BROWN FAMILY

FROM IMMIGRANTS TO MONTANA AND BEYOND

by Morris Brown AIA, MFA

1997

It always seems to be this way. After Dad (Alvin Walter Brown) died on December 4, 1994 there were as many questions as there were answers. I am fortunate that my parents lived long enough for me to have reached a point in life where I was interested in recording their history. I started on Dad's history three years ago and then broke for a time to do Mom's side of the family. When Dad turned eighty his eyes were failing and I will never forget reading his story to him - then he~ cried. He could not believe he had so much to say.

It took six months more to polish the work. But an important part was still missing. Who were the Browns? Dad had been abandoned by his parents to grow up with his mother's parents, so he knew very little of this side of the family. By July 1995 I was ready to research the Brown family beyond Dad's memory. Surely there was some information somewhere!

Just before his death, one of Dad's unknown cousins had sent an interesting letter asking for information about the Brown family. She had found a picture of our immediate family along with an address in her mother's possessions. Suffering with alzheimer's disease, her mother had been placed in a permanent care facility and could not answer her questions. Mom responded with brief information about Dad because she had little else. I was busy refining Dad's story and thought Mom's letter would suffice. Curiously I contacted this unknown relative, Gwen Granger.

Gwen is the daughter of Cora Brown Mattison, one of Dad's aunts from the Brown side of the family living in Bruce, Wisconsin. She said that her aunt Gerty had just died at the age of ninety-four on November 16, 1995 in their home town of Bruce and she was able to get some pictures of the Brown family to send me from Gerty's photo album. The pictures were of Dad's father, my grandfather, Lem, and some of his other brothers and sisters in their later years of life. It was like a treasure chest opening. I never thought that I would be able to know what Lem looked like. There is a striking resemblance to Dad, my twin brother and me.

Gwen gave me the names of other cousins of Dad; Mable's daughter, Lucille Wilcoxson of Tacoma, Washington; Willard's daughter, Martha Brown Morris of Valier, Montana and son, Chester, of Dayton, Washington. Martha had already started to collect birth and death certificates on the immediate George Brown family and statistics from the extended generations. This helped tell the entire story. Oddly, Martha's husband's name is Alvin Morris and he married a Brown and mine is Morris Alvin Brown.

Martha told me where to contact Wilson. I tried to contact him by telephone and letter over a period of about a month. When I was about to give up, I surprisingly received a letter from Wilson's wife, Joy. She and Wilson had lived in Harysville, Washington and sadly reported that Wilson had died only a week before. In spite of settling her own problems, she was able to clear up some questions about Lem and other areas. Martha collected certificates of birth and death of the family as well as photographs.

The daughter of Clara, Patty Baxter, shared stories about the family in the Bremerton area. She was especially informative about Lem and Emory.

A few comments came from another cousin, Ivy's son, Eugene, of Bozeman, Montana. He said that his father went by the nickname “Ivy“ more often than “Ivan“ or “Ivon“. Like many others in the family, he knew little of the Brown family history and indicated that he would talk to his ailing mother, Ina, when she recuperated. But she died before he was able to ask her my questions.

Eugene said that after World War I, many people from that part of Montana moved to the Seattle area. He also said that the Browns were primarily machinists and mechanics and was surprised to hear that my twin brother, Terry, and I were architects. I wondered what that comment meant when he himself was an attorney. Those jobs in Bremerton were at the Navy Ship Yard where that kind of skill was in demand. Nevertheless, Dad, my brother, and I did come by those abilities naturally.

Eugene's brother, Keith, said that when one of the extended Brown families came to visit another, they brought along little gifts such as candy, etc. “That's just the way they were.“, he said.

Judy Van Vleet of Great Falls also contributed. Her father was the brother of Ina. She sent copies of Ivan's parent's (Lucy and George) wedding certificate and George's death certificate. She also conveyed a 1860 Indiana census listing the family of Lemuel Brown. It was hoped that she could find her great grandmother, Danelia, listed as one of Lemuel's children. She was not listed and may have been born later.

Gwen had in her possession an interesting handwritten two-page document about the Brown family. It described our story from the immigrant years to the homesteaders. This narrative had been told by Mable Brown Jenson and recorded by Eugene Schroeder, the son of Gerty Brown Mattison Schroeder (Mable's sister). I quoted Mable where her information fit in the appropriate sequence of events as the history expanded.

IMMIGRANTS

As with many families much, if not all, of their early ancestry has been lost. This is certainly true of this Brown family. Only sketchy notes of the immigrant years remain.

The most distant relative known came to this country in the late seventeen hundreds from Holland. He was not a Brown but a part of the puzzle. His name was Alfred Myers. Alfred's father and three brothers had been Lutheran ministers and they may have expected Alfred to follow in their profession. Alfred had other callings and he immigrated to America to solve his “economic and family problems“, said Mable. It was not explained what those problems were, only that this country gave him hope to do better. There is no record of the boat trip with its hardships and challenges as were often the case. Alfred settled near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was a shop keeper. There he married a lady whose name and ancestry are unknown. They must have moved at some point because their daughter, Margret1, was born in Indiana in 1827

AMERICAN BORN

This daughter married Lemuel Brown . Lemuel was born in 1828 in Kentucky. It appears that Lemuel's immigrant father had been a “wealthy merchant“ in Ireland and on his arrival to this country settled in Kentucky where he “invested in a large plantation“~.

Lemuel left Kentucky and settled in his wife's home state of Indiana. At the time of the 1860 census, Lemuel and Margret had been living in Georgetown Township, Floyd County, Indiana. This community was located immediately west across the Ohio River from Louiville, Kentucky. He was thirty-two years old and she was thirty-three. The census recorded that Lemuel was a farmer with a $3,000 estate value. Although there were two others with the same valuation it was the highest amount recorded on the two pages where his family was listed. The usual was a few hundred dollars. Six children were listed in the household - George (age 5), Henry (age 2) and William (age 6 months) were Browns. The other children had different last names and did not indicate their relationship. All were born in Indiana.

Their eldest son, George Meyers Brown “had received a fine education in an eastern school”, said Mable, and decided to move west even though he could have had a fine home in Kentucky. He moved to Barber County, Kansas. It is not certain what Mable meant by that because George was born and apparently raised in Indiana. Barber County is the adjacent county across the Ohio river where his father may have come from. There he met a young woman named Nellie “Lucy” Malinda Clemens. She was born in Chillicothe, Illinois on March 28, 1870. They were married on October 18, 1885 at her fathers home in Sun City, Kansas. George was thirty years old and Lucy was sixteen.

Lucy had several brothers and was the daughter of Irishman Alvin Clemens who had fought for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. A photograph of Alvin and his family with the photographer's inscription, “Alvin Clemens & Family”, shows them healthy and thin. Alvin is sitting with his wife at his side. Their two sons, Charley and younger Jimmy, are standing behind them. Lucy is not included. Their mother's maiden name was Sherwood. Although her first name has been lost, Mable had recorded that she was from Norway.

It had been told by the family that Lucy's father was a brother of the famous writer, Samuel Clemens - better known as Mark Twain (1835-1910). Their last names had the same spelling and history shows that Samuel Clemens, like Alvin Clemens, had also served in the Confederate Army for a brief time in 1861. But there is no evidence to support this claim and it appears to be a romantic myth. Alvin was not included in any of the four books that were researched.

George and Lucy settled on a small farm in Barber County for a year and then “spent some time in Topeka, Kansas“, said Mable. There, at the age of sixteen, Lucy gave birth to their first child, Willard, on November 15, 1886.

MONTANA HOMESTEAD

Deciding to move further west they homesteaded in Evans, Montana; an area that is not on the map but was a community of homestead farms about fifteen miles southeast of Great Falls, Montana. The date is not known nor for how long they remained there. Some of their children were born on the farm and others were born in nearby Stockett probably in search of better medical attention. At the time Stockett was a booming coal mining town but today it has a population of about one hundred people.

The family moved on again in 1910 to settle a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres about eighteen miles northeast of the present day town of Denton in another homestead community called Sunnyside. This was the Judith Basin area of central Montana and one of the last in the state to be opened for homesteading. The Brown farm was settled about the same time as their neighbors to the east, the Martins (Dad's other grandparents).

Like many others plowing a living on the land during that period of American history, one had to be resourceful. The land was rich and productive with enough moisture, but that was not always certain. If a homesteader tailed in what ever obligations were required to “prove up the land“ they would have lost their title and the land was to have reverted back to the U.S. Government. Evidently the law did not exclude family members from refiling or, those that administered the program were lax in enforcing the requirements. Fred Lahr Jr. said that the Fergus County records showed that in the Brown family, mother Lucy filed first and then to their son, Lem, and back again. It is not known why the father, George, was not represented on this list.

In the Walter and Louisa Martin family, these signatures went from Walter, to Louisa, to daughter Lucinda, and back again to fill one page of County records and part of another page recording the years from 1910 to 1934. At that point, they had been living in town during the harsh winters and farming must have improved. The land remains in the Lahr family to this day.

Along with George and Lucy's large and still growing family, joining them were a “brother and sister,“ said Mable. The farm was planted in mostly wheat except for a few acres that had been reserved for livestock. There they lived and worked for “over fifteen years“. The family had grown to seven girls and seven boys in this order; Willard (1886), Leonard (?), Lemuel “Lem“ (1888), twins Estella and Emory “Cougar” (1892), George (1896), Mable (1899), Gertrude “Gerty“ (1901), Iveston “Ivy” (1903), twins Cora and Clara (1907), Margaret (1910), Wilson (1911) and Violet (1916).

Their second child, Leonard, appears to have died as an infant. Nothing more is known of this episode in the family's life nor is it known when, where or how it happened. It is not clear whose brother or sister these were but Judy Van Vleet thought that they could have been George's brother of unknown name and sister, Denelia Brown.

Emory's birth certificate indicated one child had previously died. Martha remembers bearing this child could have heen a twin to Lem but Lem's birth certificate does not indicate that a twin was born. Martha had also heard that the child had reached sonic age before dying by 'falling off something'.

Dad's half brother, Fred Lahr Jr., remembered hearing years ago that one of those brothers had been killed when a car he had been driving hit a pole while on the way to a dance in Alton. Alton was a farming neighborhood like that at Sunnyside and about halfway to Denton from the family farm. The dance may have been held at the one room school or a barn. Gwen said his name was George Perry and that he had been in his late teens at the time of the accident. Martha had heard that he had been decapitated. His death certificate indicated that his car had overturned but two words were not legible that could have cleared that up. It also gives his date of death as June 29, 1918 at twenty-one years of age and that he was born in Evans, Montana on August 4, 1896.

Fred also said that the George and Lucy Brown homestead was the adjacent farm to the west of his and Dad's grandparent's, the Martins, homestead. Dad's father, Lemuel Alvin, born on November 27, 1888 in Evans, Montana, was one of the oldest Brown children. Being neighbors could account for the reason how he met and married Dad's mother, Etta, in 1913. The newly weds did not seem to have trouble filing for land. On June 25, 1914, Lem filed for and received a homestead of three hundred and twenty acres. On her own, Etta filled for and received one hundred and sixty acres on November 9, .1914 at a cost of $1.20 per acre. This land eventually became a part of the Lahr farm and was located about five or six miles east of the Martin's homestead on Bear Springs Bench. Dad apparently did not know this because he did not have the chance to farm it as a young man or ever mentioned it.

1917 was a year of disaster for that part of the country. A drought had set in that would take its toll on many before life finally improved. It certainly became an eventful year for Lem. Estranged from his wife for some time, he was served with divorce papers by the sheriff on July 12, 1917. Three months earlier the United States had entered World War I. Lem did not show up for court and this may have been the time he joined the Army.

During that period, America experienced a massive mobilization that included the recruiting of one and onehalf million men and the conscription of nearly three million more from the age of eighteen to forty-five. Lem's younger brother, Emory, also joined. The entire country had been called to help meet the war demands of manpower, munitions and food. Volunteer efforts were enormous. Farms of the time enjoyed a twenty-five percent increase in real income. But the drought robbed this benefit from the Browns and all others in that part of Montana.

The relationship between Lem and Etta had not been on firm ground. They had started a family but Lem evidently was not a stable husband or father. Conditions were serious enough to leave Etta with no other recourse but to file for divorce. At the time, Alvin Walter (b. January 25, 1914), was three and one-half years old and Raymond Russell (b. December 19, 1915) was one and one- half years old. They had been raised by Etta's parents, Walter and Louisa Martin, since Raymond's birth. The divorce documents were dated September 11, 1917. The grounds for divorce stated that Lem had “failed and neglected to provide for his wife“. Also, during the previous two years, the documents state that Lem had been “habitually intemperate from the use of intoxicating drinks in such a degree as to disqualify him a great portion of the time from properly attending to business“ and this “was entirely due to the defendant's idleness, profligacy and dissipation.“ Lem was required to pay twenty dollars per month child payments plus two hundred dollars for attorney's fees.

Etta eventually married again to another homesteader named Fred Lahr and had three more children; Marjorie, Maryetta and Fred Jr.

TRIBULATIONS

Little is known of the daily hardships and celebrations of the homesteading Brown family. Remembering her father, George, Cora would often say, “That old man married that young girl.“ when asked, she usually had little to say about him and blamed him for “leaving and never coming back“. This tragic event took place when she was only nine years old. George was ill and left home seeking medical treatment and traveled about one hundred and thirty miles west to Great Falls, Montana. There he soon died after being attended by a doctor for six days. His death certificate notes heart failure at the age of sixty-three on February 6, 1919. He was buried in an unmarked grave located between the plots of Sarah Simonton and Nina Hall in section 10, lot 543, behind the water tower at the Highland Cemetery in Great Falls.

Things could not get much worse for the Brown family. The drought that had crippled the state for so long had continued to parch the land through the remainder of 1919. Mable said “Cattle and horses starved to death“ and that, “This prolonged drought spelled the breakup of the homestead.“ Before this time some of the older children had left the farm for different places and reasons. “The homestead was just left because the children were old enough to be employed in larger western cities.“

STARTING OVER

After George died the family may have remained on the farm for some time in anticipation of spring. At the age of sixteen, Ivy was the only male that could have worked the farm. The oldest son was married and on his own, two others were in the army, two were dead and Wilson was only a baby. There probably was not much to be done anyway as the drama unfolded. When Lucy did decide to leave the homestead she moved the remaining family to Whitefish, Montana where her oldest son, Willard, and his family lived. That was a long move of over three hundred miles that required the crossing of the high road through the Glacier National Park.

Life continued as the family settled into their new home located at 614 Somers Avenue. Like most others of the day, this bungalow had a covered sitting porch on the front of the house facing the street. The high pitched roof of the house, extending from front to back, covered an attic second floor. At the tine of this writing the house still stands. It is not known how Lucy supported herself but her older children probably helped.

A few memories from that period remain. As a young boy, Chester stayed with his grandmother for nine months while his father worked at the water works. He remembered Lucy as a “good ol' cook“ that could make just about anything. Her neighbor was a Norwegian and at times they would get together and make Lefsa. This long-flat unleavened bread was made by mashing potatoes until the mix was firm and then the dough was rolled out to be cooked on top of a wood/coal stove. where the neighbors ate their bread with butter, Lucy used jam and jellies. Martha said that Lucy called these “jelly roles“ and they were also made with pan cakes. Chester said that his grandmother was “strict in making children mind“ and did not put up with much rough play.

Not long after the move, the town of Whitefish installed a sewer system and built new streets between the neatly aligned homes in an area that had been a dense forest only a few blocks from the town center. Prior to these urban improvements, traffic would have to veer around tree stumps on badly rutted dirt roads. It took crews of “hundreds of men“ to wrestle large round boulders from the earth. They also boarded up all the windows on the adjacent houses so they could safely dynamite out the tree stumps.

American involvement in world War I was not long, only for about one and one-half years. Armistice came November 11, 1919. Millions had been killed and countless others had been wounded including Lem and Emory.

Emory suffered the worse of the two. The family had received a telegram saying that he was missing in action. They had assumed he was dead and were relieved when he was found alive in a French hospital. Emory was the only other family member, other than his father, that Dad had known anything about and remembered hearing that he had been gassed, lost a finger and had been shot in the hip. At times he had trouble with his feet and may have struggled with another common problem from the War, trench foot.

Lem was injured too and came home with lung damage caused by the German use of chlorine gas in trench warfare. In Denton he and Emory found little to keep them there. Lem was not allowed to see his sons and his own family may have left the farm by then. They both continued on to Bremerton, Washington to start life over.

A few years later Lucy decided to join Lem and Emory in Bremerton. Her grandson, George (Willard's son), had broken a leg by stepping in a gopher hole and Lucy cared for him during the summer of 1925. That fall she moved and probably with her went the oldest daughter, Stella, and Clara, as well as the younger ones; Margaret, Wilson, and Violet. Wilson remembered being about twelve years old at the time. Lucy lived there until her death on June 18, 1938. She was buried in Bremerton.

WILLARD

Five years before his father's death, Willard Edyth had married Francis Alice Mclntire in Lewistown on September 27, 1914. Their first child, Chester Leonard, was born on September 15, 1915 in Denton and then they moved. George Eugene was born in Big Sandy, Montana, November 14, 1916. Francis was pregnant as they moved to Whitefish located at the western base of the Glacier National Park. But timing was not good and their first daughter, Lucy Mildred, was born along the way on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation where they were given sanctuary in the cabin of Chief Wades-In-The-water on September 14, 1918. In Whitefish they had two more daughters; Ethel May was born on June 16, 1923 and Martha Alice was born on November 3, 1926.

Willard left Montana only “once when they moved to Weiser, Idaho for a couple of years“, Martha said. Times were difficult and Willard moved his family from town to town in Montana looking for work; Ft. Benton, Browning, and Great Falls. But most of his years were spent in Whitefish and Choteau, Montana. In Whitefish Willard worked numerous jobs; he herded sheep, worked for the Police Department as one of the first City policemen and worked at the City Water Reservoir where he was responsible for the upkeep of the wood water pipes. During prohibition, he also made beer and sold it to the Police Department and other people. While they lived in Choteau, Willard had to leave the family to find work at the Ft. Peck dam project about four hundred miles east across the state. He was not able to get home anymore often than two or three times per year. This dam was built during the Depression years of the 1930's. At that time it was one of the largest earth-fill dams in the world and stretched nearly four miles across the Missouri River in northeastern Montana. Surprisingly, Dad and his brother worked at this dam too. They had only been there for a short period of time, six months, and had their paths crossed neither would have known the other.

On August 4, 1945, Willard died of lung cancer at the age of fifty-nine. He was buried in Great Falls and was survived by his wife and grown children.

Chester Leonard Brown, the first child, married twice in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. Adeline Garnsey was his first wife for many years. When she died he married Wilma Kohl. Neither family had children but Wilma had two children from a previous marriage.

George Eugene Brown married twice - the first was to Clara Young in California. No children issued from that union and later George married Joann Cole in Whitefish, Montana on July 17, 1957 with whom three children were reared;

Chester Elroy Brown (b. December 19, 1959)

Darlene Rae Brown (b. August 3, 1961)

Ronald Lee Brown (b. February 2, 1965)

Lucy Mildred Brown married Walter Emanuel Bodeen in Choteau, Montana on February 7,1937. He was born on October 8, 1915 and died September 7, 1961. Lucy outlived Walter and died February 26, 1996. They raised fourteen children;

Ronald Arvid Bodeen (b. July 12, 1937)

Cynthia Jane Bodeen (b. May 21, 1939)

Allen Bodeen (Born and died 1941)

Gertrude Joy Bodeen (b. May 21, 1942)

Wesley Eugene Bodeen (b. July 30, 1943)

Ruby Jean Bodeen (b. February 28, 1945)

Russell Ernest Bodeen (b. September 8, 1946)

Ruth Janet Bodeen (b. May 26, 1948)

Rodney Emanuel Bodeen (b. March 31, 1950)

Ray Evan Bodeen (b. August 13, 1952)

Roy Evert Bodeen (b.September 30, 1953)

Robin Juanita Bodeen (b. June 3, 1954)

Sandra Kay Bodeen (b. January 5, 1957)

Rose Ann Bodeen (b. October 3, 1958)

Ethel May Brown married Earl Lloyd Camden in Great Falls, Montana. He was born in Bunker, Missouri on January 17, 1917. Together they had she had six children;

Elmer Lloyd Camden (b. October 21, 1943)

James Willard Camden (b. March 13, 1946)

Mary Ann Camden (b. September 6, 1948)

Marleen Marie Camden (b. February 8, 1951)

Robert Lee Camden (b. May 31, 1956)

Sylvia Jean Camden (b. April 30, 1958)

The last child, Martha Alice Brown, married Robert E. F. Orr in Choteau, Montana and had two children. This marriage did not last and Martha went on to marry Ivan Williams in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho. After he died in a freak accident, she married Alvin Morris January 12, 1970 also in Coeur D' Alene. Neither the second or third marriage produced children.

Victor Lavall Orr (b. April 18, 1943)

Diana Lee Orr (b. July 11, 1946)

LEM

In Bremerton, Lem worked as a rigger who directed the crane operators for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. He had remarried and with his new wife, Liz, had two daughters, Fernie and June. But that relationship did not last and Lem and Liz divorced. Both daughters settled in California; Fernie to Redwood City and June married a college professor living in San Francisco.

Lem married for a third time to a woman named Irene. Irene took care of Lem's mother, Lucy, for some duration until Emory took over. In 1933, Irene gave birth to a daughter named Beverly Irene. Patty Baxter said that “Lem doted on Beverly“. She liked to dance and Lem spared no expense for her. He made sure that she had a closet full of dance costumes and seemed to have had no trouble spending money on outings with his family. They lived at 428 Wycoff Street in Bremerton and Patty thought that was the home Lem had lost in gambling. Drinking, gambling and carousing finally took its toll. Their marriage of many years also failed.

After the divorce, Irene moved to Marysville, Washington and married a man whose last name was Rhoades. At that point Wilson's wife, Joy, contacted Irene and found that she was not receptive to any continued relationship with the Brown family. Beverly married and had two daughters and one son. Their last name is Skinner.

After his third marriage, Lem lived the last ten years of his life in the Washington Veteran's Home in Retsil, Washington - located on top of a hill on the outskirts of Port Orchard, Washington at the head of the bay. There he suffered with a malignant left lung for five years and with a malignant kidney for six months before dying “immediately“ from a hemorrhage in that kidney on October 2, 1959. He had reached the age of seventy and was buried at the Retsil Cemetery. Whether he was alone at his death is not known. Patty's mother, Clara, worked at that facility during the years Lem lived there. She remembered her mother complaining often about Lem and his ways, especially when “lady friends“ visited him in his room. Patty described him as “a real charmer“ and that he was “dapper and well dressed”. He looked especially good in his straw hat.

There was one eventful spring day in 1945 when Lem made an effort to meet his two grown sons from his first marriage. It was near the end of WWII when Dad and Raymond were both working for the Boeing Aircraft Corporation in Renton, Washington. Lem was still married to Irene. After a short surprise introduction of himself to Dad, Lem invited him and Mom to eat on the next weekend and they were to bring Raymond. They went but the moment was fleeting, an improved relationship was not established. Dad did not see their father again. A few months later Dad moved back to Montana with his wife, Julia, and new twin sons.

It is not known how Lem got along with his daughters but neither of his sons was interested or able to develop closer ties with him in the end. Raymond visited Lem one final time in about 1951 and introduced his new wife, Helen. The next time they heard anything from or about Lem was when Raymond received a court document announcing a hearing that was to be held on June 13, 1960 to settle Lem's estate. Lem had died eight and one-half months earlier and his daughter Beverly Irene Skinner was the executrix of his estate. Raymond told Dad of this matter and neither went to the court date. At that time, Raymond related to his wife, “We (he and his brother, Alvin) would have would have given anything to get a card from him on our birthdays or at Christmas“.

Dad (Alvin Walter Brown) and Mom had spent most of the War years working for the Boeing Aircraft Corporation in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Washington. After the War they moved back to Hardin, Montana to continue their lives. Before the War Dad had left the farm to work for the newly built Holly Sugar Corporation factory in Hardin. There he met and married Julia Graf who had grown up there. In his job, Dad worked his way to the top to become Master Mechanic of the factory in Sidney, Montana where he retired. He and Mom then moved to Denver, Colorado for several years before settling in El Paso, Texas. Dad died at the age of nearly eighty-one years old on December 4, 1994. He was cremated. Their boys were fifteen minutes apart in birth;

Morris Alvin Brown (twin, b. August 5, 1945)

Terrance “Terry“ John Brown (twin, b. August 5,1945)

After the War Raymond Russell Brown also went back to Montana. In Denton he met and married Helen Wilson on November 8, 1948. They moved back to Seattle where Raymond again worked for Boeing and continued until his retirement. He died on March 17, 1984. Raymond requested and was buried next to his grandparents, the Martins, in the Denton Cemetery. They adopted their only son;

Gerald “Jerry“ Brown (b. July 23, 1956)

ESTELLA

On June 9, 1892, Estella “Stella“ May and her twin brother, Emory, had been born in Evans, Montana. After moving with her mother, her younger brother and sisters to Bremerton, she married Charlie McManus and remained there working in the Puget Sound Naval~Shipyard until her death on September 12, 1959. She was interred at the Woodlawn Memorial Park in Bremerton. Her husband also worked at the ship yard and operated one of the giant cranes. Patty Baxter described Stella as very religious, to the point of extreme. She had been a member of the Four Square Gospel Church. She rarely went to the movies and only once went to see something like “Jesus of Nazareth.“ Stella and Charlie reared two children; Charles Norman (b. March 20,1921) and Gertrude (b. December 18, 1916).

Charles Norman McManus, or Norman as he was called, became a minister. He and his wife, Barbara Ann Gerber, were married in Bremerton, Washington and raised six children. He passed away in Seattle, Washington on September 6, 1969 and was buried in the Washelli Cemetery.

Richard Lee MoManus (b. February 20, 1948)

Gail Eileen McManus (b. March 17, 1950)

Rohoda Marie MoManus (b. October 28, 1951)

Paula Lynn McManus (b. July 28, 1955)

David Norman McManus (b. February 16, 1957)

Daniel '~Danny“ Mark McManus (b. October 14, 1958)

when Gertrude McManus grew to adulthood, her first marriage was to Pete Pupo. They had a daughter named Sharon Marguirita McManus (spelling is correct) who was born October 14, 1943 and died March 20, 1965 at the age of eight. When Gertrude's relationship to Pete ended, she married her aunt Violet's first husband, Floyd Kelly. From that union, Carolyn Jo Kelly was born on March 14, 1958. Gertrude died April 2, 1988.

EMORY

Emory (no middle name), born on June 9, 1892, must have had what seemed to be an uneventful life for his first twenty-five years on the farm as compared to his experiences on the battlefield. After the War he settled into his life in Bremerton but not without problems. He could not shake the horrors of war and often woke with terrible dreams.

Emory's nick name was “Cougar“ but it's unknown how he got it. After his return from the War, he worked in the Puget Sound Ship Yard as a crane operator and ship fitter. Emory lived frugally and saved everything. “Money became an obsession because it was all that he had“, said Patty Baxter. She described him as a “reclusive old bachelor“ and that “he was cranky and nasty most of the time“. Gwen said she had heard that he was impotent and that may have been why he never married. She had met Emory once and said that he seemed “grumpy”. Mable's daughter, Lucille, who knew him well said that he may have been in pain at that moment and added, “He was a wonderful man that had given his life to his family.“ With no help from any of the other family members, Emory took care of Wilson, Violet and their mother. Wilson's wife, Joy, concurred. He was not well much of the time and suffered the after effects of frozen feet.

In spite of the pains that Emory experienced in the War, he did talk about it. As a child, Chester had found Emory's military leggings; playing with them in front of Emory prompted him to relate a story. During a battle, Emory and four or five other soldiers were being shot at by a German soldier as they were running for a fox hole. Emory was faster than the others and reached the hole first. The followers dived in and landed on top of Emory and he said, “That damned near killed me!“

Chester also said that Emory was frugal and invested well. With about $1,200 in WWI bonds, he started to acquire property and owned forty-eight houses before his death. Martha remembered when Emory had come to visit his brother, Ivy, in Great Falls, he brought along an impressive coin collection. She said that before he died he gave this treasure to a museum either in Bremerton or Seattle. Dad's brother's wife, Helen, said that it had been rumored, but never confirmed, that Emory had kept a “sack of savings bonds under the foot of his bed“.

Wilson told Chester, “When Emory started to fail, some woman tried to get into his life“ and Wilson soon “put a stop to that.” Emory died on November 15, 1967 and was buried in the Marysville Cemetery.

To the end, Emory was both generous and supportive of his family. In his will he left a thousand dollars to each of his living brothers and sisters but only bequeathed one dollar to his sister, Violet. He disapproved of her life style. A sense of humor was displayed in his photo album and in the jokes he told. One picture, dated November 1943, shows him sitting in a garden of daisies and he wrote, “Prince of Peace“. Another captures him with his pants legs pulled up saying, “10th wonder of the world“. A portrait of Emory in front of his weathered old house was penned, “Brown and mansion“. One of his jokes, that Martha remembered, was from the period when women wore hats of all shapes and sizes and often times were packed in boxes that were just as well designed. “A lady went into a hat shop looking for a new hat. When she found what she liked, she said, 'I'll take that one'. The shop keeper replied, 'Lady, that's not a hat, it's a box.“

MABLE

According to her daughter, Lucille, Mable Blanche had been born on March 8, 1899. She had married and moved often with her husband, Wilhelm Christian Otto “Bill“ Jensen. They lived in Denton for some time then moved to Baker and Coffee Creek, Montana. They returned to Baker and then moved east to Wisconsin in 1920 when Mable was pregnant. There Lucille Angeline was born on October 18, 1920 in Bruce, Wisconsin. They had two other children, Wilhelm Christian Otto Jr. (b. June 12, 1927) and Louise May (b. June 6, 1917). Mable and Bill returned to Montana to live in both Great Falls and Baker and returned to Wisconsin in about 1926. Once again they moved back to Baker and after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, they moved for the last time to Tacoma, Washington where Bill started a furniture store with his son-in-law, Lucille's husband, Raymond “Ray“ Larson. Mable died on February 24, 1990.

Lucille Angeline Jensen married Walter Raymon

Larson. He was born in 1911 to Swedish immigrant

parents and died in 1981. They reared two children.

She married a second time to Charles Lee Wilcoxson.

No children issued from that marriage.

Alma Raye Larson (b. November 25, 1944)

Barbara “Bobbi“ Ann Larson (b. January 24,1945)

Wilhelm “William“ Christian Otto Jensen, Jr. married Virginia. Her maiden name is unknown but she had been previously married to an Overby. She brought two children to this marriage - David Overby and Rick Oberby. Together William and Virginia added one daughter to the family;

Linda Jean Jensen (b. unknown)

Louise May Jensen married James Leroy Hoag in 1911. They raised three children before her death on June 17, 1954. She was buried in Tacoma, Washington.

Judy Raye Hoag (b. November 6, 1937). She married James Milton Coe and both died July 9, 1992 in an automobile accident.

Dewitt Hoag (b. October 23, 1940)

Nancy tee Hoag (b. July 14, 1943)

GERTY

The census from her time and a delayed certificate of birth recorded that Gertrude Mildred had been born on June 7, 1901 in Great Falls, Montana. She had gone to Wisconsin in 1918, the year before her father's death, to live with her sister Mable. There she married Frank Andrew Mattison. Her delayed birth certificate said that she was married on May 11, 1921. They had two children, Richard Frank (b. June 25, 1922) and Shirley Vivian (b. August 4, 1927) before Frank's death in 1933. She remarried in 1935 to Irvin Schroeder and they had one son, Eugene Edward (b. December 5, 1937). Her obituary said, “They farmed in the Blue Hills until 1952, when their son Richard and wife Dea took over the farm. Gertrude and Irvin moved to Bruce where they lived until Irvin's death on April 9, 1985, and Gertrude had to live at the nursing home because of ill health.“ She died November 16, 1995. Her son, Eugene, wrote, “My mother has never gone back west after she came to Wisconsin.“ Years after her move east, a sister wrote to her and described the old homestead buildings as standing but very weather beaten.

Richard Frank Mattison married Dea Veness in Exeland, Wisconsin and raised three children;

Mark Richard Mattison (b. August 18, 1950)

Arnold Erwin Mattison (b. January 18, 1953)

Sherry Jane Mattison (b. August 7, 1956)

Shirley Vivian Mattison married Gustave Cheligren on February 19, 1953. They reared four children;

Gail Anne Cheligren (b. November 1, 1953)

Joan Marie Cheligren (twin, b. February 15, 1955)

Jean Mary Chellgren (twin, b. February 15, 1955)

Gregory Walter Chellgren (b. May 22, 1956 d.December 2, 1985)

Eugene Edward Schroeder married Jaclyn Lieber on February 5, 1964 and fostered three children;

Julia Schroeder (b. July 27, 1970)

Joanna Sue Schroeder (b. July 24, 1972)

Janet Louise Schroeder (b. January 27, 1978)

IVY

Iveston Homer was born on September 6, 1903. After leaving the farm, he stayed in Montana to marry his cousin, Ina Back on October 29, 1927. She was born in Calvert, Montana on February 27, 1907. They lived in Great Falls for the remainder of their lives where Ivy worked as a carpenter and raised three boys, Donald Colman (b. November 12,1929), Keith Edward (b. November 17,1932) and Eugene Ivan (b, May 2, 1935). Ivy was a resourceful man who built his own house with many of the materials being found from place to place over the years. He died June 1, 1989 at the age of eighty-five of natural causes. Ina lived a few more years and died in 1995 keeping their blood relationship private nearly to the end. They were both entombed in Great Falls. Ivy had a great sense of humor. On one occasion, he told Martha's sister, “I've lost my gum. Can you go to the chicken house and see if you can find it? When the response was “no!“ he had a great laugh.

Donald Colman Brown married Debris Schuff in Great Falls, Montana on August 17, 1952. She was born January 29, 1934. They raised two children;

Alan Gene Brown (b. November 26, 1953)

Carrie Lee Brown (b. January 22, 1958)

Keith Edward Brown married his first wife, Phyllis Sigler, in Great Falls in August 1950. They had one son before divorcing in 1952;

Larry Dean Brown (b. April 9, 1951)

Keith married Joyce Lange in Yuma, Arizona on November 27, 1954. Their children were;

Deborah Evonne Brown (b. October 5, 1955)

Robin Nicholle Brown (b. May 13, 1958)

Jodene Annette Brown (b. August 28, 1959)

Eugene Ivan Brown married Marlene Davidson on September 15, 1960 in Great Falls, Montana. She was born June 12, 1936. They nurtured five children;

Victoria Jean Brown (b. November 15, 1958)

Lyn Marie Brown (b. April 13, 1961)

Katherine Kay Brown (b. July 17, 1962)

Bradley Gene Drown (b. November 12, 1964)

Danielle Lee Brown (b. November 22, 1965)

CLARA

Clara Jane and her twin sister, Cora Belle, were born in Evans, Montana on September 23, 1907. After the move to Washington with her mother in 1925, Clara married Gerald “Gerry“ Morgan and they lived in Port Orchard until her death on December 30, 1961. She was buried at the Ivy Green Cemetery in Bremerton. They had two children; James Phillip (b. May 3, 1936) and Patricia “Patty“ Margaret (b. September 2, 1938) in Port Angeles. Patty said that her mother loved being a part of the Brown family and especially liked the family gatherings. When Clara died, her brother, Emory, gave up his own grave plot next to their mother so that she could be buried there. It was a touching gesture by Emory and very much in character with his support of family.

Patty Margret Morgan married William Earl Baxter in Bremerton and raised three children;

Angela Morgan Baxter (b. June 4, 1962)

William John Baxter (b. August 11, 1963)

Ray Sean Baxter (b. November 9, 1967)

James Philip Morgan married Barbara Holden in Tacoma, Washington and had two children;

Janelle Patricia Morgan (b. March 27, 1960)

Jeffrey Paul Morgan (b. December 29, 1963)

CORA

When the others moved to Washington, Cora (born September 23, 1907) decided to make a big change in her life. Then eighteen years old, she decided to go to Wisconsin to live with Gerty and her husband Frank Mattison. She remained in Rusk County, Wisconsin to marry Frank's brother, Clarence Mattison, on June 10, 1926 in Ladysmith, Wisconsin and only saw her mother one other time after that. Issuing from this marriage were; Gwendolyn “Gwen“ Irene (b. November 23, 1927), Marjorie Jane (b. June 21, 1929), Clarence Lloyd (b. January 20, 1932), Lucille Clara (b. September 19, 1936.) and Donna Belle Lee (b. January 21, 1939). All were born on the farm except Donna. She was born in the home of a caretaker in Bruce, Wisconsin who charged $35.00 per week. Cora outlived her husband, Clarence, who died on December 7, 1976.

Gwen Irene Mattison married Ferdinand Johnson on July 23, 1943 in Exeland, Wisconsin. He died July 18, 1963. She later married Ramon Granger on December 30, 1966 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Seven children issued from these marriages;

David Lewis Johnson (b. July 25, 1948)

Michael Ferdinand Johnson (b. August 27, 1949)

James Lloyd Johnson (b. February 15, 1952)

Karen Ann Johnson (b. October 3, 1957)

Donald Lee Johnson (b. March 6, 1958)

Rena Joy Granger (b. June 18, 1967)

Alaina Marie Granger (b. November 7, 1970)

Marjorie Jane Mattison married Frank Sokolik on February 25, 1950 in Yelm Washington and had three children;

Suzanne Jane Sokolik (b. May 21, 1951)

Rosemary Lee Sokolik (b. June 11, 1952)

Sharon Jean Sokolik (b. July 12, 1955)

Clarence Lloyd Mattison married Eleanor Kelly on January 23, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois and raised five children;

Robert Myron Mattison (b. November 23, 1954)

Thomas Lloyd Mattison (b. December 8, 1955)

Laura Elaine Mattison (b. September 8, 1959)

Frank Joseph Mattison (b. March 31, 1964)

Rhonda Eileen Mattison (b. November 9, 1962)

Lucille Clara Mattison married Paul Revere White in Bruce, Wisconsin. Their boys are;

Morgan Scott White (b. March 24, 1956)

Michael Alan White (b. December 5, 1957)

Timothy Paul White (b. January 9, 1963)

Donna Belle Lee Mattison married Edwin Severson on August 3, 1957 in Wheyerhauser, Wisconsin and delivered four children;

Lisa Diane Severson (b. October 11, 1958)

Kristine Lynne Severson (b. December 23, 1960)

Paula Kay Severson (b. August 13, 1963)

Edward “Eddy“ Andrew Severson (b. August 19, 1968)

MARGARET

Margaret Elizabeth was born in Stockett, Montana on September 6, 1910. She married Cecil James Dakan in Kitsap County, Washington on June 18, 1931. Their first child, Gerald “Jerry“ Cecil Dakan, was born on July 28, 1932 and their second, Douglas James, was born on November 12, 1934.

Like most women of her time Margaret was a housewife. She had a very close relationship with her family, especially when the telephone came into use. Family trips were always to visit brothers and sisters.

After a long marriage Margaret's husband divorced her because of a younger woman while the boys were in their teens. Margaret sold the home and moved with the boys back to Port Orchard, Washington. Douglas remembered that when puchased by his parents, this two-bedroom home in a Bremerton suburb cost one thousand five hundred dollars. Cecil also relocated and lived only four blocks away from his family in an upstairs room of a large house. This allowed the boys to remain in touch with him as much as possible.

Jerry and Douglas were different ages but it happened that they graduated in the same class. About that same time Cecil moved to California and eventually remarried. The boys entered the army and contact with their parents was distanced by their own lives and overseas assignments.

Moving on with her life after the divorce, Margaret married Archie Smith and remained in Port Orchard until her death on August 3, 1976. She was buried in Bremerton's Miller-Woodlawn Memorial Park.

Jerry Cecil Dakan married Evann Erma Bain in Washington. She brought two children to that marriage from a previous relationship with a man whose name was also Brown, but not related.

Kay Diane Brown (b. September 12, 1956)

Wynn Reeda Brown (b. October 14, 1957)

Together Jerry and Evann had a girl;

Sheryl Ann Dakan (b. March 18, 1959)

Douglas James Dakan married Elizabeth Fuchs in Machtilshausen, Germany in 1952. Together they reared the following children before divorcing.

Margaret Elizabeth Dakan (b. 1954)

Deborah Jane Dakan (b. 1959)

James 'Conrad Dakan (b. 1961)

Douglas married again in 1983 to Eve Jean Snyder in Denver, Colorado and no children issued from that union.

WILSON

Wilson Edward was born in Alton November 23, 1911 in Denton. In 1933 he married, Joy. They celebrated sixty-two years of marriage before his death on January 11, 1996 in Everett, Washington. Wilson had worked thirty years for the Federal Civil Service in accounting at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii and Pier 9 in Seattle. Being one of the youngest in such a large family and living in Hawaii for many years, he once told his wife, “I really don't know a lot of them“, when he mentioned his family. Many had married and were gone while he was growing up. Wilson and Joy had two sons, Wilson Edward Brown, Jr. (b. 1934) and Ned “Neddy“ Brown (birth date unknown). Nothing more is known of this family.

VIOLET

Violet Lillian's life did not seem to be very settled. She was born at Alton on October 14, 1916 in Denton and was three years old when her father died, forcing the family to leave the farm. She started school in Whitefish and was still a young girl when they moved again, this time to Bremerton. In spite of these problems, Violet seemed to have adjusted to school. A report card from the time when she was thirteen shows all “A's“. As an adult, Violet married several times and moved often. Her first marriage to Floyd Kelly with whom she had one son, Philip Emory (b. October 7, 1940), did not last. Life was better with her second husband, Russell Ereccesen. Violet was waiting tables and met the Owner's son, Russell. His parents had started a well known family-held restaurant named “The Dog House”. Russell took over the management of this place. They lived in Seattle, Washington and had a good life together, “until cancer got her too“, said Gwen. Violet died on March 3, 1977 and was buried in Seattle.

Philip Emory Kelly married Heather Ann Logan. Martha said, oddly he took her last name and she took his. They had two children;

Brian Eugene Kelly (b. April, 10, 1967)

Scott Kelly (b. April 7, 1973).

Gwen said that a number of the Brown family suffered some form of cancer. Like their mother, Lucy, who was a ten year survivor of breast cancer, her sons Willard and Lem as well as four daughters, Stella, Clara, Margaret, and Violet, were claimed by this insidious disease. Others in the family continue to struggle with it. Lucy's granddaughter, Gwen, is also a ten year survivor. Granddaughter Martha was more fortunate. She had surgery at the age of twenty-one and was cured, but lost the ability to have more children.

Disaster and suffering was not just experienced by the past generations. It happens to us all in one form or another. Martha said her first husband was “a drunk“ and she lost her second one in a flood that almost took her too. She currently tolerates another type of cancer that is treated annually but is not overwhelmed by it. In spite of these serious events Martha's wonderful sense of humor has carried her through it all and at the age of sixty-nine, she became a great-great grandmother on August 30, 1996 to Isabell Ann Rewood.

There were rewards too. At eighty years old, Martha's brother, Chester, won a patent for his invention of an adjustable yard-impulse-sprinkler stand. It's never too late. Each has his own experiences and Chester was no exception. He worked his entire career as a iron worker tying concrete reinforcing steel for buildings, dams, and bridges. One event stood out in his memory. He was helping to build a vault at a mobster's (“Bugsy“ Siegel) new expensive Flamingo Hotel on the highway out of Las Vegas. This was the first hotel to be built in the desert and Bugsy created tension within his own mob by taking such a big gamble. Costs were out of control because of material shortages and unscrupulous contractors. What was to have cost one million dollars, cost six million. To make matters worse, others were making life miserable for Bugsy. One day a shiny new car drove off the highway and passed along a large stack of lumber. As the car sped back to the highway the lumber burst into flames. The wood could not be saved. Only months later Bugsy was executed by his own mob.

At the time of this writing, Cora is eighty-nine years old and the only living sibling of the George and Lucy Brown family. She resides at the Ladysmith Nursing Hone in Ladysmith, Wisconsin.

Also, in 1996 Martha collected enough money from the extended family to have a modest head stone made for our Montana homesteader's (George Meyers Brown) unmarked grave.

I feel that something missing has been found.

Our parents cast long shadows over our lives. When we grow up, we imagine that we can walk in the sun, free of them. We don't realize, until it's too late, that we have no choice in the matter; they're always ahead of us.

“We carry them within us all our lives - in the shape of our face, the way we walk, the sound of our voice, our skin, our hair, our hands, our heart. We try all our lives to separate ourselves from them, and only when they are gone do we find we are indivisible.“

It has truly been a rich and enjoyable experience to have been part of documenting the history of these families. I could not have done it without the help of those wonderful relatives mentioned in this story. I thank them all.