448 ANNUAL REPORT 



business but the hard times of 1857-8 forced him to discontinue, 

 and removing to Eochester he continued in business until 1870. 

 At this time the new town of Lac qui Parle, attracted his at- 

 tention and the family removed to that place, where he pre- 

 empted a quarter section of land one-half mile north of the vil- 

 lage. He built a commodious and well fitted hotel and is most 

 pleasantly remembered as its genial host and proprietor. 



In 1873, at the establishment of the Lac qui Parle county ag- 

 ricultural society — largely through his interest and efforts — he 

 was elected its first president. 



During leisure hours he might be found planting and fostering 

 the growth of the trees which he seemed to love, leaving them 

 as footmarks, wherever he was. Anyone visiting Lac qui Parle 

 cannot but remark Mr. Brown's place as it is known with its 

 wealth of beautiful trees. The road on two sides is lined with 

 three rows and the southeast forty acres is laid out in a delight- 

 ful grove where he purposed sometime erecting home buildings, 

 which purpose will be carried out by his daughter, Mrs. Nichols. 

 Lac qui Parle owes much of its acquired beauty to the refined 

 taste and industry of Mr. Brown. 



The cares of hotel life proving too burdensome he sold the 

 property in 1885, and retired to his homestead secured some 

 years before in Providence, to make for himself and wife, as he 

 expressed it, a home for their old age. 



He was elected in the fall of 1886, representative to the state 

 legislature, where he was honored with the chairmanship of the 

 committee on forestry, and was an active member of the com- 

 mittee on public lands. 



For years he was an active and interested member of the state 

 forestry association and State Horticultural Society, and was a 

 prime mover in such modification of the tree claim laws of the 

 United States as should make them practical and reasonable. 



At Evergreen Farm Home, as he was wont to call it, he gave 

 full expression to his fancies, and a "home" it was indeed. 

 Surely he solved the i^roblem of tree planting on these bleak 

 western prairies. 



Of the large family but two brothers and two sisters survive 

 him. His widow, and an only daughter, Mrs. Browning Nichols, 

 Lac qui Parle, and an only son, Emslie Brown, of Plain view, have 

 the sincere sympathy of a large circle of friends. 



Under a grassy mound at Evergreen Farm, surrounded by the 

 trees he loved so well, rests all that is mortal of the excellent 

 citizen and honest man, John H. Brown. 



