" ... Samuel
Brown settled in Chautauqua County about 1828-30 when it was a wilderness,
cutting a clearing (afterwards
Ashville) in which to
build his first home, a log cabin. He was twenty, and his bride, Clarissa
Slayton, 19. His energy, business ability, and personality soon made
him a leader first in the little community, and later, in larger affairs
of the county. At the time of his death (of typhoid-pneumonia) in
1854 (aged about 45, if I recall correctly, he was born May 7, 1808), he
owned many farms and had extensive cattle interests. Among other enterprises
he had built and ran the Ashville hotel, and had his hand in many other
things; both for his own affairs and for the community.
Realizing that a hotel was not a place for a home, he was building a colonial
house (quite the finest in the village) for his family, which was not
completed at the time of his death. His widow finished it and lived
there until about 1870....
You may be interested to
know that the Ashville house is now (1935) owned
and occupied as a summer
home by Floyd L. Darrow, the scientific writer who is an old Chautauqua
County boy...."
