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Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. ===================================================================== AL BROWN Vol. 3, p. 1100-1101 Book has photo In the City of Tulsa not to know "Al" Brown is virtually to argue oneself unknown, and even as he is one of the most popular citizens of this thriving center of commercial and industrial activity, so also is he recognized as a representative business man and as one whose progressiveness and civic loyalty have caused him to make noteworthy contribution to the development and upbuilding of the city of his adoption. Mr. Brown was actively identified with commercial affairs for a long period and in the same made an admirable record, and in his individual and associate connection with the oil industry and other lines of productive enterprise he has achieved large success during the period of his residence in Oklahoma. He is one of the aggressive and public-spirited citizens to whom it is most gratifying to give specific recognition in a publication of the province assigned to the one here presented. Mr. Brown was born in the fine old Town of Bowling Green, the judicial center of Warren County, Kentucky and the date of his nativity was July 23, 1876. He was the seventh in order of birth of a family of twelve children, of whom six are living, and is a son of James W. and Cecilia Honora (CHAMAGNE) Brown, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in France, and the marriage of whom was solemnized in the State of Kentucky. The father died in 1908, at the age of sixty-nine years, the devoted wife and mother having been summoned to eternal rest in 1900, when about sixty years of age. James W. Brown was reared in his native land to the age of fourteen years and there attended school with good results, this enabling him to lay a substantial foundation for the broader education which he was destined to receive under the preceptorship of that wisest of all headmasters, experience. At the age noted he came to the United States and disembarked in the City of New Orleans, where he was variously employed during the ensuing three years. He finally engaged in the handling of hoop-poles, and in this line of enterprise he eventually developed a large and profitable business. He purchased his stock at eligible points along the course of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and for the transportation of the same to his headquarters in New Orleans he operated a line of barges, his annual transaction having expanded in scope and importance until his business averaged from $150,000 to $200,000 a year. He continued his fruitful activities in this enterprise for twelve or more years, and thus early in his residence in the United States he proved himself resourceful, energetic and purposeful, with the result that he became distinctively successful, the while his sterling character gained to him the staunchest of friends. Prior to the Civil war he had made extensive investment in farm land in Warren County, Kentucky, and there he developed a large and prosperous enterprise as a substantial agriculturist. He retained in his service a corps of about thirty- five slaves and when he finally offered them their liberty five of the number refused to leave him, with the result that he continued to care for them with kindliness and consideration, paid them consistent wages, and acceded to the request of those of the number who wished to adopt his family name. In 1885 Mr. Brown disposed of his valuable holdings in the old Bluegrass State and removed with his family to Wichita, Kansas, in which state he engaged extensively in the range cattle business, with which he continued to be successfully identified until 1897, after which he lived virtually retired from active business until the time of his death. A stalwart and effective advocate of the principles and policies of the democratic party, Mr. Brown was influential in its ranks both in Kentucky and Kansas, in which latter state he was appointed police commissioner of Wichita after the adoption of the commission system of municipal government, as an official under the metropolitan-police system he thus served under the administrations of Governors Llewellyn and Leedy. On one occasion he was made the democratic nominee for representative of his county in the lower house of the Kansas Legislature, but a republican landslide in the ensuing election compassed his defeat, though by a very small majority. While a resident of Anness, Sedgwick County, Kansas, he there served as postmaster during the first administration of President Cleveland. He was a close friend of Governor Llewellyn, and that honored executive of the Sunflower State not only looked upon him as a valued friend and counselor but also tendered to him the office of warden of the state penitentiary, a position which he declined. He was one of the leaders in effecting the nomination of Governor Llewellyn in the democratic state convention, and he was otherwise influential in the councils of the democratic party in Kansas, his enthusiasm in the cause having been shown not only through effective personal service but also through liberal financial aid. To the excellent public schools of Wichita, Kansas, Alexis Brown is indebted for his early educational advantages, and later he attended the schools at Fort Scott, that state. At the age of nineteen years he became a traveling representative and salesman for the Otto Kuehne Preserving Company, which maintained headquarters both at Topeka, Kansas, and Denver, Colorado. In this capacity he remained with this company about eleven years and was most successful as a commercial salesman. That his services met with due appreciation is shown by the fact that the company then entrusted him with the opening of its branch establishment in Oklahoma City, where he continued as manager of the business from this headquarters until 1907, with several traveling salesmen under his direction, and in that year, which marked the admission of Oklahoma as a state, he established his residence in the ambitious and vigorous City of Tulsa, where he held for the ensuing five years the position of city salesman for the wholesale grocery house of Ratcliff & Sanders. Upon resigning this position Mr. Brown here engaged in the fire-insurance and real-estate loan business, and in these lines he built up a most substantial and prosperous enterprise. He severed his association with this business in 1913, in the meanwhile having become concerned, as early as 1907, with the oil industry in the celebrated fields about Tulsa. Mr. Brown was associated with the opening of the western extension of what is known as the Flatt Rock Pool, and with others opened also the oil properties of the Collinsville Pool and the East Glen extension. He still continued his association with the oil and gas producing industry and in consonance with his increasing financial success has his appreciation in a practical way, as he has made judicious investments in city real estate in Tulsa and advanced local interests by the substantial improvement of his various properties. He has erected and sold nearly fifty excellent houses in Tulsa, and the major number were completed within the year 1914. Greater civic pride and loyalty has no man than this, that he shall provide means for the local enjoyment and exploitation of America's great national game, baseball. In this field Mr. Brown came gallantly to the front in Tulsa by establishing the Association Base Ball Park, which he improved at a cost of several thousand dollars and by this means made it possible for Tulsa to become represented in the Western League. He was the owner and first president of the Tulsa Club of this league, and has continued his enthusiastic interest in the club and in the game in general. As a stalwart democrat Mr. Brown has been active and liberal in the support of the party cause and the furtherance of the political ambition of his party friends, but he has manifested no desire for personal preferment in political affairs. He is one of the active and valued members of the Tulsa Commercial Club, and is a popular member of Tulsa Lodge, No. 946, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In the year 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Hattie May GIBBS, who was born at Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, and they became the parents of four children: James H. died at the age of eight years; Cecilia Honora and Harold Victor remain at the parental home; and Helen Louise died at the age of eight years. Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, November 3, 1998.