John Brown (nephew of Capt. Brown), born February 10, 1774, at Leicester, Massachusetts, married Miss Polly Green, of ,Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1797, and set out for the Ohio Company’s purchase in the autumn of 1801. He brought his young family and few effects over the mountains, with one horse, in a little wagon, and, when descending difficult places in the road, attached a small tree to the rear end of his wagon, to act as a break, or lock. When he reached Wheeling, on the Ohio river, after a most toilsome journey, he “swapped” his wagon for a canoe and two heifers, and proceeded down the river toward his destination. His second son, Lemuel Green Brown, was born the day after their landing, near Marietta, and the head of the family found himself in these rather difficult circumstances, with but fifty cents in his pocket. As soon as practicable he resumed travel, and reached Ames township in March, 1802. He first settled on the farm now owned and occupied by the heirs of Stephen Green, where he lived for a short time, and thence moved to where John D. Brown now lives. He was soon elected a justice of the peace, and was frequently re-elected, holding the position, altogether, twenty-seven years. He was also at one time one of the appraisers of the college lands in this county, and of the same in Miami county. In 18r i he built a brick house on his farm in Ames (one of the first brick houses, if not the first, erected in this part of the county), where for many years he kept public house. Being situated on the principal thoroughfare from Marietta westward, it was, during fifteen or twenty years, much resorted to by travelers. The building was standing till within a few years. Of excellent business capacity, and of a kind and genial nature, Mr. Brown was always able and willing to relieve the poor and help the distressed. His house was at all times open for religious services, and a list was made of seventy-two preachers, who, at different times, had held meetings there. He was twice married, and his second wife is still living in the county, nearly eighty years old. He died July 23, 1833.
