Henry Brown    

BROWN, HENRY, was the sixth of a family of nine children born to James and Sarah Brown. His earliest recollections are of Westmoreland county, where he was born on the 21st of May, 1821. His father was born in Eastern Pennsylvania, and died in 1864, at the age of seventy-seven years. His mother died, aged fifty-five years, when Henry was a little child. As for schooling Henry had but little, as he only attended school when there was no work to be performed. The family removed to the present site of Apollo, Armstrong county, in 1831, and he remained with them until 1848, when he came to Bell township, Jefferson county, to haul timber, and since that time his connection with the lumber interest has never ceased.

He was married in 1852 to Miss Catharine Fisher, a daughter of Frederick Fisher, of Pittsburg.

In 1854 he purchased an old water mill on the Big Mahoning Creek in Bell township, and leveled it to the ground, and on the site erected a large gang mill, with a capacity for 60,000 feet per day This mill was too large for the transportation facilities offered, and he was obliged to abandon it, and near it he constructed a circular saw-mill whose products were much less, but more proportionate to the shipping facilities. Besides these mills he has a large square timber business on the Red Bank as well as on the Mahoning. In the latter he has often driven 200,000 feet, and in boards the amount has averaged from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 feet per annum. In his busiest times he has employed two hundred men and sixty teams. He has also been engaged in farming since he was able to wield a hoe, and now manages seven farms containing 1,500 acres, besides 2,500 acres of timber land. November 15, 1884, his saw-mill, machinery and a large amount of lumber was destroyed by fire, and he suffered a loss of about $11,000, having no insurance. In 1885 he built a large mill with a capacity for 40,000 feet per day, and at an expense of $10,500, and is one of the best in the county. He owns 2,300 acres of land which is underlaid with two or three veins of coal, and for which he has refused $90 per acre. He also owns 650 acres of timber and mineral land in Tennessee, which is underlaid with coal and iron ores and limestone as follows: one vein coal, twenty-two feet thick; one eight feet thick, and one vein of limestone fifty feet thick, and one vein iron ore about eight feet thick is covered over with valuable timber land.

History of Jefferson County : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. Syracuse, N.Y.: D. Mason & Co. 1888   Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.