My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES F. BROWN is President of the Board of Trade of South Bethlehem, Secretary and Treasurer of the South Bethlehem Improvement Company, and is a lumber merchant of South Bethlehem. He is a very liberal and progressive citizen, who has endeavored in every possible way to promote the best interests of the city. A native of Allegany County, N. Y., he was born near Angelica, March 4, 1849. His paternal grandfather, Rev. James Brown, who was a graduate of a theological seminary in Rhode Island, was born in that state, and was a minister in the Baptist Church. Removing to Washington County, N. Y., he there spent the remainder of his life, attaining the age of eighty-five years. During the Revolutionary War he was a Chaplain.

David Brown, the father of our subject, was born in 1801, on the banks of Lake George, in Washington County, N. Y., and in his youth learned to operate a farm, and later devoted himself to milling. For a number of years he operated a mill on a branch of the Genesee River, in Allegany County. He served in various official capacities, being a stanch Whig, and later a Republican, and was elected by his fellow-citizens to serve for one term as Sheriff, and for the same length of time was also a Deputy Sheriff. He was twice married, and of his first union six children were born, of whom two are living. He departed this life in 1869, and in the same year his second wife, who was formerly Waty Norton, also passed away. Her father, Richard Norten, was born in Plymouth County, Mass., and was a prominent farmer of Hartford Township, Washington County, where Mrs. Brown’s birth occurred. The latter was the mother of nine children, eight of whom are living, and of these our subject is the youngest. His brother Oring S. is editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette and Bulletin of Williamsport; and another brother, Stephen S., who was a soldier in the Pennsylvania regiment during the late war, is engaged in the lumber business in the same city.

Charles F. Brown was brought up in Allegany County, learning the miller’s trade. When twenty years of age he became a clerk in the postoffice at Angelica, where he remained for two years. Next entering the Government survey service he went with a corps of men to Nevada and engaged in laying out townships. In 1873 he returned to the East, and in Williamsport became inspector of lumber on the Lumbermen ‘s Exchange for one year. He continued to serve as an inspector until 1874, when he came to South Bethlehem, of which place he has been a resident. As a member of the firm of Brown & Howe, he started a lumber-yard on the present site of the business, and in 1878 bought his partner’s interest, since being alone. The lumber-yards are located at the comer of Brodhead Avenue and Graham’s Court, and have a frontage of one hundred feet and a depth of four hundred feet, with sheds and piling room, 210x400 feet. The yards have a side-track from the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and four teams are kept constantly busy delivering lumber and supplying the trade. All kinds of lumber are kept in stock, cypress and yellow pine from Louisiana, and other varieties from different parts of the Union.

Mr. Brown was one of the founders of the Board of Trade, which was organized in the fall of 1891, was elected its first President and has been President ever since. He is Secretary and Treasurer of the South Bethlehem Improvement Association, and one of the organizers of the South Bethlehem Building and Loan Association. He has erected numerous buildings in the place, in the welfare and development of which he has been an enthusiastic participant.

In this city Mr. Brown was married in 1876 to Miss Emma Kleckner, who was born in Carbon County, and they have one child, a daughter, Marion. In 1893 Mr. Brown was a nominee on the Republican ticket, and elected Burgess under the Baker ballot system, and though his party was in a minority of eight hundred, he won by a majority of seventeen votes. He served to the satisfaction of his constituents from April, 1893, to April, 1894, when he refused to again become a candidate.