The Goodland Republic-News

Sept. 27, 1907

BENJAMIN F. BROWN IS DEAD

PROMINENT CITIZEN SUCCUMBS TO TYPHOID FEVER

Cashier of Farmers National Bank, ex-State Representative and Man of the People.

Benjamin Franklin Brown, pioneer citizen of Sherman county, cashier of the Farmers National Bank of this city and promoter of several business enterprises, died at his home in Goodland shortly after 9 o'clock Monday evening, Sept. 23, 1907, after an illness of about two weeks with typhoid fever.

Funeral services were held Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock, after the form of the Protestant Episcopal church, of which he was a member. Rev. J. C. Anderson of Great Bend, Kan., former Goodland rector, officiating. Burial was made in the Goodland cemetery. The services at the grave were conducted by the Masonic fraternity.

In his family he is survived by a wife, Mrs. Helena Stewart Brown, and a son, Frank Stewart Brown. One brother, Marshall S. Brown of Oaxaca, Mexico, and a sister, Mrs. J. J. Foster of Del Rio, Tex., are still living.

Although Mr. Brown was not what would be called a robust man, yet he enjoyed moderate health and was always active in his business relations. His death was sudden and a great shock to the outside public, which did not know his very serious condition from the beginning of the fever. The attending physician, Dr. F. H. Smith, kept an almost constant watch over his patient. When symptoms of heart failure appeared Monday evening, after a second hemorrhage, stimulants proved unavailing, and Mr. Brown passed away at 9:10 p.m.

How general the expression among the people, "Sherman county has lost a good man and valuable citizen!"

Brown was every inch of that, and a "man of the people." He belonged to the conservative business element. His advice has many times acted as a safety valve to the machine of public and private enterprise, and his character and method of business life has continued more and more to inspire confidence in his wisdom as a financier. He interested himself and assisted in promoting several industries besides banking, the Goodland Elevator company, and the Stewart Hardware company among the number.

Benjamin F. Brown was born near Peoria, Ill., September 4, 1859, and at the time of his death he was 48 years and 19 days of age.

After graduating from the schools of his town, Galva, Ill., he completed a course in pharmacy, and afterward came west in 1885. He was employed for a time as cashier and accountant at the State Bank of Axtell, Neb. He came to Sherman county in 1886, and took a homestead four miles south of Goodland. He established his residence here and in the course of time secured a patent on the land from the government. While holding this claim, he was employed in the Ennis & Walker drug store at Goodland, and after his day's work was over, he would walk home to his modest "soddy" in the country.

When first coming to Sherman county, Goodland was not in existence and he was the pharmacist for Ennis & Walker at the little town of Eustis. He held this position for about four years.

In the fall of 1890 he was elected county treasurer by a large majority, and took office in October, 1891, being also elected for another term in 1892. After leaving the treasurer's office in the fall of 1895 he organized the Goodland City Bank—after the country had collapsed industrially, and Goodland was without a single bank. The little financial institution began with a capital stock of $5,000, but so well was it managed and so rapidly did the confidence of people increase in its cashier that it soon made a flattering growth. Two years from its inception this little bank became the First National of Goodland, of which Mr. Brown was cashier until February, 1904, when the bank was sold to the present owners—E. E. Ames, C. M. Sawyer, J. R. Burrow, C. S. Jobes and C. J. Shimeall.

In the fall of 1904 Mr. Brown was elected as a member of the state legislature from Sherman county, and served one term with credit to himself and fidelity to his constituency. The controlling influence of his party sought him for re-nomination, but he declined the honor, preferring to again enter the banking business. In August of the following year, 1905, he organized the Farmers National Bank of Goodland, of which institution he was a cashier at the time of his death. About a year ago he organized the Kanorado State Bank in the west part of the county, and became its president.

Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Helena Stewart, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. J. H. Stewart, January 27, 1892. Of this union several children were born, but all died in infancy but the eldest, Frank Stewart Brown, now a manly lad of 14 years.

The deceased was a member of several fraternities. In the Masonic lodge he was graduated through all the degrees to Chapter and Commandery.

The ancestors of Mr. Brown were of English, Huguenot and Scotch stock. His father's name was Benjamin Huntoon Brown, a native of New Hampshire, who after studying at Amherst college, went west some fifty years ago and located in Illinois and invested in lands. He died at a good old age, having accumulated a competence, and honored by all who knew him.

The Brown family were of old New England stock. Two of the great grandfathers of B. F. Brown fought in the Revolutionary War—Joseph Brown and Benjamin Huntoon. While Mr. Brown did not boast of ancestry, he had a clear right to claim a place among the "sons of the Revolution."