County of Christian, Kentucky.  Historical and Biographical.  Edited by 
William Henry Perrin.  F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1884, pp. 349-351.

F. J. BROWNELL was born April 15, 1837 in Fulton County, N. Y.  His 
parents were Frederick Brownell and Annie Donnelly, the former of Scotch 
and the later of Irish ancestry.  The father was born in New York in 
1794, served as a soldier in the war of 1812, and died in 1851 in the 
State of Ohio.  They had a family of eleven children, viz.:  Charles 
Brownell, of Dayton, OH; Phoebe, wife of James Vannatter, of New York; 
Israel, died in infancy; Samantha, wife of David Smith, of New York; 
Jane, wife of Charles A. Phelps, of New York; Elijah Brownell, a 
manafacturer, of Dayton, Ohio; Elizabeth, widow of William Zimmerman, of 
Dayton, Ohio; Herintha, deceased wife of John A. Tracy; James H. 
Brownell, deceased; F. J. Brownell, who names heads this sketch, and 
John R. Brownell, who is an extensive manufacturer of engines at Dayton, 
Ohio. F. J. Brownell was reared principally in Ohio, in which State his 
parents settled when he was a small boy.  He was educated in Buffalo, 
N. Y., Tiffin, Ohio, and Denison University, of Licking County, Ohio. He 
enlisted in the fall of 1861 in Company I, Fifty-first Indiana Infantry, 
was appointed Sergeant, and after a service of one year was promoted to 
the position of First Lieutenant, commanding his company, with which 
commission he was mustered out in the spring of 1865.  We are allowed to 
preserve the following as an incident in the military career of Mr. 
Brownell:  On the 3d of May, 1863, at Gadsen, Ala., he was made a 
prisoner of war, and thus held until making his escape in March, 1865, 
covering a time of twenty-two months; fifty-two weeks or just one year 
of which was spent in the famous Libby Prison of Richmond.  At the time 
of Sherman's march against the Southern strongholds, he in company with 
many others was being removed from Columbia, S. C., to Charlotte, N. C., 
for greater security. While en route the engine of the freight train 
upon which they were carried became derailed, necessitating a delay of 
several hours.  The night was chilly and dark; fires were constructed 
beside the cars, and guards were stationed at either door of the car, an 
order prevailing that but two prisoners be allowed to warm by the fire 
at the same time, and but one be allowed at the same time to visit an 
adjoining spring for water.  The guards within, thinking that a 
sufficient guard was stationed without, went to sleep, when Mr. Brownell 
and Lieut. Newbrant determined upon a desperate means of escape.  Mr. 
Brownell, who was dressed in a Confederate gray, stole the gun of the 
sleeping guard, dropped down by the fire where he played the role of a 
faithful guard, and during his vigil was cautioned to be extremely 
watchful, which he readily consented to do.  Soon his comrade made his 
appearance, and desiring a drink was guarded to the spring by the 
faithful sentinel, Mr. Brownell.  Once free they threw the gun away, and 
made the best of the remaining hours of darkness. Their weary march by 
night and their perils while lying in concealment by day, upon one 
occasion hidden beneath the floor of a cotton-gin while the rebel 
soldiers tramped with heavy thud over their prostrate forms - all their 
experiences until reaching Sherman's lines would furnish material for a 
romance.  Mr. Brownell removed to Hopkinsville, Ky., in January, 1868, 
and engaged with John Orr in operating a planing mill.  He is now one of 
the proprietors of the "Crescent Mills."  May 24, 1876, he married Miss 
Sallie, daughter of Rev. Thomas Bottomly, of Hopkinsville.  They are 
both faithful members of the church, and he is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity.  They have but one child, viz., Mary J. Brownell.

Bottomly Brownell Donnelly Newbrant Orr Phelps Sherman Smith Tracy
Vanatter Zimmerman 
=
AL Fulton-NY IN Licking-OH NC SC 

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