EMORY WILLIAM BROWN – On his paternal side descended from one of the first settlers of the town of Rowe, Massachusetts, and son of an honored citizen of Greenfield, who served through two enlistments in the Civil War, and with his wife was killed in a railroad accident, Emory William Brown has for the past forty-three years been connected with the Millers Falls Company, Millers Falls, Massachusetts. He acquired a complete knowledge of the milling department and now (1924) is the head of that department with a force of thirty-eight men at work under his supervision. He is a member of Bay State Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite Masonry.
Noah Brown, paternal ancestor, was one of the first to record a settlement in the town of Rowe. He acquired title to one hundred and fifty acres of unbroken upland, which he cleared and cultivated. He evidently was a man of affairs, for he held numerous town offices. He married Judith Short.
Joseph R. Brown, grandfather of Emory William Brown, was born in Rowe, June 7, 1788, and died in 1865, at the age of seventy-seven years. In his youth he was of an enterprising turn of mind, and bought of a dealer a stock of goods which he peddled from house to house. He afterward bought a farm and devoted his attention to farming and stock raising. He was an ardent Whig, later an equally ardent Republican, and a member of the Unitarian Church. He married (first) Sally McLoud, who died at the age of thirty-five years ; he married (second) Antis R. Donaldson: His children, by the first marriage: 1. Joseph Frank, of whom further. 2. Maria; married John L. Higgins. 3. Delia; married Lorenzo Stockwell. 4. Newton. 5. Sarah ; married William Sherman. Children by second marriage: 6. Esther D.; married (first) Amasa White; married (second) Chester Fairbanks. 7. Louis N., living (1924) in Deerfield, Massachusetts, aged eighty years.
Joseph Frank Brown, father of Emory William Brown, was born in Rowe March 20, 1829, and was killed December 21, 1903, in a railroad accident at Zoar, in the town of Charlemont, Massachusetts. He had received his education in the district schools of his home community and went to work as a farmer. When he was twenty-seven years of age he journeyed to Illinois, where he became superintendent of a large farm. He next returned East and in 1862 he enlisted for service in the Civil War. He was assigned to Company B, 52d Massachusetts Regiment His term of enlistment covered eleven months, during which he participated in the siege of Port Hudson. Upon his discharge he returned home and reenlisted, this time with the Massachusetts Light Artillery. He participated in the memorable siege of Mobile. He was honorably discharged from the service in June, 1865. Again he took up the vocation of farming and followed it successfully until his death. He also became much interested in job printing and in a wholesale and retail stationery business in Greenfield. He was a strong prohibitionist, and took an active part in the political affairs of the town, serving on the Board of Selectmen, and also assessor, overseer of the poor, constable and tax collector. He was the local agent of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and a United States census enumerator for his town in the decennial census of 1890. Fraternally, he was a member of the North Adams Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and in religion was a member of the Unitarian Church and chairman of its parish committee. He married, September 14, 1854, Mary E. Stockwell, born September 11, 1838, daughter of Samuel and Content (Walker) Stockwell, who with her husband was killed in an accident December 21, 1903. Their children : 1. Frank H., born February 15, 1856, died January 21, 1921. 2. Emory William, of whom further. 3. Newton H., born June 25, 1866, died in 1922. 4. Fred L., born October 2, 1868, died January 16, 1869. 5. Herbert Samuel, of whom further, born July so, 1870. 6. Gertrude Kitty May, born August 31, 1873; married (first) Henry A. Bates; married (second) Charles E. Houghton. 7. Errol C., born March 27, 1878.
Herbert Samuel Brown, brother of Emory William, was a partner in the wholesale and retail stationery business of F. H. Brown & Co., of Greenfield, for seven years, and for a quarter of a century has been a traveling salesman for Carter, Rice & Co., of Boston, wholesale paper merchants. He was promoted to sales manager of the firm in 1925. He married (first) February 15, 1894, May Alice Plimpton, of Townsend, Vermont, who died February 27, 1907; he married (second), April 23, 1908, Mary Estelle Chalmers, of Topsham, Vermont; he married (third), November 15, 1819, Mary Alice Vandervoort, of Sidney, New York. His children, all by the first marriage : 1. Louise D., born January 13, 1895; a graduate nurse from the Franklin County Hospital, Greenfield, she served in the World War, having gone overseas on the “Leviathan” September 30, 1918, and remained in service in France until June, 1919; she married Harold J. Cade, of Greenfield, and has children: Richard H. and Robert Allen. 2. Forest P., born July 30, 1897, is in the United States Navy, being pay clerk on the mine layer “Shawmut,” having enlisted in the navy as yeoman in 1917; married Anne P. Tempest, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1922 and has children: Forest P., Jr., born June 30, 1923; and Mary Elinor, born August 16, 1924. 3. Mildred E., born June 17, 1899; married Frank J. Yetter, June 25, 1919, and has two sons: Frank J., Jr., born December so, 1921; Sidney Arthur, born September 14, 1924.
Emory William Brown was born in Rowe, September 5, 1858, and educated in the schools of that town. He married, November 22, 1881, Rose Annie, daughter of William and Francina (Perry) Amidon. They have a son, Earl A. Brown, born October 11, 1885, who is at the head of the finance department of the Millers Falls Company ; he married, in 1907, Rose Annie Miller, and they have one child, Lovell Miller, born January 9, 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Emory William Brown have their residence in Millers Falls.