Historical Sketches of Kentucky by Lewis Collins, Maysville, KY. and J. A.
& U. P. James, Cincinnati, 1847. Reprinted 1968. Franklin County.

Honorable JOHN BROWN. - The present high rank that Kentucky occupies in
the Union, is but a continuation and expansion of the impulse first given
by those who rescued the land from the dominion of the savages.  No
country was ever settled by men of more distinct character from the great
mass, and the infusion of those traits was so common to the population of
early emigrants, that it will take centuries to eradicate it from their
descendants.  More of the gallant officers of the American revolution, and
their no less gallant soldiers, found a retreat in Kentucky, than in any
other part of America; and they brought with them to the west, the young
men of enterprise and talent and courage who, like Sidney, were determined
to "find or to make" a way to distinction.  Among the pioneers of
Kentucky, no one acted a more conspicuous part than the gentleman whose
name is at the head of this notice, and a brief sketch of his life is not
only appropriate, but indispensable, to a work having for its object an
elucidation of the history of the State.
     Mr. Brown was born at Staunton, Virginia, on the 12th day of
September, 1757.  He was the son of the Rev. John Brown and Margaret
Preston.  His father was eminently distinguished as a Presbyterian
minister of piety and learning, a graduate of Princeton college, and
pastor for forty-four years of the church at Providence meeting house in
Rockbridge.  The mother was a woman of remarkable energy of character and
vigor of mind - the second daughter of John Preston and Elizabeth Patton,
and sister of William Preston, of Mrs. Breckinridge, Mrs. Smith and Mrs.
Howard, from whom are descended the Prestons, the Breckinridges, the
M'Dowells, the Harts, and many other distingished females in Kentucky and
Virginia.  The children were reared in the hardy nurture of the western
borders, and having no patrimony in expectancy, were habituated to depend
on their own energies for success in life.  A good education was all they
could look for, and this was carefully bestowed.  John, being the eldest,
was sent to Princeton, at which place he was a student when the American
army made its memorable retreat through the Jerseys.  The college was
broken up, and he joined the troops and crossed the Delaware with them,
and remained with the army under Washington for some time as a volunteer. 
He subsequently was a member of a volunteer company from Rockbridge, which
company was under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette.  He completed
his education at William and Mary college - assisted the celebrated Dr.
Waddill for two years as a teacher in his school - read law in the office
of Mr. Jefferson, and removed to Kentucky, in 1782, arriving directly
after the battle of Blue Licks; and from that date to the period of his
death he was a citizen of the western country.
     From the commencement of our political history, Mr. Brown was called
to act a prominent part.  He was elected a member of the Virginia
legislature from the district of Kentucky, and was, by the legislature of
that state, appointed a representative to the "old Congress," in 1787, and
also in 1788.  In 1789 and 1791, he was elected by the people of Kentucky
a representative to the first and second Congress, under the present
constitution.  After Kentucky became a state, he was three times
consecutively elected a senator in the Congress of the United States, and
continued in the senate until 1805, when he retired to private life.  It
was his fortune as a politician, to live to be nearly, if not the very,
last survivor of the old Congress; and he was the first member of the
Congress of the United States ever sent from the great valley of the
Mississippi!  He came to it in his youth, and it was a vast and dangerous
wilderness - he lived to see it under the dominion of eleven powerful and
independent sovereignties, teeming with a population of more than seven
millions of people, and holding the balance of power in the national
confederacy.  Coming into public life at the close the Revolution, he was
brought into an intimate association with many of the most prominent
actors of that eventful period, and enjoyed the personal friendship of
General Washington, Mr. Adams, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe. 
General Washington honored him, in conjunction with General Charles Scott,
Benjamin Logan, Harry Innis and Isaac Shelby, with important commissions
of a military trust, with power to enlist men, commission officers, and
carry on war at home and abroad. He was the projector of several of the
military expeditions into the Indian countries, and accompanied one of the
most successful of them as a volunteer, lending the influence of his
example to enforce his official exhortations.  He was a most distinguished
actor in all the events that attended the admission of Kentucky into the
Union, and the securing for the west the nagivation of the Mississippi;
and the efforts of no one individual contributed more to bring about those
results.  In the celebrated controversy between Mr. Jefferson and Colonel
Burr, for the presidency, he, then a senator from Kentucky, advocated the
claims of Mr. Jefferson with zealous ardor.  Mr. Jefferson pressed upon
him, during his administration, the acceptance of several highly important
and lucrative offices, all of which he declined.  The intimacy and
friendship which existed between them, commencing while he was a student
in the office of that world-renowned statesman, continued without
interruption throughout life.  When Mr. Monroe became president, he also
addressed him a letter, wishing to know in what manner his administration
could testify its regard for his character and early public service; but
he declined all preferment.  With the public men of the west, he was on
terms of the most endearing friendship.  With General George Rogers Clark,
Governor Shelby and Governors Scott and Madison, and with Juges Innis and
Todd, and Colonels Nicholas and Breckinridge, and their illustrious
associates, he held the most confidential intercourse, and their
attachment, commenced in periods of danger and under circumstances of
trial, never wavered.  This eminent man - eminent as a patriot, as a
statesman and citizen - lived to the advanced age of 80 years, and died at
his residence in Frankfort on the 29th of August, 1837.  His accomplished
wife, the daughter of the Rev. John Mason, of the city of New York, and
sister of the Rev. John M. Mason, both distinguised divines, survived him
but a few months. 

Brown Preston Patton Breckinridge Smith Howard M'Dowell Washington
de_Lafayette Waddill Jefferson Adams Madison Monroe Scott Logan Innis
Shelby Burr Clark Scott Nicholas Mason
=
VA NJ NY

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