Fayette Brown was an American banker, inventor, and manufacturer. He is regarded for his business ventures, inventions, and for the establishment of the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company.
Background
Fayette Brown was born on December 17, 1823 was the son of Ephraim and Mary (Huntington) Brown. In 1814 Ephraim Brown, originally of Westmoreland, New Hampshire, joined with a friend and purchased a township in the Connecticut Western Reserve, now known as North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, Ohio, and the following year he moved west and settled there with his wife and several children and became a leader in that transplanted New England community. There Fayette was born, the youngest of nine children, and was brought up in that characteristic atmosphere of thrift and honesty.
Education
His elementary education was that afforded by the public schools of Gambier, Ohio, after which he attended Jefferson College in Pennsylvania.
Career
When eighteen years old, however, Fayette Brown left home and entered the dry-goods store of an elder brother in Pittsburgh where he remained until 1851, becoming a member of the firm in 1845. Just prior to the termination of the store partnership Brown had formed a partnership with a friend, George Mygatt, to engage in the banking business, and in 1851 he went to Cleveland, Ohio, to join Mygatt, remaining there for the succeeding ten years. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he accepted an appointment as paymaster in the Union army.
After serving for over a year he resigned with the rank of major. Upon his return to Cleveland he became general agent and manager of the Jackson Iron Company, manufacturers of iron and steel. He continued here for the next twenty-five years, building up a reputation as one of the most competent iron manufacturers of his time.
During this period he secured four patents, two for hoisting apparatus in connection with the charging of blast furnaces, and two for improvements in blast furnace design. These were issued in 1884 and 1885. It was during this time, too, that Brown became interested in Great Lakes shipping and built up a large fleet of lake steamers, particularly for the transportation of iron ore. In fact, he was the first to bring iron ore by boat from the Lake Superior district to Cleveland.
Achievements
When the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company was organized in 1880 to develop the inventions of his son, Alexander Ephraim, Brown assumed the presidency and continued in this capacity until his death. For the first seven years he also continued as general manager of the Jackson Iron Company but relinquished this office in 1887.
In later years Brown served also as president of the Union Steel Screw Company, the National Chemical Company, and the G. C. Kuhlman Car Company, respectively, and was also a member of his younger son's firm, H. H. Brown & Company, dealers in iron ore, as well as chairman of the board of directors of the Stewart Iron Company of Sharon, Pennsylvania.
Connections
On July 15, 1847, Brown married Cornelia C. Curtis of Pittsburgh, who died several years before he did. They were survived, however, by their four children, two sons and two daughters.
Father:
Ephraim Brown
1775–1845
Mother:
Mary Buckingham Huntington Brown
1787–1862
Sister:
Fayette Brown
1823–1910
Sister :
Elizabeth Huntington Brown
1816–1904
Sister :
Mary Brown Wing
1812–1887
Daughter :
Mary Linda Brown
1856–1921
Daughter:
Florence Cornelia Brown
1850–1923
wife :
Cornelia C Curtis Brown
1829–1899
Son :
Alexander Ephraim Brown
1852–1911
Son :
Harvey Huntington Brown
1848–1923
Son :
William Fayette Brown
1854–1891
Brother:
Fayette Brown
1823–1910
Brother :
Marvin Huntington Brown
1820–1892
Brother :
James Monroe Brown
1818–1867
Brother :
Charles Brown
1814–1880
Brother :
George Washington Brown
1810–1841
Brother :
Ephraim Alexander Brown
1807–1894
Friend:
George Mygatt
Just prior to the termination of the store partnership Brown had formed a partnership with a friend, George Mygatt, to engage in the banking business.
