Representative Henry C. Brown View All Years

HENRY C. BROWN was born in Belknap County, New Hampshire, January 1, 1831, and died at Dumont, Butler County, Iowa, March 3, 1929. His educational opportunities were of the meager sort of the common schools of that period. He became a farmer, but lost his savings in the panic of 1857. He enlisted in August, 1864, in an artillery company of the Union Army, was on duty in guarding Washington, D. C., and was mustered out in July, 1865. In 1866 he came to Iowa and bought and broke out 320 acres of wild land in Black Hawk County, but soon sold it and returned to New Hampshire. In 1867 he returned to Iowa and settled in Butler County. In 1876 he bought more than 600 acres at and near where stands the present town of Dumont. Besides farming he dealt in farm properties, established a lumber yard at Dumont, helped establish the Co-operative Creamery Association and the Farmers Elevator Company at Dumont, was the first president of the First National Bank of Parkersburg, and promoted the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Butler County. He served as a member of the Board of Supervisors of Butler County from 1871 to 1876, and was elected representative in 1881, re-elected in 1883, and served in the Nineteenth and Twentieth general assemblies. He was an able advocate of temperance and prohibition and made a substantial donation that led to the establishment of a public library at Dumont.