The fact is that the majority of them were not. On a hundred battlefields their bones are bleaching, and these include two of his brothers. But his reminiscences are not all sad. In the days after the war, "Big Joe" was the leader in most social events in the neighborhood. He called the figures at the country dances and bossed the job at religious revivals. The bad man from the ridges who came for the purpose of breaking up the meeting frequently found himself thrown out bodily, for Joe had a way of taking snap judgment with an offender that was very effective. Life with him was too short for temporizing methods. To quote his own words, he "would either make a spoon, or spoil a horn." He has always been a keen student of events, and there is yet no matter of either local or general importance in which he does not take a lively interest. Well informed on all current questions, he is always an interesting talker and agreeable companion. Believing in the doctrine of the Republican party, he has always been a staunch defender of its policies and has been active in the organization. He has served the county as jury commissioner and has been a prominent candidate for sheriff. With a record of patriotic service to his country's needs surpassed by none, and a life behind him of probity and honest endeavor in civil life, he can sit surrounded by his children and children's children, satisfied with a review of the past and content with the prospects for the future. May his evening time be light. #