Thomas Brown

 Thomas Brown, second child of Jacob Brown and wife, Rebecca Smallwood Brown.

Thomas Brown born in Tennessee and died at Rolla, Missouri sometime after the Civil War.  He was married (probably around 1845) to Jane Fowler who was born in Kentucky.  In 1851, three years after the death of their father, Jacob Brown, all seven of the Brown sons and daughters left Jackson County, Tennessee, for Missouri.  Of the trip, his son, James wrote:

"We crossed the Mississippi River at what was called Green's Old Ferry and we crossed the Ohio River at what was called Golconda in an old horse boat.  In that company were 17 persons.  They were the Brown family and my mother's two sisters (named Fowler) and the Reaser family."

Written in April, 1929, by James Brown in his granddaughter's (Dorothy Thompson) graduation memory book.

On reaching Missouri, the eldest brother, James M., shook hands with each of his brothers and sisters, bade them farewell, and departed northward, settling in the St. Joseph area.  The rest of the company continued to Oregon County where the Thomas Brown family homesteaded land at Falling Springs near Brawley (now New Liberty) Missouri.  This farm, homesteaded in 1853 or 1854, stayed in the Brown family over one hundred years, passing into the third generation before its sale in 1957 by Walter Brown, youngest son of James and Minerva Brown.  The farm is now part of the Mark Twain National Forest.  Thomas did not return from the Civil War.  It is thought that he died in a prison camp near Rolla, Missouri, during or after the end of the War.  Jane is buried in the Falling Springs Cemetery at New Liberty, Mo.  The cemetery was part of the original Brown homestead, and is still in use today.