In the career of this honored resident of Elizabeth Township, we have that of one of the representative pioneers of Northern Illinois. He journeyed a long distance before settling in his permanent home, having been born in Derbyshire, England, Oct. 15, 1824. He emigrated with his father to America when a lad of nine years, being the only child. The mother had died when Samuel was but nine months old. In making the journey to America they took passage at Liverpool on a sailing-vessel, arriving in the city of Philadelphia after an ocean voyage of probably five or six weeks. Thence they made their way directly to Centre County, Pa., where the father joined one of his brothers, Joshua Brown, but sojourned there only a few months.

The next removal of our subject and his father was to Wellsville, Ohio, where the elder Brown occupied himself as a coal-miner until 1834. They then came to this county, and John Brown for three years prosecuted lead mining. In 1841 father and son returned to England, where the father spent his last days, dying in 1860.

In 1843 our subject returned to America and took up his permanent residence in this county. He has, since that time, made seven trips to his native England, thus having crossed the Atlantic nine times. During his younger years he engaged in mining. In 1847 he enlisted as a soldier under Col. James Collins and Capt. David C. Berry, in Company F, Second Regiment, which was the last to leave this locality for Mexico. During his one-year’s service he skirmished some with guerrillas, but was mostly employed on guard work in San Juan. Subsequently he returned to this county, and prosecuted lead mining until 1873, making his home in Elizabeth Township. In the spring of 1885 he took up his residence in Elizabeth, where amid the comforts of a good home he purposes to spend the remainder of his days. He was successful in his mining enterprise, acquiring a competency.

Mr. Brown was married April 21, 1863, to Mrs. Sarah E. Knott, widow of John C. Knott, of Des Moines County, Iowa. This lady was born in Sullivan County, Tenn., Feb. 3, 1818, and was the daughter of Thomas G. D. and Jane Williams, who were natives of Virginia, and the father supposed to have been of English descent; the mother traced her ancestry to Wales. A number of her male relatives did good service in the Revolutionary War. After Mr. Williams’ demise Mrs. Brown came with her mother and two brothers, Wiley B. and Isaac C., to this county, where, with the exception of ten years spent in Iowa, she has since lived. She was first married, on the 1st of April, 1852, to John C. Knott, a native of Vermont, and with whom she removed to Iowa, where his death took place, Nov. 23, 1861. Her mother returned to Tennessee in company with Wiley B., and remained until 1865, then returned to this county in company with her daughter, Maria Larkins, and remained until her death, which occurred May 26, 1866. Mrs. Brown had five brothers and one sister, of whom all are living except William, the eldest, who died in Madisonville, Monroe Co., Tenn., in 1877. The remaining members of the family are as follows: George W. and Isaac C., who reside at Weston, this county; Maria Fletcher resides in Tennessee; Andrew J., in Pawnee Rock, Kan.; Wiley B. resides in Hawkins County, Tenn.

Mr. Brown and his wife commenced their wedded life together in Weston, and wherever known have made themselves scores of friends, enjoying the esteem and confidence of the people. Mrs. Brown is a member in good standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has uniformly encouraged those enterprises calculated to build up the county and elevate the people. Mr. Brown may be most properly termed a self-made man, as he started out in life without other property than his sound common sense and willing hands. By the exercise of industry and economy, both on the part of himself and his estimable wife, they are now in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labor, and, sitting under their own vine and fig tree, are enabled to look with a measure of satisfaction upon the result of well-spent lives.

From Portraits and Biographical Pg 709, Transcribed & Contributed by Carol Parrish