OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

HON. GIBSON A. BROWN
Vol. 3, p. 1196-1197

One of the present Justices of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, Gibson
A. Brown brought to that exalted position qualifications the result
not only of thorough scholarship and knowledge of the law, but a long
experience in judicial affairs and is thorough sympathy with the
activities and life of the people of the Southwest. Judge Brown is in
many ways a typical pioneer of this southwestern country, was one of
the pioneer members of the bar in the Panhandle country of Texas,
practiced and held court in practically all the counties along the
Upper Red River, and from the Texas side watched the first openings
and the early development of Oklahoma, and finally about twelve years
ago transferred his residence permanently to the Oklahoma side. He is
a resident of Mangum in old Greer County, with which section of
Oklahoma he had some interesting historical associations.

Gibson A. Brown was born of a prominent family in Texas in 1849, a
son of James P. and Mary A. (BRYAN) Brown. Both his parents were
natives of Georgia, his father born in 1830, and in 1847 he moved to
Texas where he spent his life as a farmer.

Judge Brown was educated in the Texas common schools, and studied
law in the office of THROCKMORTON & Brown at Sherman in Grayson
County. His preceptors were former Governor Throckmorton and Thomas
J. Brown, the latter an uncle and at present time chief justice of
the Supreme Court of Texas, of which court he has been a member for
over twenty years. Gibson A. Brown was admitted to the bar at Sherman
in 1873, and at once was made junior partner of the firm of
Throckmorton & Brown, and continued with that firm until 1882. In
that year by special request he moved to the Texas Panhandle. His
first location was at Clarendon in Donley County, and in the same
year he was elected county judge of the newly organized county. Up to
about that time county government had existed only in name in all the
Panhandle and Upper Red River district of Texas, and for a number of
years the entire region was given over to the cattlemen and their
industry. For several years Judge Brown held court and practiced as a
lawyer in a country distant from the nearest railroad by several
hundred miles. He served as county judge in Donley County until 1883,
and then resigned to devote all his attention to a general practice.
In 1889, when the Forty-sixth Judicial District of Texas was created,
Governor L. S. ROSS appointed him judge of the new district, and he
then removed his residence to Vernon, Wilbarger County, which had
only recently been connected with the outside world by railroad. He
was three times elected district judge, and held the office fourteen
years, until January, 1903.

One of the counties included in his original jurisdictions was Greer
County, then in Texas, and now a part of Oklahoma. What is known as
the Greer County case is one of the interesting chapters in Oklahoma
history and also in Texas history. Up to 1896 the land lying between
the north and south forks of the Red River was claimed and was
occupied by Texas settlers, under the jurisdiction of Texas and court
civil officers. By a decision March 16, 1896, the United States
Supreme Court determined that the south fork of the Red River should
constitute the northern boundary of Texas and Oklahoma. Judge BROWN
has the distinction of presiding over the last court in Greer County,
Texas, and by a noteworthy coincidence some years later also presided
over the first state court in Greer County, Oklahoma, after Oklahoma
had become a state. Judge Brown was presiding as judge of the Forty-
sixth Judicial District Court at Mangum in Greer County, on March 16,
1896, and was engaged in the trial of a case when he received a
telegram announcing that the United States Supreme Court had rendered
its decision to the effect that Greer County was in Oklahoma and not
a part of Texas. In imparting this information to his court he
stated: "We opened court in Greer county, Texas, but will close court
in Greer county, Oklahoma." Following this announcement considerable
apprehension was felt as to the status of the settlers, and whether
they should be able to hold the lands which had been settled upon by
them. At a mass meeting held the same day of the publication of the
decision, Judge Brown was selected by the people to go to Washington,
and protest their interest. With the assistance of the then attorney
general of the United States, Judson HARMON of Ohio, and of the
Oklahoma delegate to Congress, Dennis FLYNN, Judge Brown succeeded in
getting an enactment from Congress to protect the preference right of
home with 160 acres of land, and the right to purchase an additional
160 acres, to the Greer County residents.

Judge Brown continued to serve as district judge in Texas until
January, 1903, and in that year removed to Oklahoma, locating at
Hobart in Kiowa County, where he practiced as a member of the firm of
BROWN, MORSE & STANDEVER from January, 1903, to December, 1903. At
that time, obeying the urgings of his many friends in Mangum in Greer
County, he located at Mangum, and continued practice among the people
with whom he had first become acquainted as a Texas judge. In 1907,
when Oklahoma came into the Union, Mr. Brown was elected district
judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District of Oklahoma, and was re-
elected in 1910 and continued to serve on the district bench until
elected justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma to fill an unexpired
term of Judge DUNN. His present term as a member of the Supreme Court
expires in January, 1917. During court sessions he lives in Oklahoma
City, but his regular home is in Mangum. When Judge Brown opened the
first state court at Mangum he had the pleasure of having among his
jury some of those who had served as jurors during his last session
of the Texas State Court at Mangum more than ten years before.

Judge Brown is a York Rite Mason, being past master of the lodge,
past high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter, and a member of the
Knights Templar. In 1875 Judge Brown married Miss Adela H. DAVIS,
daughter of Dr. E. K. Davis of Louisiana, and a step-daughter of John
A. FAIN of Denton, Texas. Mrs. Brown is prominent in literary and
club circles in both Oklahoma and Texas. They are the parents of four
children: Floyd R. Brown. an electrician living in Chicago; Peyton E.
Brown, a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and a practicing
attorney at Mangum; Leon H. Brown, a student in the law department of
the University of Oklahoma in the class of 1915; and Genevieve A.
Brown, a member of the faculty of Buford College at Nashville,
Tennessee, where she is instructor of piano, and from which
institution she graduated in music and expression in 1913 and in
voice in 1915.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, October 27, 1998.