History of Kentucky, five volumes, edited by Judge Charles Kerr,
American Historical Society, New York & Chicago, 1922, Vol.IV, p. 133,
Fayette County

     JAMES H. BROWNING is a native Kentuckian who started life at the
bottom of the financial ladder, has reared his family, provided home
comforts and achieved a solid basis of prosperity by reliance throughout
upon the medium of agriculture.  He has been a persistent devotee of
this, the oldest human occupation for more than forty years His farm is
one of the attractive places in Fayette County, 3 ½ miles south of
Lexington on Clays Mill Pike.
     Mr. Browning was born in Mason County, Kentucky, September 14,
1857, son of William and Nancy (Wilson) Browning.  His maternal
grandfather was James Wilson.  William Browning spent his active career
as a farmer and died in Bourbon County at the age of sixty-five.
     James H. Browning grew up in Mason County, attended local schools
and learned to work, but was practically without capital when at the age
of twenty-two he married in Bracken County Miss Fanny Florence Ellis. 
She was also born in Mason County, though at the time of her marriage
her father, William Ellis, lived in Bracken County.  The first four
years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Browning lived on a rented farm
in Bourbon County.  He then bought and occupied for three years a farm
in Garrard County, and moved from there to a place he bought near
Nicholasville.  He was in that one community for eighteen years, and in
1910 moved to his present property near Lexington.  This is the old John
McLeod farm, contains 125 acres, and Mr. Browning paid $150 per acre, a
price then represented the top of the market for farm lands.  However, a
conservative valuation of the farm today would be nearer $450 an acre. 
The farm has good soil, is throughly productive and the home is a modern
one consisting of a brick house built by its original owner, Mr.
McLeod.  The house is lighted by an acetylene gas plant, and since
acquiring the farm Mr. Browning has added other buildings and varied
improvements.
     He is a democrat in politics and is a member of the Epworth
Methodist Church at Lexington.  Mr and Mrs. Browning have two daughters:
Ola is the wife of J. F. Huffman, a real estate man at Lexington and has
two children, Mary Florence and Ann Lee.  Bessie, the younger daughter,
is the wife of W. J. Penn, a farmer near the Browning home.  Mr. and
Mrs. Penn have three children, named Eva, James Estill and Willabelle.
 
Browning Ellis Huffman Penn Wilson McLeod
=
Bourbon-KY Bracken-KY Garrard-KY Mason-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/fayette/browning.jh.txt