This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Brown, Crawford, Clausen, Johnson, Bryant, Sweeney,
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Yi.2ADE/553
Message Board Post:
This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the
insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just
thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames. NOTE:
I don’t know if there is any additional mention of this family in the book, it has no
index. I do not want to sell this book. I am typing the biographies from it.
Typed by Lora Radiches:
Surnames in this biography are: Brown, Crawford, Clausen, Johnson, Bryant, Sweeney,
JOSEPH E. BROWN, county attorney of Lake County, a resident of Crown Point,
represents the third generation of a family that came to this part of Northwestern Indiana
in pioneer days. His grandfather, William Brown, came from New York State to Lake County,
Indiana. His place of settlement was at South East Grove in Eagle Creek Township. He
developed a farm from Government land, and he and his good wife lived out their lives in
that community and are buried in the Maple Wood Cemetery at Crown Point. Joseph E. Brown
was born in Eagle Creek Township February 11, 1888, son of Mathew J. and Mary Adeline
(Crawford) Brown. His father was born and reared in the same locality, attended public
schools and was one of the early students of the Valparaiso Normal School University. He
taught for several years, but the greater part of his life has been spent as a
farmer and stock raiser. For twelve years he was county commissioner and for four years
county treasurer. He !
still makes his home on his farm and country estate in Eagle Creek Township, Lake
County. He owns 1,200 acres, and gives his attention to the general management of this
extensive property, though he is now seventy-three years of age. He is a member of the
Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias. Through his mother his ancestry goes back to
soldiers of the Revolutionary war. Mary Adeline (Crawford) Brown was born and reared in
Eagle Creek Township, attended school there and a girls’ seminary and was a devout
Presbyterian. She died April 14, 1921, and is buried at Hebron, Indiana. In the family
were nine children: Joseph E.; Harry, who died at the age of twenty-four; William J., in
the United States mail service at Indianapolis; John C., a farmer on the old
homestead in Eagle Creek Township, who is married and has two children; Miss Ruby
A., of Eagle Creek Township; Bessie, wife of Harry A. Clausen, a garage man at
Crown Point!
; Kenneth D., in the railway mail service at Los Angeles, California; Mary H.,
wife of Hiram J. Johnson, who is in the office of the secretary of state as a
member of the State Securities Commission at Indianapolis; and Miss Ruth, a
student in Butler University at Indianapolis. Joseph E. Brown attended school in Eagle
Creek Township and completed his high school work in Crown Point and Hebron, graduating
from the Hebron High School in 1907. This was followed by one year in Purdue University
and in 1910 he took the Bachelor of Science degree at Valparaiso University. Mr. Brown
received his LL. B. degree from the University of Michigan with the law class of
1913 and in the same year was admitted to the bar. For over seventeen years he has
enjoyed a large amount of business as a lawyer. His offices are in the Crawford
Building at Crown Point. He is a member of the County, State and American Bar
Associations and at the pre!
sent writing, 1931, is manager of the First Congressional District of the Indiana
State Bar Association. He was appointed county attorney of Lake County January 1,
1919, and continued to serve in that capacity until 1926. On January 1, 1928, he
was again appointed and is county attorney at the present time. He has been city
chairman of the Republican party and is one of the most influential leaders of the party
in Lake County. Since 1919 Mr. Brown has been secretary treasurer of the Lake County
National Farm Loan Association. In Masonry he is a member of Lake Lodge No. 157, A. F. and
A. M.; Lincoln Chapter No. 53, Royal Arch Masons; Hammond Council No. 90 of the Scottish
Rite Consistory at Fort Wayne and Orak Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Hammond. He has held
all the offices in the Blue Lodge and Chapter. He belongs to Gary Ledge No. 1152, B. P. 0.
Elks, is a past patron of Lake Chapter of the Eastern Star and is a member of the Crown
Point C!
ountry Club. In 1930 he was president of the Crown Point Chamber of Commerce. A prominent
churchman, Mr. Brown has been a member and secretary of the board of trustees, treasurer
of the official board and district steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is now
superintendent of the Sunday School of his church. He married at Hebron, Indiana, June 22,
1916, Miss Avis Bryant, daughter of Edmund R. and Emily (Sweeney) Bryant. Her father for
many years has been a painting contractor at Hebron. The Bryant family came to Indiana
from Ohio and the Sweeneys were early settlers in Porter County, locating there before the
Indians had departed. Mrs. Brown attended school in Porter County, graduated from the
Hebron High School in 1907, in the same year as her husband, and in 1914 received the A.
B. degree at Northwestern University. She taught school four years before her marriage,
teaching for a time in the high school at Cass City, Michigan, and also in the high school
at Lowell!
, Indiana. Mrs. Brown devotes much time to church work, is a member of the Eastern Star
and White Shrine of Jerusalem, and for three years, 1927-29, was president of the Crown
Point School Board. She is regent of the Julia Watkins Brass Chapter of the Daughters of
the American Revolution. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Brown were born three sons,
Joseph Bryant, Wilford H. and Warren A., all of whom are pupils in the Crown Point
Schools. During the World war Mr. Brown was chairman of two Liberty Loan drives and also
chairman of the War Savings Stamp drive. From 1917 until 1922 he was scoutmaster of the
Boy Scouts of the local district and is now vice chairman of the Court of Honor of that
organization.