Hugh L. Brown Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1634-1635 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	HUGH L. BROWN, of near Vestal is a native of Fulton county, 
Illinois, born on January 23, 1840, and while he was yet a child the 
family moved to Bond county, the same state, where he received his early 
education. Later another move was made to the vicinity of Rockford, and 
soon afterward another to Monroe, Wisconsin, where the father engaged in 
farming. Here the son completed his education and on leaving school 
worked with his father on the farm. In January, 1862, when the Civil war 
was drenching our country with blood, he enlisted in the Thirty-first 
Wisconsin Infantry, and in that regiment he served to the close of the 
war. He then returned to Wisconsin and again engaged in farming near 
Monroe, continuing his operations there until 1872, when he settled in 
Sac county, Iowa, where he was occupied in farming until the spring of 
1885. At that time he came to South Dakota and located at Pierre, then a 
fort or military post. There during the summer he conducted a feed 
store, handling hay and grain, In the fall he moved to Rapid City, and 
the next spring took up a pre-emption claim on Box Elder creek. While 
improving his land and making it habitable he continued to live at Rapid 
City, conducting a hotel there. Early in 1888 he settled on his land on 
the creek, thirty-five miles from Rapid City, and began pushing its 
development with vigor, subsequently increasing his acreage by taking up 
a timber and a homestead claim, the three properties adjoining. Since 
then he has continued to live on this land and has devoted his energies 
to its cultivation and the rearing of stock. In both he has been very 
successful, winning a competence by the systematic application of 
intelligence and enterprise, and he has also risen to prominence and 
influence among his fellow men by his breadth of view and ardent 
devotion to the welfare and advancement of his community. In political 
faith he is an earnest supporter of the Republican party, but he is not 
an office seeker, nor does he subordinate the general weal to any 
personal or factional interest. 

	On March 30, 1867, Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss 
Eliza Michael, a native of New York, who moved with her parents to the 
neighborhood of Baraboo, Wisconsin, when she was but five years old. In 
that region she was reared and educated, and at Baraboo was married. 
They have two children, Carrie P., now the wife of Joseph Waterson, and 
Dora E., who is married to Jeremiah Crowley.