Gov. John F. Brown. The
little village community of Sasakwa in Seminole County is largely
interesting because of the fact that it is the home and the village
was founded by Gov. John F. Brown, who for thirty years or more has
been the principal chief or governor of the Seminole Nation.
Governor Brown is
now past seventy years of age. He was a first lieutenant in the
Indian Territory contingent of the Confederate army during the Civil
war. His mother was a fullblood Seminole Indian woman, and he has
given the greater part of his life to the interests and welfare of
his own people. Repeatedly during the past half century he has
visited Washington either alone or as member of delegations to
present the causes of the Seminoles before the president and before
the different departments of the national government, and he has
stood valiantly for the right, for justice, and for the preservation
of all the wholesome attributes of the Indian character.
He has not only been
a civil leader among his people, but has been a pastor or shepherd of
his flock, and has kept the Seminoles true to religion and has
officiated as leader of the Indian church for many years. In a
business way he has been a merchant and farmer, and it can truly be
said that he has worked for the benefit of others rather than for his
selfish interests.
He was born near
Tahlequah, Oklahoma, October 23, 1843, a son of John F. and Lucy
(Graybeard) Brown. His father was a white man and was distinguished
in the early days of Indian Territory. He was born at Charleston,
South Carolina, was liberally educated for the profession of
physician, and graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburg,
Scotland. On returning to America he took up practice, and soon
became an army surgeon. He served in that capacity with General
Jessup in the Seminole war in Florida. It was about 1838 that he
came west to Indian Territory and located at Fort Gibson as a
contract physician to the Government for the troops at different
times. He married in Indian Territory and spent the rest of his days
there as a practicing physician to his adopted people. He died about
1868 at the age of sixty-eight. The mother died about 1865 when
fifty-five years of age. Of their four sons and four daughters three
are now living: Governor Brown; Andrew Jackson of Wewoka; and
Stanton, who lives near Holdenville.
Governor Brown has
spent all his life in Indian Territory, and gained his education in
Indian schools at Tahlequah, Park Hill and Wright’s Chapel. When
still young the family moved into the Creek Nation in the vicinity of
where the City of Muskogee now stands at the beginning of the war. In
1862 he joined the army and for a year was a member of a light horse
cavalry. For a time he was under the command of Col. D. N. McIntosh,
and then was attached to the brigade commanded by General Stand Watie,
the famous Cherokee military leader. This brigade consisted of two
Creek regiments, one Seminole regiment and three Cherokee regiments.
Ever since the war Governor Brown has been closely identified with
the Seminole people. He has served as superintendent of schools, and
as principal chief, and with the exception of one year has held the
position of principal chief or governor for thirty years. This
official position caused him to go to Washington frequently as a
delegate, and during the past half century he has met many of the
presidents of the United States, and was in Washington when President
Wilson was inaugurated.
Governor Brown
succeeded Col. John Jumper as Principal Chief and also as pastor of
the Spring Baptist Church of the Seminole Nation. This church is the
oldest Baptist institution and is situated about a mile and a quarter
west of Sasakwa, a town which Governor Brown founded. He has been in
the mercantile business for the past forty-five years, and still has
a store at Wewoka and also one at Sasakwa. His own home is on a fine
farm two miles west of the town, where he has 140 acres. On this
farm and on a commanding elevation from which a fine view of the
surrounding country can be obtained he built in 1890 a very
commodious and comfortable fourteen-room house, where he and some of
his children now reside.
Governor Brown is
remarkable for his splendid constitution and rugged health, and he
has enjoyed the best of health all his life. After the war he married
Elizabeth Jumper, a daughter of Col. John Jumper, and all of their
four children, two sons and two daughters, are deceased. In
September, 1875, he married Elizabeth Alexander. Of that union there
are now living two sons and two daughters named: Mrs. Alice J. Fleet;
Mrs. Josie Hargo; and A. J. Brown, Jr., all of whom reside at
Sasakwa, and Lewis C., lives with his father and is manager of the
store at Sasakwa. By still another marriage Governor Brown has a
daughter, Mrs. Henrietta Howell, who lives at Konawa. His present
wife before her marriage was Sarah Cullie, and their four children,
all of them at home, are named Ruth, Martha, Solomon and James.