Surnames: Brown, Dunaway, Robinson, Springer, Piersol, Davidson, Alexander
Alexander Brown was born at Davidson's upper ferry, now East Riverside, Fayette county, Penna, July 21, 1828. He was reared in the village of Merrittstown and attended school there. He began business with his father as a clerk in a store. He clerked for various firms until he came to Belle Vernon, and engaged as bookkeeper for L M Speer, boat builder.
He remained at Belle Vernon employed by several different firms until 1878 when he went to Pittsburgh as a bookkeeper for Captain J W Clark and there he continued for five or six years. He was next employed with the Speer and White Land Company and remained with them for two years. Since
then he has been engaged with the First National Bank of Pittsburgh in looking after their coal interests in Westmoreland county.He was married November 8, 1848, to Miss Catherine R Dunaway, daughter of John Dunaway and Margaret Robinson Dunaway, natives of Fayette county and of Irish descent. They are the parents of five children, three in the drug business and one a practicing physician. The daughter is the wife of
O R Springer.William Brown, the great grandfather of Alexander Brown, came to this county about 100 years ago, settled on Redstone creek and was one of the earliest settlers here. He came from Virginia to the county, and had been a teacher in a college in New Jersey. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, fought at the battle of Brandywine Creek.
He built his first distillery in this county. He owned large landed estates in Virginia, and sold a farm near Winchester, which was paid for in Continental money. The wife of this member of the Brown family ws of the Piersol stock. Alexander Brown, son of William Brown, ws born in Fayette county, and was the father of George Brown, the latter the father of Alexander Brown.
George Brown married Miss Elizabeth Davidson, daughter of Jeremiah Davidson and Anna Alexander Davidson, who were of Scotch origin and of families who settled very early in Fayette county.
The Davidsons were Presbyterians, and are a prominent family in this section of the state.