In memoriam: Christopher C. Brown, 1834-1904

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CHRISTOPHER C. BROWN.

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IN MEMORIAM
CHRISTOPHER C. BROWN, 1834-1904.

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(By George N. Black.)

We can not but feel sad when we realize that another of our stead-
fast members has been stricken down by the hand of death. Between
the departed brother and myself there had long existed the closest
bonds of friendship. It is therefore fitting that I should add my
tribute of respect to his memory. Eulogy of the dead is the conse-
crated duty and privilege of the living. Our tribute is not rendered
in obedience to the cold and stately dictates of fashion. It has its
source in the deepest sympathies of the human heart. For it is right
and proper to tell the world the worth of those whom we lament.

In the removal of our departed friend we have another lesson on
the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death; and yet, though
these lessons come to us so often we dislike to be taught by them,
and therefore put the certain as far away as possible, as if that would
keep it from coming back to us. It is a lesson taught by the
proverbial philosophies of the world, as well as by the hard facts of
experience. We all remember the words of brave Horatius, as he
kept the bridge —

' 'To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late."

— Macaulay.

And that other poet, nearer our own day, who shows the uncertainty
of time and place, saying —

' 'We know that moons shall wax and wane,
And summer birds from far shall cross the sea:
But who can tell us when we'll meet with death."

The time may be uncertain, but "Death spares neither king nor beg-
gar.'' Knowing this, we may well ask, in the pathetic words of Wil-
liam Knox, "O why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" The word
of God tells us that "Here we have no continuing city."

To this community at large the death of Mr. C. C. Brown was a
matter of real regret, and to us who knew him best it was an event
full of sadness. Those of us who were associated with him so long
mourn his loss with the deepest sorrow and regret, for he had won a
place in many hearts. He was a member of a family which has long
been prominent in the history of Sangamon county; and they have
always been men of character, ability and true social worth. We may

call Mr. Brown a representative man, a son of the soil, because he was
born in the State. He came to Springfield early in life. He grew
up with the growth of the city, and was identified with its greatness.
He was a man of the highest integrity, unblemished morals, and of
the noblest distinction in the line of duty. He was a man of kindly
impulses, and always ready to aid the unfortunate. He was a helper
of the helpless, and a giver of strength to those who had no strength.
He always had a kind word and a helping hand to those who needed
them. Like Abou Ben Adhem he was "One who loved his fellow-
men."

Our departed brother has gone hence to return no more forever; but
the memory of his good words and kindly deeds will long survive,
embalmed in the hearts of those who knew him and appreciated his
worth. Few people realize how much good he did in his quiet way.
For as old George Herbert quaintly remarks, "Good words are worth
much and cost little." His was the charity that shuns publicity and
which follows our Lord's well remembered injunction, and "doeth its
alms in secret," not desiring to be seen of men. It will be readily
understood that of the best portion of a good man's life, his little,
nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love, are those that
are worth most. No record of them is kept, except on high, or in
the grateful hearts of those who have been benefited and relieved.
The world knows little or nothing of them now, but the record will be
revealed hereafter, when the plaudit comes, "What ye did unto mine,
ye did unto me."

One who knew the worth of a dead friend (a friend who was missed
and mourned, like ours) has written some very appropriate lines,
which may be applied truthfully to our deceased friend — our loved
and lost.

"To the last hour, when the last man shall die,
And our race shall cease to be, death never came,
And never will come without affliction.
The dying may be ready to depart,
For sleep and death are one to them, but we
Who love them and are left to mourn, to whom
The place once rilled by them is filled no more,
From us a light has gone, the sun seems dark,
A shadow fallen at high-noon. To us
A consternation and a lamentation,
The sorrow of all sorrows shall descend,
And shall with us abide, till in our turn
We follow them, and others mourn for us."

It would seem proper that just here something should be said as
to who Mr. Brown was, what he was, and how he became the man
he was. He was a member of the hardy Scotch-Irish race drawn from
the province of Ulster. Ulster was settled by a colony which went
forth from the "land of brown heath and shaggy wood," in search of a
new home less bleak than the bare hillsides of western Scotlano1. They
took with them their Scottish characteristics and their Scottish
Calvinism to their new home in the north of Ireland, and then to the
Western World when they crossed the broad Atlantic. Heredity
made Mr. Brown what he was, because "blood will tell."

Mr. Christopher C. Brown was born in the village of Athens, then
in Sangamon county, 111., (though now in Menard county). He was
born on October 21st, 1884, and was the son of William Bartlett

Brown and Harriet Lowry Brown. His father and mother with five
children, moved from Greensburg, Kentucky, to Athens in November
1833. Prior to this removal to Illinois, William B. Brown's brother-
in-law, James D. Allen, had settled at Athens, and engaged in the
mercantile business. Mr. C. 0. Brown's mother was the daughter of
Captain David Allen, who served in the War of 1812, and took an
active part in the Indian wars of the "Dark and Bloody Ground."
She was born December 17th, 1806, and was married to William B.
Brown, on December 31st, 1822, at Greensburg, Kentucky. She died
October 7th, 1835, at Athens. It is recorded of her that she had a
cultivated miud, an amiable disposition, and, above all, a lovely
Christian character. William B. Brown, his father, was born at
Greensburg, Kentucky, on February 2d, 1802. About the time of his
marriage he entered into partnership with his father, Daniel Brown,
who was of Scotch -Irish parentage, born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in
September 1765. He is mentioned in Allen's History of Kentucky,
as a man of most exemplary piety and a ruling elder of the Presby-
terian church for nearly fifty years. His mother, nee Theresa Bart-
lett, was born at Beverly, Massachusetts, on January 14th, 1782.
She was a near relative of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Findley, President of
Princeton College, and an eminent scholar and great divine in his
day.

Soon after his mother's death, which took place, in 1835, the child
Christopher, at the earnest solicitation of his uncle, Daniel C. Brown,
who was married and childless, was taken to Kentucky by his father,
and placed in the uncle's care. When the uncle died in 1840, the
child was sent to live at Greensburg, with his grandparents. W7hile
living with them, before he was ten years of age, he spent two winters
at Hodgenville, Kentucky, where he boarded with an aunt. When at
Greensburg, he attended the school known as "The Seminary."
Early in 1841 his grandfather being quite old, after a consultation of
the relatives, it was thought best to send him home to his father in
Illinois. In June of that year he started from Greensburg for
Louisville in a covered wagon, At Louisville he took a steamboat
for St. Louis, Missouri, and sailed upon the same river which
Dickens, two years earlier, thought so monotonous and so wearisome.
In writing of this trip, the lad says he had never seen a steamboat
till then, and he was charmed with his journey. He stopped at
"Barnum's," the leading hotel of that day. (St. Louis had only
about 40,000 inhabitants then; but was regarded as the "Great City"
of the "West.) He took a steamboat to Meredosia, Illinois, and reached
that place late in the evening. He had to ride in a skiff to the hotel,
and had to enter it through a second story window because the river
was in high flood. He says that he was greatly disappointed when
the landlord told him that he had nothing for supper but cocoanut
milk He drank a cup full of it, and went to bed with the water
washing all sides of the hotel. From Meredosia to Jacksonville he
was hauled in a wagon drawn by a mule team, over wooden ties, and
from there to Springfield in a two horse wagon. On his arrival at
Springfield, he was taken to the residence of a relative, Colonel Robert
Allen, and there met his brother Daniel, who was attending school at

that place. His father was living at Sangamontown, seven miles
northwest of Springfield. He was superintending a flour mill, which
was run by water and steam power; he had also a lathing mill, which
was managed by his two sons, Daniel and David. In it they sawed all
the lath used in building the first State house at Springfield, now the
Sangamon county court house. On account of the high water in
Spring creek, it was some days before he could reach his father's
house. He describes his father at that time as being six feet in
height, weighing about two hundred pounds, and having hair as
white as the driven snow. He was forty-two years of age, and was
known in the neighborhood as "Squire Brown." When any one was
sick in the vicinity he was sent for as a doctor; if the patient died Mr.
Brown was the person to see that the dead was properly buried.
If any legal difficulty arose in the neighborhood he was consulted as
a lawyer. In a word, he was the "man of the neighborhood,"' and
was universally loved and respected by all who knew him. He said
that he had known his father to spend days and nights with the
neighbors in those chill and fever days, administering medicine bought
at his own expense for their relief, and never knew him to receive
one dollar in compensation for either legal or medical services. Mr.
Brown, in speaking of his step-mother, writes that some years before
his return to Illinois his father had married a most estimable woman,
whose maiden name was Lorinda Buckman. She was born on Sept.
9th, 1815, at Potsdam, New York. He bears testimony to her faith-
fulness as a wife and mother, not only to her own. but to her step-
children. She gave birth to six children, Joel B., Hulda, Sebastian,
Mary, Frank B., and James B. Brown. She died on Sept. 9th, 1892,
aged seventy-seven years. Mr. Brown's father lived at Sangamon-
town until 1847, and at that time he bought a small farm of twenty-rive
acres, with no improvements, about one mile from Sangamontown, and
soon after bought a log house, a story and a half high, which he moved
on to this small farm. Christopher C. Brown went to school during the
winter in 1844-45; his father being the teacher, and worked in summer
cutting wood, milking cows, washing dishes, and doing anything that
turned up in the line of work. His father was a justice of the peace
and he frequently heard Abraham Lincoln, E. D. Baker, John T.
Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, and other members of the Springfield bar,
arguing cases before him. Hearing these arguments doubtless fired
him with an ambition, even at that early age, to become a lawyer.
His brothers, David and Daniel, had opened a drug store at Peters-
burg, and in 1849 he joined them to learn the business, and continued
with them until the fall of 1851. During his stay there he attended
the academy two winters. In the fall of 1851 he was sent to Hills-
boro, Illinois, to attend the Lutheran college at that place, then under
the charge of the Rev. Francis Springer. His father moved to
Taylorville to open a drug store, and the young student left Hillsboro
and went to assist his father in this new venture. His father's health
failed soon after going to Taylorville, and he with his family moved
to Petersburg to be under the care of a physician, but he continued
to grow worse, and in his fifty-first year he died. After his fathers
death his brother David moved to Springfield to engage in the

practice of law, and the young student left Petersburg and
lived with his brother David, reading law and attending school part
of the time at the Illinois Lutheran college. In the fall of
1855, he went to Lexington, Ky., and attended the law school of
Transylvania University. But his means would not permit his spend-
ing more than one session at the law school, and he returned to
Springfield, where he studied closely and soon made application for a
license to practice law. The Supreme Court appointed Abraham Lin-
coln and William H. Herndon to examine him, and Mr. Brown used
to tell laughingly, how easy his examination was. When he appeared
before his two examiners, Mr. Lincoln, said: w'Now Chris, we think
we know your fitness to be a lawyer, and we don't think you need to
be examined. If you can win cases, you'll succeed, if you can't win
them you'll fail. It's all in these two points that success or failure
lies. But Herndon and I think you have grit enough in you to suc-
ceed, and we both know you'll try your hardest. So we'll sign your
recommendation for you.'" "'When they had done so, they shook hands
with me, and Mr. Lincoln said: 'Go on and prosper. The world's
before you, and we are sure you'll do well at the Bar." That was all.
On their recommendation, the clerk of the Supreme Court issued him
a license in 1857. He then entered into partnership with his brother
David, in the practice of the law. In the spring of 1857 he ran for
city attorney on a Citizens' ticket, and was defeated by Mr. Charles
A. Keyes, who was the Democratic candidate, (the Democrats had a
large majority in the city, and he was defeated by thirty votes). About
this time his brother was advised to give up the law business owing
to poor health, and he moved to a farm a few miles from the city.
Upon this, Mr. C. C. Brown went to Cairo, 111., to practice law, and
take charge of some property in which some of the prominent citizens
of Springfield had invested money. He lived there one year, was
successful in the practice of law and real estate speculation. While
there he took an active part in all enterprises that tended to advance
the material and moral interests of the city. He was selected by
the citizens to deliver the Fourth of July oration, and his address was
highly commended by the people and the public press. In after
years, in speaking of this speech he said it was a regular patriotic
address, the best he could make. He tried to please the people. It
began with the causes of the revolution and traced it's course from
the Declaration of Independence down through the long struggle, be-
ginning with the first shot fired at Lexington to the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown. But, he was wont to add, "it was not a
"spread eagle" speech, meant to tickle the crowd and pander to their
baser feelings. You may be su?*e that I did my very best in it."
And we see it was a success. He also took quite an active part in
politics as a Republican, and in the spring of 1858, made a speech
before the first Republican convention ever held at Cairo, or in Egypt.
Ho was appointed, by Governor Bissell, public administrator of
Alexander county, (the first office he ever held). Judge Lightner
made him school commissioner of the same county, with power to ex-
amine teachers and issue certificates of qualification. He knew
almost every man, woman and child in Cairo, which had then about

four thousand inhabitants. As an evidence of the esteem in which he
was held, it may be stated that when he left Cairo to return to Spring-
field, a gathering of two or three hundred citizens accompanied him
to the train to bid him good bye. In later years he affiliated with the
Democratic party, though he was never an intense partisan. At
Springfield, he opened an office and resumed his practice as a lawyer.
On October 20th, 1859, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth
Jane Stuart (daughter of Major John T. Stuart). Of this union were
born three children, Stuart, on August 21st, 1860; Edwards, on May
31st, 1863, and Paul, on January 20th, 1868. Paul died on August
22nd, 1880; the other two children are still living.

On January 1st, 1860, upon the solicitation of Judge Benj. S. Ed-
wards, he entered as a partner into the office of Stuart & Edwards (a law
partnership which had existed from 1843 to that date). The name of the
new firm was changed to Stuart, Edwards & Brown, and this firm
continued until the death of Major Stuart, on November 28th, 1885.
After this Judge Edwards and Mr. Brown remained together until
death called away Mr. Edwards, on February 4th, 1886. These firms
ranked high among the lawyers, and had an immense practice in the
various courts. Mr. Brown, as the junior member, was kept very
busy. After Judge Edwards5 death, Mr. Brown took his son Stuart
into partnership for some months, and then Judge William J. Allen,
of Southern Illinois, entered the firm, which was called Allen, Brown
& Brown. When Judge Allen was appointed judge of the U. S. Dis-
trict Court, Judge Samuel P. Wheeler, of Cairo, 111., entered the firm,
and the name was changed to Brown, Wheeler & Brown. In Novem-
ber, 1897, Mr. Logan Hay entered the firm, and its name was again
changed to Brown, Wheeler, Brown & Hay.

Mr. Brown's first wife died March 2, 1869, and about three years
later he married at Chicago on June 4th, 1872, Mrs. Caroline Owsley
Farnsworth, daughter of John E. Owsley, formerly of Springfield.
Of this union were born three children, Elizabeth Jane, on May 4th.
1873; Amelia, on January 24th, 1875, and Owsley, on May 28th, 1877,
Amelia died in infancy. The other two children are still living.

Mr. Brown had many honors conferred upon him during his life
time. Among them he was appointed school superintendent of
Alexander county, Illinois. He was made alderman of the old Third
ward of Springfield, on the Republican ticket, and while filling that
office he introduced and had passed the ordinance for sewering the
"town branch," into which the most of the sewers of the city are now
emptied. We can thus justly claim that he was the Father of the
sewerage system of Springfield. He was president or trustee of the
Springfield Public Library from 1881 to 1901, during which years it
became in books and circulation the third largest public library in
the State. In 1888 he was chosen, by the Gfeneral Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church of the L'nited States, as a delegate to the Pan-
Presbyterian Council which met in Exeter Hall, London. He took
part in the convention and when it closed he visited, in company with
his wife and two youngest children, most of the countries of Central
Europe, going as far east as Prague. It was a delightful trip,
which he always remembered and referred to with much pleasure.

He was one of the founders of the Bettie Stuart Institute. He
contributed very liberally at the beginning of the institute in
1868, and made many donations to it up to the time of his death.
(The institute was named in memory of his deceased wife.) He was
president of the Springfield boiler and manufacturing company, and
president of the Latham coal Company. He was vice-president of
the Sangamon loan and trust company. A leading stockholder in
the Woodside coal company; trustee of the Lincoln Monument
Association; director of the McCormick Theological Seminary; and
director of the Springfield furniture company. He was superintendent
of the First Presbyterian Sunday school, of Springfield, Illinois, and
Ruling Elder in the same church for thirty-seven years.

Mr. C. 0. Brown was in his seventieth year when he died. He had
not been in robust health for some years, and five or six years
previous to his death he consulted an eminent physician in
Chicago, who, after a thorough examination and diagnosis,
pronounced his malady Bright's disease. Although Mr. Brown
realized that he had not many years to live, he continued to maintain
his bright and sunny disposition; he never alluded to his real condi-
tion, not wishing to alarm his friends, and to all appearance was in
fairly good health up to within a few weeks of his death. He had
been ailing for a few days before he died, but no one expected a fatal
termination to his sickness, at that time. But the hour of his de-
parture was at hand. He heard his Master's call, and he responded
to it. His passing away was like the departure of a weary soul worn
out with the toils and trials of this wilderness world. His work was
done, he had earned his rest; and God gave him a new day, for death
to him was the Grate of Life. Our friend passed away quietly in the
night. It is believed that death came to him suddenly and painlessly.
The immediate cause of his death was given out as angina pectoris,
more popularly known as neuralgia of the heart. As the real fatal
illness lasted but a little while, it left no time for a death-bed testi-
mony, but his testimony had been given already. It was seen in his
whole life — a life which in no ordinary degree adorned the doctrine of
God his Saviour. It was a life of quiet unostentatious service. If
the best proofs of true religion lie in its fruits, the proof of our friend's
religion was sure. For his good works were uniform and permanent,
not spasmodic. As a Christian he grew in grace as he grew in years.
He was a living epistle known and read of all men. One who knew
him well said, after his death, — "If this world was made up of men
6uch as Christopher C. Brown, it would be almost a heaven on earth."
Although Mr. Brown was so strongly attached to his own chosen reli-
gious faith, he was inclined to liberality in matters of religion, being
entirely free from all forms of bigotry, and not disposed to force his
opinions upon others.

Our departed friend had the hope and the consolation of the
Christian faith. He believed with Tennyson:

"For though from out our bourne of Time and Place,

The rlood may bear me far,
I hope to see my pilot face to face,

When 1 have crossed the bar."

10

A faith like that takes away the fear of death. He has crossed the
bar. to our sorrow, but to his gaiu. And yet he is not lost, but only
gone before. Longfellow in his beautiful poem on "Resignation,"
says:

' 'There is no death ! What seems so is transition ;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian
Whose portals we call death."

And Cicero tells us, "That last day (of death) does not bring extinc-
tion to us, but change of place." And so thought most of the great
thinkers of ancient Greece and Romo.

His pastor, the Rev. Dr. Thomas D. Logan, said in his funeral ser-
mon: "In the death of Mr. C. C. Brown, our church has lost its
Barnabas. Throughout his long and useful life he has been a true
'son of consolation.' Nature endowed him with a commanding and
inspiring presence and a sunny disposition, which grace sweetened
and sanctified. He always reminded me of John Bunyan's Mr. Great-
heart, for his heart overflowed with generous impulses. He was a
christian gentleman of the best type of the old school. In his tongue
was the law of kindness. It was his constant desire to smooth the
pathway before his fellowmen, and to make all within the sphere of
his influence feel comfortable and happy. * * * He knew what he be-
lieved, and why he believed it. There was no uncertainty as to his
principles. He was a man you could safely tie to, for you always
found him just there. * * * He illustrated for our day the meaning
of Sampson's riddle, suggested by the swarm of bees that had its hive
in the carcass of a lion, 'Out of the strong came forth sweetness'."

The old Greek satirist, Lucian, in his "Dialogues of the Dead,"
represents Mercury as classing the aged among those who die unla-
mented. Our departed friend was old in years. He had reached the
allotted three score years and ten, when men expect to be in "the sere
and yellow leaf", but his death was greatly lamented, even with bitter
tears. At his funeral service, in despite of a heavy rain, the church
was filled. All classes and conditions were there; rich and poor, high
and low, to show their respect for him they would see no more. He
was well beloved, and there were good reasons for it. His genial dis-
position, his noble and manly qualities, his enduring and loving de-
votion to his friends, and his utterly unselfish nature, won him hosts
of friends, and many were those who sorrowed for his death. Few
dry eyes were among the people as the service closed, and the remains
were carried away to the narrow house, the last abode of all.

And now, a few parting words. He lived, he loved, he labored and
he died. That is the story of nearly every human life; but I may
add to our departed friend's record, that he lived for a purpose, and
the world is the better because he has lived in it. He died leaving
behind him a memory fragrant with the perfume of many kindly and
generous deeds and words. There is an old maxim which had struck
its roots deep into the hearts and consciences of men before the Lord
Jesus Christ uttered His Divine Sermon on the Mount, before the
Greek sages taught the Athenians the precepts of right living, and
even before Confucius, in the darker obscurity of antiquity, illumined
the civilization of his time by the doctrine of peace on earth and good

11

will to men. That ancient maxim was, "Of the dead speak nothing
but good." And I can safely follow its teachings to-day. To say
that our departed friend was faultless, would be to bestow upon him
the attributes of the Deity. He was a man, and he had frailties and
weaknesses like others of the human race. But he tried to do justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. And that is what the
Lord reqiiires of every man who seeks to walk aright before him.
May we all be able to follow our brother's example in this; and may
we never forget that we too are mortal.

I would gladly say more in praise of our lamented friend, but I
have neither the scholar's pen, nor the poet's fancy; besides, I think
them needless in this instance. His deeds speak more eloquently
than my words would. But the beautiful poem of Fitz- Greene Halleck
to the memory of Joseph Rodman Drake expresses just what I would
like to have written if I could. I will quote a few of the lines —

"Green be the turf above thee

Friend of my better days;
None knew thee but to love thee !

None named thee but to praise.

When hearts, whose truth was proven,

Like thine, are laid in earth,
There should a wreath be woven

To tell the world their worth.

It should be mine to braid it

Around thy faded brow.
But I've in vain essayed it,

And feel I cannot now.

While memory bids me weep thee,

Nor thoughts nor words are free,
The grief is fixed too deeply

That mourns a man like thee."

I need add nothing to these eloquent verses, and language would
fail me to say all that I would like to say about our departed and
lamented brother and associate. I cannot, therefore, better close
this inadequate memorial tribute than by bidding him farewell. A
last farewell to him who was as a friend and a brother to me, a true
comrade in the battle of life. "Brother, fare-thee-well, but not
forever! May my soul, when my hour comes, be with thine!"