Hon. Robert Morrow Brown Bio. Hancock County, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Submitted by: Valerie Crook The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 253 Hancock County HON. ROBERT MORROW BROWN. For several decades Hon. Robert Morrow Brown has been a progressive, and for much of that period a prominent, factor in the business, journalistic, political and public activities of New Cumber- land. His standing as a citizen is firm and broad and as a leader of the republican party his reputation has extended into state-wide influence. Mr. Brown was born at New Cumberland, Hancock County, West Virginia, November 21, 1877, and is a son of Adrian Wilmer and Mary Virginia (Morrow) Brown. Adrian Wilmer Brown was born at Wellsburg, Brooke County, Ohio. in 1854, his parents being John Danforth and Lucie (Hewlett) Brown. John D. Brown, who was born in what is now West Virginia, was a merchant for some years at Wellsburg, where he died aged thirty-nine years, while his wife. who survived him to the age of sixty-three years; was born at Richmond, Virginia. Adrian W. Brown passed his boyhood at Wellsburg, where he received a pub- lic school education and as a young man secured a posi- tion with the Wellsburg Herald. In 1877 he came to New Cumberland, where he founded the New Cumberland Inde- pendent, the first issue of which appeared January 10th of that year, from the same building in which it is now published. This republican weekly, published on an old- fashioned Washington hand press, at once gained a good circulation, due to its general worth and excellence and to its championing of all worthy movements in the way of modern progress and advancement. Mr. Brown remained as editor of this newspaper until 1903, when he retired from active affairs and turned its management over to his son. He died three years later, greatly mourned by those who had come to know his numerous fine qualities of mind and heart. Mr. Brown was circuit clerk for Hancock County from 1890 to 1896. He was a member of the Episcopal Church at Wellsburg, and services were held in his own home at New Cumberland once a month. At Pughtown Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Mary Virginia Morrow, daughter of Alexander and Sarah (Wilson) Mor- row, of Pughtown, Mr. Morrow having been proprietor of the old Virginia House at that place when it was the county seat. He was also a justice of the peace for many years. Mrs. Brown died in 1890, leaving two children: Robert Morrow; and Lucie, now the wife of N. W. Ballantyne, a sketch of whose career appears elsewhere in this work. Later Mr. Brown married Ola M. Moore, who survives him, but they had no children. Bobert Morrow Brown attended the public schools of New Cumberland, and after hs graduation from the high school enrolled as a student at the West Virginia University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1902 and his Bachelor of Laws degree one year later. Previous to this he had seen service on a daily paper at East Liverpool, and had also been on a paper at Morgantown, so that he was not without experience when he took charge of the Inde- pendent at the time of his father's retirement in 1903. The old hand press of former days has gone with other things of its kind, and the office is now electrically equipped throughout, with modern linotype machines and a Babcock press, which has a capacity of from 1,500 to 2,000 per hour. The paper circulates freely, not only in the immediate vicin- ity of New Cumberland, but into sections of Pennsylvania and Ohio. It is in high favor with its readers because of its practical, well-written and timely editorials, its authentic news features and its various interesting departments, and because it has ever maintained the policy of its founder in supporting all movements promising for advancement and progress along all material and moral lines. In addition to his newspaper activities Mr. Brown has been engaged in the practice of law, having a large and lucrative practice in all the courts. In 1905 he was elected on the republican ticket as prosecuting attorney, an office in which he served with an excellent record until 1909. In 1912 President Taft appointed him postmaster of New Cumberland, and this office he also held for four years. During the World war period he was exceptionally active, serving on the county committee in the Liberty Loan drives and the Red Cross, and it is to be noted as a significant fact that Hancock always stood high among the counties when the final returns were in. In November, 1920, Mr. Brown was elected to the State Legislature for Hancock County, and during his term was a member of the follow- ing committees: Judiciary, Rules, Printing, Forestry and Conservation, Mines and Mining Labor, Medicine and Sani- tation and Redistricting. His record was a worthy one, of much value to his constituency and his state. For the past eight years Mr. Brown has been chairman of the Hancock County Republican Committee. He was in attendance at the national convention that nominated Warren G. Harding for the presidency. As a fraternalist Mr. Brown holds mem- bership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and he is also a member of the Kiwanis Club, and Phi Kappa Psi College fraternity. He and his family are entitled to membership in the Sons of the American Revolu- tion and the Daughters of the American Revolution through the service of one of his direct ancestors, Capt. Oliver Brown, buried at Wellsburg, who participated in the win- ning of American independence. Mr. Brown married Miss Leora Scott, of Somerset, Penn- sylvania, and to their union there has been born one son, John Scott.