Charles W. Brown, a resident of Caney, had a close relationship with this section of Southeastern Kansas, where he had resided for more than thirty-five years and where he still owned a large ranch. Mr. Brown’s mother was an eighth Osage Indian and a member of that tribe, and her family thus had proprietory rights in the lands of Southern Kansas and Northern Oklahoma long before white settlers were permitted to settle there.
In the paternal line Mr. Brown represents a pioneer family of Wyandotte County, Ohio. His ancestors came from England in colonial days. His grandfather William Brown was born September 12, 1796, in Somerset County, Maryland, and was an early and very prominent settler at Carey, Ohio, where he died in June, 1866. With an exceptional education he was a leader among his fellow citizens and served as a judge at Carey for many years. He was also a writer and author, and spent most of his life on a farm. He married Eliza Kooken, who was born in Pennsylvania, February 14, 1804, and died at Carey, Ohio, in 1876.
Charles W. Brown was born in the State of California January 26, 1861. California was the home of the family for a few years while his father W. S. Brown sought a fortune there in the gold fields. W. S. Brown was born in Ohio May 11, 1831. When a very young man he went out to California, but subsequently returned to Ohio from that state and a year later went to Clay County, Texas. In 1879 he moved to Kansas, and was a cattle dealer for many years. He lived in Independence for about ten years, but in 1889 moved to Caney, where his death occurred June 10, 1905. He was a republican, a member of the Presbyterian Church and in Masonry was affiliated with Lodge No. 107, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Keystone Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons, and St. Bernard Commandery No. 10, Knights Templar.
On October 17, 1858, W. S. Brown married Jane Stratton. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1841, and died at Susanville, California, in 1872. Charles W. was the second of her children. A. H. Brown, the oldest, was born December 11, 1859, and is now a resident at Hominy, Oklahoma; Rose Irena, who was born August 22, 1865, is the wife of J. M. Cunningham, a farmer and cattle dealer at Caney, and their two children are John Milton, a farmer in Osage County, Oklahoma, and Brown, a junior in the Caney High School; Edward Sherman, born December 17, 1867, is a farmer and in the cattle business at Caney; Ernest Eustace, born March 21, 1872, had a farm just across the border in Oklahoma but his post-office is Caney.
After the death of his first wife, W. S. Brown was married December 24, 1873, to Margaret Brown, a widow of his brother Ned Brown, who was a farmer. They were married at Carey, Ohio, and Mrs. W. S. Brown, who was born in Rochester, New York, May 4, 1838, is now living at Caney, Kansas. She had three children by her first marriage, all of whom died young, but there were none by the second.
Charles W. Brown was about eleven years of age when his mother died in California and he received most of his education while his father lived in Clay County, Texas. He spent the first twenty-four years of his life on his father’s different farms, and then married and started out for himself. Success had come to him by diligent application to one vocation, farming and cattle raising. He came with his father to Independence in 1879, but after his marriage he engaged in farming and cattle raising in Osage County, Oklahoma. He had a farm in Oklahoma twelve miles southeast of Caney, consisting of 600 acres of fertile and valuable land. His residence is one of the most attractive in the residence district of Caney, located on South Wood and Sixth streets. He owned another house on Wood Street. While making his home at Caney, he still looks after the management of his farm.
Mr. Brown is affiliated with Caney Lodge No. 324 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Caney Chapter No. 90, Royal Arch Masons, Coffeyville Commandery of the Knights Templar, Wichita Consistory No. 2 of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite, and Mirzah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Pittsburg, Kansas. His church is the Presbyterian, and in politics he is a republican.
In 1885 at Sedan, Kansas, Mr. Brown married Miss Dora Hampton. Her father was the late William Hampton, a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have three children: Blanche, wife of J. M. Boren, a rancher at Caney; Bernice, wife of C. R. Nichols, a contractor and builder at Chanute, Kansas; and Treva, wife of George McKinley, who is assistant superintendent of the Natural Gas Company and resided at Bartlesville, Oklahoma.