Alexander Clifford Brown, engaged in the practice of osteopathy in Council Bluffs since 1901 and widely recognized as a prominent member of the profession, was born at Mediapolis, Des Moines county, Iowa, on the 12th of July, 1873. His parents were Alexander C. and Hannah (Roberts) Brown, the former a merchant and veteran of the Civil war. After the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south, the father joined the army as a private of Company I, Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and participated in the battles of the regiment up to and including the engagement at Chickamauga, where he was in command of his company. At the close of the battle he was captured and was first incarcerated in the tobacco warehouse, known as Libby prison, was later sent to Belle Isle and lastly to Andersonville, being a prisoner of war for nineteen months. He was then exchanged and was on the steamer Sultana when she blew up near Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Brown swam and floated down the river four miles, when he climbed a tree on a submerged island where he held on from one O'clock at night until ten o'clock the next morning, when with others be was rescued. There was, however, an awful loss of life from that steamboat disaster. When the war ended he came to Iowa, where he died on the 7th of January, 1904, his death being largely caused by his army experience, for his health had become broken down and he never fully recovered from the effects of his life upon the tented fields of the south. He had for some years survived his wife, who died in 1892. She was a cultured and literary woman and numerous articles, both prose and poetry, from her pen appeared at various times in eastern and Midwestern periodicals.

Dr. Brown is one of a family of four children, the others being Anna R., who died at the age of nineteen years while attending college in Ohio; Elizabeth, the wife of Levi H. Fuller, an attorney, who holds a chair in the law department of the Northwestern University at Chicago; and Cynthelia Maud, the wife of Alfred C. Watts, one of the head district civil and mining engineers for the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company.

Dr. Brown acquired his early education in the public schools of his native town and afterward attended Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa. He prepared for his profession as a student in the Still College of Osteopathy, of which he is a graduate. He also took a course at Kirksville, Missouri, in 1900 and post-graduate work in various medical colleges. Coming to Council Bluffs, he located here in 1901 and has since been successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. He has secured many patrons, enjoying a generous practice and is now well established.

The Doctor is a member of the Masonic fraternity and also of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is quite well known in social circles, being a popular member of the Commercial Club and the Council Bluffs Boat Club. In the line of his profession he is connected with the Iowa Osteopathic Association, being a member of the board of trustees, and the American Osteopathic Association. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the First Presbyterian church, in which he is serving as elder. In politics be is a stalwart republican and when William McKinley was candidate for the presidency was living in Colorado. He was made a delegate to the state republican convention in a free silver state, where to work for a gold standard man meant to stand fearlessly in support of one's views in the face of strong opposition. Such a course, however, is characteristic of Dr. Brown. He has never wavered in' his allegiance to any cause or purpose which he believed to be right. On the contrary he is ever most loyal to his convictions and stands as one who is unfaltering in his advocacy of what he believes to be for the best interests of the individual, the city or the nation.