Columbia County PA Archives Biographies.....BROWN, James C. 1848 - living in 1899
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  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
  Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com June 30, 2005, 6:29 pm
  
  Author: Biographical Publishing Company
  
  JAMES C. BROWN, a gentleman prominent in public affairs in and about Bloomsburg,
  is the proprietor and editor of the Columbia County Republican, a well-edited
  and influential paper of the county. He is a civil engineer by profession and
  for the past six years or more has been acting in that capacity for the borough
  of Blooms-burg. He is a son of William N. and Loretta (Yonker) Brown, and was
  born in' Mifflin township, Columbia County, Pa., April 29, 1848. He comes of a
  prominent old English family and is descended from John Brown, who emigrated
  from England prior to our struggle for independence and located on Long Island.
  
    John Brown subsequently moved to Warren County, N. J., and later located with
  his family in Mifflin township, in what was then Northumberland County, now
  Columbia County, in the year 1794. He followed his trade, that of a blacksmith,
  there during the remainder of his life; he served in that capacity for the
  American Army during the Revolutionary War. For many years he served as justice
  of the peace. His son, Samuel Brown, grandfather of our subject, was born in
  Warren County, N. J., and moved to Mifflin township, with the rest of the
  family, making that his home throughout life. His father having purchased 600
  acres of land there, upon his death divided it among four of his children,
  Samuel receiving the old homestead. This he cultivated until his death in 1823,
  at the age of forty-five years. He married Dorothy Nice, by whom he had a family
  of nine children, as follows: John, deceased; Margaret, deceased, was the wife
  of Samuel Creasy, now deceased; Sarah, wife of George A. Bowman; William N.;
  Mathew; James; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Alexander Thompson; George B.;
  and Elisha B., all of whom are deceased.
  
    William N. Brown was born in Mifflin township, Columbia County, on the old
  homestead, February 15, 1807, and took up the vocation of a farmer. He continued
  in that line of work with good results until 1870, when he moved to the village
  of Mifflinville, renting his farm. He built a house and lived in peaceful
  retirement until his demise, September 16, 1876. For many years he also
  conducted a grist and flouring mill. Religiously he was an active member in the
  Methodist Episcopal Church, holding various offices, among them steward and
  trustee. He married Nancy Freas, a daughter of John Freas of Center township,
  Columbia County, and they had five children: George A., deceased; Albert, a
  farmer of Ottawa County, Kans.; John F., who lived on the old homestead in
  Mifflin township until 1898, when he, because of ill health, retired from
  farming and moved to Mifflinville; Almira, of Mifflinville; and Dorcas,
  deceased. Mrs. Brown died in 1845 and he formed a second alliance in 1847 with
  Loretta Yonker, a daughter of Henry Yonk-er, a native of Germany, who, upon
  coming to this country, located in Mifflinville, Pa. This marriage resulted in
  the following offspring: James C, the subject of this personal history; Martha,
  deceased; Samuel C., employed in the Railway Postal Service between New York and
  Pittsburg; Malissa J., deceased; and Victoria, the wife of George W. Hess of
  Bloomsburg, Pa.
  
    James C. Brown received his preparatory education in the public and select
  schools' of Mifflinville, after which he entered the Dickinson Seminary at
  Williamsport, Pa., graduating therefrom in 1868. He then began teaching,
  accepting a position as professor in the State Normal School at Bloomsburg,
  which he held for three and one-half years, the last half year of which he was
  principal. In the spring of 1872 he engaged as civil engineer in locating the N.
  & W. Branch Railroad and was associated with the enterprise until its completion
  in 1882 as a member of the board of directors, as well as engineer. He also did
  work in that line for other railroad companies during that time and since has
  followed that as his profession. He has been engineer of the borough of
  Bloomsburg for six or eight years and has frequently rendered service to other
  boroughs in the vicinity. Being a man of much experience, he is frequently
  called into court to give expert testimony on civil engineering in damage suits.
  In September, 1875, he purchased the plant of the Columbia County Republican, a
  four-page, eight-column publication, which makes its appearance weekly, and has
  since edited it. It is Republican in politics and has a large following, having
  a good circulation throughout the county, and also in adjoining counties.
  
    Mr. Brown is one of the Republican leaders in his section and is indefatigable
  in his efforts to bring success to the party. He is frequently a delegate to
  state conventions, and was a delegate from what was then the Eleventh
  Congressional District of Pennsylvania to the Republican National Convention at
  Chicago in 1884. He also speaks for the state committee during the campaigns. He
  made a tour of the state as a member of Gen. Hastings' staff during the
  gubernatorial contest in which Gen. Hastings was a candidate. He is a fluent and
  convincing speaker and is well versed on all subjects of interest to the people.
  He is now president of the board of school directors and has been a member of
  that body for almost twenty years. He is also a director of the Bloomsburg
  School Furnishing Company and of the Bloomsburg Steam Heating Company, and a
  trustee of the State Normal School, being vice-president of the board. He is a
  member and treasurer of the Columbia County Agricultural Society. Religiously he
  is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is very active in church work.
  For some fifteen or twenty years he has been secretary of the board of trustees.
  Mr. Brown is a man of high character, and no other in the county is held in
  higher esteem.
  
  
  Additional Comments:
  Extracted from:
  
  Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District
  Published by 
  Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)
  
  
  
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