Career
Born in Sumner County, Tennessee, he started earning a living as a blacksmith and later switched to become a lock and gunsmith. He invented a "sliding breech" repeating rifle also called a Harmonica gun between 1834 and 1842 while living in Quincy, Illinois. lieutenant is estimated that each Harmonica gun took 2 weeks to make, and Browning sold the guns for twenty-four dollars.
With his local prominence in Quincy, Browning was elected the justice of the peace.
He came to know a young lawyer by the name of Abraham Lincoln who was an overnight guest in his home on at least two occasions. In his capacity as a judge, Browning came into contact with many of the Latter Day Saint exiles.
Curious about the new settlement in the swampy lands of Nauvoo, Illinois, Browning paid a visit to Nauvoo. His conversion led to him being ostracized by the community in Quincy.
Browning sold his gun shop and land in Quincy.
He moved to Nauvoo, Illinois and joined the community in 1842, where he established a gun shop. Guns that Browning produced during these times were labeled "Holiness to the Lord - Our Preservation." The Browning Gun Shop has been restored as a museum, and is open to the public at no charge. Browning fled Illinois with Brigham Young in late 1846 to escape religious persecution.
He settled in the temporary community of Council Bluffs, Iowa (then called Kanesville in honor of Thomas L Kane) and repaired guns for the local settlers who were migrating to Utah.
He was awaiting Brigham Young to invite him to join the main body of settlers in Utah. As was common in the community at that time, Jonathan Browning was a polygamist, having taken three wives.
He fathered 19 children. Prominent among them was the gun designer, John Moses Browning, one of the most important figures in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms.
Browning received the word to join the main party of settlers in 1852.
He left his gunshop in Iowa and migrated across the Rocky Mountains as the captain of a group of pioneers. He arrived with six wagons and six hundred dollars in the Salt Lake Valley. Browning moved to Ogden, Utah and established a gun shop there.
His activities were limited to repairs in the Ogden shop, however.
He was too old, and I was too young." Browning died June 21, 1879 in Ogden.
