Napoleon Bonaparte Brown

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Napoleon Bonaparte Brown (1834 – March 18, 1910) was an American businessman and politician who lived in Kansas and Missouri in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[1] He is most known as the namesake and builder of the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia, Kansas.[1]

Early life

Brown was named after Napoleon Bonaparte by his parents James & Nancy Brown. The 1850 Pike County, Illinois, census gives his age as 16 at that time. A later census (1900) in Concordia, KS gives his birthdate as Oct 1833.[2] He appeared to have two siblings: a brother, Benjamin age 14; and a sister named May or Mary aged 11 listed in the census as well.[3] Later military records list his hometown as Concord, Illinois, in neighboring Morgan County.[4] until he resigned on January 17, 1865.[5]

Military career

"Colonel" Brown enlisted in the 101st Illinois Infantry Regiment on January 3, 1864, and given the rank of major. Major Brown served in "B" Company[4] until he resigned on January 17, 1865[5]—the very day the 101st crossed into South Carolina from Georgia under General William Tecumseh Sherman.[4] Cloud county records show that he was paid the pension ($25.00) of a major.[6] After he retired from the military, he "promoted himself" to the rank of colonel.[7]

In a letter to the editor of the Kansas Blade (now the Concordia Blade-Empire), Brown claimed that he enlisted as a private on April 22, 1862, and was subsequently promoted to captain, major, and brevet lieutenant colonel.[8]

Business and philanthropy

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". "Colonel" Brown served in the state legislatures for both Kansas and Missouri[7] and was a prominent banker in Kansas during its early years of development as the owner of the first bank in Cloud County, Kansas.[9] N. B. Brown & Co., founded in 1878[10] with a rumored "suitcase full of money" that he had with him upon his arrival.[7] Colonel Brown and his wife Katherine (Katie) then built Brownstone Hall,[11] a 23-room Victorian-style Script error: No such module "convert". stone mansion built in Concordia in 1883.[12] Colonel Brown served as a Republican first in the Missouri House of Representatives,[13] and then in the Kansas State Senate.[14]

In 1905, Colonel Brown commissioned the building of the Brown Grand Theatre and entrusted its completion to his son, Earl Van Dom Brown. The theatre was completed in 1907.[15]

Politics

As a state Senator in Kansas, Brown fought a losing battle to restore Concordia Normal School as a state-run institution. The school was one of several Normal schools placed throughout the state in 1874 under governor Thomas A. Osborn, but was consolidated by the state legislature in 1876.[16] The state normal school would later become Emporia State University.

Image gallery

References

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  1. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ 1900 Cloud County, Kansas Census
  3. ↑ 1850 Pike County, Illinois Census
  4. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Concordia Blade-Empire "NB Brown's War Record-His slanderers Laid on Stretchers", June 2, 1882
  9. ↑ Inside Cloud Template:Webarchive "Happy 100th Birthday Brown Grand Theatre" by Jenny Acree, September 21, 2007
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ The Emporia Gazette Template:Webarchive "The Brown Grand Theater" February 23, 2009
  16. ↑ Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas "State Normal School" by E.F. Hollibaugh, 1903

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  • Bell, Rachel Lowrey (1998a). A Proud Past... A Pictorial History of Concordia, Kansas, Marceline, Missouri: D-Books Publishing.
  • Emery, Janet Pease (1970a). It Takes People to Make a Town, Salina, Kansas: Arrow Printing Company. Library of Congress number 75-135688.

External links

Template:Cloud County History

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