A short
biography of John Benton Brown, 1837-1876
John B. Brown was born about 1837 and raised on
the family farm in Trumbull County, Ohio, to Daniel and Mary (Benton)
Brown. In the 1860 United States Census, he is living with his sister
Emily and her doctor husband, Newton Rice, in Braceville, Ohio. While
there he is studying medicine under the tutelage of Dr. Rice.
In September 1861, John
volunteered for Company G, of the 19th Infantry Regiment of the Ohio
Volunteers and was quickly promoted to Sergeant. According to
medical records, on January 1, 1862 while his unit was in Kentucky, he contracted
Typhoid Fever and was sent to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.
Because of the debilitating effects of the disease, he was deemed unable
to perform his duties and was discharged in May.
Returning home, John began a
slow recovery process living most of 1863 with his sister’s family. In
an affidavit, Dr. Rice states that his brother-in-law is only a shadow
of his former self and for months is unable to walk without the aid of
crutches. Eventually he did regain enough mobility to get around and
finish his medical training and by late 1865 is looking for a location
to establish a practice.
In October 1865, he married
Mary Jane McCombs of Trumbull County. After the death of her husband,
Mrs. Brown struggled to survive and was forced to take on the U. S.
Government in an effort to claim widows’ pension rights.
While on a journey to the south
looking for a place to set-up his medical practice, John is advised to
go west and settle in Missouri, which is exactly what he did. And in
April or May of 1866 he relocated to the town of Tipton in Moniteau
County where he established himself as a country doctor and druggist.
While in Tipton, he lived within a short distance of J. A. Payne, D. P.
Swearingen and P. L. Swearingen who are all well acquainted with John
and his wife Mary. Several years later, these three friends gave
affidavits in support of the widow Mary’s claim to pension benefits. By
February 1868, Messrs Payne and Swearingen had moved to the town of
Metz in Vernon County, Missouri. Seeing the need for a doctor in Metz,
D. P. Swearingen invited John to settle there. In May or June, John
followed his friends to Metz and began practicing and for some months
also was in the drug business in the little community of Pleasant Valley.
Before leaving Tipton, a son,
William McCombs Brown, was born on July 3, 1867. After his father’s
death, Willie grew up in Ohio; briefly tried his hand as a druggist
before settling in to a life as an orchard farmer in Ashtabula County.
He died on December 12, 1942 at the age of 75.
During the time the Brown’s
lived in Metz, the extent of John’s physical condition is revealed through
various documents included in the widow’s pension application. It
is
evident that the long-term effects of Typhoid Fever were manifested by
spinal cord distress, lung damage that would frequently result in his
coughing up blood, and bowel damage resulting in recurrent bouts with
diarrhea. Additionally, the stress suffered by his leg muscles
continued to hamper his ability to walk without a great deal of pain.
The net result of these residual effects left John with little if any
body strength and would indirectly contribute to his early death.
Due to his diminished physical
abilities, John applied for and was granted a War of 1861 (Civil War)
Invalid’s Pension by the Army. However, because the Army regarded him
as only one-quarter disabled (a position John would protest) the pension
was set at $2 per month. Insulted by the paltry amount, he refused to
collect the money. It was this decision that would instigate a series
of documents intended to persuade the Army to award the pension’s
unclaimed funds to John’s widow Mary Jane.
On May 5, 1871, Lillian Clair
Brown was born in Metz. Just like her brother, Lilly would grow up in
Ohio, marry, and on August 26, 1917 die a premature death from
tuberculosis. At 46 years old, she left behind 7 children ranging in age
from 19 to 5. She is buried in her adult hometown of Conneaut, Ohio.
For reasons unknown, in May
1875, John moved to the new boom town of Corry in Dade County,
Missouri. Lead and other minerals had been discovered in the area, and
overnight a rush was on. Originally satisfied to run a pharmacy, by mid-1876 John is caught up in the pursuit of riches and became a partner in
a lead prospecting venture. In August, while inspecting a local mine,
fate and the years of physical debilitation took their measure. A large
rock fell on John, severely crushing one of his legs. The local doctor
tried to set the bones, but the weakened condition of his legs would not
promote healing; and it was decided that amputation was the only answer.
Fourteen years after his bout with Typhoid Fever, John was unable to
recover from the amputation surgery and died on October 11, 1876.
Since John apparently died in
Corry, it had been presumed he was buried there, but word was received from a
local Dade County researcher that there is no record of him at the old
Corry Cemetery. It is understood that the cemetery is in good shape and
is part of what little remains of the small town whose bust came only a
few years after its boom. So if he was buried there, his grave must be
unmarked.
After John’s death, Mary Jane
returned to Ohio and settled in Youngstown where she supported her two
children as a hat maker. During the late 1870’s she pursued the
unclaimed money from John’s Invalid Pension award and beginning in 1891
launched a long but eventually successful struggle to collect his Civil
War Widow’s Pension. A conflict she had with the Army was that
they would not concede that John’s death was caused as much by his
Typhoid Fever induced condition as it was by the mine accident.
She eventually went to live
with Lilly and her husband George Arthur in Conneaut, passing away on
January 12, 1917, not knowing that her daughter would join her only
seven
months later. Mary was 80 years old.
