Frank Elwood Brown came to New Haven in August, 1891. An architect by profession he has been for years instrumental in helping in the development of his adopted city. He was born in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, October 12, 1869, a son of Erastus Meekins Brown, who was born in Conway, Massachusetts, June 5, 1821. The family records in the paternal line trace the ancestry in this country back to Thomas Meekins, who landed at Boston in 1636. He married Katherine Bell, a daughter of Thomas and Susanna Bell, of London, England. Their son, Thomas Meekins, Sr., was the first signer of the petition to incorporate Hartford, Connecticut, and his son, Thomas Meekins, Jr., was slain by the Indians on the 19th of October, 1675. Another ancestor in the paternal line was Thomas Nash, who came from England on the ship Hector, landing at Boston, July 26, 1637. His son, Timothy Nash, came to New Haven with John Davenport and others, and Thomas Nash was the sixty-sixth signer of the “fundamental agreement of Quinnipiack in Mr. Newman’s barn.” Thomas Nash was also a signer of the Guilford compact and Timothy Nash served as a lieutenant in the Colonial army. Another ancestor, Sergeant Benjamin Waite, was born at Little Compton, Rhode Island, probably in 1640, and was killed at the sacking of Deerfield, Massachusetts, February 29, 1704. The ancestral records also contain the name of Sophia Smith, founder of Smith College, and the mother of Marshall Field, America’s most distinguished merchant. Sally Nash, the great-great-grandmother of Mr. Brown, was the sister of Mr. Field’s mother. Erastus Meekins Brown, father of Frank Elwood, wedded Wealtha E. Naramore, who was born at Goshen, Massachusetts, December 23, 1837. She was descended from Richard Church, of Hartford, born in 1637 and shot by the Indians in 1696. His daughter was the wife of Isaac Graves, who was slain by the Indians in 1677. A great-great-grandson, Simeon Cowles, served in the Revolutionary war. He married Sarah Dickinson, a daughter of Captain Reuben Dickinson, and she was given as her marriage portion a square mile of land in Amherst, Massachusetts, which in part constitutes the site of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. On the Cowles-Bartlett line Mr. Brown can trace an unbroken genealogical line for eight hundred and fifty years to Adam “Bottolot,” an esquire, who went to England with William the Conqueror in 1066 and settled in Sussex, where the family estate is still occupied by a “Bartlett.” Captain Reuben Dickinson commanded a company from Amherst, Massachusetts, at Concord and at Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary war and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. Another ancestor, Samuel Boltwood, was killed at the sacking of Deerfield in 1704, while “Cornet” Robert Stetson was a member of the war council in 1661. He came from England and was appointed by the colony to visit King Philip, the Indian chieftain, in behalf of the interests of the colony. He died in 1702. His great-great-grandson, Gideon Stetson, joined the Revolutionary army at the age of fourteen years and was made stone deaf by the explosion of a shell. Another ancestor, William White, was a minute man at Lexington in 1775 and served with the rank of sergeant. He became a lieutenant in 1777 and a captain in 1779. His grandson, Franklin Naramore, grandfather of Frank Elwood Brown, was for several terms a member of the Massachusetts legislature. He was the father of Wealtha E. Naramore, who became the wife of Erastus Meekins Brown, and to them were born three daughters and one son, of whom two daughters, Nettie Evena and Lilla Phinella, have passed away. The surviving daughter, Lillian Myrtle Brown, was for several years an office manager of the Yale Publishing Association and a secretary in the office of the Yale Press and has been connected with Yale University work since 1905. The father passed away at Amherst, Massachusetts, November 11, 1891, and the mother’s death occurred at Hamden, Connecticut, May 1, 1915.

  Their only son, Frank Elwood Brown, supplemented his public school education, acquired at Amherst, by study in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston in 1890-91, pursuing a special course in architecture and commencing with the class of 1893. He was reared to country and farm life until seventeen years of age and in the meantime attended school at Amherst, working during his extra time in the old M. N. Spear store devoted to selling books, newspapers, wall paper, novelties and stationery. Later he was engaged in shoe manufacturing, skate manufacturing, the carpenter trade and mill work, and thus gradually he advanced, making wise use of his time and opportunities, broadening his knowledge through study and experience and prompted at all times by a laudable ambition. The habits of industry and close application which Mr. Brown early developed have constituted the foundation of his professional success. He practiced his profession for one year at Asheville, North Carolina, and for several months was employed by Alden & Harlow and other leading architects at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He dwelt altogether for about one year in the mountains of western North Carolina and had many interesting and adventurous experiences in that wilderness. In his professional career he has made steady progress and holds the confidence of his townsmen and a position of respect among the architects of New Haven.

  In Chester, Pennsylvania, on the 17th of August, 1901, Mr. Brown was married to Mrs. Clarence H. Stilson, who in her maidenhood was Martha Pond Osborn, a daughter of the late Minott A. Osborn, former editor of the New Haven Register, and a sister of Colonel N. G. Osborn, the present editor of the Journal and Courier. Her first husband was at one time employer and later a partner of Mr. Brown. By her first marriage she has three living sons. The oldest, Clarence Hoyt, married Cornelia Anderson, of Clinton, Connecticut, and has a son and a daughter, Clarence H., III, and Mary Easter. Minott A. O. Stilson, the second son, married Mabel E. Austin, of New Haven, and has one son, Minott A. O., Jr. Alec York Stilson wedded Mary J. Carter, of Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, and has a daughter and a son, Joyce Gilbert and Carter.

  Mr. Brown has long been an exemplary representative in Wooster Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of New Haven, and a member of the Masonic Club. In politics he is an independent republican-progressive. He was very active in the progressive party from 1912 until 1916 and was town chairman of the party at North Haven, where he was then living. He was especially active in work connected with the twelfth senatorial district of Connecticut and was a delegate to the first progressive state convention held in Hartford and to most of the county and state meetings of the party. He served by proxy on the state central committee and had an extensive acquaintance with all the state and many of the national leaders of the party. In 1914 he was elected on the progressive ticket at North Haven to the offices of town auditor and grand juror and he tied with the democratic candidate for registrar of voters. Soon afterward he disposed of his farm at North Haven and removed to New Haven, accordingly sending in his resignation from the town offices. He believes in universal military service and in all matters of citizenship displays a spirit of loyalty and fidelity which has ever characterized his ancestors. He is a private in Company F, Second Regiment, Connecticut Home Guard.