Hamilton Brown Papers, 1752-1907

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Summary

Creator:
Brown, Hamilton, 1786-1870.
Abstract:

Three 'generations' of a prominent family from Wilkes County, N.C., and Maury County, Tenn. Persons represented include John Brown (1738-1812), immigrant from Ulster, early landowner in western North Carolina and in Tennessee; his son, Hamilton (1786-1870), planter, businessman, sheriff, and militia officer of Wilkes County; Hamilton's sons Hugh Thomas Brown (1835-1861) and Hamilton Allen Brown (1837-1917); and Gordon, Gwyn, Finley, Lenoir, and McDowell relatives, including James Byron Gordon (1822-1864), Confederate general.

The collection includes extensive and varied business and personal papers, including correspondence, accounts, legal papers, and other items pertaining to land acquisitions, planting, slaves, livestock, lumbering, merchandising, estates, and politics in Wilkes County, N.C., and elsewhere; military service in the War of 1812 and the Civil War; gold mining in Lumpkin County, Ga.; travels and settlement in Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana in the early 19th century; business in Virginia, Georgia, and many places in western North Carolina; and local government of Wilkes County in the early 19th century. Other papers include letters and diaries, 1850s, of Hamilton Brown's sons at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; several letters from slaves, 1830s-1840s, and about runaway slaves; letters from students at other colleges; and a play and poems by a woman of the family.

Extent:
1,070 items (3.0 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

John Brown (1738-1812), Revolutionary War officer and state legislator, was born in County Derry, Ireland. He migrated to Lancaster County, Pa., where he taught school. He married Jane McDowell (1750-1838), the sister of General Joseph McDowell and Major Charles McDowell. In 1772, they moved to Quaker Meadows, Burke County, N.C., with the McDowells. Soon afterwards, they moved to a farm on the north side of the Yadkin River, about four miles west of Wilkesboro.

Brown served under Colonel Benjamin Cleveland in the Revolutionary army at King's Mountain, probably holding the rank of captain. After the war, he was a member of the first board of magistrates when Wilkes became a county in 1778. The first Wilkes County Court was held at Brown's home. He became Wilkes County register of deeds in 1778 and served on a jury designated to lay out roads in the county. He represented Wilkes County in the North Carolina House of Commons for three years and also at the constitutional convention in Hillsborough in 1788. He was a prominent Mason.

Brown had eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. Two of his sons resided in Wilkes County and six moved to Maury County, Tenn., where they obtained large land grants in the Duck River Valley in payment for negotiating treaties with the Indians. Brown died in Wilkes County.

Hamilton Brown (30 September 1786-27 March 1870), planter, stockraiser, and land speculator, a resident of Wilkesboro, was the son of Jane McDowell and John Brown. Hamilton Brown served as a lieutenant with the 18th Regiment, U.S. Infantry, in the War of 1812, and, afterward, was colonel of the Wilkes County militia. For a number of years, he served as county justice of the peace and was sheriff from 1816 to 1818. He also served as overseer of a program to clear the Yadkin River in order to allow boats to reach the mouth of Buffalo Creek.

Brown inherited land in Wilkes and adjoining counties, as well as in Virginia, and purchased additional land in North Carolina and Tennessee. He had business dealings in South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas. He inherited some slaves in Virginia from his mother's brother, but was unwilling to separate the men--two of whom were skilled blacksmiths--from their wives. Being prevented by Virginia law from freeing them, he arranged for them to stay in Virginia under the supervision of a local resident.

Brown married Sarah Gwyn Gordon, widow of Major Nathaniel Gordon (d. 1829). They were the parents of two sons, Hugh Thomas (1835-1861), a graduate of the University of North Carolina, who was killed in the Civil War, and Hamilton Allen (1837-1917), who also served in the Confederate army. Brown's stepson, General James B. Gordon, was killed near Richmond in 1864. Brown and his wife were buried in the yard of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Wilkesboro.

Hamilton Allen Brown (25 September 1837-9 April 1917), Confederate officer and planter, was born at Oakland, the old Gordon homestead in Wilkes County. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis as a member of the class of 1858, but was not graduated. On 3 June 1861, he became first lieutenant of Company B, 1st North Carolina Regiment. Because of his military training, he was detailed by Governor John W. Ellis to drill recruits and fit them for service. In the summer of 1862, when Colonel M. S. Stokes and other officers of his regiment were killed at Mechanicsville, Brown was placed in command. He was promoted to colonel in December 1863 and soon afterward took command of his regiment, which was then attached to General Stonewall Jackson's division. He was placed in command of the division's sharpshooters and is given credit for much of the fame of Jackson's division. It was related that Brown never ordered a man into battle, but instead always said, "Follow me." He was wounded thirteen times, but always stayed close to his men and returned to duty as quickly as possible.

Brown served in the battles of Gettysburg, Culp's Hill, Richmond, and Petersburg, as well as in the campaigns of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and the Valley. On 24 March 1865, at Fort Stedman, he and part of his command were captured by General Napoleon McLaughlin. Shortly afterward, McLaughlin was himself captured. Later, however, the Confederates were forced to surrender. Brown was taken to Washington and then to Johnson's Island and finally was confined at Fort Delaware until 24 June 1865, when he took the oath of allegiance.

Brown returned to Wilkes County and played a minor role in local events of the early Reconstruction period. In 1868, he married his cousin, Amelia Selina Gwyn of Green Hill. In about 1871, they, together with Brown's brothers and a sister, moved to Columbia, Tenn., where they owned land. Brown increased his holdings and became a planter of modest means. He and his wife were the parents of four sons: Hugh Thomas, Hamilton, Gordon, and John. Brown was buried in St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Wilkesboro.

(Adapted from three biogrphical sketches by Sarah E. Holeman in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume 1, 1979.)

Scope and content:

The collection includes extensive and varied business and personal papers of John Brown, his son Hamilton Brown of Wilkesboro, N.C., and members of related families in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.

Family correspondence documents the activities of John Brown's sons in Tennessee, the mercantile and gold mining pursuits of the Gwyns and the Gordons in Georgia, and the settlement of the Finleys in Cherokee County, Ala. It also includes letters written by several women family members.

Substantive business correspondence, accounts, and legal papers, document the extensive business interests of Hamilton Brown, including land holdings as far west as Missouri. In addition to land acquisitions, papers pertain to planting, slaves, livestock, lumbering, merchandising, estates, and politics in Wilkes County, N.C., and elsewhere; military service in the War of 1812 and the Civil War; gold mining in Lumpkin County, Ga.; travels and settlement in Tennessee, Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; business in Virginia, Georgia, and many locations in western North Carolina; and local government of Wilkes County, N.C., and Wilkesboro in the early 19th century. Other papers include letters and diaries from the 1850s of Hamilton Brown's sons at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.; letters from students at other colleges; and a play and poems by a woman of the family.

Acquisition information:

Received from Virginia Brown Boardman of Columbia, Tenn., in 1946 and 1953.

Processing information:

Processed by: Lisa Tolbert and Roslyn Holdzkon, November 1992

Encoded by: Brian Dietz, May 2004

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Hamilton Brown Papers #1090, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu