Friend Browne Family

Friend Brown, the third son of Martin Browne, Sr., was born in Virginia about the year 1787, and there among the hills and mountains he grew to manhood. About the year 1825 he married Amelia Tucker, whom we presume was a neighbor girl and to the best of our information was born about the year 1825.
Some years after Friend Brown and Amelia Tucker were married and when their oldest son John E. Was about five years old they heard “the call of the West” and with his father and brother, Martin Brown, Sr.. & Jr. [Martin Jr. was already there, HSB] and a number of friends and neighbors migrated westward.
Their journey was, of course, made overland in ox-drawn and horse-drawn wagons containing the families of the pioneers and all their earthly possessions. Northwestardly their route led them through what is now West Virginia, striking the Ohio River at about the most southerly part of Ohio, thence down the Ohio to the eastern border of Indiana, thence north to Henry County near the border of Madison County, where these emigrants finally decided to locate.
We may wonder what was the cause of the great influx into Indiana during these years between 1820 and 1835. We think this can be accounted for from the fact that the state was admitted into the Union in 1816, and many were eager to go to the new state and acquire a home. Indian hostilities had ceased. The Erie Canal, recently constructed, opened an outlet for the products of the West, and a national road had been commenced, all of which greatly advertised the new state and caused many people to move there where they could take up a government homestead. [Martin Browne, Jr., also had bounty land in Indiana for service in the War of 1812.]
It will be remembered that the country through which the Brown family passed on their way to Indiana in the year 1833, was practically virgin. True, there were a few settlements along the Ohio River and probably a well-defined trail or road for the most part of trhe way. We may assume, however, that the journey of 700 miles, through a practically virgin country, over the mountains, through forests and swamps, was no small undertaking, but these rugged mountaineers were endued with the stamina to resist the hardships of the notable journey.
On their arrival in Indiana these people found that their expectations had been fully realized, for they found a land with many natural resources upon which a great state could be builded. There was an abundance of good timber for building, fuel and shelter; it was well watered by living streams and it had fertile soil, which, when cleared off and drained, would produce in variety and abundance , as after-years have proven. One may be sure that the days of anticipation spent in the wilderness far offset the hardships encountered.
The journey was not without events—possibly many—but only one will we mention.This was in the year 1833. John E. Brown, the oldest son of Friend, was then five years old and I have the following narrative direct from him:
The caravan was somewhere in Ohio on this particular night. The oxen and horses had been loosened from the horses and had been cared for. Supper had been eaten and the members of the company, for the most part, had sought rest and repose in and about their wagons. leaving a few men straggllers, who were sitting up late enjoying another pipe and swapping yarns, and a few who were doing picket duty for the safety of the camp and the livestock.
Far into the perfectly clear night a star or two was seen to shoot across the sky, as we have often observed. Presently a great number of stars began to shoot and fall; so many, in fact, that the curiosity of those who were yet awake was aroused. They rushed to their wagons and awakened their loved ones. Soon the whole company was out viewing the unexplainable spectacle. The mysterious action of the stars continued for three or fouir hours, and at times it seemed that there was not one star stationary in the heavens, all seeming to be shooting and dancing about in the skies.
Being called from their slumber after a hard day’s travel to witness something so unusual as this phenomenon seemed to have a different effect on different individuals in the company. Some wept, some sang sacred songs, some went to their knees in fervent prayer, while some cursed and defied The Great Architect of the Universe to do His worst, and all thought that the Great Judgement Day had arrived.
(According to our histories the “Falling of the Stars” occurred in the early morning hours of November 13, 1833.) [This was probably one of the periodic Perseid showers HSB]
Traveling on and on, day after day, Friend and Amelia Brown, with their family of small children finally reached their destination in Henry County, Indiana, and began clearing the timber from their homestead preparatory to building themselves a little log cabin and planting their small crops. The land was for the most part swampy, and in addition to being cleared had to be ditched and drained. Reclaiming this land for agricultural purposes with the crude tools and implements they possessed was a long, hard, tedious task. Roads were poor and deep in mud for the greater part of the year. School privilieges were very meager, as were church privileges. Settlers grouped together for social reasons as well as for protection, and were very congenial and neighborly—assisting each other with their clearing and “logrolling” and other work, adding to one another’s comforts as best they could.
A few years after coming to Indiana Friend Brown died and his widow married Peter Lennen, father of Eliza’s husband. Peter Lennen moved his family to Hamilton County, near Noblesville and there either bought or homesteaded a farm and built thereon a brick house with brick made with his own hands.
The children of Friend and Amelia Brown were:
John E., [ see below]
Eliza, married William Lennen, their son, O.L. Lennen is today [1925] a prominent man living at Ness City, Kansas, engaged in the real estate and loan business.
Mary, married George Markle, from the old Markle family for whom Markleville was named;
Frances, married Jackson Jones, and her sister Julia married John Jones, a brother who died, she then married Harrison Markle, brother of George. Aunt Julia Markle still resides at Muncie, Indiana, at the advanced age of 85 years, and is the only surviving child.
Mathew or Malachi, who was always called “Mack,” Mack married Isabell Franklin, daughter of Calvin and Rachel Franklin, and to them were born two sets of twins.
Julia [see above]
William, who was eccentric, or a man of marked peculiarities. He enlisted in thed Union Army and served through the Civil War. He never married.

John E. Browne
Son of Friend Browne, grandson of Martin, Sr.

John E. Browne was born in North Carolina [?HSB] July 18, 1828, and came to Indiana as a lad of five years [1833]. He grew to manhood in Henry, Madison and Hamilton Counties where his parents lived at different times. He took advantage of what little schooling he could get, going to school in that day when “No lickin’, no larnin’” was the rule in the backwoods schools of Indiana. We have heard him say, however, that he never got a lickin’ in all his school days, confessing that he had at oft times deserved such punishment.
At the age of 20 he was married to Elizabeth Franklin, daughter of Calvin and Rachel Hadley Franklin, of Middletown, at their home, the Rev. Chauncey H. Burr officiating, Joseph Pendleton and Delphia Aleshire witnesses. After their marriage they farmed for a time, but John soon associated himself with his brother Mack and his brother-in-law, Isaac Franklin, in the Milling business, their mill being located on Fall Creek near its juncture with Sly Fork, in Madison County, Indiana.
Afterwards he bought out his partners in the business, and for years operated the mill alone, doing custom grist and saw-milling for the entire community. Before he entered the milling business he lived for a time with his mother, whose second husband, Peter Lennen, had died, in the old brick house on the Noblesville–Pendleton gravel road in the east edge of Hamilton County. After acquiring the old mill and a 40-acre tract on Fall Creek, they lived in a small log house near the mill race, where the greater number of their children were born.
In middle life the Browns met with financial difficulties and sold the mill and the little farm and bought a farm in Montgomery County, Kansas, to which they never moved. They finally lost this farm also. Financial and domestic difficulties caused a separation of this couple in later life, Elizabeth making her home with her sons, Friend and John, living first with one, then the other.
He lived for some years with his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Hoppes and family in Sumner County, Kansas, from about 1892 to 1898. He was a mechanic and could turn his hand to most any of the mechanical trades of his time. He was very precise in his work and had for his motto “Anything worth doing at all is worth well doing,” which he very rigidly lived up to.
Politically John E. Brown was a Republican, in keeping with the political faith of the family, but he voted the Democratic ticket during paret of his sojourn in Kansas.
Returning to Indiana he lived among his children and other relatives and friends until January 21, 1918, when he died at the age of 89 years, 4 months and two days, and is buried in Chesterfield Cemetery.
Elizabeth Franklin Brown died February 14, 1906, st the age of 75 years and 21 days, and is buried in Maplewood Cemetery at Anderson, Indiana.

Children of John E. and Isabel Franklin Brown are:
Emely, b October 23, 1849. She first m William Poor and by him had three sons and two daughters . After the death of Poor she m Joseph Hoppes and had two sons & five daughters. She died September v25, 1909, and is buried in Capps Cemetery.
Mary Isabel, b Jan 9, 1853. On January 1, 1871, she married Marcus Hoppes and to them was born seven children. She lived at Corbin, Kansas.
Rachel, b May 17, 1855. She m Thornton Recter, son of Elizabeth Hoppes Recter, daughter of Daniel Hoppes. Two sons, seven daughters.
William Calvin, b March 17, 1857. When a young man he went to White River, Arkansas, where he died September 19, 1888, and was buried there. He never married.
Isaac Newton, b October 4, 1860. He married Minnie Ryan and to them were born two sons and two daughters. Newton was a mechanic and contractor in Anderson, Indiana.
Annetta, b July 7, 1864. She m Charley Rent and had two sons, one daughter. She died December 13, 1924 and is buried at Huntsville, Indiana. Her husband was a mechanic and lived in Anderson.
Lusetta , twin sister of Annetta, married Rufus Hodson and to them were born four sons. After the death of her first husband she married Pavy Tucker & lived in Indiana.
Friend, b November 19, 1869, married Margaret A. Forney and had four sons & five daughters. For years Friend was a contractor and trader in Anderson and amassed a snug little fortune. He is now [1925] in the mercantile business in Anderson.
Martha , b April 22, 1873, married William Minnick & they had two sons & one daughter.

In the Brown family there were at one time, living, two sets of five generations, John E. Brown being the great-great-grandfather and his two daughters Emely and Rachel being the great grandmothers.

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