© Kathy Duncan, 2021
The social notices in the Weekly Pantagraph of Bloomington, Illinois, included several notifications about C.A. Brown, aka Charles Albert Brown, son of John Deloss and Nancy (Johnson) Brown of Weldon, Illinois.
In 1897, C.A. Brown left Weldon, Illinois for Arizona where his two brothers lived. That social notice led me to information on brother Isaac Sherman Brown, who I had not been able to locate previously. This was covered in a previous post.
Another notice published in 1903, provided information as to when and where C.A. Brown married Sadabell Austin. It also places them in San Francisco, California. This is a marriage date I had not been able to find before.
But where was C.A. Brown between 1897 and 1903? So far, I have not pinpointed him on the 1900 census. It could be expected that he was in Jerome, Arizona for a period of time, but how long?
At this point, no more newspaper notices have turned up to help the search.
My next strategy was to try an old fashioned Google search, and something unexpected and a little weird bubbled to the surface in connection with the murder of a former Jerome, Arizona, madam named Jennie Bauters.
This excerpt from "Belgian Jennie" Bauters: Mining Town Madame" by Melanie Sturgeon reveals that one C.A. Brown was a young miner, living in Jerome, Arizona from 1896 to 1900. His observations about Jennie Bauter's brothel and the town's prostitutes were taken from something called the C.A. Brown Collection in Jerome, Arizona Historical Society.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Jerome, Arizona was a western boomtown filled with saloons, brothels, and outlaws. It was a small but wild town.
This profile of a young church-going, man, who lived in Jerome for a brief period of time beginning in 1896 or 1897, roughly fits what is known about John Deloss Brown's son Charles. At this point, I need to be able to access the C.A. Brown collection and find out if the Historical Society knows anything more about him to be able to determine if he is the same C.A. Brown.
Still, this is a tantalizing bit of information even if it is a bit of a rabbit hole...
Gosh, what an interesting find! I can just picture the ladies in their wagon parading in the street. It seems like a scene from a movie!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to find out if he is the real "C.A. Brown". That would be something.
I am so curious about the C.A. Brown Collection. From what I can tell it's 14 pages long. I can't figure why someone who lived there for only four years had anything to contribute to the history of the community. Of course, besides trying to i.d. this C.A. Brown, I'm wondering why he wrote this. And I can't help but wonder what his parents would have thought if they had known about this little adventure!
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