1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 381-382

HENRY B. BROWN is a native of Somersetshire, England, and comes of English ancestry as far back as anything is known of his antecedents. His father, George, and his mother, who bore the maiden name of Susan Baker, were both born and reared in Somersetshire, England, and there the father still resides, the mother having died there in 1843 in middle life. The father is well advanced in age, being now in his nintieth year.  Reared a farmer, and trained to the habits of industry and sobriety which everywhere mark the life of the farmer, he passed all his years engaged in those pursuits wherein he has found the greatest usefulness for his talents, and which, at the same time, have been most conducive to long life and the most rational enjoyment of life. Eight children were born to George and Susan Baker Brown, one of whom died in infancy, and the remaining seven, of whom two daughters and five sons are still living, each now the head of a family. The eldest two, both daughters, Jane and Eliza, are residents of Somersetshire, England, the former the wife of John Guy Baker, and the latter the wife of Albert Byrt. All of the sons are residents of Iowa, John and George being citizens of Poweshiek county, Seth and Henry B., citizens of Delaware county, and Edwin of Linn county.

Henry B., whose personal history here follows, was born March 15, 1839. He was reared in his native place, growing up on the farm. He came to America at the age of seventeen, in company with his eldest sister, Jane, and located at Kenosha, Wis. He resided there for sixteen months, when he came to Iowa and settled in Poweshiek county, where he was engaged for nine years in farming. Jane returned to England in 1864. In 1868 he came to Delaware county and bought sixty acres of land north of Manchester, in Delaware township, on which he settled, and on which he has since resided. He added to this by a purchase of forty acres more, and now owns one hundred acres, most of which he has reduced to cultivation. He has also placed on it all the improvements, these consisting of the usual farm buildings and conveniences. He has a neat and comfortable residence, and barns and out-buildings sufficient for all practical purposes. Mr. Brown is a public-spirited citizen and takes much interest in everything related to the welfare of the community in which he resides. As a member of the Grange he has given much serious thought to the questions which confront the farmers of the country, and he has contributed his best efforts to an equitable and satisfactory settlement of these questions, so far as his own community is concerned.

September 1, 1863, Mr. Brown married, uniting his life's fortunes with a young lady then residing in Grinnell, Iowa, Miss Jane Howell, who, however, is a native of Somersetshire, England. She was born July 26, 1844, and is a daughter of Samuel P. and Susan P. Howell, natives also of England, who came to America in 1853. Samuel P. Howell died at Grinnell, November 3, 1876, in the sixty-third year of his age, Susan P. Howell died at Grinnell, April 8,1887, aged sixty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have had born to them four children, as follows-an infant that died unnamed; Effie A., born April 1, 1870; Annie E., born January 14, 1874, who died at the age of four, and Arthur G., born October 23, 1881.

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