50 IN MEMORIAM : 



whose American ancestor came to this country with William 

 Penn, settled originally in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, the 

 grandfather and grand uncle of the deceased migrating from 

 that locality in 1799, and founding, a few years later, the 

 town of Brownville, in Northern New York. 



The grand uncle, Jacob, from whom Mr. Brown was 

 named, gave evidence of marked ability early in life. After 

 a journey of exploration into Ohio, then an absolute wilder- 

 ness, and after some three years in New York city, where 

 he taught school, contributed literary articles to the news- 

 papers of those days, and held for a time the position of sec- 

 retarj' to Alexander Hamilton, we find him in 1806, at the 

 age of 31, on the St. Lawrence river, as surveyor and land 

 agent for the French " Compagnie Nouvelle de New York," 

 whose purpose was to found a colony in Northern New York for 

 French families expatriated as a result of the revolution of 1789. 



Both Jacob and his brother, Samuel, the grandfather of 

 Jacob B. Brown, became men of prominence on the northern 

 frontier of the United States early in the nineteenth century. 

 Samuel Brown, after some service in the War of 18 12, settled 

 in Brownville, Jefferson county. New York, and devoted his 

 energies to business, farming and lumbering. The other 

 brother, Jacob, who had acquired a very accurate knowledge 

 of the topography and conditions of the country from Lake 

 Ontario to the rapids of the St. Lawrence, distinguished him- 

 self as a military leader and strategist in our second war with 

 England. He rose to the rank of major general, and for his 

 services in command of the American forces in the battles of 

 Niagara, Chippewa and Erie, received the thanks of Congress 

 and the award of a special medal. From 182 1 to his death in 

 1828 he was the commanding general of the United States 

 Army, dying in Washington at the age of 53, after a life of 

 the most unremitting activity. 



Thompson S. Brown, son of Major Samuel Brown and 

 nephew of General Brown, graduated at West Point in 1827, 

 with assignment to the engineer corps, in which he attained 



