Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 212.  Jefferson County.

JOHN YOUNG BROWN, who recently retired from the gubernatorial chair of
Kentucky, is one of the foremost orators and statesmen of his
commonwealth.  He is a son of Thomas Dudley and Elizabeth (Young) Brown,
and was born in Hardin county, June 28, 1835.  His father was for several
terms a member of the legislature from Hardin county, and also represented
that county in the convention which framed the state constitution in
1849-50.  As a consequence, the future governor spent several winters at
the state capital, and received his first lessons in oratory from the
many famous speakers of that day, who esteemed it an honor to secure an
election to the law-making body of the state.  Thomas Dudley Brown was
himself an orator of no mean reputation, and the Youngs, the maternal
ancestors of Governor Brown, were long famed in Kentucky for the
brilliancy of their intellect.
     John Young Brown entered Center College, Danville, Kentucky, when
but sixteen years of age, and graduated at that institution four years
later in the class which furnished so many of the famous statesmen
of Kentucky and other states.  Returning to Hardin county, he read law,
and at the age of twenty-one commenced practice at the Elizabethtown
bar.  For the next few years Mr. Brown was in great demand as a campaign
orator.  The issue of Know-nothingism being at that time at its height,
and Mr. Brown being one of it most formidable opponents, his life was
often threatened by the adherents of this un-democratic party.
     In 1859 the Democrats of his district met at Bardstown and
nominated him, over his own protest, as their candidate for congress.
He lacked over a year of being the required age for a congressman, but
his constituents would not listen to his oft-repeated declinations.
Colonel Jewett, the out-going congressman, opposed him as an independent,
but the young orator met him at every appointment and carried the
district by storm, beating his opponent by about two thousand votes.
Being under age, he was not allowed to take his seat until the short
session of the term after he had attained the constitutional age, nearly
two years after his election.
     He was chosen as a state elector on the Douglas ticket in 1860,
and held a series of joint debates with the Hon. W.C.P. Breckinridge,
who had been his classmate, who was an elector on the ticket headed by
the brilliant John C. Breckindidge.  These debates added much to the
reputation of Mr. Brown.  After the close of the war Mr. Brown moved to
Henderson, in another congressional district, from which he was again
elected to congress, in 1867,--to the fortieth congress.  He was refused
his seat on account of alleged disloyalty, but his constituents refused
to elect another in his stead, and for two years the district remained
without a representative.  He was elected again in 1872, and again for
the fourth time in 1874, after which he refused to allow his name to be
presented.  He remained in political retirement until 1891, when he was
triumphantly elected governor of Kentucky.
     It was during 1875 when Mr. Brown made his famous denunciatory
speech in congress against General Benjamin F. Butler, which made his
name ring around the continent.  A resolution of censure was passed
against him for this speech, but he was much applauded for it throughout
the south, and a subsequent congress, by unanimous vote, ordered the
censure expunged from the record.
     The greatest victory of his life was won by Mr. Brown when he
secured the Democratic nomination for governor in 1891.  He had very
formidable opposition for the nomination in the persons of Hon. Cassius
M. Clay Jr., president of the constitutional convention of 1890-91; Dr.
J. D. Clardy, also a prominent member of that body, now congressman from
the second district, and ex-Attorney General P. W. Hardin.  At the
election following, his majority over his nearest competitor was over
twenty-eight thousand.
     Coming into the gubernatorial office at the time of the adoption of
the new constitution and the consequent entanglement into which the laws
had fallen, the first part of Governor Brown's term was characterized
by laborious work and by occasional conflicts with the legislature. His
veto messages were masterly state papers, and it is a satisfactory
commentary on their worth when it is known that of the many vetoes sent
to the two assemblies that met during his term of office not one was
overruled.  He retired from office on December 10, 1895, and is now
engaged in practice of law in Louisville.
     Governor Brown's social life has been pre-eminently a happy one.
When quite a young man he was married to Rebecca Dixon, the beautiful
and highly accomplished daughter of Hon. Archibald Dixon, ex-lieutenant
governor and ex-United States senator.
     Governor Brown is an orator among the giants in Kentucky, the home
of oratory.  In his younger days he attained a reputation for eloquence
that was not confined to this state or the south.  Since his return to
political life he has shown that he has not lost the fire of youth, and
with the added strength that experience has given he can sway the
people as few speakers can.  While a reticent man, he is not taciturn,
and people who have been thrown with him through official relations or
by personal contact bear testimony to his genial manner, warm-hearted
friendship and generous hospitality.

Brown Young Dixon
=
Hardin-KY Boyle-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/brown.jy.txt