BIOGRAPHY: John H. BROWN, Esq., Cambria County, PA 

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lynne Canterbury and Diann 
Olsen. 

Portions of this book were transcribed by Clark Creery, Martha Humenik, Betty 
Mirovich and Sharon Ringler.

USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives 
remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in 
accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of 
providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by 
anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities 
so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic 
pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including 
copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to 
uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb 
Archives to store the file permanently for free access. 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ 
____________________________________________________________

From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 29-30
____________________________________________________________

JOHN H. BROWN, ESQ., attorney-at-law, Johnstown, Pa., is a son of Samuel and 
Margaret (Gates) Brown, and was born April 15, 1848, at Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
     John Brown, the grandfather of John H. Brown, was an early resident of 
Indiana county, but subsequently moved to northwestern Cambria county, and was a 
resident of that county at the time of his death in 1860.
     Samuel Brown, father of John H., was born in Indiana county in the year 
1818, but was reared in what is now Blair county, then part of Huntingdon 
county.  In 1844, he came to Cambria county and remained there until his death, 
which occurred in the city of Johnstown, on February 25, 1893.  His avocation 
was that of a furnace-man, and for many years he was employed as a "keeper" of a 
blast furnace.  In 1842 he was united in marriage to Margaret Gates, daughter of 
John Gates, of Blair county.
     To this union were born the following children:  Rachel, deceased; Thomas, 
deceased; John H.; Elmira, deceased; Annie E., wife of John L. Jones, of 
Braddock, Pa.; Emma Lucretia, deceased; Jeannette, wife of W. W. Cope, of 
Johnstown; W. Milton, of Johnstown; and Cyrus E., of Pittsburg, Pa.  Mrs. Brown 
is yet living, she was born in January, 1824, Huntingdon county, Pa., and comes 
of a long-lived race; her father, John Gates, and his wife Hannah, both lived to 
the advanced age of ninety-three (93) years.
     In politics, Samuel Brown was a staunch republican; in religion a 
consistent Methodist.
     John H. Brown, the subject of this sketch, received his early education in 
the public schools of Johnstown and at Mt. Union college near Alliance, Ohio.  
He worked his way to a profession by studying at home in the evenings, while he 
worked in the mills of the Cambria Iron company.  He learned the trade of a 
blacksmith, and worked at that trade for four or five years, studying law at odd 
moments.  He finally entered the office of Col. John P. Linton as a law student, 
and under the preceptorship of that able practitioner, made rapid progress, and 
in September, 1873, was admitted to that bar of Cambria county.  Subsequently, 
he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State.  He served as 
deputy clerk of the District Court, which held its sessions in Johnstown in 
1874-5, but has since been abolished.
     On August 1, 1880, he married Amanda (Carroll) Fisher, daughter of George 
Carroll, of Johnstown.  To this union was born one child, June S., born June 25, 
1881.
     In politics Mr. Brown is an active republican, and is prominent in the 
councils of his party.
     In July, 1880, Mr. J. G. Lake, the register and recorder of Cambria county, 
died, and Governor Hoyt appointed our subject to take charge of the office until 
a register and recorder was elected and sworn in. Mr. Brown took charge of the 
office in August, and was made the nominee of his party for the same office at 
the ensuing fall election. The county was then Democratic by nearly a thousand 
majority, but such was the confidence in Mr. Brown's ability and integrity that 
he was elected by a majority of seven hundred, a strong testimony to his 
popularity. He served a full term of three years, and in 1883 was re-elected, 
serving in all six years in that office.
     In 1886, he was again the republican candidate for register and recorder, 
and in 1892 he was chairman of the Republican County committee. His management 
of the campaign in Cambria county, showed him to be a most efficient chairman, 
possessed of executive ability of no mean order, for in that year of "Democratic 
landslides" the Republican ticket made large gains in Cambria county.
     Ever since his admission to the bar, Mr. Brown has practiced his profession 
in Johnstown, except the six years the duties of his office required his 
residence at the county seat. He has acquired a fine practice, principally in 
civil cases, as he never seeks criminal cases.
     As a lawyer, he is shrewd and painstaking, and his clients are always well 
cared for.
     When the crisis of Civil War was upon us, true to his patriotic instincts 
he enlisted in his country's cause, as a private in company F, Twenty-first 
Pennsylvania cavalry.