John Deloss Brown's Letter, 1913

 ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

Newspapers continue to shed light on one of my husband's Brown lines. John Deloss Brown of Weldon, Illinois, frequently wrote letters to newspaper editors over the course of his life. Almost all of those letters were political in nature. However, near the end of his life, he wrote a highly personal letter to his old hometown newspaper. Below is a transcript of the letter with commentary.

After the death of his wife, Nancy (Johnson) Brown, John D. Brown "broke up" his housekeeping in Weldon and lived with his various children who were scattered through several states, although a few remained in Illinois. By the time John wrote this letter, he had left Weldon.

JOHN D. BROWN

VISITS OLD HOME

Tells of Pleasant Time Being Spent With Brother and Other Relatives

Milton, Ill., 5-20-'13.

Editor Record,

Weldon, Ill.

Friend Coover--

I believe I am under a promise to write a line to record my wanderings since leaving Weldon.

I returned to Springfield to await the action of the Grand Jury in the Mayhew case, but as there seemed to be nothing doing I made arrangements to visit my old boyhood home in Pike county, as I have a brother, brother-in-law and nieces living here, so on

Already, this letter begins with very interesting tidbits. First, the letter is dated 20 May 1913 (a Tuesday) from Milton, Illinois in Pike County where John Deloss Brown lived as a boy. Prior to journeying to Springfield, he was living with a daughter, probably Emma C. (Brown) Manlove Lehman Egel, in Missouri. 

 The Mayhew case that John referenced concerned his granddaughter Opal (Miller) Mayhew. She was subjected to "an illegal operation," performed by a doctor with the assistance of her husband on the evening of Friday, April 11, 1913.  She became seriously ill almost immediately. By Tuesday, April  15, she had lost consciousness and would remain in that state until her death. It was not until Thursday, April 18, that her mother, Mary Ellen (Brown) Miller Walker, was notified that she was dangerously ill and actually on her deathbed. She died on Saturday, April 20. A coroner's inquest was held at her mother's insistence. The funeral was held on April 24.

On May 14, 1913, newspapers were reporting that Dr. J. O. Salyers and Harry Mayhew were being held on bond awaiting the action of the Grand Jury.

John D. Brown evidently traveled from Missouri to Springfield, specifically to attend the Grand Jury hearing. Realizing that the Grand Jury was in no hurry, John traveled to Milton on May 15. 

Tuesday, the 15th, I left Springfield for Pittsfield and from there to Milton, which is a small inland village 12 miles east of Pittsfield. It is reached only by private conveyance, except that there is a wagon used for the purpose of conveying goods to the merchants, and I found a seat in it, reaching Milton about five o'clock p.m. I found my brother on the street in his buggy ready to convey me to any place I wished to go, and as he is living alone and keeps a Bachelor's Hall, I went down to my brother-in-law's home, which, by the way, is the same from which my old father went to the army in the 99th Infantry never to return, and the same from which I followed my dear mother to her last resting place, and where lie buried my old grandmother, my brother who was supposed to be murdered, and the mystery of whose death has never been entirely cleared, and I have never had a more pleasant visit in my life, meeting old comrades of the war,

This section of the letter is loaded with family references. The brother who was keeping a Bachelor Hall should be easy to figure out, but he is not. John only had two possible brothers at the time. One brother, William M. Brown, still had a wife who was living, so he was not a bachelor. The other brother, Henry Edward Brown, would have been widowed if he was still living! It's time to start thinking that brother Henry may have lived beyond 1912, which is his death date, without sources, on Family Search. 

The bother-in-law that John stayed with would have been Eli Cox Grimes, the widower of Ellen Elizabeth Brown. He also had a couple of daughters still living in his home. It's interesting that the Grimes lived on the old farm of John D. Brown's parents, Isaac S. and Catherine E. (Hay) Brown. Isaac S. Brown served with the 99th Illinois Infantry as teamster until he received a lethal wound at Vicksburg. 

John Brown's mother Catherine E. (Hay) Brown died in Milton, Illinois 18 January 1888 and was buried in the French Cemetery. In this portion, John referred to other family members also buried in French Cemetery, including his grandmother and his brother who was murdered. His murdered brother was James Albert Brown who was murdered in 1878. 

It is John's reference to his old grandmother that is the big mystery. His maternal grandmother Amy Hay probably died in Pike County where she was living with her daughter Catherine E. (Hay) Brown and son-in-law Isaac S. Brown. However, there is a tombstone for her beside her husband John Hay in Greene County, Illinois. Either she is buried in an unmarked grave in French Cemetery while a tombstone serves as a cenotaph in Greene County, or she was interred in Greene County and a different grandmother is buried in French Cemetery. That raises the possibility that John Brown's paternal grandmother is buried in French Cemetery. At this point, she is a totally unknown quantity. There is no woman of the right age named Brown in a marked grave in French Cemetery, who would have been Isaac S. Brown's mother. There was a woman who lived with the Browns who was old enough to be Isaac S. Brown's mother; she was Martha Johnson, who was born in New York. However, there also is not a Martha Johnson buried in French Cemetery. Of course, it could be that Isaac Brown's mother was someone else who remarried after the death of her Brown husband. At this time, John D. Brown's grandmother is a big question mark.

old schoolmates and friends of other years.

??????turday, I went out to the ????? where I spent my boyhood days, now occupied by a niece and her husband. As I looked over the old homestead I was reminded that there when a lad of 18 years my father sent me out in the hot month of September to plow for wheat, with a pair of three-year-old steers, which were not thoroughly broke, Arkansaw steers at that, broke with a line, and I saw the spot where these same steers coming to a thicket at one end of the field would break and run away from the flies into the thicket, and where on one occasion they changed to disturb about a candy bucket full of Yellow Jackets, and how they dragged myself and the plow over several acres of that plowed ground, I fearing to let go of the rope for fear I would never see the cattle again.

Well, I will return to Missouri next Tuesday. Hoping this will find the Record prospering and my old friends well and happy, I am,

Yours truly,

John D. Brown

John D. Brown could have easily been back in Springfield when the Grand Jury finally met on May 21. Unfortunately, they decided to postpone making a decision until June 16, so John D. Brown returned to Missouri on May 29 without knowing if his granddaughter's husband would be held responsible for her death.