Milton Wilder Browne. The dining and hotel service par excellence and acknowledged without a peer in America is the Fred Harvey system. To hold the position of a manager in this system is about the highest word that can be spoken for any hotel man. Newton, as one of the division points on the Santa Fe road, had received the benefits of this system, and the finest hotel in Harvey County is the Arcade Hotel at Newton, now under the management of Milton Wilder Browne, who had been an employe of Fred Harvey for the past eleven years.
Mr. Browne was born in Taylorville, Illinois, July 29, 1882. He is of old American ancestry, his forefathers having come out of Hertfordshire, England, to Massachusetts in colonial days. His grandfather, H. R. Browne, was born in Massachusetts in 1822, was a cabinet maker by trade, and early in life went to Whitehall, Illinois, where he lived until his death in 1887.
Milton W. Browne, Sr., was born at Whitehall, Illinois, in 1858, and grew up and married there. For many years he was connected with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway as station agent and assistant superintendent, and during that service lived at Taylorville, Illinois; Ottumwa, Iowa; Chillicothe, Missouri; and Seymour, Iowa. Since 1907 he had been in Kansas City, Missouri, in the implement business. In politics he is a republican, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Milton Browne, Sr., married Miss Anna Kearauf, who was born at Palmer, Illinois, in 1859. Milton W., Jr., is the older of their two children. The daughter, Greta, is a stenographer and lives at Kansas City with her parents.
Milton W. Browne acquired most of his education at Chillicothe, Missouri, graduating from the high school there in 1902. Following that for two years he worked with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and then had two years of practical experience learning the hotel business at Chillicothe. He spent two seasons in French Lick Springs, Indiana, and for three seasons was head clerk with the Flagler interests at St. Augustine, Florida.
Mr. Browne entered the employ of Fred Harvey September 19, 1906. For a few months he was head clerk at Newton, spent a year in a similar capacity at Hutchinson, Kansas, and for three years was with the Harvey Eating House at Emporia. He then returned to Newton as manager of the Arcade Hotel. This hotel, located at 400 Main Street, was established about 1887. It furnishes the typical Harvey service, and had all the improvements and facilities of the better hotels of that type. It can accommodate sixty guests with rooms, while the dining service is equal to handling 260 persons at a time.
Mr. Browne is a republican in politics and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is affiliated with Hutchinson Lodge No. 453, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On September 28, 1909, at Newton, he married Miss Juliette Roff, daughter of Dr. O. W. and Alice (Payne) Roff. Her parents live at Newton, her father being a well known physician and surgeon and former mayor of that city. Mrs. Browne is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. They have one daughter, Alice, born September 4, 1915.