Alameda County Biographies

EDWARD BROWN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 

	Was born November 11, 1839, in Bridgenorth, England; was educated and lived in 
Wymondham, Leicestershire, until appointed to a position in a railway office in London, where 
he remained until March 29, 1863, at which date he sailed for New York.  Very shortly afterwards 
he went into the service of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, and in April, 1865, 
was appointed agent of that company for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  In 1868 he organized the 
Lancaster Fire Insurance Company; capital, $200,000; and acted as its Secretary until November, 
1871; when La Caisse Generale � a Paris Fire Office � established an American Branch, Mr. Brown 
was appointed Superintendent of Agencies.  In January, 1875, he was sent to San Francisco to 
establish a business upon the Pacific Coast for the said company.  On May 1, 1878, the firm of 
Brown, Craig & Co. � Mr. Homer A. Craig of Oakland being the other partner � was formed, their 
office being at No. 215 Sansome Street, where it has ever since remained.  Mr. Brown resides in 
Alameda, is married, and has five children.

History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 854