JOHNSON COUNTY, AR - J. R. BROWN - Bio

SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas. 
Chicago: Goodspeed Publishers, 1891.

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J. R. Brown is the oldest merchant of Coal Hill, and throughout this
region has won an excellent reputation as a man of business. He was 
born in Tennessee in 1850, being the third of fourteen children born 
to Benjamin A. and Elizabeth (Real) Brown, who were born in North 
Carolina and Tennessee, respectively, the former, a farmer, who came 
to Arkansas in the fall of 1866, and is still residing in Logan County 
of this State. His son, J. R. Brown, like so many of the substantial 
citizens of this country at the present time, was initiated into the 
mysteries of farming from the very first, and after his removal to 
Arkansas, in 1866, was favored with good opportunities for obtaining 
an education, and was an attendant of Pleasant Grove School at Cabin 
Creek. 

In 1878 he began business at Coal Hill, after having been a clerk in 
the establishment of J. W. May, of Clarksville, for some years, and he 
now has the facilities for doing a large trade, his stock of goods 
being worth $10,000, and his annual sales amounting to $45,000. He 
handles wagons, farming implements, and buys all kinds of farm 
produce. He owns two farms, comprising 214 acres, and has 120 acres 
under cultivation, the fine steam cotton-gin which is erected thereon 
being the best in the county, its capacity being twenty bales per day. 
He also has a good corn-mill, and is the owner of four residence 
buildings and the post-office building. He has been one of the active 
citizens of Coal Hill, and has identified himself with every worthy 
enterprise of the place. 

His marriage, which occurred in December, 1878, was to Miss Lucy, 
daughter of Col. John S. Houston, of Clarksville, by whom he has two 
children, Howell Houston and Lucile. Vivian died at the age of one 
year, and another child died in infancy, unnamed. 

Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South, and he belongs to the I. O. O. F. An annual statement taken in 
February, 1890, gives a showing of $30,000, all of which is the result 
of his own labor. He was in debt when he began clerking for Capt. May, 
but is now a wealthy man. He owns three lots in Van Buren, on one of 
which he is erecting a handsome residence.