Sprague's Journal of Maine History
No. II
Vol. VII
AUG. SEPT. OCT 1919
pages 89-93

Stephen Orman Brown.
1841-1919
By the Editor

Stephen Pearson Brown preceded the Mayos of Foxcroft, as one of the founders of the woolen industry in eastern Maine, by about seventeen years, the Mayos coming in 1846, and nine years later than the Abbotts, who settled in Dexter in 1820.

Mr. Brown established himself at Dover, then a part of Penobscot County, in the year 1829. He was the son of Stephen Brown of Weare, New Hampshire, and, as Stephen Orman Brown states in notes written by him in his lifetime, he came from a family of "clothiers" and adds that:

"Clothier" meant in those days a cloth manufacturer, or a man engaged in the custom cloth dressing and manufacturing business in a small way.

In these notes he further states:

I knew but little of my father's father except that his name was Stephen Brown and that he came from Weare, N.H. He married my grandmother, Mary Pearson, who also came of a family of clothiers in Byfield, Mass., on August 23, 1803. They moved immediately to Bucksport, Maine, the known as "Buckstown", where he went into trade. He branched out into the West India trade and failed. I do not know the exact date of his failure, but it was near the time of the breaking out of the war of 18123, which may have had something to do with it.

After the breaking up at Bucksport, my grandmother went back to Byfield, while here husband went a privateering, and, not long after, died of ship fever in Boston.

Their children, both born in Bucksport, were Cellissa b. Aug. 13, 1804, d. March 27, 1831, at Vassalboro; Stephen Pearson, b. Nov. 12, 1807, d. July 22, 1867, at Dover.

My mother was born Nancy Perkins Foss, at Meredith, N.H., Jan. 11, 1811. She married Stephen Pearson Brown, March 30, 1833, at Dover, Maine. She died Nov. 16, 1882, of heart failure, suddenly and painlessly, in apparent good health at Bangor, on her way home from a visit in Boston.

Her father was James Foss of Meredith, N.H., and her mother was born Susan Sinclair.

Stephen Pearson, the father of Stephen Orman Brown, lived with his widowed mother in Byfield during his boyhood days and attended the famous old Dummer Academy. He learned the woolen business early in life, beginning when only a boy to work in the mills at Amesbury, Mass.

While there he became acquainted with Charles Vaughan of Hallowell, Maine, on of the early proprietors of the town of Dover, and interested in the development of the new town. It was this event in his life that led him to settle there.

His enterprise began in a small way, Little's Genealogical and Family History of Maine, (p. 1999) saying that

***in 1837 the firm was manufacturing goods and trucking them to Bangor by ox team, whence they were shipped by water to Boston and Philadelphia.

Stephen Orman Brown was born in Dover, Maine, Nov. 21, 1841, and was educated in the schools of his native town, at Foxcroft Academy and at the commercial school at Boston. When a boy he went into the woolen mill, learned the trade of making cloth in all it details and became a successful woolen manufacturer for a lifetime.

He was a man of superior intellectual capacity, a lover of books and a student of the world's choicest literature. Had his ambition been other than to be a good and useful citizen of his state, and his community, he might have attained eminence as an author for he was endowed with ability for it.

He was urged by friends at home and abroad to engage in politics. Some of his most intimate associates in Maine were active in this work. Such men as Blaine, Hale, Thomas B. Reed, Manley and Boutelle, beckoned him to the arena. His qualifications for such a career were ample and fully recognized by political leaders. He did yield to such solicitations to the extent of serving as the county member of the Republican state committee for a few years and as a member of the Maine senate for two sessions. His performance of these duties was highly satisfactory to both his constituency and party organization.

Always actuated by a high sense of duty to what he conceived to be right, ever fearless in advocating a just cause, his integrity never regrettable that he should have no desire for political preferment or taste for political strife. Undoubtedly his conclusion in this regard was a real loss to his party.

A high type of the noblest State of Maine manhood, he, in a manner, held a unique place in his community. While he possessed some of the finest qualities of one who may be best described by that oft misused expression, an aristocrat, he abhorred anything like caste or class and was one of the most democratic of men.

He was a good citizen in the full meaning of that much used term, a loyal friend in any exigency and a true and upright man.

Mr. Liston P. Evans, editor of the Piscataquis Observer, and a life long friend of Mr. Brown, recently published in that paper, from his own pen, a fine appreciation of him -- afterwards reprinted for private distribution -- in which he said:

*** Mr. Brown was a great reader and lover of the art. His library and pictures were always a joy to him and his reading and travels abroad had given him a wide knowledge. He was an illustration of what a man without the advantages of a college education can become with reading and study.

Some people may have thought that because he had confined himself to closely to his office or home, Mr. Brown was not interested in people outside his immediate circle, but that was not so; anything connected with his home friends, his "old townies", as he called them, never failed to awake in him the greatest interest. The night before the short attack which ended two days later in his death, he had his bed, as was his custom, moved to the window that he might watch the mill operatives going home from work, speaking with those whom he knew as they passed.

His interest in the people whom he employed is shown by the fact that during the business depression of 1893, when so many of the woolen mill were closed, he operated his mill at a great financial loss that he might give the hands employment. He did not look upon them as servants, but as friends, and many of them had been in his employ for a long time.

Mr. Brown never headed subscription papers, but his money was given freely to people to who illness or misfortune had come, but always privately. Neither did his name appear in connection with the board of trade or similar organizations, but by enlarging his mill and giving employment to so many people, he did more for his town than any other citizen has done.

The strongest interest in Mr. Brown's life was in connection with the mill, an interest which continued after he had ceased to be connected with it. He watched the construction of the new dam as if it had been his own property and as much as he enjoyed his camp at Sebec lake he was very loth to leave the dam last summer to go to it.

The changes and improvements at the mill during his connection with it were made under his personal supervision. He never complained if a job done as he had ordered was unsatisfactory but would have the necessary changes made. He had a very correct eye and noticed quickly anything about the mill that was wrong. A man who had done a great deal of work for him told me that on one occasion a piece of shafting was hung which because of its bad location was known to be a small fraction of an inch out of level. The instant Mr. Brown came into the room and looked at the job he called attention to the defect. He was very methodical and in the mill office are some note books in which he had made a record of every improvement in and about the mill during his long connection with it, giving figures, dates, formulae and other information which are invaluable.

Mr. Brown had been a Republican all his life and while never active in politics he took a deep interest in the party and its activities. He was a member of Mosaic lodge, F. & A.M., of Piscataquis Royal Arch chapter and of St. John's commandery.

He had been very lame from rheumatism for several years and for a time before his death was unable to leave the house. His children were all with him the last week of his life and he enjoyed their presence very much. He did not know that they had come because of his illness but mad plans for the summer and what he would do when he was out again.

Mr. Brown is survived by his wife, who was Miss Mary P. Gurney of Foxcroft; a son, Stephen P. of New York City; two daughter, Mrs. J. Arnold Norcross of New Haven, Conn., and Mrs. Clarence F. Doore of Melrose, Mass., and a sister, Miss Susan A. Brown of Bangor.

As the home could not accommodate the large number of friends and neighbors who wanted to attend the funeral it was held in the Congregational Church, where Mr. Brown had worshipped, Wednesday afternoon, under the direction of L.C. Sawyer, who was associated with him in the management of the mill and who succeeded him as agent. The large attendance indicated the esteem in which Mr. Brown was held by the community. The service consisted of organ selections by Mrs. Annie B. Clarke, Scripture reading by the pastor, Rev. John H. Wilkins, and brief remarks and a payer by Rev. George A. Merrill of Taunton, Mass., a former pastor of the church and a close friend of Mr. Brown's. Beautiful flowers had been sent by relatives and friends.

The business places were very generally closed from 2 to 3 o'clock out of respect for Mr. Brown.

The burial was in the family lot in Foxcroft cemetery. The bearers were L.C. Sawyer, W. C. Woodbury, Francis C. Peaks, V.L. Warren, J.H. Taylor and A.T. Spaulding.

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