James Brown

(1848 - 1931)  

 James Brown - born in Tennessee on October 22, 1848, and died at his home in Birch Tree, MO on January 3, 1931.  Married in Missouri to Minerva Gum (born March 4, 1848 in Alton, Missouri).  She died in Birch Tree, Missouri on November 7, 1911. 

After his father, Thomas, entered the Confederate Army, James -- then a boy of 13 or 14 -- joined the "foot soldiers" at his mother's urging since she feared that he would be captured and killed by the Bushwhackers who were then pillaging the countryside.  In relating his Army experiences, James mentioned his regiment's fighting as far west as the Kansas Territory. 

He inherited the Falling Springs farm from his parents and passed it on to his youngest son, Walter.  He was a farmer-carpenter most of his life and continued carpentry after he retired from farming and moved to Birch Tree.  In both Oregon and Shannon counties, he was called "Hurricane Jim" after the creek which ran through the farm, although Birch Tree residents knew his as "Jimmy Brown." 

The original house on the homestead burned during the early girlhood of their eldest daughter, Cora Lee, and in the years following, James built by sections, the large two-story house near the Spring, hauling the lumber from Piedmont, Missouri.  After the farm passed out of Brown ownership, this house stood only a few years before it was completely destroyed by fire.  Both James and Minerva were faithful supporters of the Methodist Church and are buried in the Oak Forest Cemetery near Birch Tree, Missouri.

Painting of Falling Springs Farm & Mill by Mabel Brown