Tehama County Biographies

ANCIL L. BROWN

Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

ANCIL L. BROWN, Treasurer of Tehama County, is a Native Son of the Golden West. 
He was born in Newville, Colusa County, California, August 19, 1862, and is the 
youngest treasurer this county ever had. He is a son of Henry W. Brown, a well 
known and highly respected resident of the county, whose history will be found 
on another page of this book.
      Mr. Brown first attended school in Colusa County, and when he was ten 
years old, in 1872, the family moved to Tehama County. Here he pursued his 
studies and graduated at Red Bluff College in 1881. After leaving school he 
engaged in the sheep business, and in that year went with a band of 6,000 sheep 
to Colorado, disposed of them there at a handsome profit and returned. The trip 
required eight months. He then went to San Francisco and accepted a position 
with a wholesale house as a salesman, remaining there until 1885. In that year 
he engaged in the sheep business, on his own account, buying and driving 6,000 
sheep to Wyoming Territory. He reached that place in October 1885, and remained 
there until the following August, when he made an advantageous sale and returned 
to Red Bluff. At that time he engaged with his father and brother in the general 
merchandise business, which he conducted successfully until August 1888, when 
they sold out.
      During the political campaign of 1888 Mr. Brown was solicited by his 
friends to permit his name to run for the office of Treasurer of the county. He 
was nominated without opposition, and made a lively campaign against a very 
popular gentleman on the opposite ticket, being elected by thirteen majority.  
Thus far he has filled the office with marked success. In the fall of 1889 he 
collected the sum of $205,000. 
      He has been appointed by the Board of Supervisors to collect the license 
tax of the County.
      Mr. Brown took an active part in the organization of the Parlor of Native 
Sons of the Golden West at Red Bluff, in 1881, and is one of the charter 
members. They have a membership of about forty of the best young men in Tehama 
County. Mr. Brown is treasurer of the organization. He is a Royal Arch Mason, 
and has held several offices in that order. Politically he is a Democrat. He is 
a young man of promise and unusual ability. That his integrity and business 
qualifications are appreciated by his fellow citizens is attested by the fact 
that he has a second time been unanimously nominated for County Treasurer, was 
nominated without opposition by the Democrat party in August 1890, and indorsed 
by the Republicans in the following month, and was elected to fill a second 
term.
      Mr. Brown was married on the 19th day of September 1890 to Miss Mary F. 
Frank, who is native of California, and is President of, and one of the charter 
members of Berrendos Parlor, No. 23, Native Daughters of the Golden West.
  
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 
1891, Pages 616-617