N. B. Brown was born in Logan county, Virginia, in 1833, and moved with his parents to Daviess county, Missouri, in 1843, settling three and one-half miles west of Pattonsburg. He was educated in the country schools of his native county in Virginia, and of Daviess county.
When he came to Daviess county there were few settlements in the northern part of the county. The county then, and for several years afterward, embraced what is now Harrison county. Mr. Brown came to Salem township, then known as Benton, in 1857, and built the first store-house in Salem. When he first came to the county and for several years afterward, all the grinding of grain was done on a hand-mill belonging to “Old Billy ” Allen.
In 1861 Mr. Brown joined the Enrolled Militia of Missouri, and was elected captain of Company B. After the reorganization of the militia in 1863, he was appointed captain of Company M, Fourth Regiment, Colonel John B. Hale, commanding. In this organization he served for nine months, when the old organization was resumed. He participated in the engagement at Union Mills and also in the fight near Camden, where the notorious sill Anderson was killed.
Mr. Brown has a finely improved farm, and keeps from 100 to 200 head of cattle on hand all the time. He also does a large business in buying and shipping stock; shipping in 1880 four hundred car-loads from the counties of Daviess, Harrison, Gentry and Nodaway. This stock was worth on an average $800 to the car-load, making a grand total of $320,000. He has shipped for the last ten years, an average of 200 car-loads per year.
Mr. Brown was married, in 1859, to Miss Sarah J. Harbord, of this county. They have nine children, all living; namely, Mary C., George C., E. Anna, Alice, Lucy L., Josie B., John N., Charles E., and an infant unnamed. Mr. Brown has been a member of the Christian Church for fourteen years.