lumberman, banker, b. Smithfield, N.Y. He first moved to Wisconsin in 1846 and engaged in farming and carpentry at the present site of Lake Mills. He returned to New York in 1847, but again moved to Wisconsin in 1857, settling first at Newport, Columbia County, and later in the town of Hull, Portage County, where he farmed and ran a sawmill on the Plover River. In 1868 he settled in Stevens Point where he conducted a banking business and continued his logging and sawmill operations. From 1873 to 1874 he invested heavily in pine lands on the upper Wisconsin. River and was one of the original owners of the site of Rhinelander. His son, ANDERSON WESLEY BROWN, b. Peterboro, N.Y., attended Lawrence College and the Univ. of Wisconsin. In 1875 he started lumbering operations at Stevens Point in partnership with his brother, WEBSTER EVERETT BROWN, b. Peterboro, N.Y. He graduated from the Univ. of Wisconsin in 1874. They operated under the firm name of Brown Brothers. In 1882 they moved their operations to Rhinelander, were later joined by another brother, and in 1890 incorporated their firm as the Brown Brothers Lumber Company, with Anderson W. Brown serving as president until his death. He was also engaged in banking and was a founder of the Rhinelander Paper Company (1903). Webster E. Brown, a Republican, was prominent in local politics and served as mayor of Rhinelander (1894-1895). In 1900 he was elected to Congress, serving three terms (Mar. 1901-Mar. 1907). He was an organizer of the Employees Mutual Liability Insurance Co. of Wausau, and after his brother's death was president of Brown Brothers Lumber Co. and the Rhinelander Paper Co. Amer. Biog. . . . Cyclopedia, 48 (1931); Rhinelander Vindicator, Apr. 26, 1898; E. B. Usher, Wis. (8 vols., Chicago, 1914); Rhinelander Daily News, Apr. 25, 1923; Biog. Dir. Amer. Cong. (1950).Learn More
Dictionary of Wisconsin History
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
