Napoleon Bonaparte Brown Explained

Napoleon Bonaparte Brown
Birth Date:1834[1]
Birth Place:Illinois
Death Place:St Joseph, Missouri, United States
Occupation:Businessman

Napoleon Bonaparte Brown (1834 – March 18, 1910) was an American businessman and politician who lived in Kansas and Missouri in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[2] He is most known as the namesake and builder of the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia, Kansas.

Early life

Brown was named after Napoleon Bonaparte by his parents James & Nancy Brown. The 1850 Pike County, Illinois, census gives his age as 16 at that time. A later census (1900) in Concordia, KS gives his birthdate as Oct 1833.[3] He appeared to have two siblings: a brother, Benjamin age 14; and a sister named May or Mary aged 11 listed in the census as well.[4] Later military records list his hometown as Concord, Illinois, in neighboring Morgan County.[5] until he resigned on January 17, 1865.[6]

Military career

"Colonel" Brown enlisted in the 101st Illinois Infantry Regiment on January 3, 1864, and given the rank of major. Major Brown served in "B" Company[5] until he resigned on January 17, 1865[6] β€”the very day the 101st crossed into South Carolina from Georgia under General William Tecumseh Sherman. Cloud county records show that he was paid the pension ($25.00) of a major.[7] After he retired from the military, he "promoted himself" to the rank of colonel.[8]

In a letter to the editor of the Kansas Blade (now the Concordia Blade-Empire), Brown claimed that he enlisted as a private on April 22, 1862, and was subsequently promoted to captain, major, and brevet lieutenant colonel.[9]

Business and philanthropy

See main article: Brown Grand Theatre. "Colonel" Brown served in the state legislatures for both Kansas and Missouri and was a prominent banker in Kansas during its early years of development as the owner of the first bank in Cloud County, Kansas.[10] N. B. Brown & Co., founded in 1878[11] with a rumored "suitcase full of money" that he had with him upon his arrival. Colonel Brown and his wife Katherine (Katie) then built Brownstone Hall,[12] a 23-room Victorian-style 5000square feet stone mansion built in Concordia in 1883.[13] Colonel Brown served as a Republican first in the Missouri House of Representatives,[14] and then in the Kansas State Senate.[15]

In 1905, Colonel Brown commissioned the building of the Brown Grand Theatre and entrusted its completion to his son, Earl Van Dom Brown. The theatre was completed in 1907.[16]

Politics

As a state Senator in Kansas, Brown fought a losing battle to restore Concordia Normal School as a state-run institution. The school was one of several Normal schools placed throughout the state in 1874 under governor Thomas A. Osborn, but was consolidated by the state legislature in 1876.[17] The state normal school would later become Emporia State University.

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. 1850 Pike County, Illinois census at the age of 16-son of James & Nancy Brown
  2. Web site: Moran. Jerry. Historic Performing Theatre – The Brown Grand Theatre. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. 29 February 2008.
  3. 1900 Cloud County, Kansas Census
  4. 1850 Pike County, Illinois Census
  5. News: May 30, 1909 . The One Hundred-First Illinois . 29 February 2008 . Jacksonville Daily Journal . Jacksonville, Illinois via Illinois in the Civil War.
  6. Web site: Roster of Field and Staff 101st Illinois Infantry . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20050106094757/http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcivilw/f%26s/101-fs.htm . January 6, 2005 . 29 February 2008 . rootsweb.com.
  7. Web site: Cloud County KS GenWeb . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070929092357/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/cloud/ExMilitary.htm . September 29, 2007 . 29 February 2008 . Blue Skyways at the Kansas State Library.
  8. Web site: History of the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia, Kansas . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080422210652/http://browngrand.org/history.htm . April 22, 2008 . 29 February 2008 . Brown Grand Theater.
  9. http://www.bladeempire.com/ Concordia Blade-Empire
  10. http://media.www.tbirdtimes.com/media/storage/paper1158/news/2007/09/21/News/Happy.100th.Birthday.Brown.Grand.Theatre-2984117.shtml Inside Cloud
  11. Book: Cutler , William G. . History of the State of Kansas: Cloud County. https://web.archive.org/web/20030425112044/http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/cloud/cloud-co-p2.html#CONCORDIA. dead. 25 April 2003. Chicago, IL. A. T. Andreas . 1883. 29 February 2008.
  12. Kansas Historical Notes. https://web.archive.org/web/20030502064754/http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1977/77_1_offthepress.htm. dead. 2003-05-02. Kansas History off the Press. 43. 1. 112–120. Summer 1977 . Kansas State Historical Society. 29 February 2008.
  13. Web site: Hatteberg . Larry . Hatteberg's People: Caroline Gocke . KAKE . November 9, 2003 . 29 February 2008 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080511234620/http://www.kake.com/news/features/4/437061.html . May 11, 2008.
  14. Web site: Missouri Legislators B.
  15. Web site: Kansas Legislators Past & Present - Boh through BZZ, State Library of Kansas . 30 July 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110725013407/http://www.kslib.info/legislators/membb3.html . July 25, 2011 .
  16. http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2009/feb/23/brown_grand_theater/ The Emporia Gazette
  17. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/cloud/1903/concordia2.shtml#16404 Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas