As head of the Dewey Mill & Grain Company, George Brown is a dominant figure in industrial circles of Washington County and northeastern Oklahoma and his influence is one of broadening activity and strength in the field in which he operates. He was born at Lynn Grove, Kentucky, July 17, 1887, and is a son of W. T. and Ida (Steel) Brown, who are also natives of the Blue Grass state, the father being now a resident of Torrance County, New Mexico, where he located in order that his health might be benefited by the dry climate of that section of the country.
In the public schools of Kentucky, George Brown acquired his education and in 1911, when a young man of twenty-four, he came to Oklahoma, locating in Dewey. He engaged as a contractor in oil drilling, operating in the Squirrel, Osage and Weber pools, after which he entered his present business, establishing an elevator and roller flour mills. He is a miller by profession and does a wholesale and retail flour, grain and feed business, conducting his interests under the style of the Dewey Mill & Grain Company. His mill, which is modern and well equipped, was started by Joe Bartles in 1917 and completed by Mr. Brown in 1920. It was erected at a cost of thirty-nine thousand dollars and has a capacity of sixty barrels and two thousand bushels per day, while the elevator has a storage capacity of twenty-six thousand bushels. The mill is operated by electric power and is one of the most complete to be found in this part of the country. Mr. Brown is an expert miller and through untiring energy and judicious management has built up a business of large proportions, giving employment to six people and having a large wholesale and retail trade in the northeastern part of the state. He maintains stores both in Dewey and Bartlesville and has a contract with the United States Flour Company of New Orleans for ten thousand barrels of flour per year. He possesses initiative, combined with marked executive ability, and is recognized as a business man of more than ordinary ability.
Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Wilkinson, a native of Kentucky, and they have become the parents of one child, Nogel, who is now eleven years of age. Mr. Brown has made steady progress in the business world, his advancement being due to the fact that he has recognized and utilized advantages which others have passed heedlessly by. A large commercial enterprise stands as a monument to what he has accomplished and its influence on the industrial development of this part of the state can scarcely be overestimated.