Browns Corners

BROWNS CORNERS

About 1851 the Baptist preacher Parley Brown moved his family from a fine stone house on a lonely cross road in the Town of Orleans to Browns Corners in the Town of Alexandria. His dream had been to support his family as a clergyman, but the country was too poor and thinly populated to allow him to spend full time at his profession and he had six sons and two daughters to support. His wife was less than pleased to leave a comfortable stone house and settle in a log house in the Town of Alexandria, so within a few years of their arrival, her husband and sons had built a larger, more comfortable house. The Browns' house was now on a main road in District # 9, and the school was on a corner of their new farm. Whether this locality received its name from Parley Brown's family or from some other is not clear.

Early in its history, according to a newsclipping from the Watertown Daily Times provided by Beverly Weller, Browns Corners had several businesses.

Frank Dickhaut, a resident of the Corners, whose land surrounds the cemetery at Browns Corners, tells a little of the early days of the Corners and of the locating of the cemetery there. His grandfather, the late John Dickhaut, sr., was a pioneer settler at Browns Corners.

It was in the pioneering days of Browns Corners that the rich land holder, Mr. Francis DePau, a wealthy merchant in New York City, had purchased fifteen great lots in Penet Square and other lands in Alexandria township. He pictured Browns Corners as a possible village site and gave the land for the cemetery from his holdings. A stone fence was built around the cemetery but as there were no caretakers for the place, the weeds and briars grew in a tangled mass in much of the ground.

Some years ago the Hartmans, Dickhauts and Nicholas Cook, who had a farm nearby, cleaned up the place and raised money to build an attractive iron fence at the front with an arch and gates around the place.

"When my grandfather lived here, Browns Corners was quite an industrial center," Frank Dickhaut declared. "There was a blacksmith shop, a saw mill, a tannery, an ashery, a school house, a Methodist church, and a toll gate just below the school house.

By 1864, according to the map, Browns Corners had not only the Parley Brown house, but also a cheese factory, a blacksmith shop, a cemetery, a Methodist Church, and District # 9's schoolhouse. Other residents, named on the map, living on the Alexandria Bay to Redwood road, were J. M. Thompson, John Dickhaut, Sr., and A. Hough. Past the corners on the way to Redwood, were the cheese factory and E. B. Tilden. Toward Plessis were another J. Dickhaut and J. Putnam, while toward the north lived a Mrs. Johnson and another family.

By 1887 the corners had grown. A. Hough still lived toward Alexandria Bay on the far side of the school house from the Parley Brown family. Parley died in 1870 in Philadelphia, NY. L. Hass [Haas?] lived on the opposite side of the road, and the blacksmith shop occupied that corner. Across from the blacksmith shop was the Harris family, perhaps Charles Harris or his father. Next came the cemetery, then A. Tilden and Hofferberth. Across from the Hofferberths, nearer Redwood, was the Bickelhaupt family. P. Bickelhaupt came next, and then the cheese factory.

Around the corner, toward Plessis, lived J. Dickhaut, J. Putnam and B. Snell. On the opposite side of the road, as one came toward the corner again, were E. Spalsbury, J. Van Brocklin, and E. Fort. C. Mayer lived the farthest north, and crossing the road once more, we find H. Whitney, with J. Mattice next the blacksmith shop.

Mina King remembered in the 1940s that Darwin and Caroline Olney with their daughter Minnie were early settlers there. Mr. Olney was the cheesemaker in the Browns Corners cheese factory. Other memories of Mrs. King: (from the Thousand Islands Sun, courtesy of Jeanne Snow, editor) recalled that across the corner lived Charles Harris and his wife. They had two sons, Bervin and Frank. Other old residents were John Dickhaut and family with their four sons who went to school here: Edward, Frank, George, and Charles. Frank later took over the farm with his wife, Jennie Fox. Two large German families lived near each other.

Also living in the area were Lewis and Mary Haas and their children, Edward and Ina; Squire Putnam and children, Frank, Charles and Lulu. Frank and his wife Blanche later took over the farm and their children were John, Myron and Gilbert. Later on Myron took over with his wife Rena.

Edson Frost also lived at the corners and had two sons, Carl and Guy, also a daughter, May, who married Edward Haas, and they had one daughter, Gladys. Near to the Haas farm was the Ashel Hough family with children, Etta, Nellie, and Charles. Etta married Adam Flath. Other residents included Joel Dayton, 1869, John Van Brocklin and Albert Frost, 1872, Mattison Van Brocklin, 1874. In 1872 Jacob Mattice,1897 William De Young, and 1905, William Draper.

In 1906 George Hartman and his wife Sophia, and their children, Louise, Lotha and Adam. [Lotha later married Charles Snell.] In 1917 Edward McAllister, James Lambert and his wife, Charlotte, and their children Parker, Pearl, Lettie and Laurel. Others were Wallace and Agnes Bates and children Raymond, Glenn, Roland and Guy; the Charles Stevens family with Clover, John, Sally, Theresa and Arthur.

A Town of Alexandria Barn now sits where the school once was, and a restaurant stands near where the cheese factory was located.

If you have additional information, comments, or suggestions, please contact:
Nan Dixon

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� Nan Dixon, 2001

COMMUNITIES IN THE TOWN OF ALEXANDRIA

BROWNS CORNERS

� Nan Dixon, 2001