Brown Ancestral Files

Following the Fitch side of the family was relitively easy and one internet search gave us a ton of information.  The Brown side is a little more difficult.  I've had to piece it together generation by generation.  I am on the right track though.  Here is what I found so far:


John Campbell Brown was the man who took his family from New York state to North Dakota.

- A Weird fact I found- in New York, the family was from Oneida County.  In South Dakota, they moved into the town of Oneida in Sanford county.  I'm not sure of the history of the town in South Dakota, but Oneida, NY is named for the Oneida Indian Nation.   The Oneidas are known to be the first ally of colonial Americans.  They fought with them against the British during the American Revolution.  Without knowing the history of Oneida, SD, I can only guess that John Brown followed others from New York there.  I'm guessing who ever settled the South Dakota town named it after his hometown in New York.

Anyways, back to John Campbell Brown.  We need to find his parents.  I am doing my searches on Ancestry and Family Search.  I look up John Campbell Brown on North Dakota first.  I look at the earliest US Census record I can with him and Urvilla- 1880 comes up putting them in Davison County, SD:

In their household, Seymour is listed as John's brother.  This will be a link to finding records on John's past.

Next, because I couldn't find earlier records of John, I looked up Seymour Brown along with his birth date (est. 1862) and birth place (New York).  I found him listed in the 1870 US Census in the same are as John is known to come from:

Seymour is listed as the young son Mariette Brown. Another son is listed- Marcus who looks to be 17 in 1870.  Since Seymour is young, he will not be listed in earlier records.  Next, I try Mariette Brown along with her birth year (est. 1834) and birth state (New York).  I am lucky and find a US Census record from 1860:

This is the record that I was looking for- the one that links John to Mariette Brown!  John is listed as Marcus and Mariette's first born son.  His younger brother Marcus is also listed on this record linking this to the 1870 record.  So now we know that John's parents were Marcus and Mariette Brown.  Most likely Mariette's maiden name is Campbell since it is John's known middle name.  We will look up that soon but now I want to see if I can track Marcus any farther.  We know that he died before 1870 and he was born in New York around 1829.  I am lucky again and find the US Census report from 1850:

Marcus is still in the right area and has the right birth date to make me think I'm on the right track.  We see from this Census report that Marcus is from a large family and has extended family in the area.  His occupation is a boatman.  His father is Sanford Brown, born in 1805, is listed as a lumberman. His mother's name is Ruth.  So, let's look up Sanford Brown and see if we can get any further back.  First, I found the 1880 US Census that holds some information on Sanford's background:

Sanford has listed his parents as being from Connecticut and Rhode Island.  He would have been the first generation of Browns to be born in New York.

I decided to do a grave search for Sanford Brown of New York and found this at Find a Grave:

Here is a clip from the local newspaper that was included in the link above:

Roman Citizen
May 24, 1892

Vienna - Sanford Brown, an old resident of this place, died the 9th inst., aged 86 years. Saturday the 14th, at 4 am occurred the death of his wife, Mrs. Ruth Brown, aged 79 years. They leave five sons and four daughters to mourn, Stephen of Black Rock, Ark., Sanford of Virginia City, Montana, Marcus of Los Angeles, Cal., George, whose whereabouts are unknown, Mrs. James H. Peacock of Vienna, NY., Mrs. O. L. Kane of Rockaway Center, L.I., Mrs. Abba Roberts of Vienna, NY, and Melinda of Albion, NY. The remains were interred at Sylvan Beach Cemetery. Rev. L. B. Moulton officiating

So, now we know that Ruth's maiden name was Hicks.  We also know that Marcus ended up going to Los Angeles, CA instead of dying before 1870.  Interesting, right?

Unfortunately, that is as far back as I can go with the Brown line.  If you know of any further information, please let me know!

Fitch Ancestral Files

With Hattie's parents' names found, I did a Google search and found their ancestral file already created.  That means someone has researched their history before and has done all the hard work.  Some files go back farther then others.  Let's look first at Urvilla's file.  Her full name was Urvilla Isabell Fitch-Brown.  The Fitch line has been traced many times.  I am going to link those files here. 

To see the line from Urvilla back to Asa Fitch, Sr. (1752):
FamilySearch Ancestral File- click on the father's name to go back in time

To see the line from Asa's father Stephan Fitch, Sr. (1712) back to Rev. James Fitch (1622):
Miner Decent File- this is harder to navigate but there are lots of stories and other information.  Rev. James Fitch was the man who made his way to America from England.  Stephan is listed in section 9 as one of Jeremiah's children.

For more information on Rev. James Fitch's parents, see this sight:
Miner Decent File- Thomas Fitch this site has many historical references to the importance of Thomas Fitch and his family to Essex County, England.

To see the line from Rev. James Fitch back to William Fytch (1400):
 Fitch Family History Page- this has some great information about the family in England.

From the page above, I learned that the Fitch family dates back to 1200 in England.  According to their research, the family originated in Germany.

Fitch Coat of Arms

Notable people in this line:

Rev. James Fitch- he made the treck from England to America.  He was well a well educated minister and helped settle Staybrook, Norwich, and Lebenon, Connecticut.  He was an important part of Indian relations and played a part in the story portrayed in the movie Last of the Mohigans.

Thomas Fitch- he was Rev. James Fitch's brother and served as the Governor of Connecticut from 1755-1776. 

Asa Fitch, Sr.- he married Deborah Robinson who's great-great grandfather was Rev. John Robinson, pastor at Leiden, Holland of the Pilgrims that sailed in 1620 aboard the Mayflower.  To read more about him follow this link:

Asa Fitch Grave Page

For this search, I went through the paternal line of each generation.  I'm sure there are many other interesting finds in the Fitch line if you only take the time to search.

John C Brown

I found this article online on a page of the PBS website.  It was written in 2010.  This is John C Brown, Hattie's father:

Here is the article:

My Great Grandfather, John Campbell Brown was born in Vienna NY in 1852. He married Urvilla Fitch, whose father Oren fought in the Civil War, and whose great grandfather, Thomas Harrison, fought in the War of Independence and whose mother was descended from the family Houghton. His grandparents were Sanford and Ruth Brown, who lived in Oneida County and John and Urvilla knew each other as children.
But John is an enigma. From his seemingly ordinary upbringing, he gathered his family, including his mother Marietta Campbell (his father shows up in only one census and then disappears), and crossed to South Dakota where he eeked out an existence as a cattle farmer(and occasional "borrower" of cattle and things) was the town postman, ran afoul of the law often and had poems and stories written about him in local lore. He then moved to Great Falls and lived in the vacant brewery there. Travelling around the town in a horse drawn cart, with his dog Blue, he gathered up the discarded items of other people's lives and resold them, leaving his wife a tidy sum of $29,000 when he died in 1929. He was said to have studied for the clergy and/or the bar but then his brother, Mark, would show up with the law hot on his trail to hide in John's barn till they left. I have not been able to trace beyond Sanford and Ruth and would love to know what influences would create such a man, leaving a legacy of unique characters across the country.

— Carole Atkins Courtenay, BC,Canada

 

So do you know Carole?

Hattie Brown

Here is the US Census report from 1900 which shows Hattie and her family:

We see that Hattie grew up in Oneida, SD.  Her father, John C. Brown was a farmer and she was the oldest of five children.  Her mom's name was Urvilla and she and John were both from New York. It also looks like her aunt Mary Brown lived near her- she is the next person on the census list after Hattie's family. 

This record also confirms that Hattie was born in June of 1885

Hattie Brown

Before Hattie married Abe Johnson, she was Hattie Brown.  In 1905, according to the South Dakota State Census record, Hattie was a student in Springfield, SD. 

She had mentioned graduating from Springfield school in another census record and after seeing this 1905 record, I see  that she may actually have graduated from college.  Springfield is the location of the University of South Dakota which in 1905 was known as Springfield Normal School.  If she was a student at the age of 20, it only makes sense that she was studying at the university level.

Harriet Brown and A.O. Johnson

Hattie and Abe were married in 1906.  Here is a copy of the record of thier marriage.

It is a little hard to read but from this record, we find that they were married on July 31, 1906.  Abe was 25 and Hattie was 22.  It was the first marriage for the both of them.  Abe was residing in Letcher, SD  and Hattie was living in Stanley County, SD- I can't make out the post office name.

Harriet Johnson

Next, let's see where Hattie was in 1940:

From this report from the US Census, we see that Hattie has moved to Jackson Township to work for a family on another farm.  We know that this is her because of her birth date, the fact that they are still in Sanborn County, and the other Johnson listed with the same family- Clara- who is Hattie and Abe's youngest daughter.

Since 1940 is the last searchable census report, we aren't able to see where Hattie went from here.  I think I have found her death record though, placing her in Los Angeles in 1966.  She is listed with an F as her middle initial and has her birth date as June 15, 1885.  This matches another record I have found for our Hattie.