Alexander L.. BROWN came to his present location in Center Township, Pottawattamie County, in 1872, and was among the first settlers in this neighborhood.  A brief resume of his life is herewith given.

Mr. Brown was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, May 25, 1827, the son of Benjamin Brown, a native of New York.  His grandfather, Alexander Brown, was born in Scotland.  His mother, Nancy (McKee) Brown, a native of New Jersey, was a daughter of a Protestant Irishman.

Our subject passed his youth on his father's farm in Muskingum County, and received his education in the public schools.  He was married April 20, 1848, to Miss Elizabeth Catherine Mennefee, a native of Virginia.  Her father, Charles Mennefee, was born in the Old Dominion, in 1782, the descendant of an old Virginia family.  Her mother, nee Mary Madox, a daughter of Notley Madox, was also a native of Virginia, as was her father.  Mr. Brown resided in Ohio until 1853, when the whole family removed to Mercer County, Illinois.  There the parents spent the residue of their lives.  The father died at the age of seventy years.  In politics he was a Whig until the organization of the Republican Party, when he joined its ranks.  A member of the Christian Church, he was an active and zealous worker in the cause of religion.  The mother died at the age of ninety years.

Mr. Brown remained in Illinois until 1872, when he came to this county and bought his present farm, eighty acres, of J. Q. Rollins, who had broken the ground.  Mr. Brown has since put the land under a good state of cultivation, and has substantial and convenient farm buildings.

He and his wife are the parents of seven children, viz.:  Samantha, wife of Horace Bull, Rock Island, Illinois, has five children; Joanna, wife of Riley Duncan, of Wayne, Nebraska, is the mother of two children; Charles, a resident of Custer County, Nebraska, is married and has three children; L. W., at home; Hugh resides in Pottawattamie County, is married and has two children; George A., a successful teacher of Center Township, is married and has one child.  Benjamin, the twin brother of Charles, died at the age of four years.

Politically Mr. Brown is a Republican.  For many years he has been a member of the Baptist Church, and forty years a member of the Masonic fraternity.  He is an intelligent man of broad and progressive views, and is regarded by all as a worthy and upright citizen.

In connection with Mrs. Brown's family history it should be further stated that her father died in Mercer County, Illinois, and her mother, now at the age of eighty eight years, makes her home in Mr. Brown's family.

Contributed By: Mona Sarratt-Knight