Crossville Chronicle March 16, 1944

A real pioneer of our region and one of its oldest citizens, George Brown, died at the home of his son Roy, Pleasant Hill, on Saturday, February 26. According to his own account, he was born October 7, 1847 - 96 years old.
George Washington Brown was next to the youngest of 8 sons of Calvin and Matilda Nash Brown; there were also 6 daughters. The family was one of the earliest to settle on this part of the plateau. Coming from North Carolina, Mr Brown raised a crop in White county and then moved, as many were doing, to Indiana. After they had been there for some while, an epidemic of some serious disease broke out and Mr Brown hurried his family back to White county. There he was asked by a man who had a lot of cattle out on the range to move up onto the plateau and look after the cattle.
So, when George was a small boy, the family settled in a little house in the section now known as Neverfail. Their nearest neighbor was 8 miles away at Pomona. George liked to tell how, when his father was away, his mother would poke a gun out the window and shoot the wolves that howled around the house. He could keep a listener fascinated for hours with stories of hunting when the woods were full of game of many kinds.
After a while the Brown family moved to a place they called Pleasant Ridge and which is now Pleasant Hill. Their house stood not far from where the red barn now stands on Academy land. To the end of his life, George was deeply moved whenever he recalled how they suffered during the years of the Civil War. Bands of irregulars supposed to represent the Union or the Confederacy harried the countryside, took everything they could, and made life miserable for the citizens. George would tell how he got a little schooling. Someone would come and hold a subscription school. The parents would pay $1 a month for each pupil, but his parents couldn't possibly afford to pay for them all at once, so the children would take turns and each go a little while.
The family finally moved to the area now known as Browntown and there George continued to live the rest of his life. In 1875 he married Elizabeth Whitaker there and they lived together for 53 years until Mrs Brown died suddenly in 1928. Since then George has lived with his son Roy, doing his full part in the family farming and other work until very recently.
As George lived on and on, he became a marked man in his region; he was widely known and loved. Even in his very old age, he used to walk to Pleasant Hill nearly every day, no matter the weather. Everyone was glad for a visit with him. He was missed when finally weakness and illness began to keep him at home last fall.
Nearly all of George's brothers settled in the Pleasant Hill area so they saw much of each other through the years, though one, Tapley, spent most of his life in White county. They were a remarkably long lived family, and only in recent years have been slipping away one at a time. 2 years ago, Lewis, the youngest brother, died, and now George's passing closes the generation. 3 of the 6 sisters also lived long lives.
George and his wife had 5 children: Ida Brown, Cora Lewis have died, while one son and 2 daughters are living -- Roy Brown, Pleasant Hill; Mrs Lou Jones, Crossville; Mrs Taylor Brown, Chattanooga. There are 28 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren.
George joined the Baptist church at 18; with his brother Lewis and a few neighbors he kept meetings going as long as he could.
Many of his large family were present when George was laid to rest in the Browntown cemetery Tuesday morning, February 29.
His brothers were Tapley, Aaron, Tom, Will, Pinkney, Lewis and Joe.