William Jasper Brown was born in Liberty township, Warren County, Indiana, in 1850. Most likely he was named for William Jasper (born Wilhelm Gasper), who at that time was widely celebrated in school books as a hero of the Revolutionary War. As a boy and young man he was called Jasper rather than William, so let's say "WJ."
When WJ was born, his father was 56 years old, and he passed away just two years later (1852). William's widowed grandfather Joel lived in the same home, but the next year (December, 1853) he passed away as well, at age 84. Not long after that (around 1855) the family moved to Ringgold County, Iowa, where WJ's mother Susanna and his siblings acquired contiguous farmlands in Middle Fork Township. Although William was only six years old, on June 10, 1856, he acquired a patent to 80 acres, namely the N½ of SE¼ of section 23 of survey township 67N R30W (5th PM). His brother Isaac acquired a patent to the southern half the same day. WJ grew up in MiddleFork Township, attending a school on the corner of his mother farm and attending a nearby church that his mother had founded: Hickory Grove Church.
In December of 1874 William was married to Eunice "Emma" Comer, who had been born in Iowa but had been living across the state line in Harrison County, Missouri. The new couple set up home in Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, where William worked as a teamster. While living there they had four children: Lura, Mertie, Nora, and Frank. In June, 1880, Eunice's older sister America moved from Missouri and joined the household to help with the housekeeping and child care. That same year she met and married William's cousin, William Marion Maudlin.
In 1883 the Brown and Maudlin families moved to Kingman County, Kansas. WJ and Emma Brown had two more children there: Arthur and Nathan. In Kingman County, William first worked as a farmer then entered the construction business.
New land was available for settlement in the southwest corner of Kansas, so in 1886 the Brown and Maudlin families moved there to become some of the very first settlers in what became Stanton County. WJ claimed a homestead on the SE¼ of section 8 of T28S R39W of the 6th PM, and the WM Maudlin family claimed a homestead at the SE¼ of section 7. This area became known as the Wayland community. This survey township and the one north of it, T27S, constituted for governmental purposes the Robinson Township. According to the Sixth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture for the Years 1887-88, page 481, in the year 1888 the 72 square miles of Robinson Township had just 305 residents. The settlers built houses and barns, grew crops, and raised stock animals. They also established churches and small schools, The Brown and Maudlin children attended a one-room school, Mt Tabar District No. 14, and performed well. Both fathers served on the school board.

In January of 1889 WJ's wife Emma became ill with tuberculosis, which was a leading cause of death at that time. She died in November and was buried nearby at Wayland Neighborhood Cemetery, in the dress she had worn at her wedding. WJ was left to care for his six children, the youngest being just four, but his older daughters no doubt helped with this. The next year (1890), however, his oldest daughter Lura was married at age 15 to a teacher named Robert Warthen, and they moved to Colorado. Two years later (1892) his second daughter, Mertie, was married, also at age 15, and moved to Tonkawa, Oklahoma.
Rural Stanton County was a sparsely populated place, with little work for a building contractor, but in 1895 WJ moved the rest of his family to Pauls Valley, a booming new railroad town in Indian Territory (OK). Here there was work for him as a building contractor. The next year, 1896, his third and last daughter, Nora, was married to Henry Glass and moved to Tecumseh.
WJ met Theodocia "Doshie" Runyan, and on September 20, 1897, they were married in a Church of Christ near Pauls Valley. Doshie became a stepmother to William's sons Arthur and Nathan and helped raise them. William's oldest son, Frank, was already living and working on his own, and eventually he moved to Tonkawa where his sister Mertie lived and where farmland was available.
William and Doshie added two children of their own to the family, Bertha Lena and Edward Dempsey, but Bertha died in infancy.
Doshie's widowed father and siblings had moved into the town of Johnsonville, which had recently been platted, and construction there was booming. So around 1902 the family moved there. A railroad was planned from the Santa Fe line at Purcell to points southeast of there, and a station was planned just a mile south of Johnsonville. In 1903 a new town, Byars, was planned around the station, and construction began to boom as businesses flocked to the location. William was involved in that construction. Meanwhile, Arthur and Nathan moved to Tonkawa as well and started farming, then Arthur moved to Utah.

On August 18, 1905, William and Docia gave birth to her third child, Deverl. The Byars Banner put a humorous announcement in their paper: "Our good friend W. J. Brown of Johnson was in Byars one day last week. He seemed to be in a great hurry and hardly took time to notice his most intimate friends. We have learned since that a young lady has taken up her permanent abode at his home. Mother and child both doing well and it is reported that Mr. Brown will soon recover.". Unfortunately, Deverl died a year later, on August 17; she was buried in the family plot in Johnsonville.

Two weeks later, on August 31, 1906, William suffered a terrible construction accident, which the Byars Banner described as follows: "W. J. Brown of Johnson, while at work last Friday on the addition to S. C. Newbern's livery barn, fell from the building and received severe injuries and is now in a critical condition." According to his son Ual, a board slipped from the hand of a carpenter working with William, and the board knocked him off the building. William was left bedfast for nearly a year, and the accident left him crippled for life. Afterwards he worked at home as a cabinet maker. On July 28, 1907, a year after the accident, William and Doshie had their last child, a son they named Ual Jasper Brown.

Tuberculosis was pandemic at the time. People called it "consumption" because the victim lost weight, and the disease seemed to "consume" them. Doshie had lost two sisters to the disease, and by 1912 she was ill with it herself. A Brown family reunion was planned in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, for December, 1912. Doshie was too weak to travel, so she stayed at home with her two young sons, while William traveled to Tonkawa to celebrate Christmas with the rest of his family. His daughter Nora may have traveled with him from Tecumseh, since the rail line went from Byars through Tecumseh and on to Kay county, where Tonkawa is located. His son Arthur and his wife Lettie and their son Joe came from Utah; his daughter Lura and her son Minor came from Kansas; and the rest of the family was already living in Tonkawa. The family had a group portrait taken at a studio in Tonkawa, but William was too ill to attend, so he waited until he was well and then had his portrait made separately. He then returned to Johnsonville.

On December 5, 1913, William's second wife Doshie died. William was too crippled to care for two boys, so after his son Ual turned seven, William took him to live with his daughter Nora in Tecumseh. Then in December, 1914, as his condition worsened, William took his 13-year-old son Dempsey and went to Tonkawa, where they could live with his daughter Mertie and be near his son Nathan. In February, 1916, shortly before his death, William sold his house in Johnsonville to Nathan, then he died in his daughter's home.

Obituary in Tonkawa News, 1916
"William Jasper Brown was born in Warren county, Indiana, March 30, 1850, and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Murtie Bufford of Tonkawa, February 21st, 1916, age 65 years 10 months 21 days.
He was married to Miss Eunice E. Comer December 23rd, 1874. To this union were born six children, all of whom are living. They are
Mrs. Laura Warthin of Lakin, Kas.,
Mrs. Murtie Bufford of Tonkawa, Okla.,
Mrs. Nora Glass of Tecumseh, Okla.,
Charles Franklin Brown and Arthur S. Brown of Duchesne, Utah
Nathan G. Brown of Tonkawa.
Mrs. Eunice Brown departed this life November 15th, 1889. On September 2d, 1897, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Doshia E. Runyan of Johnson, Okla. To this union four children were born, two of whom are living. Edward Demp[s]ey Brown and Ual Jasper Brown, two having died in infancy.
Besides the children he leaves to mourn his death an aged brother and sister of Mont Ayr, Iowa. [Willis Brown and Mary Vollnogle]
Mr. Brown came to Kingman county, Kas., in Sept, 1883, making his home there for three years, moving west to Stanton county in 1886, where he lived till march, 1895, going from there to Pauls Valley, Okla., where he resided until December last. His health having failed he came to Tonkawa to spend his last days at the home of his daughter."