Charles H. Brough

BEN A. BROWN.     A prominent and prosperous business man of Pocahontas is Ben A. Brown, cashier of the Pocahontas State Bank.  He was born in Randolph county on the 4th of September, 1869, a son of William A. and Elizabeth (Wilson) Brown, both deceased.  The father was a native of Tennessee, came to this state and located in Randolph county in 1857.  Having acquired good farm land here, he engaged in agricultural pursuits and was active in that connection many years.  He achieved more than substantial success.  Upon the outbreak of the Civil war he served in the Confederate army of the  Arkansas infantry and cavalry.  He was discharged from the army, with the rank of lieutenant.  Mr. Brown was one of the pioneer settlers of this county and contributed in a marked degree to its development, an d improvement.  In 1865 in Randolph county was celebrated the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Brown.  She was born in Arkansas, her parents having come from Georgia to Randolph county in 1841.  they were prominent among the early settlers here.  To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Brown five children were born, three boys and two girls, of whom one boy and one girl are living.  Ben A., whose name introduces this review, was the third in order of birth.
     Ben A. Brown attended the common schools of Randolph county and up to the age of twenty-two years he lived on the home farm, assisting his father in its cultivation.  For four years he was active as deputy circuit clerk and was then elected circuit clerk, in which capacity he served from 1896 to 1900.  He again held the office of deputy circuit clerk in 1900 and in 1904 he was elected county and probate judge or Randolph county.  He was active in that office until 1906, but in 1905 entered the employ of the Pocahontas State Bank as cashier.  Since the termination of his office he has devoted his entire time and attention to his duties at the bank and he has won many friends for the institution.  At the time Mr. Brown became associated with the bank the capital and surplus totaled some twelve thousand, five hundred dollars and the average deposits were fifteen thousand dollars.  He has been a dominant figure in the growth of the institution and the capital and surplus of the bank are now sixty thousand dollars, with deposits averaging around two hundred and seventy thousand dollars.  Mr. Brown is also identified with the Randolph County Abstract Company of Pocahontas as a director.
     At Maynard, Arkansas, on the 20th of September, 1899, occurred the marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Jessie H. Lehman, a daughter of John M. C. Lehman a prominent citizen of that community.  Mrs. Brown is a woman of much culture and refinement and she is socially prominent.
     Politically Mr. Brown has always given his allegiance to the democratic party and the principles for which it stands.  Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, holding membership in Randolph Lodge, No. 71, F. & A. M. and Randolph chapter, No. 76, Royal Arch Masons.  He is like wise affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, being a charter member of the local lodge which was established in 1894.  He has  been a member of the Pocahontas school board for the past twenty-five years.  During the World war Mr. Brown gave generously of his time and money in the furtherance of the government's interests and he was not only active as chairman of the War Savings Stamps committee and the fuel commission, but he made many speeches throughout the county in behalf of the various drives.  Mr. Brown has gained distinctive prestige as one of the representative business men and sterling citizens of Pocahontas and he well merits the esteem in which he is held by his fellowmen.
Source:  History of Arkansas, by Dallas T. Herndon, Vol. III, publ. by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1922 - Pg. 439

BENJAMIN F. BROWN.     Benjamin F. Brown, an enterprising merchant of Bald Knob, is a representative of one of the pioneer families of Arkansas.  His grandfather removed from Tennessee to this state at an early day, making an overland trip with ox team, settling in White county, where he entered land from the government.  It was a wilderness tract upon which he settled and upon him devolved the task of clearing away the timber and breaking the sod.  He farmed, hunted and trapped in the early days, for in that time game was plentiful.  He killed deer, bears and other kinds of big game and continued a resident of White county to the time of his death, contributing to its early development and assisting in the task of laying broad and deep the foundation upon which has been built the later progress and prosperity of the county.  Tennessee and thence removed to White county, Arkansas, accompanying his parents.  His son, Harrison Brown, was born in Alabama, afterward became a resident of here in 1836.  He therefore became familiar with all of the hardships and experiences of frontier life.  He attended the subscription schools and after acquiring his education bought land and carried on general farming and stock raising.  In the early days he made staves out of the timber which he cut upon his place, loaded there on a barge adn floated them down the river to New Orleans, where he sold both boat and staves.  He did his trading at West Point, a landing on the river, and he continued to farm as the years passed by.  His death occurred at West Point, when he had reached the age of fifty-five years.  His wife died at the comparatively early age of thirty-five.  They were parents of three children:  Owen, Benjamin and Ophry.  By a previous marriage to a Miss Arnold, a native of Arkansas.  Mr. Brown had four children:  Henry, Margaret, Emily and California.  Having lost his second wife, he was married again to a Miss Goss and their children were:  Helen, deceased; and Anna and Viola, who are living in New Mexico.  The mother of Benjamin F. Brown was a daughter of Grank Goss, a native of Germany, who came to Arkansas about 1836 and took up land near Batesville in Independence county.  He was a farmer, a hunter and also a shoemaker and miller.  In fact, he was extremely handy in all kinds of work.  He constructed a water mill on Reeds creek in Independence county and operated the mill for twenty-four hours in a day.  He died in that county.
     Benjamin F. Brown, the only surviving child of his father's second marriage was born in White county, Jan. 17, 1851, and was educated in White county, attending the subscription schools which were held in log schoolhouses, with split log benches and other primitive furnishings.  He walked about three and a half miles to school and attended for only three months in the year.  Following his mother's death he lived with a brother and sister until eighteen years of age and then began earning his living by working as a farm hand at fifty cents per day.  He afterward purchased land near Bald Knob and engaged in general farming and stock raising, devoting fifteen years of his life to that occupation.  In 1886 he became a clerk in a store at Bald Knob, Arkansas, and then established business on his own account in 1890.  He has prospered as the years have gone by and his energy and determination have been strong and salient forces in his success.  He also has farming interests, making a specialty of the raising of strawberries, cotton and potatoes.
     Mr. Brown has  been married twice.  He first wedded Elizabeth Nicks, a native of Arkansas, and they became the parents of six children, five of whom are living: Margaret, Virta, Frank, Morris, Harrison and Wesley.  For his second wife, Mr. Brown chose Laura Marshall, a native of Arkansas and a daughter of William B. Stillwell, a native of Arkansas county, who was born near Arkansas Post, Arkansas, June 24, 1829.  His grandfather, Harold Stillwell, with his father, Joseph Stillwell, came to Arkansas Post in 1798, being the first Stillwell to settle in Arkansas.  The cypress log house is still standing and the well is still in use.  Mr. Brown and all of his family, with the exception of two, are members of the Christian church.
     During the Civil war the Brown family lost everything that they had except their home.  One brother, Henry Harrison Brown, was a soldier of the Confederate army.  He enlisted from White county and served throughout the period of the war, being on duty east of the Mississippi until discharged, due to the condition of his health.  Later however, he reenlisted and participated in the battle of Helena.  He started with Price on the Missouri raid but contracted pneumonia, which was the cause of his death after his return home.   B. F. Brown has always given his political allegiance to the democratic party but the honors and emoluments of office have no attraction for him.  He has concentrated his efforts and attention upon his business affairs and in 1919 he remodeled his store in Bald Knob, where he now has a splendid mercantile establishment, featuring as one of the leading stores of the city.
Source:  History of Arkansas, by Dallas T. Herndon, Vol. III, publ. by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1922 - Pg. 34

WALTER W. BROWN.     As an example of the self-made American business man Walter W. Brown, of Little Rock, senior member of the firm of Brown & Oglesby, occupies a commanding position.  The story of his achievements in the business world is a most interesting one.  Mr. Brown, who is a son of William T. and Esney (Burgin) Brown, was born in Faulkner county, Arkansas, on the 27th of December, 1880.  His parents were natives of Tennessee but removed to Arkansas early in their married life.  The father was a farmer by occupation and the educational advantages which he was able to accord his son in Faulkner county were limited.  With little opportunity to attend school Walter W. Brown worked on the home farm through the period of his boyhood and youth and it was not until he had reached the age of twenty years that he came to the determination to make a place for himself in the business world, beyond the confines of the farming community in which he lived.  Actuated by a laudable ambition, he came to Little Rock in 1900, and here started upon his business career as driver of an ice wagon.  Still looking forward, he became a street-car motorman and later he obtained a clerkship in a grocery store.  All this time he was using every available opportunity to improve his education, devoting all leisure hours to study.  After seven years spent in this way he became a traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery house, but not liking that line of endeavor he resigned his position and in Little Rock organized the Farmer's Grain Company, of which he became the manager.  For three years thereafter he remained in control of the business of the company and in 1913 he established the Brown Feed Store in North Little Rock.  In 1915 he admitted to a partnership W. T. Oglesby, under the firm style of the Brown & Oglesby Grain Company.  A further forward step was made when in 1918 the business was incorporated, Mr. Brown being elected to the presidency.  This corporation has grown to be one of the largest concerns of its kind in the state.  They are wholesale and retail dealers in grain, hay and feed, flour and heavy groceries and they also operate a seed department and a poultry supply department. Their wholesale establishment is located at Water and Arch, on the Missouri Pacific tracks, in Little Rock.  It occupies ten thousand feet of floor space and is a brick building, before which at any time can  be seen trucks loading and unloading the old checkered sacks, which constitute a trade-mark of the company.  the retail headquarters of the corporation are at Seventh and Chester streets in Little Rock, where nearly twenty thousand square feet of floor space is utilized in meeting the demands of the trade.  On Nineteenth street pike another plant is operated for the rapid moving of the dairy foods, while at Twenty-ninth and Arch streets still another store is maintained.  The company also has stores at Levy and at Benton, Arkansas, and furnishes employment to sixty people, who are kept busy all the time.  These splendid results have been achieved by the farm boy who at the age of twenty years sought the opportunities offered in the city.  His is an example of American pluck, energy and integrity and by sheer force of will, determination and reliability he has worked his way upward until he occupies a dominant position in connection with the wholesale and retail interests of the state.  While conducting a general grain business the corporation specializes in Purina feed and Missouri soft wheat flour and they are special agents as well for the Buckeye incubator.   Their business has steadily grown and expanded, and as Lowell has expressed it, "an institution is but the lengthened shadow of a man," so the great grain business of the Brown & Oglesby Company is the tangible evidence of the life of well directed thrift, enterprise and ability which Walter W. Brown has led.
     It was in the year 1902 that Mr. Brown was married to Miss Hannah E. Crowson, a native of Arkansas, and they have three children: Tressie May, who is the wife of Paul Sheffer of Little Rock; Fred, a high school pupil; and James T., who is in hte grammar grades.
     In politics Mr. Brown is a democrat and religiously is connected with the Nazarene church, in which he is serving as a steward.  He has no fraternal affiliations, as his life has been spent building up his fortunes and promoting his interests, undeterred by the lack of advantages in his youth.  It is to such men of marked force of character and high ideals as Walter W. Brown that Arkansas or any other state owes its progress.
Source:  History of Arkansas, by Dallas T. Herndon, Vol. III, publ. by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1922 - Pg. 803