Walter E. Brown is one of the younger members of the Atchison bar, but had been favored by his ability and training and early associations and had attained just recognition as one of the resourceful lawyers of the state. He is junior member of the well known firm of Waggener, Challiss, DeLacy & Brown, senior partner of which is one of Kansas’ most distinguished and eminent lawyers and citizens, Hon. Bailie P. Waggener.
Mr. Brown represents a pioneer name in Kansas history. He was born in Whiting, Kansas, November 17, 1887. His grandfather, Michael Brown, came to Kansas in 1872 and homesteaded 800 acres in the Kickapoo Indian Rescrvation in Brown County. Michael Brown was born in the North of Ireland and was of Irish Presbyterian stock. He came to America at the age of eleven years with his father, grew up in Binghamton, New York, and became a lumberman, but followed farming chiefly after his removal to Kansas. The death of this honored old settler occurred at Whiting in 1910, when he was eighty-one years of age.
William E. Brown, father of the Atchison lawyer, was born in Binghamton, New York in 1856, spent his boyhood there, and came to manhood on his father’s homestead in Brown County, Kansas. He followed farming only briefly and incidentally and most of his active life had been spent as a merchant. He became a hardware merchant at Whiting, and in 1890 removed to Holton, Kansas, and had since been a leading lumber merchant of that city. William E. Brown is a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is affilisted with the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Upon reaching his majority he went East to Lewiston, Pennsylvania, where he married Miss Martha W. Gilmore. She was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, in 1861. To their union have been born three children, the oldest being Walter E. Berenice is a graduate of the Holton High School, and subsequently was a student in the University of Kansas and the State Agricultural College at Manhattan, and is now at home with her parents at Holton. Harold, the third child, is pursuing his studies in the University of Kansas.
Walter E. Brown lived in Holton from early childhood, attended the public schools there, and was graduated from high school in 1905. He then entered the State University at Lawrence, where he finished the law course and was granted his LL. B. degree in 1909. In the same year he was admitted to the bar and at once removed to Atchison, where he began practice in September, 1909. Hard work and ability have brought him his present influential connection with some of the strongest law firms in the state.
On April 1, 1913, Mr. Brown became city attorney of Atchison and was re-elected in 1915, finaily retiring from the office in 1917. He is a member of the Atchison County and Kansas State Bar associations.
Fraternally Mr. Brown had made rapid prograss in the assimilation of the work of Masonry. He is a member of Active Lodge No. 158, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Washington Chapter No. 1, Royal Arch Masons, Washington Commandery No. 2, Knights Templar, and Abdallah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Leavenworth. He also belongs to Atchison Lodge No. 647, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Brown is unmarried.