Neill Smith Brown, 1847-1849, Wliig, Of Scot-Irish
descent. Brown was born in Giles County in 1810. He
studied on his own and taught school in Giles County
to finance his college education. He was admitted to
the bar in 1834. He enlisted in the 1st Tennessee in the
Seminole War. His excellent rhetoric contributed to Whig
campaigns in the 1840s. After serving in the state legislature for six years, he was elected governor in 1847. His
administration was a time of political frenzy and also of
change, seeing the advent of the telegraph and a law to
provide for public schools. The law proved ineffective as
implementation was left to local governments and nothing
came of the effort. Brown lost his bid for re-election but did
not retire from public life. He served as minister to Russia,
as a member of the legislature, and as a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention of 1870. He died in 1886.
Tennessee Blue Book - Available at www.tennessee.gov - Transcribed by, Amanda Jowers
Another Bio
NEIL S. BROWN, the fourteenth governor of Tennessee,
after its admission into the Union, was born in Giles county,
of the state, April 18, 1810. His grandfather, Angus Brown,
was a native of Scotland, who came to America before the
Revolutionary war and during that contest fought under
Francis Marion. Tn 1809 Duncan Brown, the father of Neil,
came to Tennessee from North Carolina and settled in Giles
county. The opportunities of that day to acquire an educa-
tion were somewhat limited, but Neil S. Brown, even in his
boyhood, was made of that fiber that fails to see insurmountable obstructions.
At the age of seven years he commenced
his schooling. As he grew older he worked at various occupations
to obtain the means to complete his education. In 1831
he went into the Maury County Manual Labor academy, and
after two terms there secured a position as a teacher in his
native county. Two years later he took up the study of law
and in 1833 was admitted to the bar at Pulaski. The greater
portion of the year 1835 was spent in Texas, but in 1836
he returned to Tennessee and took part in the Seminole war.
The same year he was a presidential elector on the White
ticket; was elected to the state legislature in 1837; ran for
Congress in 1843, but was defeated by Aaron V. Brown, after
a spirited contest; was again a presidential elector on the
Clay ticket in 1844; and at the age of thirty-seven years was
elected governor of the state. Governor Brown has the distinction
of having been the youngest man ever elected to the
office of governor in the State of Tennessee. In 1849 he was
a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by Gen. William
Trousdale. In 1850 he was appointed United States minister
to Russia and served in that capacity for about three years.
Shortly after his return home he was again elected to the
state legislature and was chosen speaker of the lower branch.
In 1856 he was one of the electors for the state at large on
the Fillmore ticket and made a canvass of the state in which
he won imperishable honors as a public speaker. After the
dissolution of the Whig party he allied himself with the Democratic party,
but never took an active part in any contest after
1856. During the war he avoided the entanglements of becoming
too closely connected with either side. In 1870 he was
a delegate to the constitutional convention, where his experience
and conservatism proved potent factors in shaping the
organic law of the state. He died at Nashville, in January,
1886.
Notable Men of Tennessee -- transcribed by, Amanda Jowers
